There were 11 Italian galleries at this edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, which ran Dec. 6-9. All of them presented not only Italian artists, but also international ones, and they were altogether satisfied of the quality of the fair, the sales, and the new contacts.
“Our experience at Art Basel Miami this year was really interesting for the high quality of the participating galleries,” said Milan-based gallery Massimo De Carlo. “The sales were superior to what we expected. We presented both Italian and international artists, like John Armleder, Alighiero Boetti, Dan Colen, Roberto Cuoghi, Rob Pruitt, Piotr Uklanski and Kaari Upson. Italian artists like Roberto Cuoghi and Paola Pivi attracted a lot of interest.”
Just a couple of days before the opening of the fair, a billboard by Paola Pivi was installed on New York’s “High Line,” a former train line that was transformed in a park and public art location. It will be on show until the beginning of January.
Massimo De Carlo’s booth at Art Basel Miami presented a 15-meter wall with Dan Colen’s “Flower Pantings,” alternated with Boetti’s embroideries. On the other side there was “Furniture Sculpture 254” (1991) by Armleder. This creative and out-of-ordinary display achieved resounding success. Sales were between $35,000 and $350,000 dollars.
Also Rome-based gallery Magazzino was satisfied, in particular for the strategic position of Miami, which is a true door to Latin America. “Art Basel Miami Beach has become an important platform almost as much as Art Basel in Switzerland,” the curator of the gallery, Gabriele Gaspari told us. “This year we have noticed a big presence of South American artists, for example in the ‘Art Positions’ section, which was very well conceived. This enriches the fair and underlines the aspect of dialog between North and South America, which is something we see also in the local private collections, above all at the CIFO Foundation.”
According to its mission, which is the promotion of Italian art, the gallery presented many Italian artists such as Massimo Bartolini, Elisabetta Benassi, Alberto Garutti, Daniele Puppi and Alessandro Piangiamore. “Beyond the sales, we are interested in creating for them new possibilities of collaborations and in giving them international exposure.”
At the same time the gallery presented international artists like Mircea Cantor, Aleksandra Mir and Pedro Cabrita Reis, who already had exhibitions in the U.S. and Latin America, in order to underline the international profile of the gallery.
The sales were quite good, above all for Elisabetta Benassi, who is living a very fortunate moment. Her work has been acquired by an important American collection. A work by Massimo Bartolini was bought by an important Swiss public collection.
“The fair has grown,” said Maurizio Rigillo from Galleria Continua. “There are many more events outside the fair, which is positive on one side because they bring attention, novelty and visitors. But on the other side they distract attention from the fair. The visitors passed by the stand less often and there were less occasions to talk to them.”
As usual, Continua presented various artists working with the gallery, focusing on the ones who are currently on show in the three headquarters of the gallery (San Gimignano in Toscana, Beijing, and Le Moulin in France). For example there was Carlos Garaicoa (who now has an important solo show at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Sofia); Loris Cecchini (who currently has a solo show at Diana Lowenstein Gallery in Miami); Berlinde de Bruyckere (who is going to have her first solo show in China at Continua in Beijing, starting Dec. 22); and Ai Weiwei (his solo show in San Gimignano is on until the end of January and is experiencing a great success of public).
Also in this case, the sales were quite good, in particular for Garaicoa and Cecchini. There was demand mainly for works between $20,000 and $26,000.
For Fonti (Naples) this was the first time at Art Basel Miami. “The quality of the fair seemed very good to us and the public was heterogeneous, curious and interested in the younger artists, as well,” said Luigi Giovinazzo from the gallery. Fonti was the only Italian gallery in the “Art Positions” section. It presented a never seen before project by Christian Flamm, titled “An Alphabet,” an installation focusing on an alphabet with a font developed by the artist. With this font the artist has realized an installation and a number of watercolors. Both attracted the attention of collectors. Another work by the artist was inspired by William Nicholson’s human alphabet from 1890.
“Sales were not excellent, but we made contact with many collectors and we are in negotiation for various works.”
For Zero (Milan), instead, this was the first time in the “Art Galleries” section after a number of years of participation in more experimental sections. “The larger size of the booth and its collocation allowed us to better promote our artists,” dealer Paolo Zani told us. Among the Italian artists, Pietro Roccasalva confirmed himself once again as an interesting artist on the international level. For the first time we presented also the work by young Italian artist Andrea Kvas. His work awakened interest as well, also among young critics, and was bought by a couple of important international collections.
The sales were surprisingly good, above all for Neil Beloufa, Mark Barrow, Pietro Roccasalva, Joao Maria Gusmao and Pietro Paiva.
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