I don’t think, without actually being there to witness it, that anyone reading this will believe we saw and took in as much art as we actually did during our time at Miami Beach Art Basel 2012. A fast and furious few days, our last day was no exception. You can sleep when you’re dead, and we are far from dead, having been wide awoken by Basel’s brilliance. See you next year, MIami Beach! Good lookin’ out…
On our final day at Basel, we kicked it off proper by meeting back at Context Art Fair for an interview with French street art pioneer and overall amazing talent Speedy Graphito (aka Olivier Rizzo). We were immediately drawn to his work the night before which includes stencils of pop culture and cartoon characters alongside a finely tuned pallet of colors and drips. It also didn’t hurt that Speedy was commissioned to paint a live mural outside the fair, attracting all sorts of attention from young, old, and curious. The fine folks at Fabien Castanier Gallery out of Los Angeles hooked it up, and afterwards the artist painted half of his mural black to represent the downloading process the newfound viewers would have to go through in order to view the piece upon completion. It is a solid commentary on the Digital Age, and the artist’s grasp and comprehension of the world we live in fascinates and satiates the senses simultaneously. Be on the lookout for that interview at GozamosTV in the near future.
From our meet and greet with Speedy Graphito at Context, we made our way over to Scope Art Fair to check out what Chicago was bringing to the Basel table through the Red Bull Curates series.
Hebru Brantley, Goons, and Don’t Fret all had work on display at the Red Bull booth as a result of their respective wins in Red Bull’s cooler competition back in July. Hebru had some handsome work throughout the event as well, one of which was purchased by Jay-Z. Kind of a big deal.
Right around the corner from the Red Bull booth hung some slick satirical work from gilf!
Smack dab in the middle of Scope was the crown jewel setup by Culver City CA’s Corey Helford Gallery. D*Face came with it on several fronts, including this badass turnstyle sculpture:
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And wicked Lichtensteinesque works like this:
If we’re ranking winners or crowning champions or giving out medals in this Olympic style art extravaganza known as Art Basel, Corey Helford and Scope as a whole is right there among the front runners for Basel’s number one or potential champion or Miami gold. Whatever way you slice it, they hit heavy, whooped ass, and took names. Anyone who brings Buff Monster and Ron English to the big show has a leg up though.
Speaking of, Ron English, who always brings something extra special in his back pocket (he’s usually got a bunch of dope shit in his front pockets, too):
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Spoke Art had some great work on display at Scope as well, as evidenced by their emo-glam Hitler and perfectly pink framed series by Scott Scheidly.
Thinkspace serenaded the Scope crowd with brilliantly raw work by Brian Viveros.
Gerardo Cid got in on the action, too:
The adjoining Art Asia event had some amazing work, including a piece of our favorite from Kazuki Takamatsu here:
From Scope, we headed back for more Wynwood and also more Wynwood. I’ve got to have more Wynwood. I’ve got a fever. And the only prescription is more Wynwood!
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We jetted quickly across town for Pulse mainly for the Invader exhibit but also to check out what else they had to offer. Pulse kept pace with the rest of the day’s activities, and these were some of our favorites there:
Mark Dean Veca:
Bing Wright:
Nathan Vincent:
Pillas:
Vanessa German:
And then, of course, without further adieu, the Invader exhibit:
They also had a visionary video playing which documented the Parisian artist’s rendezvous into the world of stratospheric territory, where his mosaic Space One flew aboard his specially designed device showing the mosaic’s perspective from distant space. Quite cool…
We packed it in during our time in Miami, and I’m quite amazed myself at the quantity, quality, and equality we were able to absorb during our time there. No joke, Basel is where it’s at this time of year, so it’ll for sure become an annual event for Gozamos. We hope you’ll join us…
Miami has got it going on when it comes to an art scene. Quick, anyone reading this: point me in the direction toward Chicago’s Arts District. Anyone? No one? What do we have? A few blocks in Pilsen? How about our biggest art fair? Anything? For a city with so many passionate art lovers and talented artists, I feel like a broken record. Skip, skip, skip. Repeat. Repeat.
So, what am I going to do about it? I guess you’ll have to stay tuned, huh?
Final Invader count: 26