Art Miami/Context exist side by side every year in Midtown Miami. And just as surely as they are there they provide a mix of new, established and legendary artists all in the same block.

The fairs are connected (admission to one gets you into the other) but they are distinct. You can figure out how yourselves. I believe in you. You can do it.

Every single year I personally see new pieces from favorite artists and find new favorite artists at this fair. It is not usually the place to find bargains or art that is purely decorative (unless you have a suitcase full of money). Nonetheless, these fairs maybe (with all due respect to the other fine fairs) the one to hit if you have limited time.

There will be a great deal more on both fairs.

Select Fair Miami, held at the Catalina Hotel (1732 Collins Ave.) in Miami Beach is another fair I have yet to attend. It focuses on contemporary art  (but you will be hard pressed to find a fair focusing on the old masters or even totally on modern and post modern art). The fact it is at the Catalina means it is likely manageable in terms of how long a visit will take you.

This is the sort of fair that can surprise and I am personally looking forward to it. You may find galleries and artists you need to know. Do not take this to mean this is a collection of no-name artists and galleries either. Swoon is one name that may ring a bell.

But that whole concept of  “name” and “no name” is for the over rich folks who hire an “art consultant” because they have no taste of their own. I am sort of ashamed I even wrote that. I think I better flagellate myself.

Untitled, an art fair in its second year, is held on Miami Beach. Two of Mapanare’s favorite galleries will be showing there—one Dodge Gallery (NYC), we’ve been aware of for awhile. The other, Costa Rica’s De La Cruz Projects, we discovered at this year’s Expo Chicago. The plan is to write extensively about De La Cruz Projects this year. The untitled piece below is by Anibel Lopez from the gallery.

This is one of the fairs I neglected to go to last year-- either out of laziness or the fact I was having a nervous breakdown. I will be attending this year for certain. What I heard (and no hearsay is not admissible in court) was that this was a well-done fair with a selection of excellent galleries.

You will not be shocked to find out that The Brazil ArtFair December 4 to 8, 2013 at 3501 N.E. Midtown Blvd, (N.E. 1st St, Miami) is dedicated to Brazilian galleries. It is the first such show during Miami Week. This is also the show’s first edition.

Brazil is booming and it isn’t just the economy but the nation’s profile in the art world.  The fair aims to provide context for the art they are showing. What is the context? We will all find out shortly. They say it isn’t traditional and art fairs could use some iconoclasm.

Adah Rose Bitterbaum of Adah Rose Gallery was kind enough to send a selection of work from artists coming to this year's Pulse Miami 2013 with the gallery.

Since time is short and I am really drunk (JUST KIDDING) I am going to use her descriptions, verbatim, of each of these artists. I also thought it might be interesting to do this; I am not telling you whose work is whose. Find out by going to www.adahrosegallery.com.


Jessica Drenk- Tactile and textural, her sculptures highlight the chaos and beauty that can be found in simple materials. Drenk's work is also influenced by systems of information and the impulse to develop an encyclopedic understanding of the world. Jessica transforms ordinary materials such as pencils, books, toilet paper and coffee filters into sculptures that reference nature and our collective culture.

Chris Trueman- If machines could dream, their visions would look something like Chris Trueman’s paintings, whose layers mingle in ways that are at once alchemical and mechanical. His bold, abstract pieces are overlaid with lines and grids that reflect back on the viewer to process the underlying gestural painting. Chris deftly and deliberately combines forces between hard edge lines and the organic fields of color that occupy his expansive, immersive canvases. In Chris’ work, sharp edged lines propel fields of color with intriguing results.

Alison Rash- Rash’s most recent body of paintings seeks to pare down elements to their most essential forms. She moves fluidly between intention and surrender to get at a quiet understanding of line, form and color. Using facets of her own life, an anecdote or idiosyncratic thought-process - she creates an initial system. Coincidence and contingency come into play and perceptual shifts occur where order and intuition converge

Brian Dupont- Brian's practice is a study of how the visual aspects of information can be conveyed within the framework of abstract painting. His recent work has begun to focus on the visual possibilities inherent in language. Brian takes the written (or printed) word as source material, stressing and distorting the text through a process of painting, erasure, and repainting. Working in oil on metal (usually aluminum) he engages with the techniques of high art and common signage in an attempt to foreground the painting’s material reality. His goal is that the painted surface and language will be placed on equal footing so that the works will not merely be read. To this end the text is distorted, reversed, and repeated with odd kerning and shifts in scale so that that the act of reading is transformed into looking.

