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Artsy’s Editorial Team Picks Favorites Around Miami

Artsy Editorial
Dec 8, 2013 4:57PM

Marina Cashdan:

Piston Heads in Miami

Venus Over Manhattan’s pop-up exhibition “Piston Head: Artists Engage the Automobile” was an art meets wheels menagerie. Installed in the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Miami car park, 1111 Lincoln Road, and set to the backdrop of palm fronds and sea air, the art cars—including Bruce High Quality Foundation’s kissing Beetles, Richard Prince’s muted muscle car, Damien Hirst’s spotted Mini, Lucien Smith’s bullet-ridden pickup, and (the sole woman) Virginia Overton’s Dodge Ram filled with sand, amongst others—were ripe for Instagram. The crowd, too, was hard not to gape at: tanned women in short skirts, manicured poodles, gear heads, and art world-ers mingling.

Marina Abramović Naked in 3D

The debut of Matthu Placek’s 3D film installation A Portrait of Marina Abramović took the iconic former Bacardi buildings in Midtown Miami as its venue. After open-air cocktails, guests were invited to climb the stairs of the “Jewel Box” building to a raw space, where light pouring through colored glass walls made for an almost-religious mise-en-scène. Sitting on tree stumps as seats, viewers witnessed Abramović in all her 3D glory. The serene environment and rich cinematography of the short film—sans dialogue and shot in one take—made the 67-year-old performance artist’s naked body artful, which while imperfect maintains a spiritual perfection.

Molly Gottschalk:

Jim Drain and Naomi Fisher’s Nova Bar at ABMB

Nestled in the furthest corner of the Nova section, between palm trees and just past a fluorescent sculpture, Art Basel in Miami Beach’s hideaway watering hole is hosted by artists Jim Drain and Naomi Fisher, Miami’s perennial favorite power couple. On opening day, all those who entered left while sipping from the straw of a whole green coconut, prepared by a man from Drain’s local farmers’ market, and whether or not they opted for a shot of rum in their tropical fruit, each ventured back into the fair as if stepping off the plane from a weekend in the tropics.

Daniel Arsham’s Film Debut

How did Daniel Arsham, one half of Snarkitecture—and himself, part filmmaker, set designer, sculptor, and architect—spend his Thursday evening in Miami? On a rooftop, among a crowd sipping Corzo tequila cocktails, Arsham toasted the debut of his first short film, Future Relic 01, the first chapter in a series that will eventually comprise a full-length feature. Along with the film, which stars Arsham cloaked in a robe à la 1962’s Lawrence of Arabia—who discovers a petrified, archetypal brick phone on an unnamed seashore—OHWOW has released Mobile Phone, a limited-edition object casted from plaster and glass.

Casey Lesser:

Charlotte Perriand’s Realized Beach Home

Perhaps the most serene hideout in Miami Beach this week was Charlotte Perriand’s vacation home oasis, La Maison au Bord de L’Eau, tucked behind The Raleigh Hotel. The winning design in a French magazine’s contest to develop a small-scale vacation home in 1934, La Maison was not realized at the time due to a poor economy and is created for the first time now, courtesy of Louis Vuitton. Visitors were beckoned to enter the home’s sundrenched interior while barefoot, a soothing experience to traverse with its smooth wood planks and incredibly modern design. Thanks to Perriand’s excellent use of space, the tiny rooms were airy and welcoming.

Wang Yuyang’s Living, Breathing Office Space at Art Basel in Miami Beach

Within the impressive array of solo projects at Art Basel in Miami Beach’s Positions Sector, a conspicuous office sat among a string of traditional fair booths. The non-descript office space is Tang Contemporary Art’s Breathing Series - Finance Office by Wang Yuyang. Resembling a traditional place of work from the interior and the exterior, the work is Yuyang’s installation of hyper-realistic silicone sculptures of office supplies, appliances, and accessories, which the artist has motorized to mimic the motion of breathing. At once subtle and mesmerizing the breathing printers, stacks of paper, and even a McDonald’s hamburger carton are brought to life, revitalizing the mundane world of the workplace.

Jared Quinton:

Damon Zucconi with JTT Gallery at NADA

There was a lot to love at NADA, but few highlights surpassed that of seeing work by one of Artsy's newest engineers, Damon Zucconi, featured in a two-artist booth. I especially loved his Tetradic Edit works, which create rhythmic pairings of complementary colors by folding screenprinted paper around glass panels. His work is all about bridging technological systems with beautiful real-world objects, a mission very much in line with our work here at Artsy.

Explore more of Artsy’s Editorial Highlights from the Miami art fairs week.

Photos: Keith Haring, Untitled (Car); Richard Prince, Vanishing Point (The Artist Cut), 2012-13; Piston Head Images courtesy of Venus Over Manhattan. The Jewel Box, National YoungArts Foundation campus, (c) Bacardi Archive; BFA. Photographer: Joe Schildhorn /BFAnyc.com

Artsy Editorial