Art Basel Miami Beach 2009: Eighth Edition of America’s Most Prestigious Art Show Opens
MIAMI, FL.- From December 3 through 6, 2009, Miami Beach, Florida, will be home to the 8th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, the international art show. More than 250 leading galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa will take part. Chosen by renowned gallerists of the Art Basel Miami Beach Selection Committee, the galleries will show works by more than 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centu-ries. Special sectors are devoted to very recent artworks, curated exhibits, perfor-mance, and art in public spaces.
This year, the layout of Art Basel Miami Beach will be extensively redesigned, including larger spaces for many galleries, and an innovative floorplan to improve the visitor experience inside the Miami Beach Convention Center. The Art Positions sector, focused on special projects by young artists and galleries, formerly situated at Collins Park, will now be sited in the center of the Miami Beach Convention Center. Art Galleries, the main section of the show, will again feature the Art Kabinett program, which spotlights curated presentations in the selected gallery’s booth, while Art Nova presents new works by more than 130 artists.
A painting by Sara Landau titled Venus is shown by Landau Fine Art during the Art Basel Miami Beach Vernissage in Miami Beach, Fla. Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009
The new Oceanfront area will be created by Los Angeles artist Pae White, commis-sioned by Art Basel Miami Beach and Creative Time, the legendary New York-based public art organization, and host a daily program including the Art Basel Conversations, Art Perform, Art Video and Art Film. Presented in the public spaces between and around the Oceanfront and the Miami Beach Convention Center, this year’s Art Projects will connect the two main areas of the show.
Occurring annually since its launch in 2002, Art Basel Miami Beach 2009 will run from December 3 through December 6, 2009. Galleries selected from 33 countries will be showcasing paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, photography, editions, and videos. The show’s list of participants makes Art Basel Miami Beach the most prestigious art show of the Americas, featuring highly established galleries and many dynamic newcomers. Prices range from a few hundred dollars, for multiples and works by young artists, to several million for museum-quality masterpieces. Many major US museums are organizing trips to Florida, and numerous groups of art collectors from Latin America and Europe have already announced their visits. During the show’s five-day run, more than 40,000 art lovers are expected to visit the international art show.
The redesign of Art Basel Miami Beach
At the center of the Miami Beach Convention Center, visitors will discover the Art Salon talks program, Art Magazines, Art Institutions and two restaurants. This central area will be surrounded by the Art Positions booths, while Art Nova will extend along a concentrated row at the south end of the halls. This new layout will improve visitor navigation and orientation within the halls, and allow more room for amenities such as restaurants and resting places, further enhancing Art Basel Miami Beach’s ability to be the best platform for its galleries. Furthermore, the Art Collectors Lounge will be significantly redesigned and enlarged, now including a restaurant with seated and served dining, plus lounges by our main sponsor, UBS, and the associate sponsors Cartier, NetJets and AXA Art.
Art Galleries sector
The Selection Committee – comprised of 12 renowned international gallerists – has picked more than 180 galleries for this year’s show. Roughly half of the exhibitors come from out-side the United States, with strong participation from Europe and Latin America, plus 11 galleries from Asia and two from Africa.
Art Kabinett sector
Art Kabinett gives 28 galleries participating in the Art Galleries sector an opportunity to present small curated exhibitions, in a separately delineated space within the gallery’s booth. The exhibition concepts for Art Kabinett are diverse, including thematic group exhibitions, art-historical solo shows and showcases for rising stars. This year’s projects feature a wide array of artists, ranging from emerging artists such as Jakub Julian Ziotkowski, Haegue Yang and Latifa Echakhch to historical figures like Marcel Duchamp, George Grosz and Jack Tworkov. Further highlights include projects by Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor, Richard Prince and Wim Delvoye. Group shows include exhibitions titled “Ninety Years of Bauhausˮ and “Aspects of Pop Artˮ.
Art Nova sector
In this year’s Art Nova sector, 64 emerging and established galleries from 24 countries are presenting new works, by a maximum of three artists. Recent pieces by more than 130 artists will be on display, providing visitors an opportunity for discovering pieces fresh from studios around the globe – and making the sector an ideal place to spot the newest tendencies in artistic production. This year’s presentations include 17 solo shows, featuring artists such as Marc Bijl, Valie Export, Rashid Rana, Dan Attoe, Michael Beutler, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Jose Dávila and Marine Hugonnier.
Art Positions sector
Formerly located at Collins Park, Art Positions will now be situated in the center of the exhibition halls surrounding the central cube. The sector presents 23 young galleries from nine different countries, showcasing cutting-edge projects by single artists or conceptual group shows, featuring works by artists such as Renate Lorenz, Falke Pisano, Ulla von Brandenburg, Agathe Snow, Egill Saebjornsson, Reena Spaulings and Marcel Broodthaers.
