ART MIAMI 2009 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION DECEMBER 2-6
MIAMI – Art Miami, the longest running contemporary art fair in Miami and the anchor art fair of the City of Miami, is one of the most important venues for modern and contemporary art in the United States. As the fair celebrates its 20th anniversary edition, eighty, international galleries will exhibit the best modern and contemporary paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography and prints from Europe, Asia, Latin America, India, the Middle East and the United States. In addition, Art Miami distinguishes itself from other Miami art fairs by presenting decorative arts, African tribal art, Pre-Colombian art, Japanese bamboo art, textiles and kiln formed glass.
With the recent signs of a recovering stock market and reports of significant sales and attendance at recent European fairs, Art Miami plans to service the widest breadth of collectors coming to Miami for “Art Week,” December 2-6. Because of the critical mass of art fairs at this time, Miami continues to be the most important international marketplace for contemporary art in America. The turmoil in the financial markets over the last year has created a situation in which high quality art, in both the primary and secondary markets, will be available at adjusted prices. Keeping this in mind, the galleries at Art Miami will be showing work by emerging and established artists who represent quality to collectors at every level.
Highlights from the galleries exhibiting at Art Miami 2009 include:
Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, the official host gallery of Art Miami, specializes in women artists and artists of color. This year, the gallery will present work by Cuban-born María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Chinese-born artist Hung Liu. Magdalena-Pon’s large scale Polaroids and Hung Liu’s color lithographs represent a microcosm of today’s multi-cultural visual environment.
High quality modern pieces including work by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Roberto Matta will be shown by Olyvia Fine Art from London. Edelman Arts from New York will be showing work by Stuart Davis, Willem DeKooning and Alberto Giacometti. The Gary Snyder/Project Space from New York will present work focusing primarily on modern American art rooted in the 1940s through 1960s including work by Thomas Downing, Vivian Springfield and Tadaaki Kuwayama. The McCormick Gallery (Chicago) /Vincent Vallarino Fine Art (New York) will be sharing a booth again this year and presenting post-war Abstract Expressionism, including work by Franz Kline, Theodore Stamos, Alfred Leslie, Norman Bluhm, Michael Goldberg and Mary Abbott. Scott White Contemporary Art from San Diego will be exhibiting a wide range of important works ranging from early mid-century modern paintings to important contemporary pieces such as the 1944 oil on canvas Portrait des Dora Maar by Pablo Picasso and the 1944-45 oil on canvas Les Quatre Acrobats by Fernand Leger.
Barry Friedman LTD from New York will exhibit work from an international stable of artists who share a common interest in strong aesthetics, individual styles and a sensible exploration of tough issues. The compelling and hyper realistic self-portraits in charcoal of Ian Ingram, the controversial paintings by internationally acclaimed Gottfried Helnwein and the colorful and politically charged paintings of Maxim Cantor will be presented. In addition, the gallery will be showing haunting photographs of residential interiors in Havana and Venice by Michael Eastman.
Sculpture will have an important presence at Art Miami. Four large Tony Cragg sculptures that will be available from Galerie Terminus from Munich will be placed throughout the fair. Friedman Benda Gallery from New York will be showing “Forever Bicycles” a sculpture of dismantled bicycles by Chinese artist and social activist Ai Wei Wei. The work brings to mind Duchamp’s ‘Readymades.’ Galerie Piece Unique from Paris will be showing new work, never seen before, by Cyrille André including “Grand Passeur.” Galerie Forsblom from Helsinki is presenting a special one-man show of sculptural work by Finnish artist HC Berg. Berg’s reflective balloons, holographic-like boxes and pulsating spheres challenge customary ways of seeing and viewing, with the interaction of material and light offering surprises and insights.
Both Barry Friedman LTD and Friedman Benda have strong design programs. Barry Friedman will show work by Wendell Castle and Friedman Benda will show work by Ron Arad and Joris Laarman. This is the first time that work by Laarman will be seen at an art fair.
Works on Paper will be very visible at the fair. Pace Prints from New York will show important woodcuts and screen prints by Chuck Close, Jim Dine and Qi Zhilong. The William Shearburn Gallery from St. Louis and Santa Fe, which focuses on modern and contemporary art, will be showing lithographs by David Hockney, monoprints by Mel Bochner and screen prints by Donald Baechler. Work by Sarah Amos, who uses the traditional collograph printmaking technique to create mural-scale works on paper, will be presented by Cynthia Reeves Contemporary from New York. Mixed-media work on paper by Dennis Oppenheim and Olaf Metzel can be seen at Piece Unique.
