Fair Game

The week after Thanksgiving for most Americans signals the official start of the winter holiday season, except for the masochists in the art world. We like to squeeze in our biggest week of the year right after Thanksgiving but before the winter holidays. What, like it’s hard?

For those of you unacquainted with Miami Art Week, it is the Super Bowl of the art world. The big kahoona art fair Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB for those in the know) will be going on, along with countless others like my favorite Untitled, also in South Beach, as well as NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance). I also adore Design Miami, which is a design-focused fair. It is such a respite and brain break for me to just wander around, admire the incredible furniture and design, and dream about how I would style it in my own home with my art collection.

If you think it is all footloose and fancy-free fun, you are wrong. Roundabouts mid-November, galleries start sending out preview PDFs and links so collectors and advisors can start strategizing and prioritizing how they will spend their time and dollars. I have over one hundred previews in my inbox that I will diligently survey for my clients and then send them curated groups based on their interests, needs, style, and budget. If a work or an artists strikes them, I will then communicate their interest to the galleries so we can place a hold or at the very least throw our hats in the ring to potentially be granted a placement. Oh yeah, that’s the other thing, if you are after a hot up-and-coming artist, galleries “gather interest” before “making placements,” i.e. they see who all wants to buy and then choose who gets one. It’s fun to beg to spend money, right?! And yes, this all happening now, well before a single PJ touches down in The Magic City. (And no, I am not flying private but many fair attendees certainly are!)

But I digress. The previews are a big part of making the most out of a fair-going experience. Often time decisions have to be made very quickly and if we have already discussed an artist or a work, it makes the trigger-pulling part much easier. I go to the fair, see the work IRL, vouch for quality, probably spend some FaceTime minutes with the client, hem and haw a bit, and boom bam done. Art bought! Easy…peasy…? Then I arrange shipping and installation and the clients never lift a finger, except to tap in a credit card number.

Last year, 5 works found their way back to Cleveland and into my clients’ collections. (Now looking at all of these pictures together, it appears my clients have a penchant for tan grasscloth wallpaper…)

Read on to learn more about some of the presentations I’m stoked to see IRL this year. Of course everything featured here will be under $10k. Paid subscribers will also see everything I am seeing and liking while in Miami over in the Chat!

Anna Erickson Presents

Anna always does an incredible job and this year is going to be just as good. She’s doing a two-person presentation of painter Lacey Stoffer and ceramicist Sachi Moskowitz at Untitled.

Massey Klein

I really cannot say enough good things about the wonderful couple behind Massey Klein. Ryan has an unparalleled eye for emerging talent that is ready for primetime. She and her husband Garrett have built a powerhouse program for collectors across the spectrum. This year they are presenting Bethany Czarnecki at Untitled and her painting is so dang good.

Abattoir Gallery

Sure, let’s go all the way to Miami to see some great work from a gallery in Cleveland. Makes perfect sense! But in all seriousness, Lisa Kurzner brings her decades of experience in the New York and London art scenes to Abattoir Gallery, which uniquely imports national artists voices and dialogues them with the trove of Ohio-based talent she unearths. (Man, I need to get a hold of my run-ons…) At NADA Abattoir will present Eleanor Conover. These sculptural, dimensional, multi-media canvases are everything I need in my projects and I would really, rEaLly, REALLY like for a client to acquire one.

Sperone Westwater

Sperone Westwater’s presentation for ABMB is packed with heavy-hitters that orbit in a stratosphere outside the budgetary realm of most folks. But don’t let that scare you! There are often hidden gems to be found with smaller works by big-time artists, like Jim Gaylord (left) or Amy Lincoln (right). I love Jim’s supple forms in graphic compositions and Amy’s dreamy, whimsical landscapes are always a delight. I can’t wait to check these out IRL!

Nicelle Beauchene

The Tribeca-based gallery is presenting some of my favorites at ABMB including but not limited to Violeta Maya, who has a distinctly Frankenthaler-esque thing going on and who’s prices have risen quite a bit since I started following her (another example of why clients should listen to me when I tell them to buy!), and Quentin James McCaffrey, whom I am featuring here. His paintings are ‘spensive but these little drawings are so intimate and would make an excellent addition to a charming little nook. You could just pack one right up in your suitcase and bring it home, or I could do that for you!

This is a mere snowflake on the iceberg of Miami Art Week previews. If you are a client, you will be receiving personalized recommendations from me while I’m on the ground. If you are not a client, follow along right here and on Instagram for everything I am seeing and liking in Miami. I will be dropping lots into the Chat as well. Let me know if something strikes you!