Art Basel Miami Beach 2023 recap

I came, I saw, now I'm writing about it: my first time at Art Basel. Miami Beach, that is. A tale of modernism, zombie formalism and formal bras.

Yayoi Kusama

Miami Beach is a beautiful island town with white beaches and palm trees; it also has an architecturally exceptional Art Deco downtown, lots of cultural institutions and diversity: half of Miami Beach residents have Latin American roots, there is a flourishing Jewish community and the town is dubbed a “gay mecca.” The offshoot of Art Basel has been taking place here, in Basel’s twin city, since 2002. Of course, everyone has forgotten that it's not the original Basel. Maybe people don't even know that there is another Basel in Switzerland.

Downtown Miami Beach 

For Miami and South Florida residents, Basel is a party which tens of thousands of people frequent every year. For the Western art industry, Basel is the most important art show in the US. An estimated half a billion dollars are generated during Basel week in early December: the fair lasts three days, with two preview days for celebrities and the ultra-rich; the events and parties surrounding the show take up a week in total.

West Entrance 

This year, 277 galleries from 33 countries presented their best or at least most commercial artists in Miami Beach. I like categories so I divided the art I saw into four: classics, superstars, emerging and zombies. The first category includes works by deceased modernist masters such as Picasso, Haring, Lichtenstein or Basquiat. These works attracted huge public interest. I always wonder who will buy these classics and for how much! (You can check sale prices here.) The second category includes etablished living artists like Kehinde Wiley, who achieved star status after his portrait of Barack Obama. Ai Weiwei's huge Lego copy of Emanuel Leutze's "Washington Crosses the Delaware" (1851) was also very popular at the fair, though I was not a fan. 

Kehinde Wiley and me

The third category of artists is what I describe as "on the verge of fame". The widest range of themes and styles can be found here: Devin N. Moss shows everyday African American life in his installation, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith deals with the consequences of the annihilation of Native Americans in her paintings, Njideka Akunyili Crosby combines the themes of home and identity in a hybrid form of painting and collage.

The final group consists of works that art critics call “zombie formalism,” a type of abstraction that always kind of looks the same: monochromatic canvases with spots or splashes, accompanied by an elaborate artist statement about something like materiality or other. The same category also includes complex-looking but meaningless installations such as a table setting spread out on the floor or fabrics hanging around like rags. There is also lots of kitsch - oversized credit cards, selfie mirrors with funny inscriptions. This group was sadly the largest of the whole art fair.

one of the many mirror art pieces

Basel visitors seemed intoxicated by the art show (and / or the champagne?) and obsessed with taking the best possible photo for their social media (I felt right at home!). The people were often more exciting to look at than the exhibited art. In the four hours I was there, I saw a completely naked lady under a pretty transparent tunic, numerous fancy bras (without anything covering them, obviously) and lots of men with the most coveted it-bags, wearing the the prettiest suits in pink, purpe, pastel, ombré... 

All in all, the art could have been better, but the people and the setting couldn't have. I'm glad I got to see it all with my own eyes. 

Have you ever been? If not, would you like to go?

Talk to you soon,

J.