Posted January 11th, 2008
I hope everyone had a great New Year!
I’m back at work and excited to finally report on my trip to
Miami for Art Basel I went down with eBay a few weeks ago because it’s such a renowned fair
and in the past three years, with the creation of Design Miami, I think it has
truly become a center for design.
In short — it was pretty amazing and completely
overwhelming!
You definitely need more than a day to comb through it.
There are some very well known, established artists and it was wonderful to see
the work of such great talents.
One of the best things about all the attention Art Basel has
garnered is that there were a bunch of little satellite shows. One of my
favorites was Scope…very young, hip — truly inspirational. They had a
wonderful artist named Yong Ho Ji (showed with Gana Art Gallery), who made these amazingly
weird/creepy animal sculptures out of recycled tires that upon closer
inspection are unbelievably intricate and gorgeous. I also loved Vee Speers
(showed with Leo Bahia Arte Contemporanea). This Australian artist had some
incredibly moving pieces that I think were summarized best by a quote I read
from Karl Lagerfeld who said that “she sees beauty where beauty can be terribly
absent.”
As would be expected with such prominent galleries, prices
are pretty outrageous, but I have to say I thought the works by the newer
artists were absolutely the most exciting and for those able to afford it, they
would no doubt make great investments.
When it came to trends as exhibited by Yong Ho Ji, recycled
and reusable were big, as were themes of dolls and child-like references
(particularly interesting I thought was Aneta Grzeszykowska, who had a
hand-sewn full-scale doll sculpture she said referred back to her childhood).
I also noticed a surge in the offering of limited edition
pieces, which just reiterated for me how important it is to make smart
purchases. Just because something is a limited edition doesn’t make it worth
the hefty price; pieces should be innovative, beautiful, and most importantly
appeal to your personal style and sensibilities.
You Post your thoughts!
Notes: Please note that eBay may, in our sole discretion, reject comments for any reason we deem appropriate. Links of value to readers are welcome, but please use them sparingly – wield spam and you’re banished forever.
This is a moderated site and comments will appear if and when they are approved. We will review the queue several times daily, so please don’t resubmit if your comment doesn’t appear immediately.