Art Basel Miami Beach convention center, Saturday afternoon. Photo: © Lindsay Pollock

Link to Bloomberg story here.

Tennis star Venus Williams came to shop, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez came to dinner. They joined the 46,000 others that packed into the five- day Art Basel Miami Beach, dispelling any doubts that the market for contemporary art has left the recession behind.

“The fair was amazingly successful compared with last year,’’ said Donald Rubell, 70, hotelier and collector, seated in the courtyard of a 45,000-square-foot former Drug Enforcement Administration warehouse that now houses the Rubell Family Collection of contemporary art.

As collectors who buy regardless of whether the market is strong or weak, the Rubells did their part for the fair, which ended yesterday. He and his wife Mera, whose picks are tracked by collectors, bought works across Miami. At the main event in the Miami Beach Convention Center they acquired sculptures by New Zealand-born Simon Denny. Up the beach at the cheaper NADA fair devoted to up-and-comers, they snapped up works by Analia Saban, Kaari Upson and Michael DeLucia.

“We are among those unfortunate people who buy when we shouldn’t,’’ said Rubell…

Calvin Klein, Danny Glover, George Hamilton and others at Art Basel Miami Beach. Photo: © Lindsay Pollock

Billionaire art collectors Norman and Irma Braman were hunting for major postwar artworks at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair Wednesday afternoon. What’s important for the art-market outlook: They were finding them.

“People are more confident with the economy,” said Braman, 78, who did well with car dealerships. “And when the economy is better, the sellers come out.” Indeed, sellers were offering a flurry of Picassos, Rothkos and Twomblys priced at more than $5 million.

New York collector Adam Lindemann, in town to promote his new book, Collecting Design, also observed a bump in the caliber of the art, as the market continues to recover from a 2008 plunge.

“Last year, dealers were somewhat anticipating weaker sales,” Lindemann said. “Now they are bringing back better art. It’s a stronger, better fair.”

Art Basel’s ninth Miami edition attracted 250 exhibitors from 29 countries displaying modern and contemporary art by more than 2,000 artists. In response to complaints last year about the fair’s circular layout, stands in the Miami Beach Convention Center have been reconfigured in an improved grid format, incorporating faux-grassy knolls sprouting palm trees. Beyond the convention center…

A happy Art Baseler, image via Flickr

New York art collector Richard Ekstract is one of the 40,000 revelers, wranglers and would-be aesthetes seeking the warmer latitudes of the ninth annual Art Basel Miami Beach art fair this week.

The trade show features more than 250 international dealers and first dibs go today to invited VIPs. Lesser mortals have Dec. 2-5 to embellish their personal Xanadus.

“You try to go and pray you don’t buy anything,” Ekstract said ahead of the show.

The sprawling Miami Beach Convention Center holds the main event, with 15 satellite fairs in its orbit. Specialties include Middle Eastern art (Zoom), West Coast dealers (Aqua) and graffiti and street art (Graffiti Gone Global).

When culture cloys, there are plenty of amusements. Isabella Rossellini will be screening a series of witty short videos about animal sex in the lobby of the Wolfsonian design museum.

Julian Schnabel has teamed up with Maybach, the luxury marquee of Daimler AG, and will unveil his Queequeg — the Maybach Sculpture.

Rocker Perry Farrell will slough off some of his 51 years to perform at the Bardot nightclub.

“The entire world of fashion, architecture, you name it,…

RAND Corp home computer circa 1954 via Flickr

Hold the sun block! Amid packing and preparations for Art Basel Miami Beach…The inaugural on-line VIP Art Fair has announced a list of 139 partakers from 30 countries.

The complete roster follows below. (Tooting our horn: Art Market News broke news of the fair on Aug. 11 here.)

The fair name, which apparently stands for Viewing in Private and not Very Important (or is that Self-Important?) Person according to a press release, takes place on a website from Jan. 22 to Jan. 30. Dealer James Cohan is among forces behind the fair.

AXA Art Insurance has signed on as lead sponsor, although one must imagine a virtual fair entails far fewer insurance liabilities than a live fair, outside of carpal tunnel syndrome for gallerinas assigned to monitor the 24-hour chat.

Fair organizers have also teamed up with Art21 to produce videos of 18 studio visits, which will premiere in the virtual VIP Lounge. Artists include Bruce Nauman, Paul McCarthy, Cai Guo-Qiang and Cindy Sherman.

List of participating galleries:

VIP Founding Galleries
David Zwirner
New York
Galerie Max Hetzler
Berlin

Art Dhabi art fair 2010. Image via Flickr

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

The second annual Abu Dhabi Art fair closed on Nov. 7. The four-day event was held at the glitzy marble-clad Emirates Palace hotel, and hosted by one of the world’s most important new art acquirers:  General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces. The boutique fair featured 50 international exhibitors.

