CARTWHEEL’s Guide to Miami Art Fairs

Art Basel Miami Beach, the most exciting art fair in the world, is fast approaching on Dec. 6-9! Three, two, one, liftoff: CARTWHEEL is Miami bound! Art Basel is the overall term used to describe a week of art fairs  and events in Miami that center around the actual Art Basel fair where blue chip, museum level artists’ works are on display (and for sale!)–but throughout the city, there are numerous other fairs, events, and pop-ups that appear, nurtured by the attention Art Basel brings to Miami Beach.

Through her attendance at art fairs and galleries around the country, CARTWHEEL’s founder Cindy Schwarzstein discovered artists who are now part of the website’s online gallery shop and project roster; created the CARTWHEEL collection; and launched the CARTWHEEL site to celebrate exciting, emerging artists with a focus on helping collectors, both established and beginning, expand and build their collections. CARTWHEEL is thrilled that some many of the artists we’ve covered on the site through interviews, studio visits, and gallery crawls are showing in Miami this year!

Upon touchdown in Miami for Art Basel 2012 we’ll have notebooks full of names we’ve encountered over the past year at art fairs and galleries, and covered on the CARTWHEEL website.  Our cameras will be poised to capture art and events. We’re on the lookout for new things, while hunting down those that most impressed CARTWHEEL’s Cindy Schwarzstein in Miami this time last year, all the while keeping tabs on what L.A., S.F., and N.Y. galleries are doing at the country’s biggest collection of art fairs and events.

We plan to attend Art Basel and at least – at least! – six of the 22 satellite fairs, as well as the Wynwood Walls galleries, pop-ups, and art gatherings; and of course we’ll be looking at the all the street art! Check out our rundown below, a preliminary navigation of the fairs. We expect that some of our must-visit’s and have-to-see’s could change and flow like full moon tides and bendy palm trees and sudden coastal weather. After all, attending Art Basel is partly based on what we already know and partly based on the excitement of what we don’t know yet that we’ll soon find out. There are literally hundreds of artists that are on our radar for this year’s fair, and if they’re not already part of the CARTWHEEL collection (art owned and followed by members of the CARTWHEEL team), or featured in articles on our website they soon will be.

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At Scope, we have a lot to see. This is where to find CARTWHEEL artist Lydia Emily, whose activism art crosses class and borders, and Gregory Siff, who are both in Miami as Red Bull Curates featured artists. Corey Helford Gallery and Thinkspace are each bringing a tribe of our favorite L.A. artists to Miami Beach. We love what’s brewing in Miami with White Walls, Dorian Grey Gallery, and the good folks — including artists Jason D’Aquino and Adam Wallacavage — at New Orleans-based Red Truck Gallery!

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At Pulse, we’ll head to Mark Moore Gallery where we’ve been anticipating artist Andrew Schoultz’s exhibition since this summer when we photographed him painting the gallery’s mural in Culver City. We love Herakut and we love LeBasse Projects, so you’ll find us there. Of course we’ll visit Jonathan Levine Gallery, whom we admire as the east coast counterpart to the best pop surrealist L.A. galleries.

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Miami Project is new this year. Located in the Wynwood District, L.A.’s Coagula Curatorial will be showcasing pieces of Matjames Metson’s assemblage work that is a cornerstone of the CARTWHEEL collection. Don’t miss this one!

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Context is also new for 2012, and also in Wynwood. This is an absolutely must-see international fair, and we’re thrilled to see that several of our favorite  the West Coast galleries including the renowned Merry Karnowsky Gallery, which CARTWHEEL regularly visits, is an exhibitor (keep reading here). So is Fabien Castanier, L.A.’s champion of European street art, notably Speedy Graphito (Check out CARTWHEEL’s  coverage from this summer!). San Francisco’s Varnish Fine Art works with CARTWHEEL favorites, whom we’ve interviewed at length: Ransom & Mitchell and Isabel Samaras; and will also be exhibiting JennyBird Alcantara and Chuck Sperry. Context is the McLoughlin Gallery’s entrée to Miami’s art fairs, which is great news for those who follow emerging artists Laura Kimpton and Evan “ESK” Wilson, like CARTWHEEL’s Cindy, who’s put several of their pieces into the CARTWHEEL collection.

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“Anything goes at Fountain. It’s fun and dynamic, and everyone is so excited to be there. It’s the place where you can discover emerging artists before anyone else, as well as seeing the established artists there who define the Fountain culture.” – CARTWHEEL’s Cindy Schwarzstein

Fountain Art Fair is tops when it comes to emerging art and is one of the key gravitational pulls to the Wynwood district. Several artists who are part of the CARTWHEEL collection, and are featured with our online shop and in upcoming projects, are exhibited here. These include Scott Michael Ackerman and RADICAL!, who are backed on the East Coast by our friends at The Marketplace Gallery of Albany, New York, and with whom we did our successful Exchange Project: Series 1 earlier this year. We’re also looking forward to the super fun booth belonging to Evo Love and continuing to follow “new generation” gallery Mighty Tanaka.

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At Aqua, located at the tropical-chic Aqua Hotel on Collins Ave., first order of business will be zeroing in on CARTWHEEL favorite Greg Haberny’s installation with Lyons Wier Gallery (Last year’s is pictured above). If you’re following us on Instagram or Twitter at the moment we’re there, get ready to see pics of what we find so exciting. We’ll also have our eyes out for the Edwardian mood portraits of Travis Louie and kinetic sculpture of Gina Kamentsky at William Baczek Fine Arts. Jeanie Madsen is a Santa Monica gallery that we’re excited to hear will be bringing the works of Mark Andrew Allen, Mimi Yoon, assemblage artist Jennifer Verge, and up-and-comer Kaleo.

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“The art on display at Art Basel is the gold standard of established, museum quality artists. It’s a once a year opportunity to see the some of the worlds most recognized artists in one location.” – Cindy Schwarzstein

At Art Basel, the cornerstone of the Miami art fairs, the CARTWHEEL team will be appreciating Farley Aguilar’s captivating work at Spinello Projects, as well as those of Santiago Rubino and Typoe; and visiting L.A. pillar gallery Blum and Poe with work by Yoshitomo Nara. Art Basel is all about Basquiat, Ruscha, Rauschenberg, Pollock (on exhibition at Gagosian Gallery) as well as seeing Picasso, Dali, Matisse, Monet, de Kooning, and beyond! Art Basel every museum in the world under one roof, and we can’t wait!

Miami Beach December Art Fairs
Dec. 6-9, 2012
Miami, Florida
Visit Art-Collecting.com’s comprehensive Miami-wide guide

Photos: Cindy Schwarzstein

*All schedules of events set forth in this web site are being offered to our viewers, as a public service. We believe that the information is correct, based on information that we have received. However, it may be subject to change, including cancellations, and changes in times , locations and art being offered for sale and display, and we have no obligation to provide any additional or subsequent information to any of our viewers with respect to any of the events described in our postings.