Miami Beach in December: cool stuff

Art in America, Dec, 2004 by Roni Feinstein

The international fair Art Basel Miami Beach (Dec. 2-5) offers visitors multiple opportunities to view cutting-edge art. The principal venue is the Miami Beach Convention Center; a few blocks away, in "Art Positions," works by emerging artists are presented in a series of shipping containers lined up near the beach; and the Miami Beach Public Library once again hosts the fair's "Art Video Lounge." Seeking the attention of international viewers, Miami's thriving art institutions have arranged a plethora of offerings. As in years past, the Miami Design District is in full swing, and two satellite art fairs fill things out.

At the Miami Art Museum, "Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form, 1940s-70s" [see article, p. 90] surveys the vast field of international abstraction and related movements. In the museum's project room is an installation by New York-based Argentine artist Fabian Marcaccio, "Miami Paintant: New Work Series." The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, offers "Cut/Film as Found Object," a show of large-scale video projections by nine artists (among them Christian Marclay, Pierre Huyghe, Douglas Gordon, Paul Pfeiffer, and Jennifer and Kevin McCoy) who make use of excerpts from existing films. In his first museum solo, Miami native John Espinosa presents complex sculptural dioramas in MOCA's project pavilion. At Miami Art Central (MAC) in South Miami, "How Do We Want to Be Governed?" brings together politically focused works in various mediums by artists from around the world.

In Miami Beach's Art Deco district, the Bass Museum of Art presents "Paris Moderne: Art Deco Works from the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris," in which sculptures and paintings of the 1920s and '30s by Bonnard, Braque, Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso and others are displayed amid French Art Deco furniture and decorative arts. Paris design of the '20s and '30s appears again in two shows drawn from the permanent collection at the Wolfsonian-FIU: "Street and Faces: Jazz Age Paris, London, Berlin and New York," which examines the work of French illustrator Chas Laborde, and "Evolution/Revolution: A Century of Modern Seating." An installation by the artist collaborative SALT will occupy the Wolfsonian's small project space (the bridge tender's house located on the street in front of the museum). On Dec. 3, in an Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) affiliated event, the Wolfsonian-FIU unveils "Beauty-in-Advertising," a collection-based show curated by Richard Tuttle, with an outdoor celebration involving cascading streamers on the museum's facade, searchlights and fireworks.

Also connected with ABMB is a tragicomic puppet rock opera, directed by Dan Graham, with specially commissioned videos by Paul McCarthy and Tony Oursler, songs by Rodney Graham and puppetry by Phillip Hubert and Hubert Marionettes. It is performed nightly at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, adjacent to the Convention Center.

"Coming Home: American Paintings from the Schoen Collection, 1930-1950," at the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum in Coral Gables, features American Scene paintings. At Florida International University, home of the Martin Z. Margulies Sculpture Park, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum presents "Lespri Endepandan: Discovering Haitian Sculpture," a selection spanning the past 50 years. The Centre Gallery at Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus, offers videos by emerging Miami artist Jiae Hwang.

In the Wynwood Art District, the Rubell Family Collection, which has been closed for reconstruction and expansion, reopens with 14 new galleries, a sculpture garden and various new-media rooms (the entire facility, which includes a research library, conservation center and bookstore, now comprises 45,000 square feet, having doubled its size). Six exhibitions highlight works by an international array of major artists for which the collection is well known. Richard Prince is represented by over 40 pieces. Younger artists include Aernout Mik, Eberhard Havekost, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Sven Pahlsson, Neo Rauch and David Schnell. A site-specific commission by Cristina Lei Rodriguez is seen in the sculpture garden, accompanied by pieces by Tony Cragg and Meg Webster. A few blocks away, and not to be outdone, the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, showcasing a portion of its founder's photography, video and contemporary sculpture collection, inaugurates its newest, 10,000square-foot expansion.

The Moore Space in the Design District presents "Wiggin Village," a project by Providence-based artists Jim Drain and Ara Peterson, along with "Hernan Bas: Soap-Operatic," a show of the Miami artist's recent work. The Moore Building's parking lot is the venue for "Drift," a large hexagonal panorama of cinematic images designed by John Baldessari, Juliao Sarmento and Lawrence Weiner.

Craig Robins and Dacra Development again sponsor special exhibitions in the Design District, lending storefronts and showrooms to exhibitors for the period surrounding the fair. Among out-of-town commercial galleries granted space are New York-based Deitch Projects, presenting Dearraindrop's "Riddle of the Sphinx," a multimedia installation, and London's Lisson Gallery, offering "Poetic Realities," with works by Allora & Calzadilla, Francis Alys, Fernando Ortega and others. Solo shows in Dacra-lent spaces include a multimedia installation by Swiss artist Bob Gramsma, work by California furniture designer Sami Hayek, paintings by Greg Lauren, work in a variety of mediums by Robert Beck and a Franz Ackermann installation.