Miami News Blog

​In a move that would surely tickle its founder Andy Warhol, Interview Magazine will be curating the Mondrian South Beach's luxury vending machine during Art Basel. 

​The work of Friends With You has already redefined "absurdly cute," and through collaborations with Kid Robot and Memobots the duo of Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III have gently expanded their burgeoning design empire into retail. Now, they're set to open their own flagship boutique in the heart of the Design District.

Their new brick and mortar outpost, to be located at 3930 NE 2nd Avenue Suite 202, is scheduled to open Tuesday, December 1, during Art Basel week with a host of brand new limited edition products, including clothes, toys, prints, and fine art. Sam and Tury themselves will be on hand for a signing at 6pm, and all attendees will receive a free Super Malfi with purchase of any other product.

Riptide is super excited to see FWY further stake their claim as an artsy force to be reckoned with in the Magic City, and can only hope one day they overtake the dark overlord Britto as Miami's signature artist. They've already installed the playground at Aventura Mall, but seriously how great would it be to see a giant Malfi outside of some shopping center instead of another Britto sculpture of a beach ball? How many of those do we really need? And maybe they could even re-design the uniforms at M.I.A. Natacha Seijas' maid would be lucky to wear some Friends With You.

It's not often you get to see a curated show featuring the likes of Richard Prince, Jules de Balincourt, Shepard Fairey, Kenny Scharf, and KAWS, but it's not often that Lance Armstrong comes calling on the art world. 

Logan Fazio

You never knew what would pop out of those containers.

​The large orange shipping containers that find themselves filled with artwork just feet from the beach every year have become a trademark of Art Basel Miami Beach, but they won't return this year.

As part of a reorganization of the fair, the emerging galleries and artists relegated to Collins Park this year will be moved to the center of the exhibition hall. Instead, the Art Positions area will feature a "three-dimensional environment" designed by multimedia artist Pae White. The so-called social space will feature discussions, concerts, and performances.

Art Positions, especially on opening night, has more of a party atmosphere than the often deathly serious mood at the convention center. Combined with the unique aspects of showing inside a container, it often led to a bit more levity that might be overshadowed inside the convention center.

The fair's main layout in the Miami Beach Convention Center will also be reworked, and galleries will now have larger booths. You might take that to mean there will be fewer galleries in attendance, and in fact about 60 of last year's exhibitors won't make the return trip. But Art Basel officials tell ARTINFO the number of exhibitors will actually increase due to new galleries participating.

Last year, brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana had more funky wicker pieces than a Boca yard sale and slaughtered more stuffed animal designs than Lady Gaga's wardrobe at Design Miami for their stint as Designer of the Year. Following in their footsteps is 31-year-old Dutch designer Maarten Baas. Let's take a look at some of his work, shall we?

​As part of the award, Baas will design a site-specific installation for the tent. Dezeen has some pictures of Baas working on the project. You'll be able to see the final result December 1, when Design Miami opens.



In April, Baas was busy keeping time with a "Real Time" exhibit in Milan. This video from Dezeen showcases his Analog Digital Clock. The setup is like a digital clock, but instead of electronics changing the time, Baas himself does it from behind the display by painting over and wiping clean the glass. He also showcased Sweeper Clock, in which time is told by a horde of broom carriers sweeping away rubbish.

F**k yeah!

​​The American designer is dead. We didn't read the obituary, but apparently there aren't many designers of note to be found not only in the Unites States but also across the Caribean, Canada, Mexico, and Central and South America.

Bridget Marquardt, who rose to fame as one of Hugh Heffner's three girlfriends on Girls Next Door, has the best job in the world. Basically she gets to travel the world touring beaches on Travel channel's dime for her new show Bridget's Sexiest Beaches.

It's not going to win her a Noble prize or anything (unless they introduce a medal for tanning), but deep down you know you're secretly jealous.

Tomorrow night's episode features Playa Jaco in Costa Rico, and Miami Beach in, well, here. For the Miami portion she meets up with Miss Miami 2009, Jenice Fernandez, Miss Suncoast 2009, Rachel Todd, and, uh, George Hamilton. What's a Bridget Marquardt show without a creepy old man? And, uh, actually if there was a Noble prize for tanning, we're pretty sure Hamilton would win. 

