Above: Samuel Keller, director of ABMB.

Budding art aficionadas at ABMB 2004.

At the beginning of December an art fever grips the city of Miami, a madness that prompts people to spend large sums of money on the latest in art and causes dealers to send back to their galleries for still more works to sell. The immediate cause is Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB), which this year takes place December 1 - 4 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

“As soon as it opened in December 2002, it became the finest fair in America,” says Michael Salke, a collector who lives in Naples, FL. The show has been a tremendous boon for the Miami art scene. “It's not just a one-shot thing,” says local collector Rosa de la Cruz, explaining that curators and young artists keep coming to the city even after the fair is over. “Many things have burgeoned in Miami since the fair began,” says collector Irma Braman, chairman of the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami, who, with her husband, Norman, chairs ABMB's Host Committee. “New galleries have opened,” she says, as have new hotels, clubs and restaurants. “It is the best fair for contemporary art in the U.S. that is international in scope,” says New York dealer Angela Westwater of Sperone Westwater, contrasting it with the American Art Dealers Association fair (AADA), which is a boutique event.

ABMB draws people from all over Europe and America, she says, including many from Palm Beach who are not gallery regulars and don't usually buy art. Westwater, who does both Art Basel in Switzerland and ABMB, says that she brings a different type of material to each fair. “I don't bring my highest priced paintings or works by Lucio Fontana to Miami,” she says. “I bring more medium-priced works, some photography and pieces by younger artists.” Among the artists whose works she is showing this year at ABMB are Richard Tuttle and Guillermo Kuitca.

Miami is also the gateway to South America, and many Latins visit or have homes there. “The fair has a very lively Latin presence,” says New York dealer Mary-Anne Martin, “not just the Latin people, but all people who are interested in Latin art. Because everything in the show is at such a high level, there is a sense of pride for Latin artists to be shown with the greatest art in the world.”
ABMB is not the first fair to come to Miami, but it is far and away the most important. “Art Miami [which opened in 1990] had potential,” says Fred Snitzer, who has had a contemporary art gallery in Miami for 28 years, “but Art Basel refined what happened here in terms of visual arts.” The show is quality driven and attracts every major critic, curator and collector interested in contemporary art. According to Snitzer, one of the factors that made the fair a success is that “Art Basel knew that it did not have to depend on the local community, but could import artworks and collectors, as well as dealers.”

Many credit the fair's organizers for its swift success. The organization is very good, says Westwater, and “has created a phenomenon.” Everyone connected with the fair enthuses about ABMB director Samuel Keller. “He is the right man at the right time for the right fair,” says Irma Braman. “He was born to do this,” says Snitzer. “He has a photographic mind and knows everything about this business.”

Center row, left: Edward Weston, Shells, 1927, gelatin silver print. Center row, right: Guillermo Kuitca, New York State Theater, 2005, mixed media on paper. Bottom row, center: Hernan Bas, The Trouble With Paul, 2004, water-based oil on canvas. All three works are from ABMB 2005. Balance of artwork was presented at ABMB 2004.

From design.05 Miami: Tejo Remy for Droog Design, You Can't Lay Down Your Memories Chest of Drawers, 1991. Vintage drawers, maple frames, jute strap.

It is not easy to become an exhibitor. The question of who gets a booth is decided by a group of dealers, and everything is at a very high level. “The show has very strict standards,” says Snitzer, “not only in terms of the quality of the art, but also in terms of how the art is presented.” The Selection Committee has changed “more than twenty percent of the galleries,” says Keller, “including several blue-chip dealers and many young galleries. The list of participants is stronger and more international than ever.” With 195 exhibitors, it is smaller than Art Basel – its parent fair – and not planning to grow any larger. One of the few new exhibitors is New York photography dealer Howard Greenberg. “I was asked to apply,” he says, “I think because they wanted one or two dealers in classic photography.” What is so fabulous about the fair, he says, is that “you can actually smell the buzz going on. I think that Art Basel Miami Beach is more important than any other show, including Art Basel.” Greenberg says that his booth in Miami will have a wall of “great classic work,” including an oversized Richard Avedon print of Dovima With Elephant, and a double-shell photograph by Edward Weston.

The Miami fair is more contemporary than Art Basel, with the vast majority of the exhibiting galleries showing contemporary works. “We have a long waiting list,” says Peter Vetsch, communications manager for Art Basel and ABMB. He explains that more than 600 galleries applied for the 195 spaces and that the overwhelming majority of exhibitors choose to return each year.

Clockwise from top left: Nick Mauss, MP, 2005, acrylic, pastel on paper. From NADA Miami. Heidi Cody's Wink was presented at the 2004 SCOPE Miami. Scott Fife, Frida Kahlo. From Aqua Art Miami. Maria Eugenia Pineres. Vicious Pinwheel, 2005. Cotton thread on paper.

ABMB 2004.

