Art Basel Miami Beach isn’t just a cluster sculpt of galleries and parties (although it’s mostly that). There are important conversations taking places around every art deco bend. There are luminaries giving speeches and loiterers gawking at cheap installations and lots of neon and loose sand. And in the breadth of it all, there is depth. Literally.
My favorite found textures at Basel 2013:
Raqib Shaw
Arrival of the Horse King (Paradise Lost Series), 2011-2012
Oil, acrylic, enamel, glitter and rhinestones on birch wood
Jac Leirner
Silver Light, 2013
Electric cable, socket, bulb and nails
Tony Tasset
Snowman with Scarf, 2013
Glass, resin, brass, enamel paint, poly-styrene, stainless stell, and bronze
Claudio Parmiggiani
Senza Titolo, 2012
Smoke and soot on board
Jim Hodges
Untitled (when we collide), 2001
Wood and metal panel, ceramic sockets and lightbulbs in two parts
Loris Greaud
Kraken, 2012
Celluloid, tinted silicone in the molding, squid ink
Daniel Arsham
Malleable, 2013
Gouache on mylar, frame
Nir Hod
Once Everything Was Much Better Even The Future, 2013
HEARTSREVOLUTION
Pop He(art)
(the hood of a) Fully functioning Swarovski-encrusted ice cream truck
David Rosenbloom
Fuji Materializing, 2013
Live exhibition of 3D printing
Joseph Klibansky
Blue Universe
Acrylic with blue pigment powder and 24k gold leaf
And some favorite large-scale installations, both of which happened to be inflatable. Is this a sign of the future of furniture or just a happy, puffy coincidence?
Friends with You
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Inflatable installation, Mondrian South Beach poolside
“We wanted the experience to be like you made it to the end of the rainbow, a place where healing colors radiate people as they chill and play with our work making their own adventure. Full with a soundtrack of healing magic form our collaborator Norman Bambi, the entire experience should be an amazing one.”
– Complex magazine’s interview with Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III
Kolkoz (Benjamin Moreau and Samuel Boutruche)
Curiosity (floating inflatable Swiss Chalet)
“The name of the exhibit isn’t actually a statement on the viewer’s reaction but a nod to the 2012 Mars Curiosity Rover; a peaceful invasion of a foreign invader and the perfect representation of self-contained, self-sufficient mobility. It may feel like quite a conceptual reach but looking at the chalet from the stadium and vice-versa there is a definite sense of a sort of “What are you doing here?” conversation taking place.”
– Brian Orce for Untapped Cities