I Love This Beautiful World

This sector of the show is for the bigwigs (in terms of scale) of the art world. If I was at the Venice Bienniele it would be de rigeur to have pieces like this. For example, if at the Bienniele the American pavilion had some nice wall art they wouldn't be invited back to that event again. However this i s Art Basel which is in all regards a commercial event. Here is an opportunity within the already established confines of a museum-like setting to show some contemporary work. This ye ar's curator created an exhibition that was predominantly about space. From a large mass of landscape photos that are grouped together featuring images of land that has been leveled for construction to a deconstructed wall that the artist cut away the drywall to use in his enormous mobile weighted by the chunks of building material. There is a wall sized photo of a room that you might otherwise actually see in this space. Another room that stops you near it's entrance re...

I'll start first with the less consumer driven areas. Art Statements and Art Unlimited are sections of the fair that are reserved for projects of more emergent artists and well-known artists whose work is only appropriate for site specific and museum settings. In my opinion this area (Hall 1) was like a sampler platter of large scale and conceptual work. The work presented is not salable. It can be commissioned by an arts board, public institution or non-profit but no one will have this in their home or small private gallery. Art Statements There are 10 artists juried into the Art Statements area. They each have a gallery representing their work and do a project proposal as their submission. Each is given a decent space to work with and construct their vision. I'll discuss a few of the diverse pieces. An aspect that I found true in many of the projects is their assumption of Dadaism. The movement nearly 100 years ago rendered any object art as...

Armed with about 1.5 hours of sleep and three German words of no consequence (Zwiebel- from a trip to Germany 12 years ago when I learned how to ask for it on my pizza, Shinken- my grandmother's derogatory nickname for me, and Weiss- as in Edelweiss from the Sound of Music), I headed on the tram to the Messeplatz (Event Hall) where Art Basel is primarily held. To say the least it is a bit overwhelming. There are thousands of people. The extremely well organized event is a flurry of activity to me. It' a little like Disneyland. Each person is a character that plays a roll. From the fleet of Art Basel VIP black BMW's lined up to whisk whichever high roller to their 5 star hotel to the seating area full of lounging socialites between the two main halls. The seating area is constructed of trees, fake grass (not the cheap-o stuff, but what you'd find on a football field) that covers the ground and geometric "hills" made for lounging with your $6 coffe...

I arrived in Switzerland in the morning with a moment or two of nodding off between blockbuster hits and chats with the nice New York couple on the plane next to me. It was immediately apparent that Switzerland is different than any of the previous parts of the trip, my whirl through Paris CDG included. Switzerland gives me the feeling that things don't fall apart here. The plane to Basel was new and clean; it's temporary inhabitants in Prada and gold jewelry (except me in my dirty floral tank top with pulp fiction under arm). The shiny new Mercedes that gracefully drove me to my week's residence was driven by a multi-lingual gentleman who used turn signals, checking his blind spot before smoothly changing lanes, stopped for pedestrians. I was definitely NOT in New York anymore. He brought me to the door of Mrs Ackerman's apartment and waited until I was let in. Mrs Ackerman is the woman who is renting a room to me for the week. I must star...

The world's premier international art show for Modern and contemporary works, Art Basel features nearly 300 leading galleries from North America , Latin America , Europe , Asia and Africa . More than 2,500 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars, are represented in the show's multiple sections. The exhibition includes the highest-quality paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works. 65,000 people attended Art 42 Basel, the last edition of this favorite rendezvous for the global artworld, including art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators and other art enthusiasts. With its world-class museums, outdoor sculptures, theaters, concert halls, idyllic medieval old town and new buildings by leading architects, Basel ranks as a culture capital, and that cultural richness helps put the Art Basel week on the agenda for art lovers from all over the globe. During Art Basel, a fascin...

This just out today on Ai Wei-Wei... http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jun/22/ai-weiwei-freed-by-chinese-police?CMP=twt_gu On my last day in New York I tried to get into the Armory only to find it closed. Luckily it was a beautiful day that was better suited for an outdoor stroll than a military bunker so I headed over to the Plaza to check out Ai WeiWei's zodiac heads. He makes some pretty riveting work. This was based on the Chinese zodiac and featured the meticulously rendered bronze heads of each animal displayed on poles. It's beautiful and morbid at the same time. The piece seems apropos since he went missing in April, likely due to his controversial work and now there are heads on display like they've been skewered. Art Institutions and Museums around the world are uniting to free Ai WeiWei.

After a day of false starts I finally was able to get back on the plan and meet up with Jason. It was a beautiful day- perfect for checking out the High Line. The High Line is an old abandoned track that has been repurposed as a beautiful walking trail. It is a gem in the city, suspended a story over building entrances and surrounded by rain gardens and lovely public art, it is a real getaway in the city (on a weekday anyway). I was happy to see an installation by Spencer Finch in the windows of a building. I was able to meet him last summer at SAIC where I was doing a study on Contemporary Art. His intense investigation of color theory makes him a kindred spirit and something of an idol in my world. I could never be as precise or scientific in my process as he is but I admire his work and divulged as much when I compromised his time during a visit to the SAID studio. He uses complex measuring tools to recreate the exact colors found in each pixel of an image of the ar...

As many fashion aficionados know, Alexander McQueen ended an amazing career and creative contribution to the art world last spring when he took his own life. Not much more than a year later he is being honored with a show of his work. To say that McQueen's work is theatrical and romantic is like saying bunnies are fuzzy. Fashion was his medium but the man truly was a genius when it came to thematically infusing literature and social commentary into shockingly beautiful garments. Savage Beauty is a collection of McQueen's work over the last 10 years. Upon entering the dark, gothic, almost tomb-like space the audience was met with ambient and wind noises as their eyes adjusted to the low candle-like lighting. The space was wall to wall distressed mirrors framing displays of the work. Many of his seasons were shown but what specifically stood out to me had to do with his use of materials for expression. For example, since the garments were displayed on man...

After the Guggenheim I was in the mood for a little more "well designed stuff" shopping. Specifically stuff that was local or out of my price range. I got a little of both. Moss is a furniture, lighting and housewares shop in SoHo. I love looking at contemporary furniture and lighting because I'm always secretly designing a room in my head. Moooi's high backed Smoke chair made of "ebonized" read: burnt wood that had been sealed with resin and upholstered with a beautiful matte leather is a contempo-gothic masterpiece. The complete counterpoint to Philippe Stark's lucite Ghost chair. Speaking of Philippe Stark, another piece on display was his gun lamp. Base=gold covered AK with a lamp shade. My favorite lamp was a non-mass produced piece called Fall of the Damned Suspension Light made by Luc Merx and a clock called Real Time: Sweeper's Clock made by Maarten Baas. The clock is accomplished by a 12 hour cyclical film of two street...