At Art Miami, Kusamas Were Flying Off the Walls and Two Famed Former Models Teamed Up to Curate a Special Booth

Talk about determination.

In the opening minutes—minutes!—of Art Miami’s VIP preview on
Tuesday, a decisive UK-based buyer strode up to Galerie Von
Vertes’s booth near the entrance to the fair, where several
paintings and sculptures by Japanese art star Yayoi Kusama were on
view, and struck a deal to take away two pieces from
her signature “Pumpkin” series for $1 million.

By Thursday, when Artnet News visited the booth, the works were
long gone, having been shipped to London at the request of the
buyer, who gallery owner Laszlo von Vertes said had wanted to be
sure they would be there in time for Christmas. Happy holidays! In
their place were several Kusama “Infinity Net” paintings.

It was a fitting start to one of Miami’s longest-standing fairs,
now in its 30th edition, and in its second year in a space on
Biscayne Bay directly across from the Perez Art Museum.

“The early platinum preview continues to grow in importance for
collectors wanting the first chance to acquire works,” the fair’s
director, Nick Korniloff, told Artnet News. “The line of collectors
was queued down herald plaza as early as 3:45 waiting to enter” for
the 4:30 p.m. opening.

Art dealer Mark Borghi did well at the preview, selling a
Chakaia Booker sculpture out of a solo show of her work at his
booth for $400,000. Another highlight of the fair—and a splash
of celebrity cachet—was the booth of the New York Academy of Art,
where actress Brooke Shields and former supermodel Helena
Christensen (who have each curated booths separately for previous
fairs) joined forces for the first time.

Christensen told Artnet News that she met academy president
David Kratz at a lunch hosted by board member Alexander Gilkes.

“David and I immediately struck up a conversation about
aesthetics and art. It was wonderful to converse with someone who
knew so much about artists and the art world,” she said. Later,
Kratz invited her to curate alongside Brooke Shields, “another huge
art lover,” Christensen said.

Christensen said her horizons have expanded since she started
curating, and that she has bought new works by artists she would
never have known about were it not for the New York Academy. She
credits Katz with being an “art mentor.”

“Once you dive into that world, you just want to be a sponge and
absorb as much knowledge as you can,” she said.

Of artists she discovered through the New York Academy of Art,
she cites Shiqing Deng and Kathy Stecko.

“Deng’s paintings are playful, colorful, and strange, which is
right up my alley. Kathy’s little sculptures are like alien
fairytales, and they evoke some very sentimental childhood memories
within me,” Christensen said.

Meanwhile, the venerable Gerald Peters gallery’s booth
was dedicated to Maurice Burns, a MacDowell
fellow and Pollock-Krasner award recipient, whose work has not been
seen outside New Mexico for decades. Burns was born in 1937 in
Talladega, Alabama, and retreated to Santa Fe in the 1970s to
immerse himself in painting.

We asked Alison Hammond, one of the gallery’s directors, for her
thoughts on the current market mood, and she echoed what seemed to
be the sentiment across Miami this week, where the environment was
less frenzied than in years past, even though there has been no
shortage of thoughtful, steady, and solid buying.

“The opening this year felt perhaps not as well-attended as
in years past,” she told Artnet News. “But we did see a good number
of sophisticated collectors coming through, and had great
conversations throughout.”

Hammond says the gallery has always had positive results at
Art Miami, where it has been exhibiting for a number of years.

“This year, we are presenting a solo show for the first time,
which means that we haven’t hedged our bets by including a little
something for everyone,” she said. “But the result is that we have
made a really strong presentation of a re-emerging artist and we
are very excited about the interest it has generated thus far.”

The post At Art Miami, Kusamas Were Flying Off the Walls and Two
Famed Former Models Teamed Up to Curate a Special Booth
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