By Judy Mam
Weirdo by the pool by Otro Captore
I feared the worst. Here are my impressions:
Art Basel Miami is the main art fair that takes place at the Miami Convention Center designed by Frank Gehry. But there are many satellite art fairs that week, like Scope, NADA, Pinta, Context, Frame, Art Miami and more. If you want to spend all of your time imbibing art, it is entirely possible. You probably won't have enough time to see all of it.
Of the fairs I visited, Art Basel proper is the most prestigious and biggest one, and the only one where I saw art that took my breath away. The most important galleries in the world are represented so there is museum quality art, from big names like Picasso, Rothko, Miró, Magritte, Dubuffet, to established modern and contemporary artists, to excellent emerging artists, to art I don't like. It is totally worth it to spend at least a day in this fair. I spent two.
Joan Miró, Lucio Fontana, Wangehi Mutu, Lygia Clark, Jean Dubuffet, George Condo.
Art makes you forget everything. It makes you forget how much it costs, it makes you forget how bizarre the art market is. It gives you awe, it gives you joy, it gives you so much beauty you almost cry.
It takes over everything. It is more powerful than the most powerful. That is why they want it.
When looking at the art, at no point did the word "investment" ever cross my mind. Yet I did want to know how much it cost. Prices are not posted, except in the case of multiple prints. I believe that prices should be displayed. This would make these fairs an infinitely more interesting, fraught, challenging visit for everyone.
There is nothing like the unbearable tension between the power of art and the power of money.
The most breathtaking piece I saw was an enormous tapestry by Miriam Backstrom. No photo does it justice.
This textured piece of wool and thread is made by a digital process in which a photo enlargement of an everyday object that is codified and fed to a mechanical loom that creates the tapestry. $140,000. Doesn't seem that much to me given how stunningly beautiful it is.
A magical red and green op art by Cruz Diez was $290,000. How are these prices arrived at?
If you stand by the side of this work, it is shades of burnt orange and red.
As you move it reveals the green.
A fun thing to do: Go to the fairs and make up your own collections. What speaks to you? What do you covet, desire, love, don't get, ignore, hate? What do you want to possess?
You can always own art in your heart.
This Joan Mitchell is mine.
Miami is a perfect backdrop to entice the wealthy to buy art for one essential reason: it's sunny and warm in December. You'd think Paris, London, Berlin, New York, or Shanghai would be more appropriate for high-end art, but Miami has little else to distract you, except for the sun and waves outside.
You will meet unlikely people, like million-dollar home real estate agents (people need walls for the art they buy). We met a marine geneticist as I mentioned The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry upon seeing the Backstrom. He is interested in using blockchain to help save the dying coral reefs of the world.
It's a motley parade of the wealthy (both rich and nouveau riche), art world exquisites, artists, scantily clad, surgically enhanced people, and everyone else.
Art is the ultimate bling.
It's actually kinda fun if you are not dying of seriousness about the art world.
You may even meet people who are working on art and blockchain.
I went to five fairs. There was almost no digital art to speak of, let alone art with a blockchain component, except possibly for snark.art's Eve Sussman project, which was presented at NADA.
Still, I was invited to speak at three different panels about the topic and there were several events dedicated to it. The art world is certainly intrigued, but us practitioners of rare digital art are still a marginal and early niche.
The outreach we do with our colleagues in the space is important. People have valid questions about digital scarcity (is it really scarce, is it worth anything?), about what is it that they own, about shared ownership. We are intruding in a tangible world in which these questions have never had to be asked.
Blockchain allows us to think of completely new models of monetization for artists, ownership for collectors and a completely different interaction between the two. We are saying that there is value to digital art.
A gallerist I met accused us of wanting to get rid of gallerists. This goes to show the anxiety these new ideas can produce in an entrenched and conservative industry, and this includes the few artists who live from it. The gallerist asked if we had ever had taken care of a sick artist, listened to their troubles, or advanced them money. Yes on all counts.
There is no difference between the amount of risk a brick and mortar gallerist takes to support artists and the risk we undertake building digital platforms to do the same. It all takes the investment of money, time, resources and human contact. Doing this online is no different, except for the scale, in which the risk may also be larger.
We intend to grow DADA to the millions and keep it human. This can only be done when you build community. In our case and that of rare art platforms, the community is global and not constrained by physical boundaries.
By the same token, so to speak, I really don't see that much difference between owning a linen canvas in a wood frame and owning a digital asset I can enjoy on a screen, as long as I own it. It's mine. I pay for it. I can sell it. An artist receives income by it. They can continue receiving income from secondary sales. Isn't life grand?.
I was not alone in Miami. I had the infinite pleasure to bond with my wonderful co-panelists, the classiest ladies ever: Jackie O'Neill from Blockchain Art Collective. Elena Zavelev from New Art Academy and CADAF, and Fanny Lakoubay from snark.art.
A bunch of Creeps and Weirdos tagged along with me and popped up in all kinds of places, on their final journey back to their lairs.
A Weirdo by Cromomaniaco at Scope
They are part of the first collection that we ever launched and they are making way for a new generation of rare collaborative DADA art.
Assorted Creeps by Thana, Moxarra and Boris Toledo followed me around.
They are about to make history. You may want to own one before they go back underground.
Creeps and Weirdosby Bea, Cromomaniaco and Norma Jara dining Cuban in Miami.