Born in Havana, Cuba, 1971. In 1998 he moved to Granada, Spain. He currently lives in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. Spanish citizen since 2016.
Degree in Education with a specialization in History and Philosophy. Thesis: Aesthetics of the Visual Arts (Estética de las Artes Visuales, 1994). Post-graduate studies in Aesthetics and Critical Theory at the Art Institute of Havana (1994-1996), and Conservation and Museum Management and Universidad Europea Miguel de Cervantes, Valladolid, Spain (2018).
In 1993 he was honored with a mention for the poetry prize Luis Rogelio Nogueras Ciudad San Cristóbal de La Habana for Los Arcanos del Eco. In 1994 he won the prize with Himnos de Ultramar (Poemas-Jazz), and in 1995 he won the Joven Mangle Rojo National Poetry Prize for Candor del Extravío. In 1995 he won the National Prize (AHS, Havana, Cuba) for PalimpsestosNeo-Barrocos (1995–1998), and in 2003 he won the New York-based Cuban Artist’s Fund (CAF) scholarship for his book Hijos de la Marea (Arte Cubano en el Exilio).
He has curated over one hundred exhibitions including José Bedia: Estremecimientos (2004), Barroco y Neobarroco, Ray Smith Deux Machine (2006), Tony Ousrler Mirada pensante (2008), ON PAINTING (2013), and Raúl Cordero Slow art for fast crowds (2022), among many others.
Director of the Atlantic Center of Modern Art (CAAM), Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain (2010-2015), and Director of Nova Invaliden Galerie, Berlin, Germany (2016-2017). Director of the curatorial studies seminar lpgc (2020) and of the 1st LPGC Contemporary Art Encounters, The Taken City (2021) co-curated with Dalia de la Rosa, Suset Sánchez and Octavio Zaya, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
The list of monographs he has edited includes Jorge Galindo,Elixir (2005), Turner, Madrid, Ray Smith (2006), Polígrafa, Barcelona, José Bedia. Obra, 1978–2006 (2007), Tony Oursler: Thinking Gaze (Mirada Pensante )(2008), Raúl Cordero (2010), Ron Gorchov. Donde se oculta el alma (2011) Turner, Madrid, Spain. Jesús Zurita un extraño ser (2019), GEGalería – ArtReport Editions, Monterrey, Mexico.
In 1996, he published Himnos de Ultramar (Poemas-Jazz), Ediciones Extramuros, Havana, Cuba and in 2013 La estela del samurái [una poética], Editorial Dardo, Santiago de Compostela, The publishing houses Hurón Azul published its compilation The Atlantic Experience and Ediciones El Drago published its vibrato collection of poems (2020) Madrid, Spain.
He has published more than two hundred texts in specialized art editions, such as the magazines: Atlántica, art.es, Dardo, Sublime Magazine and ArtNexus.
Omar-Pascual Castillo currently works as an editor and freelance curator.
An Interview with Wynnie Mynerva / Una entrevista con Wynnie Mynerva
By Ricky Amadour
Wynnie Mynerva, “El retorno al Utero” (2021). Oil on canvas.
This interview is available in both Spanish and English.
Peruvian-born, Lima-based artist Wynnie Mynerva is at the forefront of sexual expression, deconstructing gender constructs. Minerva, who is represented by LatchKey Gallery, develops site-specific installations and multi-person, participatory, action-based paintings as a form of building community. In this interview, we dive deep into the artist’s representations of the body and their views on dismantling repression associated with human sexuality.
RICKY AMADOUR: Nice to meet you. I wanted to get to know you more and ask you something straightforward. Where are you from and what was your first interest in painting and art?
WYNNIE MYNERVA: I was born in Lima, Peru. I feel it is important to mention the district where I was born, Villa El Salvador. Lima has different social strata and places of conflict, and Villa El Salvador is located on the outskirts of the city. From a very young age, I wanted to paint. I have painted and won contests since I was a child. I’ve had artistic talent since I was little, and they celebrated me for it. My family didn’t know precisely what art was, but they knew about painting more broadly. I wanted to be a painter and ended up a visual artist in a state-run public school in Lima.
RA: Your art is very personal and displays a lot of intimacy, especially with sexuality. What representations do you not see at the moment?
