Miami’s longest running contemporary art fair, Art Miami, kicked-off art week by celebrating the debut of its 28th edition alongside sister fair CONTEXT Art Miami with its strongest VIP Preview to date at their brand-new waterfront location. A $4-million-dollar sale was made within the first hour, an amazing $5.5 million-dollar sale soon followed, as well as many more multi-million dollar sales.
Art Miami is renowned as one of the nation’s leading international contemporary and modern art fairs, and saw crowds circling the block throughout the entirety of the preview to see works from more than 240 international galleries and 961 artists from 48 different countries and 126 cities.
More than 15,000 of the most established collectors, curators, museum professionals, and art world luminaries attended the first fair to open during Art Week to view and acquire Blue Chip and contemporary artists’ works, contributing to a frenzy of sales made within the first hour, most notably Sigmar Polke’s 2005 L‘oiseau bleu which was placed by Galerie Terminus for approximately $4 million. Michael Schultz Gallery placed Andy Warhol’s 1962 Marilyn for $5.5 million; Antoine Helwaser Gallery placed From Bedroom Painting #42 by Tom Wesselmann from 1978/91 and two Yayoi Kusama paintings, Oil No. 7 and Nets 45, which totaled sales of $1.5 million, and DIE GALERIE placed Roberto Matta’s Cytherance from 1972 for $260,000 also in the first hour of the fair. In addition, NIKOLA RUKAJ GALLERY placed two Alex Katz pieces, both titled Black Dress (Portfolio of Nine), for $125,000 each from a series that releases in 2018. One was sold prior to the fair opening, and another 30 minutes into the opening, while 55Bellechasse placed two pieces by rock ‘n’ roll icon Jason Newsted of Metallica, of which half of all sales will be donated to the Perry J. Cohen Foundation, and several other important works were placed on hold.
Art Miami LLC Executive Vice President and Director Nick Korniloff and his wife Pamela Cohen led a ceremonial ribbon cutting alongside city dignitaries including Commissioner Ken Russell, City of Miami, Deputy Police Chief Ronald Papier, City of Miami, and NFL Hall of Famer Joe Namath, Franklin Sirmans, Director of Pérez Art Museum Miami, and Patricia “Missy” Lawrence, President of Resorts World Bimini, to open the fair in its new location.
VIP Preview attendees included; Jorge and Darlene Perez, Amar’e Stoudemire, Frank Ocean, Kara Ross of UNLEASHED, private art advisors Kim Heirston, Lisa Schiff, and Kathryn Mikesell, Marvin Ross Friedman and Adrienne Bon Haes, Michael and Carolynn Friedman, Jeffrey and Debra Wechsler, Mr. Brainwash, Jason Newsted formerly of Metallica, Former NFL player Robert Bailey who helped win two national championships, and the artist Al Diaz and Danny Minnick.
Fair Hours: Wednesday, Dec. 6 – Sat., Dec. 9, 11AM –8PM; Sunday, Dec. 10; 11AM – 6PM
Location: The Art Miami Pavilion, One Herald Plaza @ NE 14th Street, Downtown Miami On Biscayne Bay between the Venetian & MacArthur Causeways.
www.artmiami.com or www.contextartmiami.com
Pictured:
Nick Korniloff, Amar’e Stoudemire, Jason Newsted, Joe Namath, Pamela Cohen