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When in Miami...

Written by Andrew Katz Katz

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There are tons of great fairs and plenty of projects to check out while you're in Miami this year. Our staff and contributors wanted to give you the heads-up on a few things we think are definitely worth checking out. There are hundreds of other things we could have mentioned, but let's start here...Big thanks to Brian Fee, Erin Langner, and Alex Ebstein. Check out their recommendations after the jump! And be sure to tell us your recommendations in the comments section! BRIAN FEE Jason Shawn Alexander Undertow venue: 101/exhibit, 101 NE 40 Street, Miami FL 33137 date: Friday, December 2 and runs through February 8
Jason Shawn Alexander | Sleeping Soundly, 2011, oil and mixed media on canvas, 48" x 66", courtesy 101/exhibit
101/exhibit presents Undertow, an exhibition of new works by Jason Shawn Alexander, the LA-based expressionist figurative painter. The artist's adeptness as a draftsman (his work has featured in Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Oni Press, among others) is crucial here, as he mounts paper to canvas and then inks and paints it, creating fluidic subjects in dramatic suspended animation. The show coincides with the publication of Alexander's monograph Undertow. ----- Jenny Saville venue: Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL date: opens Wednesday, November 30 (runs through March 4)
Jenny Saville | Rosetta 2, 2005-2006, oil on watercolor paper, mounted on board, 99-1/4 x 73-3/4 inches, courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Norton Museum of Art hosts the first U.S. museum survey of British artist Jenny Saville, among the youngest of "the young British artists", focused on twelve years of her large-scale physical, figurative paintings and works on paper. Saville was just featured in Continuum, an exhibition of new works, at New York's Gagosian Gallery. ----- Lyons Wier Gallery (Booth E301 at PULSE Miami Contemporary Art Fair) PULSE Miami at The Ice Palace, Wynwood Art District, 1400 N. Miami Ave, Miami FL December 1-4 Jazz-minh Moore | Moot 2011, Acrylic and resin on birch panel, 30 x 40 in, courtesy Lyons Wier Gallery The New York gallery presents a "Conceptual Realism" grouping of nine contemporary artists who excel at and challenge the pictorial aspect of representational painting. Featuring lush results by Jazz-minh Moore (ahead of her January solo exhibition Is That All There Is? at the gallery), Martin Wittfooth, Fahamu Pecou and James Rieck, stirring photorealistic contemplation by Mary Henderson and Tim Okamura, plus Jason Yarmosky, Andrews Basurto, and David Lyle. --- It Ain't Fair 2011: Materialism venue: OHWOW Miami, 81 NE 40 Street, Miami Design District, FL date: opening Thursday, December 1, 6-9p (through December 4)
Anna Betbeze | Mimosa, 2011, Acid dyes and watercolor on wool, 120 x 75 inches, courtesy OHWOW
OHWOW initiates the fourth year of its annual group show during Art Basel Miami Beach, focusing this time on materialism and the physicality of artwork. Over twenty artists contribute, including: Daniel Arsham, Justin Beal, Anna Betbeze, Ashley Bickerton, Scott Campbell, Peter Coffin, Dan Colen, N. Dash, Sam Falls, Michael Genovese, Luis Gispert, Angel Otero, José Parlá, Sara Rahbar, Ryan Reggiani, Bert Rodriguez, Amanda Ross-Ho, Aurel Schmidt, David Benjamin Sherry, Lucien Smith, Agathe Snow, Jessica Stockholder, Nick van Woert, and Aaron Young. Plus, New York-based artist Michael David Quattlebaum, Jr. unveils a special live performance during the opening reception. ----- Tanya Bonakdar (Booth E06 at Art Basel Miami Beach), vernissage Wednesday, November 30 (through December 4)
Thomas Scheibitz | Figure (No. 538), 2009, oil, vinyl, pigment, marker on canvase, 67" x 47.25", courtesy Tanya Bonakdar
Tanya Bonakdar's West Chelsea gallery unveils a strong cross-media component from their artist roster, many of whom are enjoying exhibitions and major projects after the fair. Contributors include painting and sculpture by Berlin-based artist Thomas Scheibitz, who debuts major new painting Figure 62; new paintings by São Paolo-based Sandra Cinto; and sculpture by Rio de Janeiro-based artist Ernesto Neto, who participates in a conversation with Adriano Pedrosa, curator of Neto's major upcoming survey exhibition at MARCO in Monterrey, Mexico, as part of the Art Salon program on Thursday December 1 at 2p). Plus, sculpture by Frankurt and Main-based mixed media artist Tomas Saraceno (he holds a conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist on Sunday December 4, 2p); sculpture by Charles Long (who is creating major public commission for Madison Square Park NYC in spring 2012); and site-specific wall works by New York-based Sarah Sze (on the eve of her major solo exhibition The Infinite Line, opening December 13 at New York's Asia Society); and by Turner Prize nominee Martin Boyce, among others. ----- Gerhard Richter Painting (dir. Corinna Belz, 2011) U.S. premiere venue: Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach FL date: Friday, December 2, 8:30p (free, but limited seating) Still image from Corinna Belz’s documentary, Gerhard Richter Painting The November 4 post on Tate Blog by Mark Godfrey, "Richter's paintings. How did he make them?", highlighting the German pioneer's squeegee abstractions, was a must-read for aesthetes. Now we get a truly exclusive, 101-minute gaze into one of the most internationally significant, methodically mind-boggling contemporary artists today. Belz, the Cologne-based filmmaker, positions her lens as a fly on the wall, observing Gerhard Richter's "secretive affair" with painting in his studio. The film explores Richter's personal history of growing up in communist East Germany, plus his prowess for painting both highly photorealistic and ecstatically abstract works. But as the title implies, there are many visceral closeups of the artist at work, squeegeeing color, smearing paint, stripping it away and repeating. A Q&A with Belz and a panel discussion follows the screening. ----- Erwin Wurm, Beauty Business venue: Bass Museum of Art, 2100 Collins Ave, Miami Beach FL date: opens Thursday, December 1 (through March 4)