WM: I am interested in the representation of dissidence, the periphery, and aberrant bodies. Bodies that are not controlled, that are not consumed, that do not want to be consumed and do not allow themselves to be consumed. I think of representation as plural. I like to talk about the intimate because I fear taking someone else’s voice. In other words, I fear appropriating something, because paintings have that power. That’s one of maybe a few pros and cons. Sometimes the market can misrepresent the meaning of what one wants to say in a painting. So, in that sense, I like to talk about what is intimate so as not to talk about the other, not to speak about them from my perspective, which I ultimately think is reductive. What I articulate is a bit of life, of a society where I was born, grew up, and live in a society that, in the end, has condensed me and many people like me who come from similar circumstances. In that sense, I like to give my body to action painting, performance, and drawings to become a subject of experimentation and investigation.
Wynnie Mynerva in their studio, courtesy of the artist.
RA: I am a non-binary person. I feel very comfortable viewing your work and feel like I can be part of that representation. How do you create empathy for diverse expressions?
WM: I am primarily interested in getting out of the heterosexual model. Getting away, for example, from genitals that “belong” to sexual identity and that are representative of a specific body. I was born a biological female and socialized as a biological female. When I started painting, I thought hard about how women are represented in painting and about changing the paradigm of women as consumables. Later on, when I stopped connecting with the idea of being a woman and began to identify as a non-binary person, the scope of my work expanded. I may look feminine, but I don’t have a vagina or want children; I’m not a biological woman. I recently had a relationship with a trans woman and like variety. The fluidity of concepts, of ceasing to abide by constructs, is something that interests me not only in art but in life.
RA:And how did you determine these ideas?
WM: By approaching my work through feminism, I attempted to leave behind the idea of identifying myself by my vagina to build my own vision of femininity and masculinity. But it didn’t work out. When I found out that you could be non-binary, I found myself.
RA: Is it to seek dignity?
WM: In my paintings, what I look for are social relationships. Seeing how bodies interact, become energy, become worthy vital forces. Not solely as a representation of the damaged body. It is an integral part of my work to talk about violence, but also as a gesture that dignifies the body somehow, showing power beyond the victim.
RA: You could say that your site-specific installations are celebratory events.
WM: My works, for example, are celebrations and parties. I like the idea of a party, a celebration, where the colors burst, where people live an event within the painting, which is something one may yearn for. It is not a place where someone says “poor thing,” but rather, where they can enjoy themselves. So, I feel it is in that dignity that I like to present my projects. Like an act of revenge, a feat, a triumph.
RA: I have close friends, especially in Colombia, who are along the same lines as you, including Olga Robayo from Residencia El Parche, Daniela Maldonado from La Red Communitaria Trans (The Trans Community Network), and Christian Howard Hooker from Corporación Colectivo CalleShortBus. In art, a new mentality is developing in how people represent themselves in society and how they oppose machismo, acting together against violence.
WM: There have been many particular instances of violence that made me want to touch on human trauma. For me, art is a form of therapy to talk about what continues as memory and pain. It is a constant drive. My projects, I’ve realized, are means to explore those other perspectives.
Wynnie Mynerva, “Tus garras en mi” (2022). Oil on canvas.Wynnie Mynerva, “La libertad no se define sino se ejerce (Freedom is not defined but exercised)” (2022). Oil on canvas.
RA: Shall we say sex positivity?
WM: For example, about sex positivity. How do we use sex as a space for creativity and an ideological space? It is not only about having sex but as the general performance of our lives. We talk about the dominating and the dominated as the most basic power institutions of heterosexuality. They have moved into endless possibilities to do so, for example, from guilt or guilt in sex, or as good and evil, which is often rooted in religious tradition. For instance, in one of my exhibitions, I proposed El Jardín de las Delicias (The Garden of Earthly Delights), where people have sex inside latex bags. I wanted a garden where people could go to enjoy themselves. And the idea of having sex is a thing so common. We do it every day. Yet, it is so difficult to observe or know that it exists. The people who attended the room entered and could sense what was happening. People knew others were having sex inside the bags and had to live with that scene.
RA: And people stayed?
WM: They couldn’t get away from it because it was part of the exhibit, and I installed a big synthetic floor where visitors were invited to sit. They began to sit down, and a chimerical image occurred from one moment to another, almost dreamlike. People had their drinks and talked while they looked around at how people were having sex and at how others were reacting.
RA: You said you don’t see a difference between porn and classical art?
WM: The truth is, among erotic artists, I find no differences in the sense of image production. Both are sexual images. Let’s say there is a pictorial quality. I feel like it’s a class difference. Art puts elite or social classifying labels on us. I still can’t find a difference.
RA: How do you choose the people involved in your projects? And how can they participate?
