Wet Paint: Art Basel Miami Beach Party Mania, the KAWS Whisperer, & More Juicy Art-World Gossip

Every Thursday afternoon, Artnet News brings you Wet Paint,
a gossip column of original scoops reported and written by Nate
Freeman. If you have a tip, email Nate
at nfreeman@artnet.com.

BASEL ADORES DIOR

There’s always a slew of high-fashion collaborations happening
during Art Basel Miami Beach, but rarely do they
threaten to upstage the fair itself. This year,
Dior teamed up with Mera and Don
Rubell to stage its pre-fall 2020 show in a warehouse
owned by the collecting couple, and timed it to the opening of the
Rubell Museum, the sprawling Annabelle
Selldorf-designed complex that houses their world-class
trove of more than 7,000 works. And together, the French fashion
house and the mega-collectors pulled off a spectacle that served as
a coming-out party for the Allapattah neighborhood, which is set to
become a new arts destination in Miami—especially once a new
Rubell-owned hotel opens, supposedly as early as next year.

On Tuesday, after hundreds of attendees poured into the building
with a runway snaking its way through the floor, it was a miasma of
celebrities and art-world figures. Pace president Marc
Glimcher was sitting a few seats down from Kim
Kardashian, Thaddaeus Ropac rubbed
shoulders with David Beckham, Kamel
Mennour jostled next to Travis Scott, and
Swizz Beatz plopped down next to Pusha
T. Those in attendance had to endure a riotous hour-long
delay inside the warehouse, with more famous faces entering the
arena, and handlers struggling to get them to take their seats.
Ricky Martin was mobbed by cameras, Hans
Ulrich Obrist weaved past Kate Moss and a
very late Bella Hadid took her front-row seat, a
few down from Daniel Arsham, just before the show
began. After all the hubbub, the show itself was a brisk ten
minutes of sporty looks, a collaboration between Dior designer
Kim Jones and the streetwear godhead Shawn
Stussy. And afterward, the celebs were all invited to tour
the Rubells’ hall of masterpieces—though judging by the long line
of town cars in line to leave the event, most just went off to
another party on one of Miami’s busiest nights of the year.

POUR THE DOM

The Faena Miami Beach Hotel has been one of the
swankier spots to host an event since it opened on Collins Avenue
in 2016. And Faena House, across the street,
counts billionaire collector Kenneth Griffin as a
resident—and Larry Gagosian as a former resident,
as he sold his pad there in 2017. But it’s way harder to score an
invite to the private home of Alan Faena—the
mega-developer who always, always has on a white fedora for some
reason—on the mansion-dotted Pine Tree Drive. A lucky few got a
glimpse on Wednesday, when Dom Perignon hosted an
affair with rocker Lenny Kravitz dubbed “The Last
Supper,” featuring endless bottles of the pricy bubbly. The scene
was an intimate affair compared to the city’s more noisy
proceedings, with Sean Penn walking around the
grounds smoking a cigar, former Paddle8 frontman Alexander
Gilkes palling around with architect David
Adjaye and artist Chloe Wise and
Rosario Dawson chatting with Paris
Hilton. But perhaps Faena had an ulterior motive when he
invited the well-heeled over to his private place: a tipster said
he’s put the property on the market, with the listing price
currently at $16.5 million.

WIZARD OF KAWS

They call him the KAWS whisperer. According to
sources, the man who has been pulling off the biggest KAWS deals is
dealer Todd Kramer, a partner at the
Ross+Kramer gallery in New York. He’s been
following the artist since well before his market exploded in the
last two years, having tracked his transition from street artist to
an auction darling who regularly achieves eight-figure prices. And
he’s been behind several KAWS-related transactions, including a
recent sale by a member of a fairly well-known mid-aughts rock
band, who recently offloaded a work for around $3 million. And
there are more in the offing. Plus, Kramer has a history of selling
work by another street artist, Invader, who some
think could have a KAWS-esque breakout. Last month, an Invader work
at the Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Sale
estimated to sell for $150,000 ended up going for $1.2 million.

AUCTION FOR BELIEBERS 

It’s a new era for the online auction platform
Paddle8, as CEO Izabela Depczyk
is departing and the new CEO, former Tumblr head of partnerships
Valentine Uhovski, is looking to make his mark.
And part of the master plan seems to be… Justin
Bieber. The global pop sensation has curated a sale of 17
works alongside his wife, Hailey Bieber, that will
benefit LIFT LA and Inner City
Arts, with works by artists such as Virgil
Abloh being offered to the highest bidder until December
13. But there is no KAWS in the show—a number of
Beliebers claimed that the “Sorry” singer was the person bidding on
the record-breaking work, THE KAWS ALBUM (2005), which
sold at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in April for $14.8 million, but he
has denied that is the case.

BONUS IS BOGUS

The wildest rumor that was going around Miami appears to be
debunked. By mid-day Wednesday, during the Art Basel VIP preview,
word came down the transom that one of the most hotly pursued young
artists was getting snapped up by Hauser & Wirth,
the Swiss mega-gallery that’s assembled perhaps the most stacked
artist roster in the game. The artist in question was Avery
Singer, who last had a show at Gavin Brown’s
Enterprise in 2018, but has been the subject of feverish
speculation as to who would poach her, with
Hauser, Gagosian,
and David Zwirner all in the mix at one
point. But the juiciest part of the rumor was the price tag.
Several people were saying that there was a million-dollar “singing
bonus” that was given to her to accept. But by Thursday, reps for
Hauser were emphatically denying the existence of any kind of
bonus, and said that with regard to any new artists, they had
nothing to announce.

WE HEAR…

Anton Kern is opening a space in Tribeca …
Xavier Hufkens is completely rebuilding his
headquarters in Brussels, knocking down one of the galleries to
build out a six-story juggernaut …  the Miami police filed a
complaint about an installation by the artists Antonia
Wright and Ruben Millares, installed at
Untitled, because it featured an American flag
hung upside down … the hit-making producer, musician, and DJ known
as Diplo is here in Miami to spin records at some
parties but is also trying to buy work by Alex Da
Corte … that Inigo Philbrick is hiding
out from the authorities not in Brazil as previously thought, but
in Thailand…

SPOTTED

***Britney Spears celebrating her birthday
among Baselers by going ice skating in the basement of the
Miami Beach EDITION Hotel Monday *** Iggy
Pop performing at the Gucci x
Snapchat event that served as premiere of new
short film by Harmony Korine *** Culinary god
Daniel Boulud chatting up Iwan
Wirth in front of the large Nicolas
Party painting at the booth *** Bright Lights Big
City novelist Jay McInerney at the Ropac
booth, admiring the George Baselitz paintings ***
Brian Bellott being celebrated for his solo booth
with Moran Moran at a dinner at Forte dei
Marmi *** ICA Miami chief curator
Alex Gartenfeld toasting Damien
Ortega at a dinner at the EDITION …
Supreme founder James Jebbia
being called for a table at Joe’s Stone Crab
Monday night … David Zwirner leading his team of
directors straight from his party at Soho Beach
House Wednesday to the notorious South Beach gay bar
Twist, and staying until the wee hours.

PARTING SHOT 

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