04/01/2002
by Martha Schwendener

In the wake of Art Basel’s cancellation of its Miami Beach exhibition—originally scheduled for December 2001 and postponed until December 2002—the organizers of Art Miami sent out a flurry of e-mails and press releases assuring the public their show would go on, despite September 11^th and the ongoing U.S. war against terrorism.

The difference between Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Miami, however, is striking. For one thing, 2001 was to be the inaugural year for Art Basel Miami Beach, whereas this year marks the 12^th anniversary of Art Miami. (The exhibition will be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center from Friday, January 4^th to Tuesday, January 8^th, 2002.) And where Basel is an enormous, wide-ranging show—described by "The New York Times" as "the Olympics of the art world"—Art Miami has a more particular flavor. Capitalizing on the city’s geographical and cultural links with Latin America, the show has become the largest annual gathering for dealers and collectors of Spanish and Latin American art. More than one third of the exhibitors, who number over 100 from 24 countries, are from South America, Central America or Spain.

Latin American is represented by galleries like Galería Isabel Anchorena of Buenos Aires, Aqua Gallery (Guadalajara), Galería Forum (Lima), Galería Freites (Caracas), Galería Enrique Guerrero (Mexico City), Galería de Arte Ana María Matthei (Santiago), Francisco Nader Gallery (Santo Domingo) and Galería de Arte Ascaso (Valencia, Venezuela). Spanish exhibitors include Galería Luis Adelantado (Valencia, Spain), who represents Spanish artists, like Antonio González and Sergio Barrera, as well as international artists like Julian Schnabel and Dieter Huber. Galería Senda in Barcelona, another gallery with both Spanish and international artists (including John Coplans and Jane Hammond) will be there promoting Spanish artists from its stable. Other galleries from Spain include Galería Trinta (Santiago de Compostela), Kreisler Galería de Arte (Madrid), Espai 292 (Barcelona) and Espacio Mínimo (Madrid).

Representing New York are gallerists like Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art, who specializes in 20^th century Mexican and Latin American Art. Martin will be showing a Diego Rivera painting from 1937, Street Vendors, which is priced at $ 1.2 million (€ 1.3 million). She also has a small Frida Kahlo drawing of Central Park, done from life during the artist’s visit to New York in 1932, which is priced at $ 50,000 (€ 55,800). Martin says she’s very optimistic about Art Miami and hopes people from out of town will come, but that South Florida itself has historically produced some "great customers."

Another New York dealer headed to Miami is Nancy Hoffman, who represents the estate of Juan Gonzalez, a Cuban-American painter of richly colored dreamscapes (who incidentally received his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Miami). Gonzalez died in 1993. According to Sique Spence of Nancy Hoffman, the gallery will be exhibiting an overview of their artists, including a new Nicolas Africano, sculpture Rose Figure with Long Dress (priced at $ 28,500, € 31,630), and a painting, Untitled (Woman Adjusting Cloth) ($ 16,000, € 17,600); new paintings by David Bierk, Eulogy to Life to Vermeer and Fantin-Latour ($ 20,000, € 22,000) and Still Life Fragment (Life) to De Heem ($ 30,000, € 33,000); as well as an early Juan Gonzalez painting, July 11, 1974, priced at $ 20,000 (€ 22,000).

George Billis’ Chelsea gallery in New York will be exhibiting a solo show of work by Cuban born painter Alejandro Mazon. Paintings by Mazon are priced at $ 1,200 to $ 4,200 (€ 1,320-4,620). Billis notes that that Art Miami will be interesting because "it’s the first art fair that hasn’t been canceled [since September 11^th]." Despite the international range of his artists, Billis has focused on Mazon this year because he "did much better with Latino painters" last year — attesting to the Latin American bent of Art Miami.

Nikolai Fine Art another small Chelsea gallery, located along the dense strip of galleries on 22^nd Street in Chelsea, is making an appearance (the gallery, which put in an appearance at the Artissima Art Fair in Turin in November, is doing the rounds of international art fairs), along with New York galleries like Jane Kahan, M.Y. Art Prospects, Meridian Fine Art, and Global Art Affairs.

In addition to exhibitors, Art Miami will present "Currents," a "show-within-the-show" that features the work of young galleries and artists. Bea Aaronson, a Charleston, South Carolina based artist who is also a scholar, will present a multi-media performance piece that "pays homage" to Baudelaire. In addition to "Currents," there will be an exhibition of recent photographs by Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki while Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen will present Cosmopolitan Chicken, an environmentally-conceived project that has already appeared at European conferences.

And how will Art Miami play out, as the first major American art fair in the aftermath of September 11^th? To quote Sique Spence from Nancy Hoffman in New York, their gallery has "great expectations" to see their Florida clients at the show. "Judging by the response to the gallery after September 11," she says, "it’s very promising. People are looking to art as a positive way of continuing on with life."