The Miami International Film Festival concluded its 26th year last night, with a few scattered screenings at four different theaters, which is a pretty decent metaphor for the festival as a whole. After Art Basel and the Miami Book Fair, MIFF should be the third biggest cultural event in the city's calendar, but it's hard at this point to rank it anywhere near those other two. AB-Miami is the best art fair west of the Alps, while the Book Fair ranks only behind L.A.'s. Where does MIFF rank nationally, much less internationally, among film festivals? Somewhere between Fort Lauderdale and Rotterdam?

Most screenings were respectably full, but if you've ever been to Sundance and stood in a four-hundred person line in driving snow to see a short film made by a 19-year-old Sri Lankan, you realize how far MIFF has to go. (The only film that created "around the corner" lines was Jens Hoffmann's 9 to 5: Days in Porn, which had the unfair of advantage of cum-swapping.)

Part of MIFF's mixed performance is due to its transition in 2003 into the purview of Miami-Dade College, an potentially awkward marriage, and having its third director in three years doesn't help either. The festival currently seems trapped between being a Latin American Cultural Celebration (the cinematic Calle Ocho) and becoming a fledgling international player in the film industry. You can't accept every single Cuban-related feel-good story on nitrate and expect to compete with Tribeca.

Ironic as it may sound, MIFF needs to move past the "Gateway to the America's" PR schtick to become relevant to the America's. And I actually think Tiziana Finzi is the person to do it. She showed real promise in the degree of daring in her programming, and while I disagree with the choice of Abel Ferrara as worthy of a lifetime achievement award, at least she went out on a limb. (And Ferrara came packaged with Willem Dafoe, a legit celeb who attended, literally, every major event.) The question is: how far will Miami-Dade College, basically another city bureaucracy, let her go?

Mary Kidder, a trustee of the Columbus Museum of Art, strolled through Art Basel Miami Beach this past December and out of all the work there decided she really liked this piece by William Cotton called "Ribbon Candy." It is a portrait of a woman with ribbon candy festooned to her head. Mary Boone Gallery originally had the piece listed for $50k, but because they were so eager to do business with Kidder (read: desperate to make a sale, any sale) they knocked the price down to $32k. The price of a decent American car is apparently a deal for a picture of a lady with candy on her head.

So they sent her the invoice but Kidder decided that actually she didn't want to spend $32,000 on this painting. Boone is now suing Kidder to collect either payment in full or the $30,000 it already paid to Cotton for the piece (meaning they would have only made $2,000 on the work).

I don't know what is more indicative of the problems of the art world right now: the fact that galleries are willing to slash their commission to $2,000, or that a not particularly exciting portrait of a lady wearing a sugary hat would sell for $32,000 in the first place.

[Art Info: Mary Boone Sues Collector]

Sad is the day when no one wants to pay millions and millions of dollars for dissected animals in formaldehyde cubes or diamond encrusted skulls. Portfolio is citing Art Basel Miami Beach as the proof that infamous British artists Damien Hirst's bubble has burst.

The man's work used to go for astounding prices for a living artists. He sold a cow, no seriously a dead, encased cow with golden horns, for $18 million, a similar dead shark for $12 million, an elaborate pill cabinet for $22.8 million, and set a Sotheby's art auction record just this past September.
 

Riptide continues to find out about exciting events during Art Basel that no one bothered to invite him to. So we are just completely and totally devastated that we weren't at the unveiling of the world's self-proclaimed number one transsexual Amanda Lepore's new signature fragrance. 

It's supposed to smell like "Cristal champagne," "strong woods," and "red lipstick," but early reviews say it actually smells like plastic. So harsh! Do you have any idea how difficult it is for this fragrance to start out its life as a little sampler bottle of cologne and then undertake the courageous transition of blossoming into a full-fledged, crystal-covered perfume? 

So the general consensus on Art Basel was that it wasn't quite "the embodiment of failure" that the schadenfreude-loving German mag Der Spiegel predicted.

