It was blustery day, when we left to go to NADA in the morning. The palm trees were being blown about like a tropical storm was brewing (thankfully, it wasn’t).
The NADA art fair is at the Deauville hotel, located far up on Collins going north, so the Beast ate up the blocks, passing smallish yachts moored up on the left. The Deauville is like many of the condo tower blocks in Miami, built in the 60’s and 70’s and today are clinging onto their good looks.
The fair is set up in two reasonably sized rooms, so it takes no time at all to walk it. But before I had a chance to, I bumped into David Gryn of Artprojex and we went outside on the windy terrace to have a chat (you can see the interview here). I really like David and have a great deal of respect for what he does. Video work is tricky to show and for that matter to sell. By working closely with galleries and the fair, David is able to bring video work to a wide audience; the huge screen just outside of the main fair allows everyone to experience this medium for free.
After our interview I took a wander around NADA, I must say I was pretty disappointed by the overall standard of this fair. A couple of things stood out though, a series of painting showing at Workplace gallery and I spotted a couple of galleries showing the work of Eddie Martinez, who is actually with Peres Project out of Berlin.
I really like his work and can understand why Saatchi has brought pieces.
After NADA, I went back to the main fair for a meeting. I really did not have the time or the desire to trawl back through it, as I was feeling pretty ‘arted out’.
Miami Basel 2011 was overall a bumper year. All round sales seemed to be good, although as there are so many fairs and so much art available, you know that there will be winners and losers. But you know that come next year, the whole circus will roll back into town and who doesn’t love a carnival.
