Further galleries with color debut at Art Basel Miami


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MIAMI BEACH, Florida – Kendra Jayne Patrick’s booth was busy during the VIP opening at Art Basel on Tuesday as visitors crowded to admire and purchase pieces by tapestry artist Qualeasha Wood, whose work is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In the past, Patrick would not have been eligible to attend the fair because their New York gallery does not have permanent physical space. Last year, however, Art Basel changed its admission requirements and made concerted efforts to invite previously marginalized galleries to apply.

“We wanted to break down the barriers to entry – not in terms of quality, but rather how long you had to be in business and what the nature of your business is,” said Marc Spiegler, Global Director of Art Basel. “These galleries have enough hurdles without us having these outdated regulations.”

The shift was notable as the June 2020 online iteration of Art Basel didn’t include a single gallery owned by Afro-American owners. The 253 galleries at the Miami Beach Convention Center featured several first-time contestants of the color this year, including four galleries owned by Black Americans, three from Africa, eight from Latin America, and one from Korea.

This increasing diversity was just one way the pandemic transformed Art Basel Miami Beach’s first face-to-face meeting since 2019. There were also mandatory health checks, timed entry of visitors, and mandatory masks (with speaker reminders to stop them). And some galleries reported that they did not receive artwork (and stand furniture) in a timely manner due to supply chain issues.

With the advent of the Omicron variant and President Biden’s decision to restrict travel from the country from November 29th, the four galleries from South Africa managed to greet them at the fair in their own way – despite some jokes.

The discussion about NFTs – non-fungible tokens – also went through the tepid air, although they have only slowly gained acceptance among experienced collectors. The Pace Gallery held its first NFT Art Fair Sale – a collaboration between Studio Drift in Amsterdam and musician Don Diablo for $ 500,000 (plus $ 50,000 donated for climate protection).

Overall, however, the fair – as well as its numerous satellite events such as Untitled, NADA and Design Miami – provided further evidence that the art market is largely immune to social and political upheaval.

Most galleries, especially blue-chip dealers, reported strong sales, including a painting by Noah Davis for $ 1.4 million and an abstract by Ad Reinhardt for more than $ 7 million from David Zwirner as well as a Keith Haring for $ 1.75 million and an Elizabeth Murray for $ 725,000 at Gladstone. Salon 94 sold a double Dutch skipping rope sculpture by Karon Davis for $ 150,000 to streetwear mogul James Whitner.

“It felt a bit like marmot day,” said Tim Blum from Galerie Blum & Poe. “When you go through the fair, you could think it was 2019.”

In fact, the evenings were full of dinners and parties – Alicia Keys was performing in the immersive Superblue showroom in the Miami Design District – and most of the decorated guests were not wearing masks (and complaining about the traffic jam). Many noted how lucky they were to physically gather to see art and hug again in Miami Beach (yes, air kissing is back).

“There’s nothing like seeing people in person and having engaging conversations,” said Jo Stella-Sawicka, senior director of Goodman Gallery, which has locations in Johannesburg, Cape Town and London, adding that she has already flown to Florida, when the news appeared the new variant was broken.

While the time-controlled admission to the fair prevented the usual rush of opening bells through the doors – and some collectors complained that they did not get the desired time slots – gallery owners said that the more spatial entrances allowed for quieter, more informed conversations with visitors.

Although much of the art – as usual – was sold in advance via online previews or via email as a PDF, many dealers indicated that several pieces were purchased at the fair itself.

Because of their prevalence and cost, art fairs have long been considered ripe for correction or consolidation. The new company LGDR – four powerful dealers who have come together – has announced that it will renounce such events in the USA

However, several first-time gallery owners said Art Basel was a pivotal showcase (including the Lagos Rele Gallery, which recently opened a store in LA, and Nicola Vassell, which was just opening in Manhattan in Chelsea).

“Miami Basel is so international”, Patrick, the New York dealer, said: “You can meet a large cross-section of customers.”

Joost Bosland from the South African gallery Stevenson had planned to come to Art Basel only briefly before Omicron changed that.

“I should be here for a day,” he said. “Then the rest of the team didn’t make it.”

The SMAC Gallery, with locations in Cape Town and Johannesburg, barely made it to Miami. “We had to, otherwise the booth would have been empty,” said Baylon Sandri, one of the directors. The ban is “unfair” because South Africa only found the new variant.

Bonolo Kavula, the artist shown by SMAC who was at the booth, said: “Not coming was not an option – Art Basel is a great opportunity.

“I’m not just here for myself,” she added. “That shows other artists at home that this is possible.”

KJ Freeman, the owner of the Housing Gallery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was another newcomer to benefit from the expanded involvement of smaller galleries. She planned to show the artist Arlene Wandera, whose sculptural pieces never arrived. So Freeman turned to Nathaniel Oliver’s presentation. When all of Oliver’s work was sold, she stuck a QR code on the wall of her stand through which visitors could see Wandera’s work.

“I used to be a performance artist,” said Freeman. “I can use it to do an installation pretty much every day of the week.”

Freeman said she was glad she was invited to apply for the show, but also said her humble operation didn’t necessarily suit the giants.

“I’ve never sold anything over five-digit – low five-digit,” she said, adding that Wandera’s work was $ 5,000 to $ 22,000 and Oliver’s was $ 3,000 to $ 18,000.

Among the dealers Art Basel invited to apply was Daudi Karungi from the Afriart Gallery in Uganda, who said he appreciated the range. “It’s better than knocking on that door,” he said.

Credit…Alfonso Duran for the New York Times

Karungi’s stand with a solo presentation of the work of the Tanzanian artist Sungi Mlengeya sold out quickly. Each piece cost between $ 50,000 and $ 75,000.

Ivy N. Jones of Welancora Gallery, located in a brownstone in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, said it was “an honor” to showcase the work of Helen Evans Ramsaran, an American sculptor in her 70s. “There are so many older artists who need someone to believe in them,” said Jones.

Similarly, Marcus Gora, co-founder of the First Floor Gallery in Zimbabwe, said the fair brought important visibility to an artist like the one he featured in Miami, Troy Makaza, who combines painting and sculpture. “We have grown and built,” said Gora. “This is our gateway to the North American market.”

Karungi from Afriart said attending the fair is a major milestone almost 20 years after founding his gallery and he hopes to serve as a role model for other African galleries. “I started at the bottom of the industry,” he says. “And now we are here.”

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