WM: The truth is that I am constantly approached by people who want to dare to do something. By lawyers, doctors, engineers, and the baker who sells you bread. People want to live experiences. I invite them to my studio, and we talk to see if their intentions are serious. There are people from all walks of life. That also interests me in my work. The painting is like a stage, and they are like the actors; it’s super theatrical, dramatic, and I like that.
RA: Have you had confrontations from other people who don’t like what you’re doing or feel differently?
WM: Yes, during my first exhibition, El Otro Sexo (The Other Sex) which was presented in a language center. Children attended on Saturdays, so parents got together to close the presentation. It became a commotion of wanting to remove the actual sticks with their hands, and in the end, they canceled the show. It lasted less time. It has happened enough that there are people who write to me, persecute me, are disoriented because of the content I make, and threaten me, even in my artist community.
RA: What are your hopes, and how do you see the future?
WM: I feel that things are progressing very slowly. I think that my job is to try to touch the future, which I would like to enjoy, but will not see in the end. And so, for example, that’s why I had my operation, my sexual reassignment. That’s why I’ve done a lot of work that maybe, in some way, is like wanting to reach something; to touch the limits. I want people to see sexuality as a transgression, a form of taking over, accessible to play and enjoy.
Wynnie Mynerva, “Las huellas de las personas que caminaron juntas (The footprints of people who walked together), detail, 2022, oil on canvas.
Una entrevista con Wynnie Mynerva Por Ricky Amadour
La artista Peruana radicada en Lima, representada por LatchKey Gallery, Wynnie Mynerva, está a la vanguardia de la expresión sexual, deconstruyendo construcciones de género. Mynerva desarrolla instalaciones específicas del sitio y pinturas basadas en la participación de varias personas como una forma de construir comunidad. En esta entrevista, profundizamos en las representaciones del cuerpo del artista y sus puntos de vista sobre el desmantelamiento de la represión asociada a la sexualidad humana.
RICKY AMADOUR: Mucho gusto. Quería conocerte más y preguntarte algo muy simple. ¿De dónde eres y cuál fue tu primer interés en la pintura y el arte?
WYNNIE MYNERVA: Yo nací en Lima, Perú. En Lima también siento que es importante mencionar el distrito donde nací, Villa El Salvador. Lima tiene diferentes estratos sociales, lugares de conflicto y digamos que Villa El Salvador es un lugar ubicado a la periferia o a los alrededores del centro de Lima, puede. Desde muy niña yo quería pintar. Soy de esos casos de que desde niña pintaba y ganaba concursos. Digamos un talento desde chiquita que me festejaban. No sabía exactamente lo que era el arte, pero sabía lo que era la pintura. Menos las artes visuales que son mucho más amplias. Y desde ahí me acuerdo mis honorarios de niña decían. O sea, quiero ser pintora, y terminé como artista visual en una escuela estatal pública de Lima.
RA: Siento que tu arte es muy personal y también tiene mucho de lo íntimo, especialmente con la sexualidad. ¿Cuáles representaciones que no ves en este momento?
WM: Me interesa ahora la representación de los cuerpos, la disidencia, la periferia, y cuerpos aberrantes en el buen sentido. Como los cuerpos que no están controlados, que no están consumidos, que no quieren ser consumidos y no se dejan ser consumidos. Pienso en la representación de lo plural. ¿Me gusta hablar de lo íntimo en el sentido que tengo mucho miedo tomar la voz de alguien más, no? O sea, de alguna forma, apropiarme de algo, de apropiarme de la compra o comercialización. Porque los cuadros, la pintura, tienen eso. ¿Eso es también uno de lo tal vez un algunos de los pros y los contras, no? A veces el mercado puede llegar a tergiversar el significado de lo que uno quiere decir en una pintura. Entonces, en ese sentido, me gusta hablar de lo íntimo para no hablar del otro, no para hablar desde mi propia mirada, que al fin y al cabo creo que reduce. De lo que habla es un poco de la vida, de una sociedad donde yo nací, crecí y vivo en una sociedad que al final me ha condensado y mucha gente como yo vengó para los procesos similares. En ese sentido, me gusta entregar mi cuerpo de acción en la pintura, en el performance, en dibujos, para ser un sujeto de experimentación, un sujeto de investigación.
RA: Yo soy una persona no binarie. Me siento muy cómodo cuando veo tu arte, me siento como que yo puedo ser parte de esa representación. ¿Cómo quieres crear empatía para las formas diversas en que representas?
