Miami’s longest running contemporary art fair, Art Miami, officially kicked off its 29th edition alongside sister fair CONTEXT Art Miami with their VIP Previews on Tuesday, December 4th, 2018.
Renowned as one of the nation’s leading international contemporary and modern art fairs, collectors lined the block, eager to get the first look at work that included an unprecedented display of Antoni Clavé’s pieces from Landau Contemporary at Galerie Dominion. Their show-stopping collection of Henry Moore’s work, including Mother and Child: Block Seat, proved to be a significant attraction. The high quality of the presentation ensured that extremely sought-after offerings at the fairs also included works by George Condo, Wifredo Lam, Jackson Pollock, Joseph Albers, Alexander Calder, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, Marc Chagall, Ed Ruscha, Keith Haring, Frank Stella, Richard Serra, and more, with many things held on reserve.
Notable collectors and professionals including Beth Rudin DeWoody, Franklin Sirmans, Director, PAMM, Alice Louise Walton, Dennis and Debra Scholl,and Kim Heirston were among the 15,000 people who admired work from more than 800 established, emerging, and cutting-edge artists, represented by 160 international galleries from nearly 30 countries at Art Miami, and nearly 450 mid-career, emergent and cutting-edge artists from 96 galleries in 21 countries at CONTEXT Art Miami.
At London-based gallery ARCHEUS / POST-MODERN,guests gathered around pieces by Andy Warhol, Lynn Chadwick and Jonas Wood,and the gallery reported sales of each of these artists, as well as David Hockney’s Colored Flowers Made of Paper and Ink from 1971, which sold during the fairs first hour for an undisclosed amount. Arcature Fine Art saw interest in To Be Titled by KAWS, as well as people eager to admire Fernando Botero’s Flamenco Tablao from 1984 and Basquiat’s Spain from 1985. As they moved through, a large Damien Hirst caught visitor’s attention. On display with Galería Freites, they were also drawn to a series of sculptures from Manolo Valdés’ titled Maninas.
The most established collectors, curators, museum professionals, and art world luminaries ensure that the “Official Kickoff” to Miami Art Week is their first port of call to view and acquire blue-chip and contemporary artists’ works.
Art Miami sales included:
- Cernuda Arte placed Amelia Peláez’s Fish, 1955, oil on canvas, for $500,000, Miguel Florido’s How Can I Escape from Time, 2006, oil on canvas, and Sandro de la Rasa’s Path to Perfection, 2007, oil on canvas.
- Nikola Rukaj Gallery placed pieces from Alex Katz’s Coca-Cola Girls series for more than $150,000.
- VERTES sold a work by Sam Francis priced between $100,000 to $120,000.
- CHASE CONTEMPORARY placed paintings by Liu Shuishi for approximately $100,000, a Peter Beard for $90,000, and a Ole Aakjær for approximately $30,000.
- Grosvenor Gallery placed Hummingbirds, 2018, by Senaka Senanayke for $80,000.
- Michael Schultz Gallery placed Flieg Vogel Flieg, 2018 by Cornelia Schleime for $77,000.
- JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY sold six different works from Skylar Fein’s Giant Metal Matchbooks series, 2016-2017, for a total of $60,000.
- AMS – XS Galleries placed Nicolás Radic’s Aluminio, 2018, for $40,000.
- Sims Reed Gallery placed an Andy Warhol, Electric Chair, screen print in colors, 1971 for over $30,000.
- Galerie Ernst Hilger placed two sculptures by Alex Katz from 2018, each for $30,000.
- Goya Contemporary placed a work by Joyce J. Scott for an undisclosed amount.
- Jean Albano Gallery placed Bonnie Lautenberg’s 1952 Singing in the Rain / Yayoi Kusama, The Sea, archival pigment print, 1 of 6, and 2001 Shrek / Fernando Botero, Nude in Mirror, archival pigment print, 1 of 6, for undisclosed sums.
- Sladmore placed Poisson ‘Alma’ (Fish), 2018, by Edouard Martinet and No. 174 Boxing Boy with Hat, 2018, by Mario Dilitz.
The VIP Previews were sponsored by Christie’s International Real Estate and benefited the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), marking the eighth consecutive year that PAMM has been the fair’s exclusive VIP Preview benefactor. To date, Art Miami LLC has donated more than $150,000 to further the museum’s collection and mission, and the partnership remains an integral part of Art Miami’s larger commitment to the city of Miami.
Fair Director Nick Korniloff and Pamela Cohen joined a crowd of people including Shark Tank‘s Kevin O’Leary, Jason Newsted, and ABH in applauding as Galerie Terminus (Munich) and Galerie Barbara von Stechow (Frankfurt) together removed the red covering of The New Horizon Project, unveiling a BMW E3 that features a unique paint coat created by the legendary German aerosol artist and car-racer, Walter Maurer, to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The car had not been seen before and has been perfectly restored to be fully functional.
Additional notable VIP Preview attendees included: Dr. Jill Deupi, Director, Lowe Art Museum, Dr. Victor Deupi, past President of the Cintas Foundation and current Professor at University of Miami, Jaime Bayo and Sharon Holmes from PAMM,Pretty Little Liars actress Claire Holt,Kara Ross of UNLEASHED, Marvin Ross Friedman and Adrienne Bon Haes, collectors Lauren and Bob Roberts, Janna Bullock, artists Beau Dunn, Mr. Brainwash and Bradley Theodore, and Chubb’s Ori Ben Yishai and Mary Parsons.