MA²Dweek 12/1 - 12/7 2008

Ai ai ai! There I was in Helsinki a year ago, buying a few meters of the kitschy Aino-Maija Metsola oilcloth called Mokki (a Mokki is a primitive cottage on a lake in a forest) to take to my primitive cottage in a forest in Upstate New York. I carried it on the plane, train and automobile wound around a long cardboard tube, since you can’t fold an oil cloth, and in the Finnish style I retained the selvage*. It was adorable in my little cottage in the woods Upstate.

Now Merimekko has moved its design outpost from Miami Beach to 3852 North Miami Avenue in the Design District, and I am living in Miami. I haven’t brought my Mokki oilcloth down here yet (big plus: doesn’t stain, doesn’t fade, doesn’t get wet) but that doesn't matter, because after all my work hauling in back from FInland, they've got the same pattern, at center above, down here -- although not in red. And look at this cute Aino-Maija Metsola print, right, from 2009. If you're a retro person, you might prefer the 60s prints: Seireeni left, and Melooni right. 
*Definition for those who didn’t take home ec: the edges of a textile that do not bear the print, but in the case of Merimekko carries the name of the designer and date. The selvage edges don’t ravel.

** In Finnish, Merimekko mean's Mary's dress. 

Coming to Miami?
Even if you are not, you will enjoy this guidebook to Miami from Louis Vuitton. I’ve offered you an insider’s take on local galleries, museums, events, hotels, boutiques, gathering spots, and I’ve thrown in guides to Sarasota, Palm Beach, the Everglades (not much culture there) and Little Palm Island in the Keys. The guides cost $38, direct from Louis Vuitton online, plus shipping, of course.
But when was the last time you got a package from Louis Vuitton for $38?
Et c'est disponible en Français aussi.

The Great Recession continues to dog the art market. On April 1, Crain's New York Business reported that UBS has closed its art banking department, starting in 1998 to help "rich clients buy and build collections." That is a particularly bad omen. UBS still plans to help its top clients buy gold, or coins, for instance. Just not art. UBS had a modest presence in Miami in December, cutting back on the freeflowing champagne and invited fewer guests than in previous years to its dinner in a tent by the ocean. So what does all this mean for the future of Art Basel? It must be remembered that UBS is the three main sponsor of Art Basel, both in Miami in December, and in Basel, Switzerland, in June. This past December, according to Portfolio magazine, a reliable sponsor in years past, BMW, saw the writing on the wall and pulled out. (No more BMWs parked in front of the Convention Center to take VIPS back to their hotels. This was the year of the SmartCar.)

Portfolio referred to Miami Basel as Woodstock for the Wealthy. What happens when wealth (or the appearance of wealth) disappears? For one thing, a big gallery like Emmanuel Perrotin shuts down its Miami branch, a serious blow for the international standing of Miami in the art world. New condo buildings are sitting half empty. The Royal Palms hotel has been put into bankruptcy protection. And then there's the problem with the Chinese-made sheetrock used to finish buildings hastily erected in 2006 and 2007. Turns out it smells, and it fries electrical wiring.

Bernie Madoff's 55-foot yacht was seized in Miami in April by US marshalls. At the other end of the scale, boat owners in Miami who can't afford to pay docking fees, or buy gasoline, are dumping their boats or trashing them to try to collect insurance, according to NBC Miami.

Art fairs? Maestricht in March had good news for high end dealers in top names. That was where people bought Degas and antique silver. That's where they bought "vintage" furniture, like a George III bookcase, circa 1775. Contemporary and conceptual art? Design Art? Vintage furniture circa 1948? Not so good.

After Miami Basel ended, many Miami galleries continued to have the same shows up for months. Nothing was selling. Even Second Saturdays, the designated night to walk around Wynwood and the Design District, have begun to seem sad.

As with many not-quite-first-rate places, Miami has an inferiority complex. It can't quite believe it landed Art Basel, and it continues to believe it will soon lose it. The booster faction talks up the positive news about Miami Basel 2009: It's taking over a second hall of the Convention Center! Design Miami is moving from the Design District to Miami Beach! The best art will survive! The empty glass set repeats the rumor that Art Basel is moving to Los Angeles.

As if Los Angeles isn't having its own problems.

The circus was in full swing on Thursday night, with cocktails, screenings, parties, auctions, dinners, and nightclubbing on both sides of the Bay. The premiere of the movie "Che" took place in Miami, with not only the cast present -- Benicio del Toro, etc. --- but guests like the designers Cynthia Rowley and  Marc Jacobs showing up at the afterparty at the Raleigh.

Craig Robins and Ambra Medda were hosts of a private dinner party at the Robins home on Sunset Island III for the Designers of the Year, the Campana brothers. Some design stars did double duty, turning up first at the Luminaire cocktail party in Miami, where Ivana Trump was in residence, then having an appetiser at the Luminaire dinner in Miami, after which they scooted across the bay to the Robins dinner. (We saw you Franklin.)
Island Gardens gave a champagne reception for Ai Weiwei on Watson Island, home to Weiwei's Bubble 2008, 100 ceramic bubbles laid out on what may be the most beautiful location in Miami, looking across the water at downtown. The Bubbles are for sale, each priced at $20,000.

There was a glamorous reception for ArtAsia at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. But the real action seemed to be in the Design District. Kartell had an opening for its temporary museum. The crown jewel of the evening was the cocktail party and then dinner and live auction of specially designed pieces at Luminaire Lab, owned by the design gurus Nasir and Nargis Kassamali.
Robin Bevers, director of the Marcel Wanders's studio in Amsterdam, said that Wanders would stay through to the end of the auction to benefit the Sylvester Cancer Care Center . "Marcel really feels that when you make something for a charity, you have an obligation to turn up, and help sell it," he said. "Besides, everyone owes such a debt to Nasir and Nargis."