WM: Me interesa primero salir del modelo heterosexual, como la representación, por ejemplo, de los genitales que pertenecen a una identidad sexual, que la representamos a un cuerpo específico. Yo nací como mujer biológica y me socialicé como mujer biológica. Cuando inicié mi trabajo de pintura tenía un fuerte rayo en pensar cómo la mujer se representa dentro de la pintura y cambiar ese paradigma de la mujer de consumo. Después fui ampliando ese ámbito cuando deje de conectarme con la idea de ser mujer. Me interesa ser una persona no binarie. O sea, me veo femenina, no tengo una vagina, no quiero tener hijos, no soy una mujer biológica como tal. Hace poco acabo de tener una relación con una mujer trans. Me gusta esa variedad. La fluidez de los conceptos, de dejar de estructurar los papeles, es algo que me interesa y no solamente en el arte, sino de la vida.
RA: ¿Y como te sentiste?
WM: Siento que a partir de corrientes como el feminismo, intenté dejar la idea de identificarme con mi vagina y construir mi propia idea de feminidad, masculinidad y transitar en esas vías y amplitudes. Pero no lo logré. Entonces, cuando se me presentó la idea del concepto de no binarie, me sentí totalmente dentro de elle.
RA: ¿Es para buscar una dignidad?
WM: Y en las pinturas ahora, actualmente lo que busco son relaciones sociales. Como los cuerpos interactúan, siendo energía, siendo fuerzas vitales dignas. No como una representación o solamente del cuerpo maltratado. Es una parte importante de mi trabajo hablar sobre la violencia, pero también una representación que dignifica de alguna forma, que muestra un poder más allá de la víctima.
RA: Se puede decir que tus instalaciones son eventos de festejar.
WM: Si, mis trabajos, por ejemplo, festejan, son unas fiestas. Me gusta mucho esa idea de ser una fiesta, una celebración, que los colores revienten, que la gente viva un suceso dentro de la pintura, que es algo que uno pueda añorar. No es algo que alguien diga “pobrecito”, sino más bien como elle está viviendo, elle está disfrutando. Entonces siento que es en esa dignidad, en cuál me gusta presentar mis proyectos. Como una revancha, una hazaña, pero ganada.
RA: Tengo amistades cercanas, especialmente en Colombia, que están por la misma corriente como Olga Robayo de Residencia El Parche, Daniela Maldonado de La Red Comunitaria Trans y Christian Howard Hooker de Corporación Colectivo CalleShortBus. Yo creo que entre el arte se está desarrollando una mentalidad nueva en cómo la gente se representa en sociedad y combate el machismo, para subirse todos contra la violencia.
WM: Hubo muchos episodios de violencia que me hicieron querer tocar el trauma humano. Y para mí el arte es una forma de terapia para hablar de aquello que todavía sigue como una memoria y de dolor, como una pulsión constante. Pero después, a través de mis proyectos, me di cuenta de que es un medio para explorar otras perspectivas.
Wynnie Mynerva, “El retorno al Utero” (2021). Oil on canvas.
RA: ¿Digamos el sexo libre?
WM: Por ejemplo, eso del sexo libre, como utilizar el sexo como un espacio de creatividad y un espacio ideológico también. No solamente se trata de tener relaciones sexuales, sino como el performance en general, de nuestras vidas. Mira, se habla de dominante y dominado como esas instituciones de poder más básicas de la heterosexualidad. Se han trasladado en un sinfín de posibilidades de hacerlo, por ejemplo, de la culpa, no la culpa en el sexo, como el bien y el mal, que es muchas veces arraigado de la tradición religiosa. Entonces siento que justo estaba pensando, últimamente hay alguna posibilidad de vivir fuera el pensamiento del bien y el mal. Por ejemplo, en una de mis exhibiciones propuse en El Jardín de las Delicias que la gente tuviera sexo dentro de la exhibición en bolsas de látex. No era sino en El Jardín de las Delicias, que en realidad lo que ella quiere es un jardín donde la gente vaya a disfrutar. Y la idea de tener sexo es una cosa tan común que lo hagas todos los días, pero tan difícil de observar o saber qué existe. La gente que asiste a la sala entraba y podía intuir lo que estaba sucediendo. Intuía que la gente sabía el sexo dentro de la bolsa y tenía que convivir con esa escena.
RA: ¿Y la gente se quedaba?
WM: No podían escapar de esa escena porque era parte de la exhibición y había puesto un piso de gran sintético donde invitaba a la gente a sentarse. Se empezaron a sentar y de un momento a otro sucedió una imagen quimérica, casi de sueños. La gente empezaba a tomar sus tragos y conversar mientras la gente miraba cómo alrededor estaba la gente teniendo sexo y los demás estaban.
