With Terry & Kim Kovel – Miami Beach

Art Basel/Miami and Design/Miami are the major attractions of the first week of December in Miami Beach. Thousands come to buy at the very expensive shows and at the displays and shops filled with less expensive work by “emerging artists.”

            It can cost a gallery $55,000 to rent a booth at Art Basel, and dealers also have to pay for booth design, shipping their artworks, hotel rooms, food and transportation. But since an $8 million sculpture and many other very pricy works sold the first day, you can see why dealers do well at this popular show.

            No money? No worries. You can get an education about modern art by walking the shows, talking to dealers, meeting collectors, going to free lectures and programs, visiting other art galleries in the city, and admiring all the “satellite” art exhibits. They included a sculpture garden, film showings, “young artist” shows, and displays of photographs and prints. You can also enjoy the many special exhibits by companies like Audi, Fendi, Swarovski, Cartier and Pucci. Of course, none of the art was shown with a price tag.

            I go to Miami Beach every December to see what will be a hot collectible 50 years from now. Also, I confess, to see what’s considered “new” that’s really based on old designs or old objects.

            I took photos of some of the most unusual artworks I spotted in the main buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got a spare mattress? The artist used queen-size mattresses as “canvases” for modern paintings.

 

This 1940s-50s lawn chair was made of bronze with a natural patina and rope salvaged from World War II destroyers. It’s part of a line of furniture made by Walter Lamb and sold in stores in California. Chairs were selling at Design Miami for $7,500 to $8,500. The matching tables were even more. All of the pieces sold the first day, and the dealer took orders for any others he could find.

 

I don’t understand this. It looks like a damaged rubber tractor tire that’s been tossed on the floor. A blow-out?

 

This looks like a tower of commercial flower pots. It was priced like a tower of artist-made pots. Great idea for a garden. And you can do it yourself.

 

This “Value” sign looks like an enlarged 1940s newspaper ad. It’s printed on vinyl and measures 6 1/2 feet high by 8 feet long. The dots seen in halftone printing are enlarged, and so are the face and hand.

 

Here’s a chair built with computer components, including motherboards, hard drives, chips, connectors and wiring. Unusual but uncomfortable. I was poked by bits of wire when I sat in the chair. This chair was one of several in a set, and each chair was selling for thousands. We were told Lady Gaga sat on one of these chairs when she appeared on a recent TV show. The artist, Benjamin Rollins Caldwell, has also made home furnishings from recycled piano keys, denim jeans and book spines.

 

Yes, this is a very large statue of a double cheeseburger. It stands about 4 feet tall.

 

Claes Oldenburg and his wife, Coosje van Bruggen, created this “Golf/Typhoon” sculpture in 1996. Made of bronze and acrylic urethane enamel, it’s mounted on an aluminum base. Try assembling your own sculpture using a few old golf clubs.

 

 


 

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