Art Basel, Miami, and Design, New York 2013

THE ACTION SWITCHES TO MIAMI

The public began trolling the aisles of the Convention Center, and collectors who did not lock up a piece of art the night before returned to complete negotiations. Meanwhile a gaggle of satellite fairs opened their tents to the public. Parties? This is the last big night (except for Visionaire, which waits until Friday) for the Big Spenders. The Design District was already humming at 6 PM. White carpet was put down around Dacra. Stores had all their lights on. Private dinners are happening all over the DD. Yet there are still a few more events to note: The opening of the Pool Art Fair in the impossible to find Marquis Hotel. (It's the top of a condo building at 1100 Biscayne. You know those boxes you see from the Beach? That's the Marguis. Storefront in the Buena Vista Building (a happening spot tonight, 180 NE 39th Street, Suite 120) is a showcase for the De La Cruz Collection. Niba Home, that great local home goods store, invites everyone to see its photo collection and (PRIVATE PARTY) Alex Gorlin again opens his door at Aqua for design and interior mavens. 

Earlier and Earlier Every Year

Some veterans will claim that this year's fair began last Friday, at the Ironbound party for Piero Lissoni, or on Saturday, in the mob scene at the Dutch, in the W Hotel on Miami Beach. But let's say the fair started Monday night, with the vernissage for a new fair, Untitled, in a tent designed by K/R, Keenen/Riley. John Keenen says "You could make a logical connection with Turrell’s Wolfsburg Project and the UNTITLED tent, in that both are related to light and color and space." He means that glowing purple entrance way, which looks like a lady lifting her skirt to show off her ankle. But he says that the Untitled tent, erected on the beach at 12th Street, following strict Miami hurricane regulations, was actually inspired by a nautilus shell, with display spaces winding inward. "The simple turn of the tent and cantilevered entry relate back to Ocean Drive and the city beyond," he said.
After the First Look opening party, guests headed to the new James Royal Palm Hotel, bound to be a hotspot, for the afterparty.

Press Registration and Vernissage
Design Miami

All day long writers, photographers and editors have been lining up to get their press badges and to go to the preview from 3 to 6. Even before that, selected collectors arrived to start putting in their bids. The Design Miami Vernissage, invitation only, is from 6 pm to 9 pm at the new tent, at 19th and Meridian Avenue, in the  parking lot opposite the Convention Center. Regular admission begins on Wednesday, at 11 am. General admission $25.

While You Were Away

Another year, and you don't think Miami stood still, do you? There are new restaurants, and some old favorites have closed. (Some -- Joe Allen -- have closed twice.) New hotels have opened -- hello, James Royal Palm, the SLS (the former Ritz Plaza) and for those who stay in Bal Harbour, the fabulous new St. Regis. And while you were away the New York writer Tom Wolfe laid into Miami with his new novel "Back to Blood." If you already know Miami, there won't be much news there. He makes a big deal of the Columbus Day Regatta, above,which is held in October in Biscayne Bay, as a scene of rank drunkeness, toplessness and bad behavior. Nothing new there. You might be amused by his description of the scene at noon on the preview day for Art Basel Miami Beach, but mainly because he is so tin-earred:

"Two hundred or so restless souls, most of them middle-aged men, 11 of whom had been pointed out ... as billionaires. Just take a look at them! … the billionaires! They look like shoppers mobbed outside Macy’s at midnight for the 40-percent-off After Christmas Sale. No, they don’t look that good. They look older and grubbier and more washed out … They’re wearing baggy-in-the-seat Relaxed Fit jeans, too-big T-shirts, too-big polo shirts hanging out at the bottom to make room for their paunches, dirty khakis, ug-lee rumpled woolen ankle-high socks of rubber-mat black, paint-job green, and slop-mop maroon … and sneakers."

MA2Dweek.com covers news of Art Basel Miami Beach and Design Miami. The writer and editor Linda Lee invented Miami Art Architecture & Design Week in 2007, after editing the official Art Basel Miami Beach magazine for 2004, 2005 and 2006. She is a former editor and writer at The New York Times.