‘It’s magical.’ Here’s what the first day of Miami Art Week was like for VIPs

Miami’s annual art frenzy kicked off Tuesday with a half-dozen art fairs vying for VIP attention and a general sense of optimism about the city’s ongoing appeal for wealthy technocrats.

“We’ve had a good rush at the door,” said Nick Korniloff, director of Art Miami / CONTEXT, on Tuesday afternoon.

For collectors, Tuesday was a juggle fest, with Art Miami pushing up its VIP opening to the morning from its previous late afternoon hours. That collided with openings for NADA, the New Art Dealers Fair, a stalking ground for emerging artists; UNTITLED, a popular showcase for international galleries and artists; Scope, a touch point for emerging galleries; Design Miami and PRIZM, a homegrown fair for Black art aficionados.

The ongoing construction on I-395 didn’t help. With traffic in its usual snarl and no reasonable public transport between the mainland and the Beach, art lovers were forced to choose between the mainland and the Beach.

Public hours at many fairs begin Dec. 4, when water taxi service and free Miami Beach shuttles kick into gear. The exception is Art Basel Miami Beach, which opens to the public Dec. 6.

‘Counting on Miami to deliver’

For gallery owners weary from a pre-election sales malaise, the traditionally strong sales of Miami Art Week are key. “They’re counting on Miami to deliver for them again. The spirit is high that it will do so,” said Korniloff. “We’re post elections, so everybody knows the direction that the country is going in and the policies that are being potentially adapted, and they could plan their future.”

Advance ticket sales were up at UNTITLED, said founder Jeff Lawson, signaling the optimism that he says is inherent to artists and gallerists. “While the market in general has been down over the last year, we’re seeing it starting to pick up,” he said. He’s so optimistic, in fact, that he has announced the 2025 launch of an additional UNTITLED fair in Houston.

As for UNTITLED Miami, which launched in 2012, “There is a collector base continuing to build here as the city grows,” he said. This year’s Miami attendees will find works reflecting the theme “East Meets West,” which will challenge conventional perceptions with curatorial direction by Kathy Huang, managing director of Jeffrey Deitch in New York, and Jungmin Cho, founder of the Seoul art space WHITE NOISE.

At Art Miami, French art dealer Gilles Dyan also sees things picking up. Over at his Opera Gallery’s Art Miami booth, Dyan said the gallery sold three large works in just an hour: a Jean Dubuffet sculpture, a Pieter Obels sculpture and a striking Manolo Valdés painting.

So far so good, he said. Also on display in the booth is a plump nude female sculpture and a painting of a rotund matador by late Colombian artist Fernando Botero, a “very nice” 1970 Pablo Picasso painting and some works by Belarusian and French artist Marc Chagall.

“For us every year, you know, it is a good fair at Miami,” he said. “The market was a bit flat the past six years, and I think it is a pickup right now.”

Art Miami brings out a heavy hitter

Towering over the early birds at Art Miami in downtown was baseball legend Derek Jeter, the former Yankees player, former Miami Marlins CEO and current artistic muse. At Taglialatella Galleries’ booths in both Art Miami and sister fair CONTEXT, large glittering portraits of the Hall of Famer’s most iconic plays hang on the walls: “The Swing” and “The Jump.”

Major League Baseball partnered with artist Russell Young, known for his shining “diamond dust” portraits, to create the collection of artworks called JETER. The pieces debuted in October at Taglialatella Galleries in New York.

The collection and its appearance at Miami Art Week was a year and a half in the making, Young said. The artist and Jeter met in New York to hand-select the two images reimagined in the works. Young, who jokes that Tinkerbell dusts his sparkly artworks herself, said he loved the opportunity to portray moments of action, especially since his portraits of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Kendrick Lamar are still.

“You can really feel the tension and the concentration. In the swing, look at his eyes, he knows the ball’s gone,” Young said pointing at the works. “You can see that energy.”

A portion of the proceeds generated from sales will be donated to Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation, which advocates for the prevention of drug and alcohol abuse for kids, and the Perry J. Cohen Foundation, a nonprofit benefiting the arts, marine wildlife and boating safety dedicated to Perry, Art Miami director Korniloff’s 14-year-old step-son who went missing at sea in 2015. Korniloff and his wife Pamela Cohen founded the organization.

“It’s magical. Perry, my son, was an avid, active baseball player and was just mystified with Derek from the earliest days,” Pamela Cohen said.