Art Projects
Art Projects, this year curated for the first time by Patrick Charpenel of Guadalajara, Mexico, features projects by internationally renowned artists such as Santiago Sierra, Claire Fontaine, William Pope.L, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Franz West. Selected from propos-als by the galleries of Art Basel Miami Beach, they are installed in the outdoor public spaces of Miami Beach, within close proximity to Oceanfront area and the Miami Beach Convention Center. These works engage directly with the spectator, interrupting the daily routine of passersby in poetic and surprising ways.
The Oceanfront
The Oceanfront area, formerly home to Art Positions, has been created as a platform for virtually all of Art Basel Miami Beach’s cultural programming. Situated directly on the beach, the Oceanfront marks the point where the artworld interfaces with the broader pub-lic. We are delighted to have Creative Time, the legendary New York City-based public art organization, as a partner in the launching of this new dimension of Art Basel Miami Beach. Together with Art Basel Miami Beach, Creative Time commissioned Los Angeles artist Pae White to design the central element of this space.
Free of any admission charge, the Oceanfront offers visitors many opportunities. In the mornings, they can attend the discussion panels of the Art Basel Conversations series, featuring prominent figures from every artworld domain. And every night during Art Basel Miami Beach, it will feature a special art event. The series of events will be inaugurated by the annual Art Loves Music concert on the beach, followed by the Art Perform program curated by Jens Hoffmann of the Wattis Institute; the Art Video program curated by Creative Time and the Art Film evening curated by This Brunner. Rounding out the experi-ence, the Oceanfront Cafe will offer visitors the possibility to have light meals and refresh-ing drinks.
Art Video
Curated by Creative Time Art Video will involve screenings of videos by Tom Sachs and The Neistat Brothers, Marc Horowitz, Jill Magid, and Kon Trubkovich, followed by discussions with the artists. The program will take place on Thursday and Saturday from 7 – 8.30 pm during the show.
Art Perform
Based at the Oceanfront, Art Perform now features an intensified program of longer per-formances by rising international artists. As in former years, this program will be curated by Jens Hoffmann, director of the CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco. It will take place on Thursday and Saturday at 9 p.m. and feature performances by Kelly Nipper, Kris Martin, Simon Fujiwara, Claire Fontaine, and Mario Garcia Torres / Loris Gréaud.
Art Film
This year’s Art Film event offers an exclusive work-in-progress sneak preview of the fea-ture length documentary film “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child,ˮ preceded by a panel with a selection of the film’s participants, moderated by Bob Colacello. “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Childˮ is directed by Tamra Davis and features a long and never-before-seen interview with Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), shot shortly before his death. Art Film is curated by Zurich film connaisseur This Brunner.
Art Basel Conversations
Now located at the Oceanfront, Art Basel Conversations offers audiences access to first-hand information on important aspects of the international artworld. This year’s topics include “Museum Directors: Change in Generation”, “Collector Focus: Latin America” and “The Future of the Museum: The Portable Museum”. Distinguished artists, art collectors, museum directors, curators, critics, gallerists, publishers, and others active in the cultural sphere will take part. There is also time allotted after each Art Basel Conversation for the audience to engage with the panel in a more informal fashion.
Art Salon
Situated in the central area of the Miami Beach Convention Center, Art Salon is a platform for discussion by artworld figures presenting their projects, with an emphasis on the most current themes in contemporary art. Informal in format but international in scope, it also features book launches, artist talks, roundtable discussions, and lectures. Participants include prominent artworld personalities such as Pae White, Ghada Amer, Jens Hoffmann, Fred Tomaselli, Mark Rosenthal, Ryan McGinley, James Rosenquist, Klaus Biesenbach, Josh Baer and Patrick Charpenel.
Museums and Private Collections
Once again, Miami’s leading private collections – among them the Margulies Collection, the Rubell Family Collection, CIFO, the de la Cruz Collection, the Mora Collection, the Scholl Collection, and the Dacra Collection – will be opening their homes and warehouses to guests of the international art show. The museums of South Florida, too, will be staging important exhibitions to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach, including exhibitions presenting Guillermo Kuitca at the Miami Art Museum, “Art from the Jumex Collection” at the Bass Museum, William Kentridge at the Norton Museum, George Segal at the Margulies Collection, “The Realms of Realityˮ at MOCA Miami, and Raymond Pettibon and Sylvie Fleury at World Class Boxing.
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