Art Basel Miami Beach 2008 Information

November 16, 6:13 PMMiami Nightlife Events ExaminerJames Echols

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Art Basel Miami Beach

www.artbasel.com

Place:
Miami Beach Convention Center
Miami Beach, Florida, USA

Entrances:
Convention Center Drive and Washington Avenue

Dates and opening hours:
Thursday, December 4 through Sunday, December 7, 2008
Daily from noon to 8 p.m. 
Closing day from noon to 6 p.m.

From December 4 through 7, 2008, Miami Beach, Florida, USA, will be home to the seventh edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, the celebrated international art show. More than 250 leading galleries from the USA, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and Asia will be taking part. Chosen by the Art Basel Miami Beach Selection Committee from more than 800 applicants, the galleries – which include 25 new participants – will be showing works by over 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Special sectors are devoted to very recent artworks, curated exhibitions, video- and sound-based works, performances, and art in public spaces. 20 young galleries will present cutting-edge projects in converted shipping containers on the beach, while another 20 exhibit in an experimental collaborative space.

Art Kabinett
This year’s Art Kabinett program at Art Basel Miami Beach promises to be an exciting mix of tightly focused exhibitions within the art show, including group and solo shows from both emerging artists and historical figures. For Art Basel Miami Beach 2008, the Selection Committee has chosen 18 galleries to present Art Kabinetts - separate sections within the booths of the Art Galleries sector, providing a space to investigate single artist’s works in greater detail or thematic group exhibitions, and spotlighting the curatorial skills of the gallerists. The 18 projects in this sector of the show feature a wide array of artists, ranging from young artists such as Anj Smith and Tomasz Kowalski to historical figures like Meret Oppenheim, Francis Picabia, Robert Smithson and Marcel Duchamp. Group shows include exhibitions titled “Text and Image in 20th-Century Art” and “Kusama and Her Contemporaries.”

Art Positions
At this year’s Art Positions, 20 young galleries present their special exhibition projects in converted shipping containers, located by the beach at Collins Park between 21st and 22nd Streets. Art Positions counts participating galleries from the USA, Italy, Mexico, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Norway, Spain and Denmark, chosen by the Selection Committee from over 100 submitted applications. Many of the artists have dealt directly with the architecture of the shipping container, using it as a starting point for their projects. In cooperation with Art Radio WPS1.org, Art Basel Miami Beach will also present the futuristic structure ULTRA by Federico Diaz and the Czech design collective E-Area at the entrance of the Art Positions site, redefining the public space and presenting a topology shaped for sitting, relaxation and interaction.

Art Perform
Since 2005, Art Basel Miami Beach has spotlighted artists working in the sphere of performative and live art through the Art Perform program. Curated by Jens Hoffmann, Director of the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco, this platform features a selection of international artists who are invited to conceive and present specially commissioned site- and context-specific artworks. All presentations will take place on the Art Perform stage at Art Positions. This year’s participating artists are Christian Jankowski (Germany), Adriana Lara (Mexico), Yoshua Okon (Mexico/United States), and Jordan Wolfson (United States)

Art Projects
This year’s Art Projects sector features eight public art projects by international artists. For the first time, most of Art Projects will be presented in a single site: Lummus Park, on Ocean Drive between 10th and 14th Street; one will be on view at Island Gardens, 888 MacArthur Causeway, Miami. Displayed in the public spaces of Miami Beach, the sector places art in the urban context and encourages participation by the general public. Most of the eight works are site-specific and commissioned for Art Basel Miami Beach - including works by Olaf Breuning, Cooper, Dora García, Thomas Houseago, Tadashi Kawamata, Jiri Kovanda and Ana Linnemann at Lummus Park. Occupying a huge site at Island Gardens, Ai Weiwei’s one 100 blue shimmering bubbles will be spread over an area of 600 square meters (6666 square feet).

