This week, America’s largest Art Fair is happening in Miami Beach.
Along with Snowbirds from all over,Taos is soaking up the rays in the Sunshine State as well.
Art Basel Miami Beach is the sister fair of the original Art Basel, founded in Basel, Switzerland in 1970, by a trio of Swiss gallerists, (Ernst Beyeler, Trudi Bruckner and Balz Hilt), they conceived of bringing both the artists they represented, as well as curators, collectors and critics from all over the world for the first Art Basel in Switzerland. Over 15,000 people attended that first fair and held every June, Art Basel draws nearly 100,000 attendees to the Messe Basel exhibition space designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, making it the most important contemporary art fair in the world.
Now in its 16th year, the Miami Beach edition has been an annual event (every December), since 2002. Miami was selected as an ideal second destination for Art Basel because of its unique position at the nexus of North America and South America.
Since then, with the boost from Art Basel, Miami has become a year-round arts destination with a thriving gallery scene, cutting edge art, world class museums and hip street art. The week surrounding this seminal art fair is known as Miami Art Week when more than 20 satellite fairs descend upon the city. They showcase works by cutting edge contemporary artists and galleries across the world.
Art Miami is one of these satellite fairs, and Vivian Horan Fine Art has its home away from home, here this week. You might recall reading about Vivian’s gallery here on taoStyle when I went to NYC for the fabulous opening of Taos:1960’s – Present.
Along with other Taos artists represented in that very important show, Paul O’Connor’s sculpture graced the gallery’s walls.
Fresh off the high of a week long stay in Zurich Switzerland where he had gone with his wife, Tizia, to participate in the Kunst Art Fair, Paul O’Connor is on a roll! It was the first time he had shown with the Laurent Marthaler Contemporary, a gallery based in Montreux, a connection made through the artist Byc, whom he had met last year at Art Miami
From Switzerland to Miami – everything comes full circle, but I digress.
“Everything was fantastic,” Paul told me, “from flying over with two big sculptures to the exhibition itself.”
“Tizia and I were treated to amazing dinners out, walks in the city and hosted by a friend of a friend in a beautiful house just outside the city.”
“We met interesting people I got a commissioned ‘sale’ for a piece,” he said. The two sculptures he showed are now on consignment at the gallery.
From Zurich, he returned to Taos briefly before heading East to hang his work in Sag Harbour for a group show :Wong, Saltzman & O’Connor, that opened on December 1st at the Sara Nightingale Gallery, and will be up through December 28th. You’ve met Mimi Saltzman here on the blog when she showed at the Harwood. Mimi was a long time Taos resident, but now resides in NYC, where she is from.
“Wong, Saltzman & O’Connor – sounds like a set up for a joke “three artists walk into a bar…” Paul laughed. “The opening was great, we met lots of cool people, several of whom will be down in Miami and will stop by Vivian’s Booth.”
December 4th-9th O’Connor will be showing with Vivian Horan Fine Art in Miami in very good company!
Along with Art Luminaries Picasso, Warhol, Henry Moore (and more), Taos is once again, very much in the house :
Ron Cooper, Ronald Davis, Kevin Cannon, Ken Price and Hank Saxe are all represented here, in Miami this week.
When he gets back to Taos, I’ll sit down with Paul and get the low down!
Meanwhile, for more on Paul’s work, Art Miami and Vivian Horan Fine Art, please visit the sites linked below.
Top photo of Wong, Saltzman & O’Connor, thanks to Paul O’Connor. Other images ( of works by O,Connor, Ron Cooper,Hank Saxe, Kevin Cannon, Ken Price and Ronald Davis), thanks to Vivian Horan Fine Art.
