The real Art Basel 2018 runs from December 6-9 at the new improved Miami Beach Convention Center. The fact that the Convention Center looks like a beached silver fish may be the source of some irony given the ubiquitous Red Tide driving fish to the surface and the shore. Hopefully, Miami Beach’s multimillion dollar efforts to elevate the island 5 feet at a time will not foreshadow a metaphor for misery to come.
This is the seventh time I have written a Basel preview, and truth be told, I’m nearly exhausted. I mean — if you don’t know me by now… The art itself is always without peer, as is the organization of nearly every structure. If one can blot out the noise, this is the art lover’s rapture. Everywhere you go, you are bombarded by shape, line, and color. It is overwhelmingly pleasurable, unmistakably delightful, and a matrix of wonderment. You are the kid in a candy store, especially in the primary venue, where the art is Bergdorf Goodman and the experience Costco. It is likely you will return exhausted, needing both aspirin and cocktail. Getting there and home is even worse, but this year, I’ll spare you the complaint.
Assuming that you have this figured out, there are myriad opportunities to encounter something special. Aside from this real Art Basel, the second most uncontainable experience is always Art Miami. It too is blessed and cursed with an overabundance of quality and madness. No other satellite has so many people with little or no art knowledge and no other satellite has so many prestigious galleries. If you just want to see and be seen, you will end up at Art Miami. What you will see is far more interesting than who you will see. In fact, some of the faces you see will conjure up Batman’s Joker and Roald Dahl. Art Miami is joined at the hip with hipper upstart Context, both on the waterfront where the Herald once lived.
UNTITLED and SCOPE have both been far more satisfying for the beholder dedicated to maintaining some semblance of sanity; historically, these venues have been more user-friendly, less frantic, and generally more conscious. Now far be it for me to pose as an arbiter of cool, but again, the woke folk have always found their way to the ocean side locations between 8-12th Streets.
UNTITLED particularly finds galleries which contain surprises and even a spin around their website gives you an idea that creative heads are mining this operation. You get one photo example per gallery. It’s by far the most different of the high quality operations. SCOPE’s massive pavilion will house 140 exhibitors. SCOPE will run for six days this year; UNTITLED will try five. Crowds for both will grow as time goes by.
PULSE takes over Indian Creek Park further north on the Beach. It moved there a few years ago, and opted for the full sponsor treatment. If you’ve got the money, PULSE will credit you. They have eight sponsors and nineteen partners. As the hotel glamour moves closer to this neighborhood, PULSE is set and feels most like Art Miami.
On the other end of the tony wavelength, former fan favorite NADA will once again take over the Ice Palace making it once again a fan favorite. Its urban return last year was cheered by all of us who love the venue, love the vibe, and love the memory of the way Basel was before it became an event that cannot be missed, so don’t miss NADA.
Pinta Miami is the last of those which I enthusiastically recommend. Its focus on a global Latin-American perspective adds depth and a fitting horizon unlike any other fair. It’s location in MANA Wynwood will be shared somehow with Spectrum and Red Dot, sisters who will move once again, but should benefit from the tourist spillover from everyone late to the graffiti game.