Joan Belmar-Joan's latest series of paintings are two-dimensional and  explore the psychological and cultural divisions that so affect the way we see the world around us, especially in his native Chile.  Joan is drawn to maps, especially as he researched the Selknam people, who inhabited the southern region of his native Chile   In the maps, he encountered symbols, colors, drawings, grids, dots and lines. Accordingly, in the “Territories” series, Joan created certain structures, but then he let the organic qualities of the acrylics, gouache and ink mix and move spontaneously on the canvas or paper. Metaphorically, they are in search of freedom in a structured world.

Miami River Art Fair 2013, in its second year, takes place away from Miami Beach and Miami’s Wynwood. It is held in the Miami-Brickell area December 5 to 8.  The fair, as most others, has a selection of events, projects and a bevy of galleries from around the world. The fair is organized and produced by Nina Torres Art Productions collaborating with the Foundation of Contemporary Art.

I did not attend this fair in 2012 so I have no personal impression (all the press releases for every single fair read pretty much exactly the same—except those that are so long winded no one reads them). This isn’t a KNOCK, it is just that writing about and capturing a good art fair before it happens is something of a trick. You can talk about the galleries, the special projects etc. but until you are there? Every art show sounds the same. They are not.  Some are, frankly, not well done. Others (I suspect this one included) will appeal to at least a segment of art enthusiasts and collectors. Plan to check this one out. Just a hunch. More on the fair, its artists and galleries soon.

Miami River Art Fair  will have 40,000 square feet of exhibition space indoors and out and that it takes place at James L Knight Center’s Riverfront Hall. The area is much more “downtown Miami”—a revitalizing area—than most of the other fairs. The locatio

The list of galleries and other exhibitors looks promising. You can find out more at www.MiamiRiverArtFair.com

Pulse Contemporary Art Fair has two yearly editions—this one in Miami and another in NYC. Many fairs state that they are solely dedicated to “contemporary art” but they often fudge a wee bit on that. Pulse never seems to do this. They have a wide variety of galleries from around the world and the setting is also a bit more welcoming than some other fairs.

Pulse is one of the fairs I am always sure to go to. I don’t rush to it or rush through it because it is the fair where I find new artists—or more accurately artists new to me. While perusing the booths at Pulse I have found new favorite artists from around the world

Teresa Diehl springs readily to mind from a few years back. I did an interview with Diehl but the video was lost in an external hard drive crash. There was a brief video piece that ran.  Be sure to keep an eye open. Her work is both beautiful and fraught with political meaning. She is an artist who puts herself in considerable danger to create her work. And I first discovered her at Pulse.

Another gallery you should be sure to pause at during Pulse is Adah Rose Gallery (based in Kensington, Md). They work with artists of a number contemporary art movements (and a number of media). But they specialize in text based pieces. Be sure to look them up at Pulse: they usually have something special.

Design Miami (December 4 to 8, 2013 in Miami Beach) is not just about LOOKING at design. There are a series of talks, collaborations and satellite events with top designers and architects. You can find out all the details HERE.

When contacting Design Miami for press credentials I admitted a “fear of design.” The nice woman who responded took this to be a “fear of art.” I responded , “No, I just fear design….art isn’t scary to me.” But I would like to suggest that you really shouldn’t be frightened of design or Design Miami either.

In fact, for most people, design is something more easy to appreciate than fine art; it is functional and decorative but, necessarily, has to have the attributes of fine art to be successful.

When wandering around looking at art and choosing fairs and functions to attend to do not pass up Design Miami.

Last year was the first for Miami Project, a fair held in the Wynwood area of Miami. It was a fair well-worth attending; it was not over-large and seemed to have had galleries chosen with some care. I recommended that anyone in the area take some time to look through.

This year, looking at their events and gallery list (which you can do HERE) they seem to be upping the ante. Last year this was a fair that was all about NOW. If I recall the galleries at Miami Project 2012 were showing contemporary artists rather than artists of days past (many of the fairs do). They leaned more toward the currently collectible rather than the-maybe-someday-will-be-collectible.

Galleries we often write about such as Brian Gross Fine Art (checkout interview with their artist Teo Gonzalez), David B. Smith Gallery, ZieherSmith and Yossi Milo Gallery will all have booths at Miami Project. More interviews soon!

Perrier-Jouët commissioned Dutch artist, Simon Heijdens, to create  Phare No . 1-9, at Design Miami. The piece blends art, design, craft using innovative techniques in a 21st Century revisiting of Art Noveau.

Perrier-Jouët, in addition to creating something I don’t mind drinking, have been involved in collaborations with artists since 1902. Emile Gallé created the iconic anemone of its Belle Époque cuvee in that year.

Ever since the company has worked with talented designers and curated projects.