Those most likely to bid were seating right next to the stage. The "annex," where the journalists sat, was a bit further away. It seemed like the entire Miami magazine world, Michael Sheehan (the marketing director of MAP magazine), editors from Florida InsideOut and Home Miami, Anna Carnick, editor of Clear magazine, and Jilian Sanz, the fashion editor for Florida International Magazine. (Only a fashion editor could pull off a mink cape!)

The list of artists and designers who made pieces for the charity was far too long for all of them to be auctioned live. So a handful -- all made out of paper -- were offered: The red Arne Quinze "Fragile Stilthouse" went for $10,000, Zaha Hadid's paper relief model of a hall building in Basel, Switzerland sold for $12,000; the Ingo Maurer lamp went for $16,000; Kengo Kuma's beautiful origami "balloon" went for $20,000. A surprise visitor, Ross Lovegrove, turned up to auction off himself, with the promise of making a unique piece to the buyer. He topped out at $25,000. Piero and Francesco Lissoni's geometric grid sold for $32,000. The hot designer Tokujin Yoshioka's Snowflower sold for $10,000. A Jonathan Kline Grid brought in $5,500. And the climax (for entertainment value) was Marcel Wanders,  who attended with his girlfriend, the choreographer Nanine Linning. Wanders personally took over the auction, talking to the top bidder on the phone and wheedling the price for his ornate screen to $24,000. He tried to double that amount by asking permission to do another one and sell it on the spot, but the bidder on the phone put a foot down. For $24,000, it seemed enough to have an original. Even for charity.

People seemed most interested in what they were going to do next. A man with a Texas accent said to his wife, "There's that thing that we could be at, that we are supposed to be at, at the Ritz." And one young woman said, into her cell phone, "Are you wearing deodorant?" When the answer was yes, she said, "Then raise your arm so I can find you."
Lots of people hotfooted it over to Art Positions (the Containers) on the beach, where Gang Gang Dance was to perform at 10 pm, for free. Others, a number of them locals, rushed to a party the Mondrian, because in Miami there is nothing like the opening of a new hotel. (It seemed to escape them that they would get no food, barely find a drink, and could, after all, see the Mondrian after Art Basel left town.) And a select 4,000 went to the UBS buffet dinner, in a tent on the beach behind the Delano. At the UBS tent there was no recession. There was just as much lobster as last year. And Moet flowed like club soda. The only hint that there might be an economic crisis around was the T shirt uniforms of the Delano staff. On the front, the T shirts said "Recession," and on the back they said "F---K the." And that seemed to be the sentiment all over town. --LINDA LEE

Weather report for Miami Basel week: Perfect

Tuesday sunny, highs in the lower 70s during the day, with a dip to 48 degrees Fahrenheit at night

Wednesday sunny, temperatures will hit 75 during the day, not so chilly at night, to the lower 60s

Thursday sunny to partly sunny, highs in the upper 70s, lows in the lower 60s.

Friday partly cloudy, highs in the upper 70s, lows in the lower 60s.

Saturday, partly cloudy, highs in the upper 70s, lows around 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

That makes Thursday your best beach day. And remember that at night, it always feels cooler close to the ocean.

Remember these words: RED BAPSA

There are eight satellite fairs in Midtown, a development in Miami between NE 29th Street and NE 36th Street, on North Miami Avenue. Parking is easy, in the garage at North Miami Avenue and NE 32nd Street, and there are shuttle buses from 17th and Washington Avenue in Miami Beach.
Want to remember which fair is where? Leaving out the Green and Ginzatropicalia fairs try this: 
From north to south it's Red Bapsa. That would be:
Red Dot
Bridge
Art Miami
Photo Miami
Scope
ArtAsia
 -- Linda Lee

Art Updates

Are you asking yourself what day is it? Having trouble remembering what you saw yesterday? Here's some help.
Critical Miami is doing a bang up job analyzing the fairs.  Alesh Houdek, the genius behind the site, is finding great stuff, like this Miami Beach Parking Receipt Generator, for those of you who have battled with the @*$!# machines that refuse or eat your card, kick back your dollars and can't take your coins because of gum in the slot. The "generator" was abruptly shut down on Friday, but we're here to tell the guy who did it... just say it was an art work, like Eric Doeringer's "bootleg" artworks. Alesh at Critical Miami is a very entertaining read.

There Goes the Neighborhood
Jason Edward Kaufman writes in the Dec. 7 Art Newspaper about Marina Abramovic’s new art center in Hudson, New York. The article says her foundation to preserve performance art will be in a Hudson theater she bought. For those with weekend homes near Hudson, this is good news and bad. Good because there will now be something to do other than walk up and down Warren Street buying overpriced antiques. Bad because the theater used to be filled with affordable antiques and great junk. And scary because in an article headlined “Warhol’s Factory without the Drugs,” there was this passage about Abramovic’s performance at the Guggenheim last year: Abramovic, 61, “concluded the series with two of her own works, including the riveting ‘Lips of Thomas’ piece in which the naked artist slices a Soviet star into her belly with a razor blade, flagellates herself with a scourge, and lies on an ice-block crucifix, among other unsettling metaphorical actions.” “Without the drugs?” I think drugs would be required, either to perform Abromovic’s piece, or to watch it. 
  
The Price of Art
On ArtInfo, Sarah Douglas writes about the financial side of the art market coming into Basel and finds that, despite jitters in the credit market, major pieces were hauled out, including Basquiats at the Krugier Gallery, Convention Center, Booth H7, and at the Van de Weghe gallery, Booth K3.