A superhuman size candle, a golden bagel, a rare chest: Guess how much this art costs
Contemporary artworks weird, wonderful, rare or unique — often all at once — are on display all over Miami Art Week. And though value may lie in the beholder’s eye, the prices don’t. At a time when auctions of contemporary art are setting records, the price tags can be eyebrow-raising, if not head-scratching. Here’s a small sample of what it would cost to take home some of the most eye-grabbing, mind-boggling art around Miami this week.
A golden bagel
Art Miami, Galerie Rother, Booth AM210
Think of “Who Wants to Live Forever” as the world’s most expensive avocado toast, only you can’t eat it. Cast from 26 pounds of pure gold and created from a real avocado bagel that was 3D scanned and cast in gold, this work is made up of 27 individual parts — a pumpkin bagel cut in half, five tomato slices, 10 arugula leaves, five onion rings and five avocado strips. Artist Tim Bengel, 29, sees the work as the ultimate symbol of the millennial generation, which made avocado toast a required part of any brunch menu.
So how much does this art cost?
A rare Wendell Castle chest
Design Miami, R & Company gallery, Booth G07
By the time of his death in 2018, American sculptor and furniture maker Wendell Castle had achieved luminary status. The drawings above show the artist working through iterations before arriving at a design for this rare 1962 chest He continued making changes, adding more legs when the original wasn’t as sturdy as he’d hoped.
So how much is this art?
Outsized statement
UNTITLED, Over the Influence gallery, B10
It’s not wearable, but this giant replica of a Hermès blouse is a terrific representation of artist Andy Dixon’s historical and fashion references, which he mixes with social commentary. The former Vancouver punk rocker used acrylic and oil stick on canvas with glazed ceramic buttons on wood and a metal hanger.
So how much is this art?
A giant Schnabel-shaped candle
Art Basel Miami Beach, Sadie Coles HQ, Booth J7
German artist Urs Fischer’s larger-than-life, hyperrealistic wax sculpture “Untitled (Portrait of Julian)“ is a pointed tribute to one-time artworld enfant terrible and film director Julian Schnabel. It’s a giant candle with a wick on top and, yes, you can light it — if you buy it. It will take months to melt, but, as part of the deal, Fischer’s studio will make you a new one. The piece is one of two Fischer made (there are also two artist’s proofs). New York’s Whitney Museum, which owns the other, lit the candle when it showed the piece five years ago. It eventually all liquefied into a puddle.
So how much does this art cost?
A Gorgon?
Design Miami, Jason Jacques Gallery, Booth G/05
This five-foot-long ceramic isolation lounge in the shape of a giant alien’s mouth, complete with tongue and tastebuds is the brainchild of Nick Weddell, a 27-year-old wunderkind from Austin whose art revolves around an imaginary alternate universe he calls Zeefromzeglop. The booth is crammed with creatures from that world, including the isolation lounge, which he calls Gorgon.
So how much for the Gorgon?
A PIGEON PROBLEM
Art Basel Miami Beach, Perrotin, Booth F22
Glance upwards at the Perrotin booth, and you’ll spot a few dozen pigeons creepily looking down at you from atop the gallery partition walls. If they look uncannily real, it’s because they are: The birds are taxidermied, part of two new works in conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan’s long-running “Ghosts” series. A separate Cattelan piece in the booth, “Nothing,” has seven pigeons perched on a gilt baroque mirror. Cattelan is the artist whose duct-taped banana, also at Perrotin, caused an international sensation at the 2019 fair.
So how much does this art cost?
‘Mischief’ series, Leah Hewson
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Ink Miami, Stoney Road Press, Booth 155
Mounted on neon acrylic and highlighted with a neon pen, this playful series of abstracts by Dublin-born artist Hewson is comprised of smaller versions of her colorful Blow Out series (which are also on display at Ink Miami). A genuine sense of whimsy and fun marks this series, the pieces of which are sold separately.
So how much is this art?
This story was originally published December 3, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