RA: ¿Tú dijiste que no ves una diferencia entre la pornografía y el arte clásico?
WM: La verdad es que entre cualquier artista de arte erótico no encuentro diferencias en el sentido de producción de la imagen. Los dos son imágenes sexuales. Digamos que hay una calidad que es pictórica. Siento que es una diferencia de clases. El arte nos pone etiquetas de élite o de clases sociales. No encuentro todavía una diferencia.
RA: ¿Cómo escoges las personas que son como que participan en tus proyectos? ¿Y cómo pueden participar?
WM: La verdad es que siempre se me acerca gente qué quiere atreverse a hacer algo. Es importante, pero también al abogado, al doctor, al ingeniero, al panadero que te vende el pan, allá gente que realmente quiere vivir experiencias. Los cito a mi taller, hablamos un rato a ver si sus intenciones son serias. Y hay gente de todo, de todos los ámbitos. Eso me interesa también en mi trabajo. La pintura es como un escenario, son como los actores, súper teatral, la dramática, eso me gusta.
RA: ¿Has tenido confrontaciones de otras personas que no le gusta lo que estás haciendo o que se sienten de otra manera?
WM: Sí, la primera exhibición que yo tuve, El Otro Sexo, se presentó en un centro de idiomas y asistían niños los sábados, entonces los padres de familia se reunieron a querer cerrar la muestra. Se convirtió en un revuelo de querer sacarlas los palos con las manos y al final cancelaron la muestra. Duró menos tiempo. Ha pasado bastante que hay gente que me escribe, me persigue como gente que se desorienta, por el tipo de contenido que hago y me persigue o amenaza, o mi propio gremio artístico.
RA: ¿Cuáles son tus esperanzas y cómo vez el futuro?
WM: Yo siento que las cosas están avanzando muy lento, entonces pienso que mi trabajo tratar de tocar un poco el futuro, que me gustaría gozar, pero que no voy a ver al final. Y por eso. Por ejemplo. Por eso me hice mi operación, mi reasignación sexual. Por eso he hecho un montón de trabajos que tal vez de alguna forma es cómo querer alcanzar algo y tratar de tocar los límites. Quiero que la gente vea la sexualidad como eso, una transgresión, una forma de apropiarse, una forma de ser libre, y jugar y disfrutar en ella.
Amadour is an interdisciplinary artist who works with painting, sculpture, sound, and performance to investigate landscape, architectural forms, and our relationship as humans to built and natural environments. They received dual BA degrees in studio art and art history from the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture in 2018.
Amadour es un artista interdisciplinario que trabaja con pintura, escultura, sonido y performance para investigar el paisaje, las formas arquitectónicas y nuestra relación como seres humanos con los entornos construidos y naturales. Recibió una doble diploma en arte de estudio e historia del arte en la Escuela de Arte y Arquitectura de la UCLA en 2018.
How Art Fairs and Exhibitors are Adopting Climate-Conscious Practices
By Annabel Keenan
Sustainability has become an urgent concern for collectors, dealers, artists, and institutions across the industry. While groups and individuals have been taking steps to implement sustainable practices on micro and personal levels for several years, coordinated efforts for system-wide changes have steadily gained traction since the pandemic began. Groups, collectives, campaigns, and resources have popped up across the globe, and wasteful practices have come under heavy scrutiny. As a major part of the industry, art fairs have also taken steps to address sustainability, creating pathways to environmentally conscious operations that fit the specific needs of each fair.
As temporary events that bring exhibitors and visitors from across the country and abroad, art fairs face unique challenges and roadblocks to sustainability. People and artworks travel to the fairs, resulting in emissions from flights, packing, and shipping. Materials like crates and pedestals are often custom-made, making it difficult to reuse items. Moreover, insurance companies and customs agencies may have specific requirements, such as using new materials for crates.
One of the best ways to reduce waste is to slow down and plan ahead, which is difficult based on the short period of an art fair. Shipments by sea are environmentally friendlier than those by air, but securing sea freight takes time and flexibility. Exhibitors often don’t have this flexibility, in particular those showing new works that may have just left the artist’s studio. Moreover, the goal of an art fair is ultimately to sell art, meaning the works an exhibitor brings ideally will not return with them, resulting discarded materials after the fair ends. A work that was flown in a crate or exhibited on a pedestal might end up in a collection down the road, sending unneeded items to a landfill.