Art Nova
Art Nova is a platform for galleries to present new works produced in the last two years, by a maximum of three artists. 58 international galleries have been chosen by the Selection Committee from a record number of applications. Works by 132 emerging artists from around the globe are on display. The galleries include both emerging and established galleries with young and innovative programs. This year a record of 12 solo presentations appear in the Art Nova sector, presenting works by Ai Weiwei (Urs Meile), Edgar Arceneaux (Vielmetter), Luis Camnitzer (Alexander Gray), Alexander da Cunhan (Vilma Gold), Michael Fullerton (Freedman), Cao Guimaraes (Nara Roesler), Zheng Guogu (Vitamin), Yukinori Maeda (Taka Ishii), Naofumi Maruyama (Shugoarts), Kris Martin (Sies + Höke), Aïda Ruilova (Salon 94), and Sturtevant (mezzanin).

Art Supernova
Last year, Art Basel Miami Beach introduced the new sector Art Supernova. This platform again offers 20 galleries the opportunity to present recent works by their emerging artists. The section aims to reinvent the traditional form of gallery presentation at art fairs, with a collaborative approach that links the participating galleries in a new way. The exhibitors in Art Supernova have interconnected exhibition spaces, a common storage room, and shared facilities for presenting works on paper, videos, performances, artist files, books and catalogs.

Art Basel Conversations
The Art Basel Conversations forum promises to be intellectually exciting this year, as panelists include such renowned artists, collectors, curators, and critics as Chuck Close, Vik Muniz, Richard Flood, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Thelma Golden, Glenn Ligon, Billy Al Bengston, and Paul Schimmel to name only a few. Panel topics include: “The Future of the Museum: Africa, America and the World,” “Public/Private: The Artist as Philanthropist” and “Artistic Production: Los Angeles, an Alternate Art World Model?”

Art Salon
Art Salon is an open platform for discussion with an emphasis on current themes in contemporary art, running daily in the Art Guest Lounge. Informal in its format and international in scope, Art Salon encourages experimental discussions with an array of speakers ranging from artists and curators to authors and writers. It also features book launches, artist talks, and lectures. Participants include prominent artworld personalities such as Harald Falckenberg, Francesco Vezzoli, Dan Graham, Christine Macel, Scott Rothkopf, Dan Cameron, Olga Viso, Alanna Heiss, Richard Feigen, Josh Baer, Jerry Saltz and Shirin Neshat.

Art Loves….
Art Basel Miami Beach incorporates crossover events including: Art Loves Film honoring art collectors Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, presenting the documentary “Herb and Dorothy”; Art Loves Architecture with an evening honoring David Adjaye with artists Matthew Ritchie and Teresita Fernandez.

Art Video Lounge
This year’s Art Video Lounge, titled “HONEY, I REARRANGED THE IMAGE…!“ presents an extensive overview of the latest work in video art by some of today’s most exciting international artists. Curated by Rike Frank, the selection targets the interest of artists in investigating how images operate and construct our understanding of the world. They explore aesthetic concepts, everyday narratives, and sociopolitical realities and utopias. The daily film program is accompanied by special screenings and an exhibition. Videos include works by Omer Fast, Roman Signer, Sean Snyder, Ines Schaber, Keren Cytter, Rosemarie Trockel, Trisha Brown, Harun Farocki and Hito Steyerl.

Art Sound Lounge
Art Sound Lounge at Art Basel Miami Beach is curated by P.S.1 curator David Weinstein and offers visitors the opportunity to take in music and audio pieces and will be situated at the Art Positions site.

Museums and Private Collections
Once again, Miami’s leading private collections – among them the Margulies Collection, the Rubell Family Collection, CIFO, the private collection of Ella Cisneros, the Mora Collection, the Scholl Collection, the Shack Collection, and the Robins Collection – will be opening their homes and warehouses to guests of the international art show. The museums of South Florida, too, will be staging important exhibitions to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach, including Yinka Shonibare at the Miami Art Museum; Anri Sala at the Museum of Contemporary Art; “Possibility of an Island” (Mungo Thomson, Peter Coffin, and others) at MOCA at the Goldman Warehouse; “Russian Dreams…” at the Bass Museum of Art; and “American Streamlined Designed: The World of Tomorrow” as well as “Democrazy: An installation by Francesco Vezzoli” at The Wolfsonian-FIU.

Please visit our website www.artbasel.com for the latest news.