Great photography will be on view throughout Art Miami. HASTED HUNT KRAEUTLER, which just relocated to the space that Charles Cowles vacated on West 24th Street, is bringing work by French fashion photographer Jean-Paul Goude, Jeff Bank, Edward Burtynsky, Andreas Gefeller and Erwin Olaf. Robert Koch Gallery from San Francisco will be exhibiting photography by Holly Andres, Benoit Aquin, Jeff Brouws and Shari Kremer, Brian Ulrich and Michael Wolf. Photographs by Hiroshi Watanabe, Julie Blackmon and Robert & Shana Parke Harrison will be on view at Chicago’s Catherine Edelman Gallery. Cynthia Corbett Gallery from London will bring incredible lightjet prints by Tom Leighton.
Frey Norris Gallery from San Francisco will be showing paintings on paper, canvas and panels by Iraqi artist Hayv Kahraman, in addition to highly ritualized large-scale images by Indian artist Surendran Nair. Nicholas Metivier Gallery from Toronto will be showing abstract paintings by Katharine Harvey that explore the dimensional quality of light by embedding brush strokes within thickly painted layers of clear acrylic paint.
Contemporary Chinese art will be well represented at Art Miami. Eli Klein Fine Arts from New York, whose program focuses exclusively on the visual arts of contemporary China, will be featuring the works of twelve Chinese artists including: Yang Qian, Yang Mian, Zhang Dali, Xiao Se, Jiang Huan, Zhang Peng, Shen Shaomin and Xia Xing, Li Hui, Hung Tung-lu and Miao Xiaochun. ChinaSquare Gallery, also in New York, will be showing work by Cai Zhisong, Cui Guotai, Duan Jianghua, Xian Jing, Xu Weixin, Ye Yongqing and Zhong Biao.
Cernuda Arte, one of Miami’s best Latin American art galleries, will present academic, modern and contemporary Cuban art. The gallery will showcase museum quality works by vanguard masters such as, Wifredo Lam, Amelia Pelaéz, Mario Carreño, René Portocarrero, Víctor Manuel García, Carlos Enríquez, Eduardo Abela, Fidelio Ponce de León, Cundo Bermúdez, Mariano Rodríguez, Luis Martínez Pedro, Roberto Diago and José Mijares.
Douglas Dawson Gallery from Chicago will be bringing work that will blur the distinction between ethnographic and contemporary art. The focus of their booth will be a collection of ancient stone objects from the Bactrian culture of Central Asia. In addition, Dawson will present pre-Columbian figurative ceramic sculpture from Mexico and ancient sculpture and objects from Southeast Asia.
Collectors of museum-quality tribal art will find a unique selection of classical and tribal sculpture including a Baga Figure from Guinea, a Baule Figure and a Dan Mask from the Ivory Coast and an important Malagan Totok Figure from New Ireland at Pace Primitive from New York.
Tai Gallery from Santa Fe will be the only gallery showing contemporary bamboo art. Bold, muscular pieces by Tanabe Shochiki, earthly, visceral pieces by Nagakura Kenichi and graceful, energetic pieces by Nagakura Kenichi will be available.
Bullseye Gallery from Portland, Oregon will showing kiln-formed glass by five international artists including Jun Kaneko (Japan/U.S.A.), Richard Whitely (Australia), Mel Douglas (Australia), Jessica Loughlin (Australia), and April Surgent (U.S.A.).
Fair Hours
Tuesday, December 1
First View & Lotus House Benefit ($25 Donation at the door) 5:30 pm –7:00 pm
VIP Preview (VIP cardholders & Press) 7:00 pm –10:30 pm
Wednesday, December 2 11:00 am – 7:00pm
Thursday, December 3 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Friday, December 4 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday, December 5 11:00 am – 7:00pm
Sunday, December 6 11:00 am – 5:00pm
About Art Miami
Art Miami is the city’s longest running contemporary art fair and considered one of the most important venues for modern and contemporary art in the U.S. It is scheduled to take place December 2-6th in the Midtown Miami Arts District, adjacent to the Miami Design District and Wynwood Arts District, and will feature works from more than 80 national and international contemporary art galleries. For additional information, visit www.art-miami.com and visit the Art Miami Fan Page on Facebook.
For more information, please contact:
Kreps De Maria Public Relations and Marketing
Vanessa Fioravante / 305-663-3543/ vfioravante@krepspr.com
Sissy DeMaria / 305-663-3543 / sdemaria@krepspr.com