Untitled Art Miami Beach 2024 features 176 exhibitors its largest presentation to date. To help you navigate the fair Will Hainsworth has chosen five presentations to visit.
Rachel Garrard – Hexton Gallery
Rachel Garrard (b. 1984) is a British painter based on the west coast of America. Her work responds to the rich lineage of West Coast painting, focusing on light and the rural Californian landscape, while remaining in dialogue with surrealism. On a more contemporary note, her style evokes the muted, quieter versions of Loie Holliwell’s paintings. Garrard, a former student at Central St Martins in London, is interested in the connection between people and the land. She hand-crushes her pigments, bringing her closer to the earth. These pigments are then applied in thin layers onto linen canvases; the wash allows layers underneath to remain visible while emphasizing the subtle texture of the canvas.
Bo Kim at BHAK Gallery
The work of Bo Kim (b. 1994) at BHAK Gallery is an example of everything that can be great about Korean painting: a real understanding of and appreciation for material and texture, an ice-cold, minimal aesthetic, and a harmonious quietness about the work. Bo washes traditional Korean paper (hanji) in acrylic paint and adds sand before adhering it to the canvas in thin layers. At a glance, the works look like normal canvas paintings, but upon closer inspection, the texture of the paper stands out. The compositions are abstract in essence but are often tied together by the geometric structures of the paper.
Malia Jensen at Cristin Tierney
Malia Jensen (b. 1966) presents a work titled Perfect Circle, Imperfect, in which a ring of ceramic cats, fired with glaze, concrete, and glass, fit neatly into one another. You can’t move for cats in Miami this week; around every corner is a painting or sculpture of one. But Malia Jensen’s sculpture manages to stand out through a compelling use of material and an accomplished negotiation between a figurative subject matter and a composition that ultimately ends in a fairly abstract form.
Michael Buhler-Rose at Stems Gallery
Michael Buhler-Rose (b. 1980) is interested in documenting the interior life of the collector. Part of the mechanics of ‘collecting’ is seeking out objects that reflect an inner feeling—totems of personality, memory, and emotion. Buhler-Rose examines this instinct from a personal point of view, combining materials he’s obtained over the years (stacks of books, ritual paraphernalia, print boxes) with aspirational objects he would like to own (the most sought-after punk and post-punk 7”s). The works are inlaid wood, the product of a collaboration with artisans in Mysore, South India.
Saskia Colwell at Victoria Miro Projects
Saskia Colwell (b. 1999) creates monochrome charcoal works – sometimes on vellum, sometimes on linen. Her work pushes the art historical trope of the female nude into the 21st century with often quite challengingly explicit depictions of the artist’s body. The works are certainly erotically charged, but also, through the incredibly skilled application of charcoal onto delicate surfaces, they possess a quiet sensibility. This work has been shown before at Anat Ebgi Gallery in Los Angeles but is worth highlighting again, as Saskia is a very exciting prospect who will be presenting new works with Victoria Miro Projects in the new year.
Untitled Art Miami Beach, December 4th – December 8, 2024, 12th Street and Ocean Drive