As one anonymous dealer told New York: "We did better than we expected -- and worse than we had hoped."

Among the artists New York singled out as recession-proof were Cindy Sherman, Mickalene Thomas, and local art superstar Hernan Bas. Good to know that at least one small segment of this town, even embodied in a single artist, won't be too affected by this ridiculous economy.

-- Kyle Munzenrieder

No more art, please! Our eyes have had enough. Really! Between the fairs, we were tempted to take naps in the car. But thankfully everything is back to normal and we can look back at the art orgy that is Art Basel Miami Beach and the satellite fairs. Yes, now it's time to assess the good, the bad, and the downright ugly things we observed last week. Warning: We aren't talking about only art here; the winners and losers extend far beyond the pieces on display.

The Winners

1. Chinese Artists: Seriously, China, you had to showboat at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics with your illuminated drums, calligraphy scroll, and lip-synching child singer, and just when we thought it was over, you invade basically every fair during Basel. We couldn't turn a corner without seeing Zhang Peng's doe-eyed kinderwhore Lolitas staring at us so innocently that we expected Chris Hansen to pop out of nowhere and ask us what we were doing there.



2. Grolsch Lovers: We usually drink Grolsch once a month at the Wynwood Art Walk when Gallery Diet and the Dorsch Gallery hand them out by the bucket-full. But leave it to the Dutch lager to sponsor almost every single event this year: Scope, NADA, O.H.W.O.W., Art Miami, and The King Is Dead were just some of the places that doled out the swing-top capped beer for free. Honestly, we drank more Grolsch last week than we had consumed all year.



3. Midtown: We're guessing the Shops at Midtown's developers raked in more money last week than they've made since the development opened. While we've always admired Midtown's fairly cheap garage parking (free if you park for less than an hour), the owners wised up and at times charged $10. At night, the area was full of energy, leaving us wondering what could have been had it all gone as planned.

We are also left wondering how much money they made from letting Red Dot, Bridge, Scope, Art Miami, and Photo MIAMI erect tents on their empty lots.

4. Tabloid Magazines: Naomi Campbell reportedly canoodling with P. Diddy at LIV, Kirsten Dunst and Mary-Kate Olsen feuding at Florida Room, Marilyn Manson and his new goth Lolita, and Pamela Anderson and her hot-pant fiasco. A-list celebrities turned out in full force for the Basel festivities, giving the tabloids plenty of Miami fodder for the week.

Usually the Magic City sees only a string of D-list reality-show whores (see Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Brooke Hogan). Basel may not have broke sales records, but it definitely had enough star wattage.



5. Locals: Local artists, musicians, and ordinary people benifited from this year's economic recession. David Castillo Gallery was selected to exhibit at Art Positions, Scope commissioned Friends With You to create a visitors' lounge, Miami's local music scene got a New York Times shout-out, and the average local was warmly welcomed to the fairs. It doesn't stop there: We heard of invite-only and high-priced-ticket events that at the last minute let in any warm body just so they wouldn't look so empty.

Videographer Jacob Katel wandered midtown and Wynwood to capture the energy and excitement the satellite fairs brought to our city. This is the first of a two-part video series.

So Basel, Pulse, Design Miami/ and Scope all had duck inspired pieces, which sort of bewildered us, but that was hardly the biggest ducky art news of the week. Franca Sozzani, the editor of Vogue Italia, was in town to unveil, hey, guess what, a giant resin duck by British artist Stuart Semple at The Raleigh. The piece was an ode to luxury sportswear lable Moncler, and will be auctioned of in February for the kids. Fashionites including Bruce Weber, Roxanne Lowit, Bob Colacello, Thom Browne, and Stefano Tonchi were all on hand to get ducked. Maybe this is why we saw so much water fowl inspired art.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

Riptide cares about celebrities in the same way most celebrities care about Art Fairs: We will use them for shallow reasons. Celebrities need publicity and free drinks and, most of all, attention. Riptide needs things of local relevance to blog about. So with out further ado, here is your Art Basel 2008 celebrity gossip round up.

