Miami swells with art and artsy crowds during the first week of December every year ( with no fairs in 2020). There are several top art fairs happening in the city that bring the art lovers and professionals from all over the world. Art Fairs include the Art Basel, Scope, Miami red dot/ Spectrum, Context art Miami and some more! In addition, some hotels organize art events during this time too to draw people in. The fairs are spread out in the Miami Beach but the locations stay the same year after year.
Miami Art Context 2021
I visited Context Art Miami during the opening hours in early December thanks to my friend Florencia. It felt like a big celebration of the arts. There were so many visitors, artists, gallerists, curators, art collectors, museum professionals and yes, celebrities visiting the fair, it almost felt crazy to experience so much energy in one place. While not every art piece was great, I loved to look at variety of contemporary art, pushing the boundaries of what art could be. I enjoyed seeing boldness and innovation, creativity, the use of textures and materials, and 3D-art.
😃 As long as artists create on this planet, we won’t be consumed by the existing darkness on Earth.💕
This is a short video shot with my phone where I tried to capture realist art as well as some innovative pieces. Some of the artists shown are: Carole Feuerman (hyperrealist sculptures), Anthony James (light sculptures), Coderch & Malavia sculptures, David Uessem, Damien Hirst, Marco Grassi and so on.
As far as I know the rules of participation for the galleries have been relaxed somewhat, which used to include the following: The gallery must have a physical location. It must be in business for over 3 years. And it must pay a hefty fee. Depending on the size of the booth, the cost of gallery participation amounts to $20,000-50,000 (Context Miami. I’m pretty sure that Art Basel is even more expensive to participate in). This doesn’t include, airfare, hotel, meals and staff salary. So you can imagine that the art shown at Art Basel reflects this pricing and not every gallery sells out… Galleries are on the hunt for top collectors, institutions and celebrities buying art from them. While there were fewer visitors than in the previous year, sales were robust according to Artsy.
Spectrum Miami review
Finally I want to mention another popular art fair- SPECTRUM Miami located in Wynwood. I mainly want to record my opinion here, so if you plan to exhibit at this fair, it might not be what you think it is, or perhaps it’s a lot more than you thought of it in the first place. I’m going to compare it to Context Miami fair. So Spectrum is all about emerging artists taking charge of their careers and exhibiting there, not the galleries working on their behalf. The space and lighting isn’t top notch. The crowd coming to the show is very different. Young, excited to go out and celebrate. My question was if there were any art collectors there at all. My guess, there were few. Of course, the cost of renting a booth is much cheaper just as the price of an entry ticket in comparison to the Context. Finally the quality of art is very different from the Context, showing young artists with most being Florida-based…Perhaps there is a lot more to the Spectrum but these are valid points to consider either visiting or exhibiting in this art fair.