Erwin Wurm | House II, 2011, bronze, 20 7/8 x 39 3/8 x 31 1/2 inches, Courtesy of the artist; Xavier Hufkens, Brussels; Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg and Paris; and Lehmann Maupin, New York
Bass Museum of Art hosts the first exhibition to focus on Vienna-based artist Erwin Wurm's residential and dwelling nuances. His telltale sweater pieces stretched over canvas and mounted on walls now become a partial dressing of the museum itself. And beyond bronzed sculptures and biomorphic "hoodie" works is Wurm's specially created Drinking Sculpture series, promoting visitor interaction with this bar-within-a-sculpture. Beauty Business is produced in collaboration with Dallas Contemporary, Texas (where it will travel on April 14, 2012) and is curated by Peter Doroshenko, the Director of Dallas Contemporary. ----- The Pace Gallery (Art Basel Miami Beach, Booth C10) December 1-4 The Standard Spa, Miami, 40 Island Avenue, Miami Beach FL
Keith Sonnier | Longhorn Study, 2006, neon and transformer, 18" x 79" x 5", courtesy The Pace Gallery
Keith Sonnier has a knack for twisting neon and pairing it with metal into disarmingly organic hybrids. Pace ushers its 10th year at Art Basel Miami by partnering with The Standard Spa, Miami Beach and featuring two recent large-scale neon sculptural installations by Sonnier in the hotel's gardens throughout the fair. A third Sonnier neon joins the gallery's typically robust roster at its fair booth. Lovers of paint may dig Jim Dine (whose solo exhibition at Nassau County Museum of Art, New York opens March 2012); works on paper by Ab-Ex master Willem de Kooning (subject of a major retrospective at MoMA, through January 9); Chilean surrealist Roberto Matta (Pace's 534 West 25th St space celebrates his centennial with a concurrent exhibition, through January 28); and young Romanian Adrian Ghenie, a new artist for the gallery, ahead of his first major U.S. museum exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, in Fall 2012. Pace also premieres a selection of works by Sol LeWitt and Alfred Julio Jensen ahead of its gallery exhibition Sol LeWitt/Alfred Jensen: Systems and Transformation. In addition to these, and works by Tara Donovan, Elizabeth Murray, Ad Reinhardt, Kiki Smith and others. ----- ALEX EBSTEIN Hugh Scott-Douglas at Silverman Gallery (NADA)
Hugh Scott Douglas | Untitled, courtesy of the artist
Among all the excellent work at NADA this year, don't miss young Canadian painter, Hugh Scott-Douglas' new series of paintings, on view at Silverman gallery's booth.  Scott-Douglas layers found fabric, transparent meshes, printed and painted patterns to create his optically dense pieces. Despite working in a uniform size and with serial variations to handful of patterns, the hand-made imperfections and puckers give each piece a completely unique tactile quality. ----- ERIN LANGNER Season Aqua Art Miami (Room 107) December 1-4, 2011
Scooter La Forge | Cookie Monster, 2010, oil on canvas, 20 x 16, courtesy the artist
Exhibitions at SEASON typically manifest as meaty bites of art, splayed across the walls and fixtures of artist Robert Yoder’s Seattle home. Taking the art to Aqua Art Miami (created and overseen by fellow Seattlites Jaq Chartier and Dirk Park) for the second year, the distinct balance of technique, intellect and wit consistent across Yoder’s roster of artists should offer a memorable showcase of works seen both at SEASON and throughout various Seattle venues over the past several years.  From the pop-inspired schematics of Scooter La Forge’s flamboyant oil paintings, to the melancholic Darth Vader swaying under the influence of a lethal cold medicine combination in Mike Simi’s video Double Vader Vision Quest, Miami is the only opportunity for the rest of the world to experience this otherwise uniquely Seattle venture. ----- NAP STAFF Dave Cole venue: Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL date: runs through January 16th, 2012
Dave Cole | The Knitting Machine, 2005, acrylic felt with excavators and aluminum utility poles, completed flag is approximately 30 x 20 x 1 feet, courtesy Dodge Gallery
Over the last decade, Dave Cole (b. 1975) has examined the complexity and power of craftsmanship, ordinary materials, and iconic images in his art. This has taken the shape of a 16-by-16-foot monumental teddy bear “knitted” from fiberglass insulation to the 15-by-30-foot subject of this installation, Flags of the World (2008).  As one of the most recent manifestations of his ongoing tribute to one of his most beloved and recurring images, the American flag, the artist assembled it according to specifications set forth in the U.S. Marine Corps Flag Manual.  The flag is suspended above a field of colorful fabric, the remnants of the 192 flags of the world found in the official United Nations set which Cole used to painstakingly recreate the American flag. ----- Andrew Schoultz Primary Flight 28th Street, Wynwood
Photo by Pete Vahan, courtesy Primary Flight
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