• Underwear, an over sized t-shirt, and a ski cap is the kind of things Sorority girls wear the morning after schlupping some frat boy. Pamela Anderson decided this would be the perfect attire in which to tour Art Basel in.  [Daily Mail]
• Anderson's fellow sad, unnatural looking has-been, Marilyn Manson, showed up with a much younger new-beau, after splitting from Evan Rachel Wood. [TMZ]
• Two days after Karu & Y somehow hosted a rare performance by musical genius-type Panda Bear, it returned to its more natural setting as a play ground for quasi-celeb bimbos. Yay The Hilton Sisters! [Faded Youth]

NYC artist Gregory de la Haba, who has two young sons, spent five years creating a life-size sculpture of a horse with a two-foot-long schlong, about to mount a mare with a motherin' vagina. When he chartered a truck that carried a picture of the sculpture to drive around Wynwood last Tuesday, Miami police threatened him with arrest -- due to pornographic concerns.

"They wanted us to cover it with red tape," de la Haba said. 

The sculpture was one of the most striking works at the Bridge Art Fair on Saturday when Riptide attended. What struck us, though, was not the city's horrendous censorship, but de la Haba's ease at working with the literal sculpture in front of his two kids, ages 6 and 3. "They come inito the gallery, look at the sculpture, ask what those [sex organs] are, and then just start painting on the flloor of the studio," he said.

Kids comfortable with horse porn, Is that a good thing?

Chuck Strouse

Art Basel is here and the galleries of Wynwood and the Design District are packed with beautiful hip people, vying for attention with the paintings on the walls. And of course everyone is out to look their flyest. The beauty industry of Miami is well aware that the influx of visitors are looking to be pampered and prettified, and some of the coolest spas are offering special Art Basel beauty packages.

At the fabulous four star Ritz-Carlton Spa, (One Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach), art lovers can indulge with not one, but two fabulous reduced-priced salon specials. And they're appropriately named too!

Riptide has been noticing lots of weird little trends during Basel week. Which is quite easy considering the sheer amount of art gracing the city right now. The real feat would be finding a piece so unique it is essentially peerless. But the artists responsible for the latest trend we've noticed clearly have no problem with making connections to other artwork, or more specifically artists.

We've come across a handful of series of artist portraits, or other types of homages to artist's personas. We like it, and it totally makes sense that it's here. The high concentration of art nerds in town perusing the fairs means that the references will not go unappreciated. But what does it say when you're an artist who makes work celebrating other artists, no even for their work, but because simply they are somewhat famous? Does it mean that on some level you want to be famous too, hmmm? Do you one day want someone to make a piece diffusing your likeness or persona? Do you not agree that an artists work should speak for itself, and that his or her public persona should have no bearing on their artistic renown? Good, because we are announcing our new series of portraits of artists who have made series dedicated to other artists debuting in Wynwood during the next gallery walk (full disclosure: it is absolutely not).
--Kyle Munzenrieder

The Green Art Fair, billing itself as a "single point of contact for the art and design world, eco-friendly businesses and all individuals interested in moving the environmental friendly movement forward," seems like a gyp for the $15 entry charge.

The skimpy tent fair only features a handful of designers and artists with some photography, paintings and other mixed media on display. Organizers opted to pitch their tent on a lawn for an outdoorsy feel and it smells like a wet barn inside. The heat can be stifling too.

It's not a total bust though. Homegrown conceptual puppeteer, Pablo Cano is performing his crowd-pleasing marionette shows daily at the event. Saturday Cano works his magic at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. He creates his inventive, whimsical cast of characters from recycled trash and they are incredible to behold.

While trolling through Scope Miami yesterday an unusual piece of wearable art stopped my daughter Bethany dead in her tracks. Brooklyn's Helene Dumenil Gallery was exhibiting a pair of boots made out of horses hooves created by Berlin's Iris Shieferstein.

"What size are they," Bethany inquired about the $6,000 kicks. "8 and a half," responded Dumenil. Elated that they were her size, Bethany quickly stepped out of her heels to try them on. After squeezing into the boots, she clomped around Dumenil's booth in cloven hooves as I looked nervously on.