Jeter told the Herald that centering his post-MLB career around giving back to the community is important. While he has “zero artistic skills whatsoever” and knows very little about art, Jeter said he’s thrilled to be part of the art world in this way.

“People always talk about legacy. While I have a legacy on the field, I think it’s more important to have a legacy off the field and try to impact kids’ lives in a positive manner,” Jeter said.

Nothing but blue skies at Design Miami

Over on Miami Beach, Design Miami opened its 20th edition with an outlook of optimism and limitless opportunities. That’s in line with the “Blue Sky” theme selected by Design Miami Curatorial Director Glenn Adamson.

“I live in London,” Adamson said. “There it’s gray sky. In Miami it’s blue skies, with the openness of the ocean and the culture and the permissiveness of the city.”

Appropriately enough, the gallery that won Best Thematic Expression was local Miamian Mindy Solomon (Booth G20). Early in the show, according to Solomon, the Brooklyn Museum purchased a large stoneware and porcelain vessel by South Korean artist Jane Yang-D’Haene (Untitled VII) (2004) for $23,500.

“I won the gallery that best epitomizes the Blue Sky theme,” Solomon told the Miami Herald. “My trip to Patagonia inspired me.” Solomon provided the seven artists in her show with photographs that depict the waterfalls, glaciers and penguins from her trip.

Two of those artist hail from Miami — Frances Trombly and Jula Tüllmann. Trombly, who hosts the local venue Dimensions Variable with her husband Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, has two works on display. Both were created from hand-loomed textiles draped over bare wooden frames. Tüllmann was at the booth (G20) to talk about her work.

A native of Munich, Germany, Tüllmann joined a studio in Liberty City called The Collective 62, which features work by 16 women artists. Along with another artist, Katja Hettler, they form the design duo known as Hettler.Tüllmann.

“Basically, Mindy wanted something organic from us,” Tüllmann said. “I was happy she reached out to us. The core of our practice is that we work only with sustainable materials. We would never use new plastic.”

Their chairs, made from mop textiles, resemble the Puli dog. Their coffee tables are made from mushrooms (mycelium spores).

‘A lot of new work to see’

At UNTITLED on Miami Beach the morning brought a lively and upbeat crowd of local and international collectors scouting for their next great find.

Many of the artists represented had flown in for the openings, including Australian indigenous artist Alfred Lowe, who was fresh off the plane from New Zealand.

His colorful pottery recalls the land where he was born, near Alice Springs. “So many landscapes are voyeuristic. I try to recreate the feeling of landscape, the impact you feel when you are in it,” he said.

His work is showcased at the Albertz Benda booth (C12). New York-Los Angeles gallerist Thorsten Albertz, now at UNTITLED for the eighth year, said he focuses on emerging artists such as Lowe with works at approachable price points. “It feels like people are willing to make exploratory acquisitions at a price point that isn’t prohibitive.” Lowe’s works start at $3,500.

Many of the works offered this year focus on textiles and materiality, mixing cutout shapes in fabric with glitter, photography, stone and even playing cards. At the Patrick Heide booth, artist Jonathan Kellen transforms books into confetti, “tree” rings and sculptures. One elaborate sculpture is wrapped in a 1970s magazine, “British Empire,” in a nod to the disappearance of British global stature and the printed word.

At the Library Street Collective (Booth C13), gallerist Leah Rutt sold a $24,500 collage by Akea Brionne within minutes of opening. Brionne’s glittery mixed-media work also appears in the lobby of the Historic Hampton House Hotel in Brownsville as part of the show “Invisible Luggage.” The artist, recently diagnosed with autism, is using her figurative mixed-media works to explore her identity, said Rutt.

Work by Mexican-born artist Arleene Correa Valencia also sold early at the Catharine Clark Gallery (Booth C25). Brought to the U.S. by a coyote as a child, the long-time resident of Napa Valley only recently received her green card. Her work centers on family separation and displacement – familiar themes for many migrants.

At the booth of Ghana-based Gallery 1957, the works of Emmanuel Kwaku Yaro had all but sold out. The artist takes woven plastic rugs used for sleeping and prayer as a base for portraits of people from his Labadi neighborhood. The sole work remaining was the largest, a colorful portrait priced $15,000 that was on hold for a major Miami collector.

But while a few artists were selling quickly, most galleries were in a wait-and-see mode as collectors paced themselves. “The market is righting itself,” said Toma Wolff, a California-based art advisor. “There’s a lot of new work to see.”

This story was originally published December 3, 2024 at 3:03 PM.