Art Public in Collins Park, Art Basel Miami Beach

Art Basel Miami Beach issued a press release about Art Public today, describing over 30 large scale sculpture and installation pieces in tantalizing detail.  I will be there for opening December 4th, before heading over to the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater to catch Alabama Shakes.  Art Public is usually one of my favorite of the "sectors" put on by Art Basel Miami Beach.  It has to be viewed once during the day and then again at night to get the full experience.

For the full press release go here.  Some basic information follows:

Public Opening Night, which is free and open to the public, takes place in Collins Park on Wednesday, December 4, from 8.30pm to 10pm. The Public sector is also free of charge and open to the public from December 4 to December 8. Collins Park is located between 21st & 22nd Street, in close proximity of the exhibition halls within the Miami Beach Convention Center and adjacent to The Bass Museum of Art.

For myself, there are some really interesting sculptors and installation artists this year and I cannot wait to see what they have in store for Miami.

Ursula von Rydingsvard makes massive volumetric sculptures out of red cedar, where she stacks square cedar posts and then carves them into organic forms. She is 70 years old (!) and one of the few women in the world to work in wood on such a dramatic scale.  There is a very well done NPR piece about Ursula and her work here, which includes a taped interview and some great pictures, including the one below.

Luba, 2010. Cedar, graphite, bronze. 212" x 139" x 88"

From the press release it appears Jeppe Hein will do another version of Appearing Rooms!

Appearing Rooms, Southbank Centre, London from Wikipedia

Richard Long has decades of experience to draw upon to create something special for Art Basel.  Here's an example of his work below, but exploring his website gives the impression that most of his work appears as more of an ordered arrangement of naturally occurring elements.

Box Hill Road River, London 2012

And last but not least is possibly a soundtrack of sorts for the evening.  A new sound installation by Mungo Thomson will be created with four musicians playing different instruments – clarinet, flute, violin and percussion – will imitate the song of crickets.