Reflecting Back As Art Basel Miami Beach Approaches Again

With Art Basel Miami Beach now less than one month away, more information is finally coming out about Art Basel and all the satellite fairs, gallery shows, food festivals, pop-up stores, warehouse installations, music concerts and endless other possibilities that will festoon the entire first week of December.  I have been reading a lot and starting to draw up a plan of action to see and do as much as humanly possible - knowing from past experience that any plans made now are bound to change as new events get announced,  and once I am actually in Miami all those plans will be rewritten again to accommodate everything that will magically appear and steal me away.  This will be my fifth time at Art Basel Miami Beach, and each year progressively tops the last.  Individual events stand out from previous years and I hope this year adds one or two more to the list.


Although the Rubell Private Collection is open year round, Art Basel Miami Beach draws a huge crowd to their Wynwood warehouse.  I can't wait to see what the Rubell's have in store for us this year.  Opening Dec 4th, an exhibition entitled 28 Chinese is the culmination of the Rubells’ five research trips to China between 2001 and 2012 and their acquired artwork from twenty-eight artists. This will be the first exhibition in North America for many of these artists.

李姝睿, 室内彩虹, 2011, 布面丙烯, 70 7/8 x 94 1/2 寸 (180 x 240 厘米)
Li Shurui, Inner Rainbow, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 70 7/8 x 94 1/2 in.

2010 was my favorite year so far at the Rubells' warehouse and not because of the art, but because of the food (well and the coffee, thank you to Illy for providing espresso shots pulled from the X7).

Jennifer Rubell prepared us all breakfast that year by creating a Goldilocks inspired food installation piece entitled Just Right, where hungry patrons assembled piece by piece a perfect bowl of porridge  while winding through the rooms of a decrepit house located directly behind the warehouse.  I loved climbing through the wall.  I loved the orderly and shiny food items contrasting with the stripped walls, bare cinder block and exposed wiring.  I loved the porridge itself.

The best part was watching the crowd going through the whole process, especially navigating the hole in the wall between the warehouse gallery and the abandoned house with the installation.  Jennifer herself helped some people through, and even spent some time chatting up my friend.  I was impressed by her calm attitude given the extreme danger of potential legal action as women of a certain age daringly tried to spirit though the gaping hole in the wall wearing heels and carrying their porridge.

I look forward to another breakfast at her place, and a look inside the Rubell's collection.

Here's an interview from that time with Jennifer discussing the project from nowness.com


Art Basel Miami: Jennifer Rubell on Nowness.com