Fair organizers announced the following sales (all male artists–boo!) to unnamed collectors and institutions:

No or bad signal by Abdulnasser Gharem – Traffic Gallery
Parsec by Timo Nasseri – Galerie Sfeir-Semler
Untitled by Anish Kapoor – Kamel Mennour
Sadness by Damien Hirst – Whitecube
Primo Levi by Richard Serra – Gagosian Gallery
Untitled landscape by Zeng Fanzhi – Hanart TZ Gallery
Untitled (Huali wood) by Ai Weiwei – Gallery Hyundai
Michael Jackson by Yan Pei Ming – David Zwirner
Untitled (Tiger head) by Robert Longo -  Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
Dialogue with the blue by Dia Al Azzawi – Meem Gallery

The fair also featured a series of…

Artworks by artist Hernan Cedola, stand Dot Fifty ONE (Miami). Photo: Courtesy Pinta

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

Pinta, the modern and contemporary Latin American art fair, opened Thursday night on the Westside’s Pier 92, launching a week of Latin American events in New York.

Uplifted by strong results at New York’s recent contemporary auctions, collectors and dealers traversed the exhibition hall, the festive atmosphere amplified by the fair’s new champagne-stocked VIP lounges.

Pinta was established in New York in 2007, to highlight modern and contemporary Latin American art, alongside the November auction at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. The first London edition was held this past June.

The fair expanded this year, relocating from Chelsea’s Metropolitan Pavilion event-space, to Pier 92 on the Hudson River. Up from 60 exhibitors last year, this year’s show features 50 participants in the “Galleries” section, 13 individual artist booths, and one “Invited Artist.”

Dubbed “Pinta Art Projects,” these solo presentations booths are sponsored by a gallery curated by Mexico-City born Pablo Leon de la Barra. At least half of the exhibits presented are projects by female artists.

Stopping VIPs in their tracks and causing quite a few “eewws,” and very few “ahs,” were the massive insects…

Cuba Gallery via Flickr

The art fair consolidation game continues as Photo Miami cancels its 2010 edition, according to a statement from fair producers Fotomarkt Art Fairs. The  stated reason is financial:  “Fotomarkt was unsuccessful in its bid to secure additional financing for the Fair. While the company had explored financing from other sources, it could not secure adequate funding within the time frame requisite for producing a fair of the quality that the exhibitors, partners and visitors had come to expect.”

In recent years Photo Miami, which focused on contemporary work, had struggled to land high caliber exhibitors and the show suffered.

The canceled fair was slated for Dec. 1-5, timed to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach. New exhibitors who had signed on board include LMAKprojects and Patricia Conde according to a fair press release. The fair company also produces photo fairs in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Sharon Ebner's 2010 "Agitate" at San Francisco's Altman Siegel gallery in the Frame section of Frieze. Altman Siegel sold two editions, priced $35,000, with a third on reserve for an institution. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

Some 60,000 art browsers, buyers and otherwise culturally curious attended London’s 8th annual Frieze art fair held last week in a buggy tent in Regent’s Park. The fair, a stellar overview of current trends in international art making, included 173 exhibitors from 29 countries.

Below are 63 photos from the week, best viewed on a desktop computer. Look for billionaire hedge fund manager, an abstract painter whose work is infused with joyful West Coast colors and Damien Hirst’s floating fish.

Click here to view.

Entrance to Frieze Art Fair 2010, Regent's Park London. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

Following an event packed week at London’s Frieze Art Fair, I can confidently state that the contemporary art market has plenty of stamina and pep. Sales were selectively brisk. I believe many of the exhibitors made money, though I did hear moans from some quarters that results were just “comme ci, comme ca.”

Another observation: while overwhelmingly artwork lacked content, other than art historical references, or the artist’s own working process, I did notice a smattering of artworks addressing the decline of the U.S. — often the handiwork of American artists — a potentially interesting theme for collectors in search of an subject.

Stay tuned for fair photos which will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, here are links to my Art Newspaper Frieze coverage, including a story on what makes a good fair stand, and another on the role of sexual content in fair, which left me questioning does sex sell?

Standing Out from the Crowd LINK HERE

Does Sex Really Sell? LINK HERE

Ysmael Domingo via Flickr

A group of seven art dealers are shunning the usual December in Miami art fair circuit to organize an aptly named joint show called Seven, located a 24,000 square-foot space in the Wynwood Art District.

Three of the dealers — Brooklyn-based Pierogi, London’s Hales Gallery and New York’s Ronald Feldman — have mounted selling shows during Art Basel week in raw Miami venues since 2006.

This year they expand their reach with the addition of BravinLee programs, Postmasters, PPOW and Winkleman. Each exhibitor will present a solo artist installation, as well as exhibit work in collaborative project spaces.

One can’t help but think that the recent Independent fair — a megahit launched during Armory Show week offering an array of dealers displaying large-scale installations — helped persuade some of the exhibitors to take part.

Seven takes place at 2214 North Miami Avenue from Nov. 30 to Dec. 5 with an opening reception on Nov. 30 from 6-9 pm.

Info: www.seven-miami.com