The art world is a cold place; Miami is even colder. At least it is this year. With record-breaking low temperatures, it’s being called one of Miami’s coldest winters, with frost expected in some parts of Florida. The New Yorkers who descended upon Miami Beach this week expecting sun and seaside frolicking got a taste of reality. Turns out, it wasn’t so bad strolling through a concrete, air-conditioned convention center.
The latest edition of Art Basel Miami Beach kicks off today in said convention center, with booths representing 277 international art galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
The fair is divided into sections that help distinguish the younger, cooler galleries from the dusty old ones that tend to show 20th-century art. Look up, and you’ll see each gallery name paired with a colored stripe that slots it into one of the following sections: Galleries, Meridians, Nova, Positions, Survey, Kabinett and Conversations.
The Meridians section features large-scale projects curated by Mexico City’s Magali Arriola, which are more or less themed around saving our planet. One highlight is the work of Mexican artist Gabriel de la Mora, who is showing his Ignea series created with hand-carved volcanic rock called andesite and obsidian, a black rock found in Mexico, which ties into the history of Mesoamerican symbolism.
The Kabinett section is a booth-within-a-booth micro-curated section in certain gallery booths (yes, that’s meta). The Positions section is interesting because it’s mainly young galleries that focus the limelight on rising artists on whom they’ve placed their bets. Meanwhile, the Nova section features artwork made over the........