Art basel miami – where museums buy art.
Each December, Miami becomes an arty honeycomb wasp of art shows and celebrities at the leading international Contemporary Art Fair in USA.
The mood is arty&party attracting the most creative people on the planet. Parties with world-renowned DJs filled with art installations, live painting and exceptional decor.
This crazy mega event isn’t just ART BASEL. It’s Miami Art Week. Organised by Basel since 2002, it’s the young sister of those in Switzerland and Hong Kong. But in Miami, other satellite fairs sprouted up: CONTEXT, PULSE, UNTITLED, WYNWOOD and NADA.
In a single week, Miami attracts over 77.000 sellers: 268 galleries and 4.000 artists showing painting, sculpture, performance, photography, films…
Directors and curators come to buy for Contemporary Art Museums in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Cleveland, Houston, Philadelphia, San Francisco; London, Montreal, Kassel, Buenos Aires, Peru, Beijing… and celebrities like billionaire entrepreneur-philanthropist Eli Broad (has his own museum in LA). Private collectors Marguiles, De la Cruz, Rubell… open their homes to the public.
Leo di Caprio, dropped $850,000 on a Basquiat piece. Art Basel Miami and Context share multi-million dollar sales of blue-chip artists by strong buyers. They welcomed 80,000 visitors and 15,000 VIP-guests at preview party, sponsored by CHRISTIE’S.
The best party was was three-night-long soirée by PRADA at DoubleClub, a Carsten Höller installation nightclub. DIOR held a dinner at Webster. MOSCHINO chose rapper-of- the-moment Cardi-B. AMERICAN EXPRESS featured an “intimate” 400 guests Drake performance!
Another fair, WYNWOOD showed 200 outdoor-murals (50 city-blocks), the largest open-air street art installation in the world.
Miami’s Art Week success are sales by galleries with artists from around the world and satellite fairs and events. A true arty bees-hive in sunny winter heaven.
