V.F.’s Guide to Art Basel: David Maupin
Carrie Carlisle
If, by chance, you’re on your way to Florida to attend this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, which opens on Thursday, you’re a lucky person who’s about to be walloped. Inside the Miami Beach Convention Center, more than 250 galleries will present their best, newest, or most salable works to tens of thousands of buyers, artists, dealers, curators, journalists, and members of the art-loving public. Outside, the city explodes with synchronous museum and gallery shows, smaller art fairs, and public art installations—not to mention pool parties, beach parties, and dinner parties thrown in celebration of the fair.
You’ll undoubtedly miss many wonderful things, for lack of time, stamina, or inclusion on certain guest lists. But to make sure it’s not for lack of knowledge, we sought counsel from five longtime inhabitants of the art world, who told us about their projects in Miami and made suggestions for what to see, where to go, and what to think of the week. After the jump, gallerist David Maupin.
David Maupin is co-owner of the New York gallery Lehmann Maupin.??“Every art fair has its characteristics, its texture, its personality. And I think Miami’s personality is energetic, very cutting edge, fun—you know, it’s like a party, like an art party. The whole town is just so open.??We always try to show brand-new work at Art Basel—to keep the audience informed about where the artists’ work is going, how it’s developed since the last exhibition. This year at the booth, we have a special floor designed by Tony Oursler, Synchronistic Lick, and new work of his—sculptures onto which are projected different scenarios, with a very small projector.
And I’m really excited about the new pieces by Mickalene Thomas, where she’s using her mother as a subject, putting her in a classical art-historical context. We also have a new neon by Tracey Emin, With You I Breathe.
I always stay at the W hotel. It’s quiet, close to the fair, and I really love that it’s an art-friendly hotel; they have serious art. I also love that Mr. Chow is there—it’s such an important art-world institution, the best place to entertain. I always have a dinner party at Mr. Chow with my artists; this year five are going down, including Teresita Fernandez—she’s lived in Brooklyn for the last 15 years, but she’s originally from Miami, kind of a darling of Miami. And also Hernan Bas; he’s originally from Miami and a hot young artist of ours, of Cuban descent like Teresita.
On December 2, W magazine is hosting a party at Soho Beach House, which will be kind of great because it brings together design and fashion and art. De Beers diamonds is doing that with W.
In addition to MOCA Miami and Miami Art Museum, I always enjoy going to the private collections: the de la Cruz Collection; Marty Margulies’s collection, which is in an amazing warehouse space that he opens to the public, and he has breakfasts in the morning. And the Rubells do the best curated shows. Not to mention their brunches every day during the fair, which are wonderful. It’s the way you start your day.”
More on David Maupin’s recommendations:
Lehmann Maupin can be found at Stand J16 at this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, which takes place at the Miami Beach Convention Center (entrances are on Convention Center Drive and Washington Avenue), December 2–5. (Previews are held on December 1 from six to nine p.m.)??Mr. Chow restaurant is located at the W South Beach hotel (2201 Collins Avenue, in Miami Beach).??The newly opened Soho Beach House (4385 Collins Avenue, in Miami Beach) is a members club, hotel, and spa. (The W event is by invitation only.)??Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art is located at 770 NE 125th Street, and Miami Art Museum is at 101 West Flagler Street, both in Miami.??Also in Miami, the de la Cruz Collection (23 NE 41st Street), Margulies Collection at the Warehouse (591 NW 27th Street), and Rubell Family Collection’s (95 NW 29th Street) are private art collections that are on view to the public. On December 2, breakfast will be offered at the Margulies Collection starting at nine a.m. The Rubell Family Collection’s serve-yourself food installation, Just Right, will be available from nine a.m. to noon, December 1–5. (Read our interview with the annual breakfasts’ creator, food artist Jennifer Rubell.)