Art Fever Grips Miami Exhibitions The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse 591 NW 27th Street www.margulieswarehouse.com Rubell Family Collection 95 NW 29th Street 305.573.6090 Museum of Contemporary Art November 18, 2005 – January 8, 2006 Albert Oehlen: I Know Whom You Showed Last Summer 770 NE 125th Street, North Miami www.mocanomi.org Miami Art Museum November 17, 2005 – April 9, 2006 Mapping Space: Selections From the Permanent Collection 101 West Flagler Street www.miamiartmuseum.org Wolfsonian-FIU November 13, 2005 – May 28, 2006 In Pursuit of Pleasure: Schultze & Weaver and the American Hotel 1001 Washington Avenue www.wolfsonian.fiu.edu Art Fairs Aqua Art Miami Aqua Hotel 1530 Collins Avenue www.aquaartmiami.com Art Basel Miami Miami Beach Convention Center 1901 Convention Center Drive www.artbaselmiamibeach.com design.05 Miami Moore Building 191 NE 40th Street www.design05miami.com NADA Ice Palace Film Studios 59 NW 14th Street www.newartdealers.org PULSE Wynwood District NW 2nd Avenue www.pulse-art.com SCOPE Miami Townhouse Hotel 150 20th Street www.scope-art.com

In June, Keller introduced “Art Kabinett” in Basel, and it will premiere at ABMB 2005. Designed to inspire more curatorial endeavors at dealers' booths, it's like having a booth within a booth. This year's participants will include New York dealers Rachel Adler and Martin, who are doing a joint exhibition called “North, South, East and West,” exploring the connections between European and Latin American Geometric Abstract art. Others who are presenting Kabinetts include Krinzinger of Vienna, showing films from the 1960s, and Jamileh Weber of Zurich, who is showing Rauschenberg works from the 1970s. Also at the Convention Center: Art Nova, a new section, is designed for new galleries to present work that has been created during the past two years. The fair also sponsors Art Positions, in which 20 cutting-edge galleries display works in shipping containers in Collins Park at the beach.

In addition to the events at the Convention Center, several alternative art fairs coincide with ABMB. SCOPE is exhibiting at the Townhouse Hotel in Miami Beach, while the New Arts Dealer Alliance (NADA), now in its second year, is held at the Ice Palace Film Studio. PULSE, an invitational contemporary art fair for some 60 dealers, will premiere during ABMB in a 30,000-square-foot tent in the Wynwood district. (PULSE also plans to take place in New York March 10 - 13 to coincide with The Armory Show.) A new very promising fair – design.05 Miami – is being held in the Moore Building in the Design District to show the best dealers in postwar-to-contemporary furniture design from around the world. Among the 15 participants are Barry Friedman (New York), Patrick Seguin (Paris) and Contrasts (Shanghai). The fair, which has the blessing of ABMB, will be opening evenings from 6 until midnight, so as not to interfere with visits to the fair. The two fairs will complement each other,” says Ambra Medda, one of the organizers. “We had a wish list of exhibitors,” she adds, “and got everybody that we wanted.” Design.05 Miami will also host a series of satellite exhibitions in the Design District, including Ron Arad (presented by Friedman). Also new is Aqua Art Miami, organized by a group of Seattle dealers, with 35 exhibitors showing at the Aqua Hotel on Collins Avenue.

The five days of the fair have exploded with a myriad of social events, both public and private. Some, such as alternative fairs, on-site installations and street parties (there's one in the Design District), are open to everyone. All of the local museums have opening parties, as do publications, such as Art Nexus, which threw a Latin party at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables in 2004. Even non-art-world-related entities, such as public relations and real estate companies, capitalize on the event by holding receptions.

“When a prestigious institution chooses Miami for a version of its fair,” says Bonnie Clearwater, MOCA's director and chief curator, “people sit up and take notice.” Much of the fair's success is due to local collectors, among them, the Bramans, who invite selected people to view their collection of modern and postwar paintings and sculpture at their Indian Creek home. Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz in Key Biscayne are as famed for their hospitality as for their superb art collection. Their annual dinner party grew from 500 to 1,500 people last year. “It became unmanageable,” she says, “so we are not doing it this year.” Instead they are hosting three large breakfast parties, each for 500 to 600 people. Like Irma Braman, de la Cruz accommodates visiting groups and others interested in the mornings, “so I can go to the fair in the afternoon.” Collectors Steve and Mera Rubell entertain in their 45,000-square-foot space in Wynwood that used to be a Drug Enforcement Agency warehouse. Collector Marty Margulies keeps his warehouse, which is close to the Rubells's, open during the fair.

No one has any real complaints about the fair or its peripheral events. The major downside seems to be exhaustion. According to Vetsch, 126 events in Miami are crowded into five days. “You have to pick and choose,” warns Irma Braman. “The first year I was so exhausted that I just gave up and went to the movies one night.” Another problem is that “not being in the fair is perceived to be not a good thing,” says Snitzer, “which is sad because so many excellent dealers have had to be turned away.” Also, he says, many local artists panic about what they can do to get exposure during the fair. “These problems come with success,” he says. “It's all about being too rich and too thin.”