In the lead up to Art Basel’s annual stop in Miami earlier this month, all anyone with a ticket to Florida could talk about was THE banana. The sculpture, Comedian, by Italian Maurizio Cattelan, is a piece of fruit duct taped to a wall and debuted at the fair in 2019. The second of three editions sold at auction for US$6.2-million in November to a crypto entrepreneur who quickly and literally devoured his investment.
The debut of the edible creation entitled “Comedian” at the Art Basel show in Miami Beach in 2019 sparked controversy and raised questions about whether it should be considered art.PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images
Once the fair kicked off on a balmy Wednesday, however, attention was quickly diverted to the captivating offerings Art Basel Miami Beach and its adjacent fairs, including NADA and Untitled Art, displayed.
ABMB 2024 was the inaugural effort of gallerist Bridget Finn as the fair’s director. In addition to introducing a smaller-format size of booth to allow for more emerging galleries to participate in the event, Finn says she prioritized “thinking through the nuance of each individual stakeholder’s engagement with the show, and how to refine and enhance that.”
There was a potent Canadian presence on the fair’s floor this year, including the work of Renée Condo (longlisted for a Sobey Art Award in 2023) and Brian Jungen, whose mixed-media piece, Arms Open Wide (2024), sold during ABMB 2024 for US$150,000 according to Artsy.
Located in the frenetic main section of the fair, Toronto-based gallery Daniel Faria exhibited works by Stephanie Comilang, Iris Haussler, and June Clark. “We’re thrilled to be back at Art Basel Miami Beach this year,” says founder Daniel Faria. “And proud to be showing works by three generations of incredible women artists with works that explore issues of home, family, loss and migration.”
These moments make up our shortlist of Miami Art Week highlights.
BEACH VIEWS
Installation view of Baker Hall’s booth at NADA 2024RICHARD NOVAK/art basel miami
At NADA, Miami-based gallery Baker Hall’s booth boasted work by two local artists, painter Melissa Wallen and textile artist Alissa Alfonso. Alfonso’s eye-catching sculpture series, Nature’s Medicine, was of note because of the composition of its individual works –clever mixtures of upcycled and discarded materials and objects combined to resemble medicinal plants, growing from vessels like volley balls that were found during clean-ups of the city’s beaches. The sculptures’ whimsy didn’t overshadow their commentary on consumption and waste, and Alfonso’s earnest effort to keep her practice extremely local is refreshing and admirable.
DUAL POWER
Vickie Vainionpää, Nymphs and Satyr, 2024.art basel miami
Olympia gallery, which has outposts in New York and San Francisco, brought the efforts of two talents together to show for the first time as a duo: Basie Allen and Cassandra Mayela Allen, who are husband and wife. Though their pieces were eclectic and diverse in materiality, the kaleidoscope of colour each employed brought the couple’s artistic conversation into perfect harmony. Meanwhile at Untitled Art, two Canadian painters, Antonietta Grassi and Vickie Vainionpää, collaborated on a dynamic booth exhibition titled A Dialogue on Order and Chaos Through Abstraction for Montreal’s Patrick Mikhail Gallery. The assembly exemplified each artist’s skill and novel approach to their practice.
OUTSIDE INTEREST
Tony Romano, Piss Pot (2024)Dan Bradica Studio/art basel miami
Tony Romano, whose solo exhibition The Big Hat, ran at Oshawa’s Robert Mclaughlin Gallery earlier this year, had his first foray into the NADA Miami Outdoor Sculpture program with Piss Pot (2024). The imposing yet playful piece made from powder coated steel was a compliment to another of Romano’s works found inside at Toronto gallery Franz Kaka’s booth.
NEW OFFERINGS
Darby Milbrath, The Echoing Green, 2024.RACHEL TOPHAM/art basel miami
Montreal gallery Pangée’s joint exhibition at NADA focused on works by the multidisciplinary artist Ben Gould from New York, and Victoria, B.C.-based painter Darby Milbrath. Many of Milbrath’s moody, alluring abstracted oil on linen scenes were conjured specifically for this fair, and beguiled passers-by with their dreamy magnetism.
FEATURE FARE
Jeremy Shaw’s Untitled (There in Spirit)art basel miami
Bradley Ertaskiran – the Montreal gallery that made its Art Basel Miami Beach debut last year and was lauded as one of 2023′s best booths – returned with a showing of new and recent pieces by North Vancouver born, Berlin-based artist Jeremy Shaw. Found in the fair’s Nova section (dedicated to displaying artworks made in the last three years), Shaw’s assortment of prismatically-altered archival photographs was anchored by the haunting multimedia sculpture Untitled (There in Spirit) (2024).
The Globe and Mail Style Advisor travelled to Miami as a guest of Art Basel Miami Beach. The organization did not review or approve this article prior to publication.
