At the last party on the last night of last year's Art Basel Miami Beach, Kevin Bruk was slumped over a dinner table, deep in sleep. Pressing the flesh for a week straight had caught up with Bruk -- the owner of an eponymous art gallery in Miami's Wynwood section.

As Art Basel Miami Beach -- the world's largest showcase for contemporary art -- roars into town this week, gallery owners across South Florida are steeling themselves for what they describe as a frenetic, exhausting, weeklong networking session and sales pitch that starts early, runs late and is critical to keeping their businesses afloat the remaining 51 weeks of the year.

Open to the public from Thursday through Sunday, Art Basel is expected to draw some 40,000 visitors. With its epicenter at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the main fair and its satellites will host 220 galleries from across the globe and draw thousands of other galleries in ancillary events. They all hope to turn some of the world's top art collectors into clients.

Despite hosting the fair for six years, there's no hometown advantage for local galleries trying to break into the main show, said Peter Vetsch, spokesman for Art Basel.

''We're looking for the best galleries from around the world,'' he said. ``There is no reserved space for Miami or Greater Miami [galleries]. They are all competing against each other.''

Indeed, just four Florida galleries made the cut this year: the Kevin Bruk Gallery, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Gavlak Gallery, and Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, which has its headquarters in Paris but has earned local status by opening a location in Wynwood in 2005.

Just beyond the hyper-realistic Timothy Buwalda paintings of twisted steel awaiting their Basel debut, Snitzer is in the back office of his Wynwood gallery fielding phone calls from coveted clients and pesky reporters.

In business for 30 years and at Art Basel Miami Beach since its inception in 2002, Snitzer is the only local gallery owner on the event's selection committee. That earns him entry into the show.

If last year is any guide, Snitzer expects about a quarter of his annual gross to occur during Basel week and about half his annual sales to be linked to Basel -- either through contacts he makes or sales at the exhibition.

Not bad for an art fair. But Basel's benefits weren't always so clear.

''That first year was terrifying,'' said Snitzer, who fretted about covering the exhibition fees. ``Back then, that amount of money could have put me out of business.''

$35,000 MINIMUM

Like most gallery owners, Snitzer is reluctant to talk sales, expenses or anything else that has a dollar sign in front of it. But booth prices at the main hall start at $45 a square foot, making even the smallest venue an investment of $35,100.

With much of his artwork in the $10,000 range, Snitzer's big gamble this year is an installation by Cuban-born artist José Bedia, which will have a price tag of about $300,000.

But even with high expenses, the venture seems risk-free, Snitzer said.

''If I had to pay this much simply for the advertising [value] and nothing sold -- I would still do it, because I know who comes to Basel,'' he said.

The list of Basel attendees includes everyone from billionaire art collector Eli Broad to movie icon Dennis Hopper to curators of the world's leading museums.

'There is obviously a fascinating amount of wealth on display, particularly at the collectors' preview,'' said Bruk, the gallery owner who fell asleep as last year's Art Basel Miami Beach wound down. ``It's a who's who of people that are gracing the cover of the Wall Street Journal and Forbes. It's captains of all types of industry. It's elite wealth.''

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