“I jokingly said I would keep updating our art guide until my head explodes … But tonight might be the night. Words will rain down like confetti.”
I posted these sentences to my Facebook page late on the night of Nov. 15 while working on City Link’s guide to Art Basel Miami Beach — not the fair that’s billed as “the most important art show in the United States” and has its own online catalog (Artbaselmiamibeach-online.com), but to Basel, a word that’s come to represent a period of time, in this case Dec. 2 through 5, when one art show after another opens in galleries and makeshift galleries all over Miami.
People who don’t even go to the main event at the Miami Beach Convention Center refer to Art Basel as they would a holiday, saying things such as, “Hey, what are you doing for Basel?” or “Sorry, there’s no way I can get to that until after Basel.” The sheer number of art events taking place simultaneously overwhelms some people, while others can hardly contain their excitement. As Tatiana Suarez, a Miami artist who now lives in Brooklyn, tweeted about returning to Miami for the events: “When I think of Basel this year I get flutterbies in my tum tum. Eeeee.”
I also got flutterbies while wondering whether I could write up all these events by my deadline. There are just too many shows, each striving to get more attention than the next in an area that’s now crawling with rich collectors and gallery owners from around the world.
This year, there are street artists painting NBA-donated backboards and basketballs (The Art of Basketball), interpretations of the Seven Deadly Sins (at Bakehouse Art Complex), a show that’s all about kissing booths (at Swampspace) and an artist (Leah Brown) who has been making intensely detailed paintings using her own finely chopped hair and clear polymer glue. The list goes on and on.
With so many compelling shows, I wondered whether I’d be able to get every worthy event into this guide by deadline. The answer is no. No one, to my knowledge, has ever accomplished this with an Art Basel guide. But I gave it a damn good shot. City Link’s very fat and still-growing guide to Basel will hit the streets next week. Meanwhile, you can check out on my new obsessively updated online art guide: Artmurmurartguide.blogspot.com.
I hope it gives you flutterbies.
