Miami Art Week 2024 Recap

There is nothing quite like the furor of Miami Art Week. The opportunity to see this much contemporary art all at one time is rare and I seized it with abandon these past few days. I learned the hard way that one must go into the week with a plan, leave room for some flexibility, and be realistic about what is actually accomplish-able! With comfy shoes, my extra phone battery, and an open mind, I hit the ground running on Tuesday and have not stopped until right this second as I sit on the plane home to Cleveland.

I am sure that if you subscribe to this newsletter, you also read a myriad other publications that have given you the scoop on the general mood of the week. Mildly subdued, generally optimistic, a little bit slower paced, and perhaps a return to fundamentals. No gimmicks, no bombastic, splashy antics. Just strong presentations by some really great galleries from around the world. And I am happy to report that Cleveland put her best foot forward this week! We had a strong cohort of collectors and arts professionals on site and there will be some great work coming into Cleveland collections, both public and private, after this week.

Here are some of my top picks, and since this a publication dedicated to finding great art under $10,000, that criterion still applied, except for one category. Here we go:

Favorite New Artist Discovery (>$10k, <$20k)

Araminta Blue from Gallery Rosenfeld at Untitled takes this one! Her work stuck in my mind above the rest. What can I say? I am a sucker for anyone who has even a hint of Helen Frankenthaler going on! But beyond pushing the boundaries of abstraction and figurative painting, Araminta’s story resonated with me because she is a brand new mom and also a full time working artist. This body of work is about the balance she has struggled to find over the past couple of years since giving birth to her son. Many of the paintings were made with her baby strapped to her chest. Somehow the work feels both light and ethereal even though they are about both the joy and difficulty of new motherhood and being a working mom. She is daring in her mark-making and brushwork, takes risks in both the application of color, and demonstrates a great deal of restraint to leave so much canvas bare. Ultimately the balance she finds pays off big time. While her large scale works clock in over $10,000, she has some smaller work available that would be more budget friendly.

Favorite New Artist Discovery (under $10k)

Amanda Seibæk was a great find at NADA in Patricia Fleming Gallery’s presentation. Her work encourages the viewer to join her on a journey through whimsical and mythical landscapes that she has imagined as places in which one might contemplate how to foster a kinder, more empathetic society. Using the artistic trope of the wanderer and nature as metaphor for society, the paintings both resist clear definition and offer just enough detail for the viewer to find some footing. Painted on transparent voile, they also function as windows or scrims into another world.

Favorite New Gallery Connection

One of the great things about these fairs is the opportunity for relationships and connections to happen that would not otherwise. I always love visiting friends and colleagues from other cities whom I don’t see often (but email with frequently), but I also really cherish the new relationships formed at each fair. This year I was so pleased to meet and connect with Red Arrow Gallery in Nashville. While I already knew about their program thanks to Cleveland-based artist Dana Oldfather, I was excited to meet them in person and see Emily Weiner’s work IRL (which totally holds up as well in person as it does on the ‘gram BTW).

Honorable Mentions

Here are some presentations and singular works that caught my eye:

Jakub Tomas at Asya Geisburg Gallery gave us a glimpse into a world run by AI. He is Czech and apparently they are far beyond the US in terms of their use of robotics. But I also found another layer in looking at this particular painting. I see a commentary on beauty culture where conformity is rewarded and individuality is demonized. In other words, when we, particularly young girls, let TikTok and the ‘Gram dictate what is beautiful and don’t stay true to our individuality, we end up as Frakenstein’s monster—a mish mash of ill fitting parts that don’t allow what’s real to shine. His painting says it better than my words can.

Crystal Liu at Morgan Lehman Gallery’s booth at Untitled caught my eye at the very end of the day on Thursday, thus the subpar photos. Plus when work is glazed, getting pictures in awful fair lighting is virtually impossible to do on the fly. Anyway, I think the beauty and delicacy of these paintings comes through nevertheless. They are gouache, watercolors, ink and collage on paper, the collaged parts being the marbled paper she makes and then applies. She has some very large scale work that might be out of the budgetary boundaries but these smaller works are fantastic, quiet reflections on her experience in Japan. I find them to capture the allure and mystery of that country so well. For anyone who has travelled to Japan, I imagine you would love living with one of these.

And one more piece of eye candy for your viewing pleasure, Krista Louise Smith’s altarpiece to femininity is not only a stunning piece of craftsmanship, but also an exciting next steps in the artist’s practice. Her work historically has been of comprised both intimate and monumentally-scaled ethereal paintings in buttery pastel colors that she would describe as “internal skyscapes.” Her colors hold personal meanings of safety and comfort and she applies them to images of clouds, moons, and suns. Her paintings have taken on the look and shape of chapel niches and apses of late, so gallerist Jennifer Carvalho has been encouraging Smith to explore altarpieces as a next step in this evolution. (I can vouch on personal experience that when Jennifer says to do something you should do it because she is brilliant.) So, here the artist created a reliquary that celebrates feminine beauty through the ages. The handles are inspired by the Nike of Samothrace and the half-face is taken from a favorite Egyptian object in The Met, reconfigured as a self-portrait, and covered in 23k gold. As a reliquary, this object holds and protects that sacred power of the feminine but also reminds us to recognize and protect the self, whatever that may mean for the viewer. Perhaps that means staying true to one’s values when it is difficult. Perhaps that means letting go of toxic relationships. Perhaps that means pursuing a dream or saying no to someone when you are feeling overwhelmed.

Okay, okay, now one more, Kevin Umaña at Sperone Westwater (but he also has a show at Romer Young right now) was a study in duality. The tablets, as he calls them, fuse materials, styles, and forms to create these wonderful pieces that show us that life can be more than either/or. We can exist in a state of both/and. How very Post-Modern of you, Mr. Umaña! Born in El Salvador, and recently delving into the traditions and legacy of the Pipil people, Umaña has discovered a visual language of contradiction that speaks to the spiritual connection his people have with the land and the lessons we can learn from Nature.

Thanks for reading my recap! For more art I saw and liked in Miami and beyond, make sure to visit the Chat. You’ll find lots of new suggestions posted each week with all the details you need to find out more and even make a purchase. Feel free to reach out with questions, and remember sharing is caring so forward this to a friend or family member who would enjoy seeing all the art I saw and liked!