Art Agenda reviews Art Basel Miami Beach, 2011
This week marks the 10th anniversary of Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB), the largest art fair in the US, and celebrations promise to be even more glitzy than usual. But attention is also being focused on how ABMB might be affected by recent shifting attitudes towards the imbalanced distribution of wealth and contorted markets—imbalances the art fair, as a platform for buying and selling art to a relatively small few—highlights all too well.In the first of two reviews Art Agenda will publish on ABMB, Jonathan T. D. Neil looks at how the choices of works presented this year have created a form of “cognitive dissonance,” suggesting that it is exactly this psychological construct that allows ABMB to operate on such paradoxically successful terms. (Read the review in full here.) In the second chapter of reportage on the fair, Dave Harper provides a roundup of concurrent events. Leading us through private collections, museum and gallery openings, and impromptu performances, Harper’s review promises a snapshot of the “other” ABMB. It will be published on Art Agenda early next week.
We are also pleased to introduce a new feature, in which each month we will republish a critically relevant review written prior to 1990. These historic reviews—of gallery and museum shows, art fairs, and books too—will help contextualize the vicissitudes of art criticism over the past years. First to be published in this series is Robert Smithson’s 1966 “An Aesthetics of Disappointment, on the occasion of the Art and Technology show at the Armory” introduced by Art Agenda Editor, April Lamm. Reviews by Jill Johnston, Clement Greenberg, and François Truffaut, among others, will follow.
Also be sure to keep an eye out for upcoming reviews: Maaike Lauwaert on Wilfredo Prieto at Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam; Alan Gilbert on Andrea Bowers at Andrew Kreps, New York; Mariangela Mendez on the group show “Des(enho)” at Galeria Casas Riegner, Bogota; Quinn Latimer on Diane Arbus and August Sander at Edwynn Houk Gallery, Zurich; and many more.
Recent reviews:
Becky Beasley at Francesca Minini, Milan
16 November 2011–14 January 2012
Filipa Ramos unfolds the secret life hiding behind Becky Beasley’s paravents at Francesca Minini, Milan.
Read
Rodney Graham at Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
21 October–23 November 2011
Michelle Grabner puts Rodney Graham’s ever-varying selves at Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, in the context of “Generation Sell”—and that’s not what you think it means.
Read
Claire Fontaine’s “Working Together” at Metro Pictures, New York
3 November–10 December 2011
A collaboration between Claire Fontaine, Louis Vuitton, and Lehman Brothers? Stephen Squibb tells us all about the confabulation of “Working Together” at Metro Pictures, New York.
Read
“People Things Enter Exit” (Ulla von Brandenburg , Guy de Cointet, Geoffrey Farmer, Janice Kerbel, Daria Martin, and Judy Radul) at Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
28 October–3 December 2011
Aaron Peck tells us how the spectre of spectatorship haunts “People Things Enter Exit” at Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver.
Read
Raymond Pettibon’s “Desire in Pursuyt of the Whole” at Regen Projects, Los Angeles
4 November–22 December 2011
Andrew Berardini waves a black flag to inspect Raymond Pettibon’s allusive “Pursuyt” at Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
Read
Annika Eriksson’s “An exhibition by Annika Eriksson” at NON, Istanbul
29 October–9 December 2011
Basak Senova on Annika Eriksson’s cats, punks, and buildings with a history at Galerie NON, Istanbul.
Read
Michael Krebber’s “C-A-N-V-A-S, Uhutrust, Jerry Magoo, and guardian.co.uk Paintings” at Greene Naftali, New York
20 October–19 November 2011
Antek Walczak is in a tangled bind with Michael Krebber’s blog paintings “C-A-N-V-A-S, Uhutrust, Jerry Magoo, and guardian.co.uk Paintings” at Greene Naftali, New York.
Read
Sterling Ruby’s “Vampire” at The Pace Gallery, Beijing
24 September–5 November 2011
David Spalding gets into some art-historical bloodsucking in Sterling Ruby’s “Vampire” at The Pace Gallery, Beijing.
Read
Moyra Davey’s “Les Goddesses” at Greengrassi, London
17 September–29 October 2011
Gareth Bell-Jones falls in line with Moyra Davey’s “Les Goddesses” at Greengrassi, London, only he forgets to stumble.
Read
Nader Ahriman’s “Die Hegelmaschine trifft die Weltseele” at Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna
20 September–29 October 2011
Max Henry pins down the philosophy behind Nader Ahriman’s “Die Hegelmaschine trifft die Weltseele” at Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna.
Read