"They have only been worn twice before by a naked performer in Berlin," Dumenil informed. "With boots like these I guess you don't need to wear anything else," Bethany laughed.

Riptide kind of has a love/hate thing with the idea of blog based point and click photographers achieving notoriety. On one hand the whole phenomenon is just kind of shallow and vein, on the other, well, we love to look at oddly dressed people doing oddly drunk thing. Plus the psuedo-industry they've carved out, day after online party pix and street style shots, is undoubtedly here to stay.

Usually the four kings -- the ridiculously refined Sartorialist, the adorably French Face Hunter, Cobra Snake (who I thought was a douche, until I interviewed him once, and he's actually quite nice), and the OG Last Night's Party -- of this hallowed field make their way down to Miami for Art Basel. Maybe its a sign that a little bit of the buzz around Basel is fading as the years go by that only one made the pilgramage this year, LNP's Bronques, and he's always here. But hey look! Boobies! [nsfw, duh] Maybe the rest got stuck at Liz Lemon's High School reunion.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

"Giants in the City" featuring whimsical inflatable sculptures by ten local artists opened Tuesday night at Bayfront Park where an intimate crowd gathered for a lighting ceremony and a concert on the green. "It was pretty chilly but about 200 people showed up," says artist Alette Simmons-Jimenez who along with artist Alejandro Mendoza curated the grass roots project and raised nearly $65,000 to fund the event. Simmons-Jimenez, founder of Wynwood's Artformz Alternative and Mendoza where joined by Gustavo Acosta, Jose Bedia, Tomas Esson, Frank Hyder, Anja Marais, John Martini, Angel Ricardo Rios and Michelle Weinberg each of whom created a 30-foot balloon-like piece for the show. Facing Biscayne Boulevard, the giants include a whale sprouting from the earth by Bedia, a gargantuan bottle of dish soap with "Joy" emblazoned across it by Weinberg, and a hot-pink lighthouse by Acosta. The sculptures were fabricated of nylon material and are maintained upright by tethers to the ground. An electric cold air blower feeds a continuous stream of air through a duct at the base of each piece.

Wednesday, the billowing behemoths were brought low by the wind whipping off Biscayne Bay and lay flat on a lawn where they were cordoned off by yellow rope. "The fabric they are made of is delicate so we let the air out of them to make sure the sculptures wouldn't get damaged by the wind," Simmons-Jimenez explained. "They will be back up on Thursday and up through Sunday if the weather remains good."

-- Carlos Suarez De Jesus

Riptide has already wondered about the symbolism of an Obama portrait being the most noticeable piece one see's when entering Art Basel.

Perhaps an Obama portrait should say "Welcome to Art Basel. We know, we know. The economy is in the tank, but look at this President. Don't worry, change is on the way! So please send cash our way!"

Well, this was before we hit up Scope, which proves our Obama entrance theory quite literally. This huge Mr. Brainwash piece sits right outside the entrance, and yesterday they were offering free posters of it. Hope and change indeed. 

Scope's Obama pieces were a bit more inspiring themselves then the ones found at Basel.  Change (and tons of artwork) is on the way (after the jump).

If you haven't realized that 30 Rock is the single best thing regularly on the teevee right now Riptide pities you.

Last night's episode centered around Liz Lemon's high school reunion. Alec Baldwin's fictional NBC Exec Jack Donaghy offers Liz a hitch on the comapny jet on his why to Miami. Why is Jack going to Miami?

"Why does anyone go to Miami? Ass"

*Liz Lemon's disapproving stare*

"...and the burgeoning art scene."

Hahahaha, It's funny because it's true, but how timely then, hmmmmm, that it aired during Art Basel Week. Nothing is a coincidence in Tina Fey's world. Sadly, the art jokes ended there, because Oh! No! the plane malfunctions and Jack is stuck at Liz's reunion, and some sort of magical hilarity ensues. 

Anyway, congratulations to our burgeoning art scene. You're now relevant enough to be a cultural punchline on 30 Rock!

