MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — It’s Art Basel Miami Beach time. The land and water traffic from Miami to Miami Beach and Biscayne Bay hasn’t surprised locals or tourists, but after 23 years of it, the art still has.
The international contemporary art fair’s new Zero 10 digital art section at the Miami Beach Convention Center featured “Regular Animals” by Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann.
Four-legged robots with the realistic heads of tech moguls moved in a pen during the fair’s VIP preview on Wednesday. Even The Wall Street Journal took notice that the “fleshy” robots “poop out prints” and sold quickly at $100,000 each.
“It’s the joy of discovery, and it’s such a diversity, that’s the beauty of a big and encompassing art fair,” said Patricia M. Oleszko, an artist born in Michigan who was displaying her work at the fair’s Survey sector.
While a German art dealer sold a 2016 abstract painting by Gerhard Richter for $5.5 million, and a 1967 portrait by Alice Neel for $3.3 million, a few buyers using ETH, and a gallery distributed free NFTs, according to Art Basel’s sales report.
Oleszko, a multi-disciplined artist with decades of experience who has shown her work at the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, said it was the first time she was exhibiting at the fair.
“I am so happy. I am so astonished. I am so grateful, and the response has been overwhelming,” Oleszko said while standing near her “hat” collection and massive inflatable sculptures.
The Weinstein Gallery, established in California in the 90s, was proud of works by Frida Kahlo’s 1938 “Autorretrato en Miniatura” at the fair’s booth J12. It’s priced at about $15 million.
The massive yachts with little helicopters had docked at Museum Park in Downtown Miami. Vanity Fair reported that the tourists on the prowl this weekend included Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, whose net worth, according to Forbes, surpasses $243 billion.
Tylar Pelton, a marketer based in Atlanta who visits regularly for her work with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Teremana Tequila, described the energy in Miami as electric.
“I feel like inspiration is just what Art Basel is all about and what this week is about,” Pelton said. “You’ll leave inspired.”
There were critics. Annie Armstrong -- a New York City-based ARTnews columnist who described a floating “used condom” as part of the “trash-filled ocean”-- wrote that Art Basel Miami Beach “could never really be a luxury experience, like its sister fairs.”
The fair opens from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at 1901 Convention Center Drive.
Children are free. The fair’s day ticket for seniors, veterans, and students is $68. General admission is $88. The Art Basel and Design Miami combination ticket is $130, and the weekend ticket is $160. For more options and information, visit this page.
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