Photo by Ian Witlen

​Each December, Design Miami/ is one of the biggest and most distinct Art Basel satellite fairs on the west side of the bridge, but The Herald reports that the fair is looking to move from its annual and appropriate home in the Design District to a parking lot across from the Miami Beach Convention Center where Art Basel is held.

The proposed move is the work of one man: show owner Craig Robins. In 2007 he sold a 10 percent share in the fair to Messe Schweiz, the owner of Art Basel (who also own half of the Design Miami/ Basel, the show's Switzerland outpost). Design Miami/ has become the only satellite fair sanctioned by Art Basel Miami Beach, and having the fairs geographically close makes sense.

While the city of Miami Beach is licking its lips over the move (they'd get between $50,000 and $75,000 a year for renting the parking lot, plus presumably more tourism dollars), we assume not everyone is going to be happy.
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​Today's photo comes from MigRodz's Flickr. If you'd like to see your photo here join our Flickr group.

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Updated: I received an awful lot of e-mails from interested people, but it looks like it will go to the first to contact me: Nelson from Urban Real Estate in the Warehouse Distrrict. Thanks for playing!

For Art Basel, Brooklyn photographers James and Karla Murray brought to Miami an awesome concept that included recruiting talented graffiti artists to do their thing on to-scale photos of extinct old-school storefronts.

The art hordes have evacuated our city, but one artifact remains from the Murrays' "Graffiti Gone Global" show: a 12-by-8-foot "storefront," pictured above, adorned with original artwork from Japanese artist Shiro, Puerto Rican Sofia Maldonado, and New Yorker Billi Kid. The piece is still inside a showroom at 3252 NE First St. in midtown Miami -- but the showroom's owners have told the Murrays it has to be removed by the end of the week or it will be destroyed. The photographers haven't found anybody who can take the massive artwork.

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Tags:

Art Basel, Graffiti Gone Global, Jim and Karla Murray, MOM and POPism

Géza Szöllősi Cow II

​We know Art Basel wrapped up five days ago, which translates to approximately two decades in "blog time," but that's one of the problems with covering an event like Art Basel for a blog isn't it? The pressures of a non-stop deadline doesn't give you the luxury of digesting what you've seen, and there's so much to be seen that there's no way, unless you forgo sleep and adopt some serious stimulant habit, that you're going to be able to blog about it all.  More >>

This work was made entirely of split color pencils.

​If you're not afraid of a little color, and we mean that in almost all senses of the word, Pulse Art Fair was for you. With a strong commitment to new works and contemporary artists, Pulse gives you a window into the mind of young artists. And what you'll find, more often than not, is a subversive, technicolor dreamscape.

Mac Premo's Making Stuff Is Totally Gay

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​There was plenty of imported NY snatch traipsing around Miami for Basel, but perhaps the most famous receptacle of naughty body parts designed to give you pleasure was the aptly named The Box. Straight from the Lower East Side and towing a reputation for providing some of the most naughty, avant-garde entertainment that can make the most jaded New Yorker cream with (cleverly disguised) joy.

We'd already seen a similar Big Apple show in Spiegelworld, and being such a huge hit, it wasn't a huge surprise that The Box was one of the most buzzed-about nightlife events of Basel. Buzz because of the promised taboo nature of the performances (burlesque, aerialists, contortionists, etc), but just as much chatter because of the steep $100 general admission. I guess raunch knows no recession. Hell, I know raunch knows no recession because people packed Nikki Beach for The Box's entire three-day run.

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Dan Attoe's I'm Stealing Your ideas at Peres Projects

​Congratulations, Miami, you've survived another Art Basel. Riptide dropped by the main fair  one final time late yesterday afternoon. Galleries had put out some new works since opening day, while some gallerists were literally counting their revenue, reportedly up from last year. That's not surprising, considering much of the work looked like it was meant to sell. Video works, which hit a peak a few years ago, were rare this time. Interactive works and anything burgeoning on "performance" were rarer. Surprisingly, even photo works seemed sparse. Instead, the galleries relied on attention-attracting 2-D works and sculptures.

After part one, here are a few more of our favorites from Art Basel Miami Beach 2009.

Cordon Cheung, Neon Shadows, 2009 at Jack Shainman Gallery

​The mediums listed for this painting included The Financial Times as the painting was made over stock listings. It makes us wonder, if newspapers, in their traditional form, died, how would artists react?
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via Miami-Dade Police Department

One of the stolen paintings, by Albert Gleizes (1914), valued at $1.4 million, according to police.

​A good lesson for Art Basel-goers: If you try to get millions in art for a buck, a cup of coffee, and a hastily brandished firearm, you're going to have some trouble with the fuzz.

Miami-Dade Police have arrested a local man accused of stealing millions of dollars in paintings at gunpoint Tuesday -- but they have yet to track down the missing artwork.

via Miami-Dade Police Department

The suspect, Jorge Alberto Gonzalez.

​Jorge Alberto Gonzalez, a 47-year-old Southwest Dade resident, was arrested late Wednesday and charged with two felonies, including the alleged theft of ten paintings worth more than $1 million.

Here's how it went down:

On Monday, Gonzalez made contact with a local art owner named Jorge Zaragozi and his dealer, Gustavo Grande Nuñez.

Nuñez showed Gonzalez a large collection of paintings and negotiated the sale of ten pieces for $985,000 -- including the painting by Albert Gleizes pictured above, which is valued at $1.4 million, says Det. Rebecca Perez, a Miami-Dade Police spokeswoman.

The two men met again, on December 1 around 1 p.m., and loaded the paintings into Gonzalez's car. The plan was to drive to his office, where he'd pay Nuñez for the artwork.

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Nick Cave Soundsuit, 200 at Jack Shainman Gallery

​Art Basel Miami Beach is perhaps one of the most overwhelming events modern culture has to offer, and the rearranged layout sure doesn't help make it feel like any less of a bizarre labyrinth through multimillion dollars' worth of contemporary art.

It would be futile to pick some sort of narrative to string everything together, so instead we'll highlight a few of our favorites this week.
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Art Basel Miami Beach

Banana Republican kicked off his Art Basel festivities at the opening of Primary Flight's Blue

Francisco Alvarado

Iggy Pop's man boobs attract a crowd.

Print For Space inside Art Center South Florida on Lincoln Road.  More >>