Full episode behind the "more" button, because why not.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

Greg Haberny, The Wanker's Ball at Fountain Art Fair

Yesterday afternoon Wynwood streets were surprisingly light in traffic with the exception of a few taxis, rickshaws and Miami Police squad cars along North Miami Avenue. It was nothing like last year when cabs and limos snaked bumper-to-bumper in the gritty nabe.

On the corner of 26th Street at the freshly hatched Galerie Sellier (2600 North Miami Avenue) the space was empty inside. It used to house a Puerto Rican bodega with poorly lined shelves where one encountered men in folding lawn chairs nursing beers and chomping on chicharrones all day.

Now they were replaced by the artwork of Maximo Caminero, Liana Garcia, Patricia Chaparro and Juan Tejedor, but one swears the gallery still smelled faintly of greasy pork rinds.

The word for last night's opening of Art Positons was "tight." Tight in the way Frat boys mean "somewhat awesome." Tight in that it was crowded, and getting in and out of the mini galleries housed in storage containers wasn't an acitivity for claustophobes. Tight in the way that everything went off with out a hitch. Tight in the way that tights seemed to be the fashion statement of the night. 

Walking into the Scope tent yesterday was like getting smacked in the face with an art stick. You know, in a good way. Inside, it was a visual sensory overload, with way too much for any normal, methamphetamine-free viewer to see in one trip. Riptide felt like a contestant on Supermarket Sweep, rushing to cram in the best stuff before time ran out.

It didn't matter, though. We were sold before we even saw a single piece of work. How could we be so easy?  Umm, because at one point during "the press brunch" we looked over at a group of stylish Frenchmen who were standing at a table, washing doughnuts down with free beer, a la Homer Simpson. (Welcome to America, gentlemen.)

Even with all the food and schmooze, two artists stood out. The first was Brooklyn-based sculptor Dean Goelz, who showed creepy, lifelike molds of duck-human hybrids. Check out New Time's crackerjack blogger Kyle Munzenrieder's compilation of unexplained duck-art occurrences at Basel here. (Seriously, what's up with that?)

Goelz's spokesperson,Lee Doran, explained that "people don't quite know how to take" the waddling creatures, but that kids always try to ride them in New York City. She added something about how humans "go with the flock."

Then there was Virginia-based artist Derick Melander, who used clothing as his figurative paintbrush. He erected a ten-foot statue made of layered garments, gathered mostly from church drives. Melander connects with people through inanimate objects, which could be a weird thing but is pretty cool coming from him. "I get a sense of who wore them," he says. "Sometimes the clothes still smell like cologne -- or have names on the tags."

It reminded Riptide of this one time we checked out a library book and someone had written exactly what we were thinking in the margins. If that makes any sense. At all.

Whatever, the art world isn't logical. Exhibit A: Beer and doughnuts for breakfast.

--Natalie O'Neill

The vacuums roared cleaning up leftover debris as the press was allowed a preview of what's in store for the crowds visiting the tent at photo MIAMI. Lights flickers on and off, while the A/C hummed loudly making it uncomfortably cold inside on an usually frigid Tuesday afternoon.

"We are just testing everything," said a rep for photo MIAMI as the tent plunge into a 20-minute period of darkness. "We just want to make sure everything is working properly for when the crowds get here."

Before that period of darkness, Riptide was able to walk the aisles almost complete undisturbed, except for the occasional press-hungry gallery or artist. French artist Orlan graciously posed for pictures and spoke to us about her newest work Suture/Hybridize/Recycle in which the artist deconstructs clothing and reassembles them into something new to highlight structure.

A few booths away, artist John Neff stood by his installation which was compromised of life-size digital prints placed on a exterior wall while the negatives were placed behind it along with an audio collage and digital images. "It a system of oppositions of interiors and exteriors and how those systems can be periced and penetrated," Neff explains as we stood there nodding.

Another images that caught our attention were Massion Vitali's Venezia Coriandoli at the Crown Gallery, which looked like a page out of Where's Waldo? While Carlos Aires' Untitled (from the series Happily Ever After "Wolf" Kid, Mexico, which stands as the fair's iconic image this year, is so beautifully shot that the child's abnormality seems unimportant.

Click here to view our slideshow of the fair.

-- Jose D. Duran