Before its launch in 2012, Untitled Art took steps to weave sustainable solutions into its operations. The fair’s unique home on the sands of Miami Beach required organizers to work closely with the city’s Department of Environmental Protection to comply with local regulations. Untitled has a “zero-impact presentation”, meaning when the fair is over, the beach is returned to its original state without any trash, oils, or waste spilled.
“The very nature of the fair on the sands of Miami Beach has meant we have needed to take the surrounding location and wider environmental concerns into consideration from the moment we launched,” says Jeff Lawson, founder of Untitled Art. “We work closely with the city to ensure we leave the beach exactly the way we found it and even pay fees to help maintain the beach and surrounding areas.”
Caption: Antonia Wright’s And so with ends comes beginnings (2019) viewable from the beach at Lummus Park in Miami during opening night of Untitled Art 2021. Image courtesy of Casey Kelbaugh.
Unlike other fairs that take place in permanent spaces like convention centers, Untitled relies on temporary structures. Recognizing the environmental and economical benefits of reusing materials, Untitled uses the same tent, walls, and furniture annually, with the exception of the VIP lounges that change with the fair’s needs. Untitled continually adapts to more sustainable practices. They shifted to digital passes in 2013 just one year after launching with physical passes and installed an energy efficient generator in 2021 to improve air flow and reduce carbon footprint. In 2019, the fair hosted programming and special projects related to the environment, highlighting South Florida and the Everglades in particular.
“The art industry’s impact on the environment is something I have always felt passionately about and something that has been drawing increasing attention. We know that art fairs have a real impact on the environment, whether that means VIPs flying in on private jets or waste generated from the build of the fair. We are always looking to innovate and see where we can mitigate this impact as much as possible,” says Lawson.
Other fairs are also taking notice. In 2021, Frieze launched a sustainability committee that consists of employees from all parts of its organization who share information on challenges and work together to find solutions. Part of understanding the fair’s impact requires concrete data, so Frieze has begun conducting carbon footprint audit for its fairs to learn how to make tangible, calculable changes. Seeking to cut down on the waste, Frieze encouraged its Los Angeles 2022 exhibitors to use the peer-to-peer website Barder.art, which allows users to post items for free or for sale anywhere in the world. In time for Frieze London, Barder has just launched a free shuttle within Central London in partnership with the sustainability non-profit Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) and the shipping and logistics company Queen’s.
Art Basel also announced its commitment to sustainability in June of 2022, outlining steps the fair is taking and will take to reduce its ecological impact. The fair hired a specialized consultancy to calculate its carbon footprint to better understand the myriad factors that contribute to its overall emissions. The fair has also become members of GCC and adopted the non-profit’s goals of facilitating a greener art industry, achieving near zero-waste practices, and aligning with the Paris Agreement by reducing the art world’s collective emissions by 50% by 2030.
While art fairs are working to improve their own operations, exhibitors are embarking on similar journeys to make sustainable decisions. Over the last two years, several groups and initiatives have formed that support galleries, artists, art workers, and institutions to identify areas of improvement and share resources and solutions. The aforementioned GCC launched in London in the fall of 2020 and has since expanded to Berlin, Italy, Los Angeles, and Taiwan. GCC consists of artists, institutions, businesses, and other non-profits and provides guidance, tools, and resources to reduce the sector’s climate impact. A vital service GCC provides is a free, user-friendly carbon calculator tailored for the art industry.
In New York, the worker-led initiative Galleries Commit formed in April 2020 to support climate-conscious operations and an equitable future. Its website includes a climate action database where members list useful resources, actions they’ve taken, and plans for future actions. Galleries Commit also partnered with the land conservation non-profit Art to Acres to support the permanent protection of over 200,000 acres of cloud forest in Peru, which was achieved with funds from over 40 art institutions.
In April 2021, Galleries Commit launched a sister initiative, Artists Commit, to provide artists with tools to improve their operations and hold institutions accountable to do the same. A keystone of Artists Commit is the Climate Impact Report (CIR), which examines the impact of an exhibition beyond its carbon footprint. The reports focus on: cutting emissions, eliminating waste, assisting collective action, and supporting people. Artists Commit provides a template that is easy to adapt to diverse practices and offers guidance through the process. The reports are listed publicly on the group’s website, allowing others to learn from previous examples.
London-based gallery The Approach worked with Artists Commit to conduct a CIR for their 2022 Frieze New York booth to better understand the impact of their operations and find ways to improve them in the future. They shared a booth with New York-based Simone Subal Gallery, allowing them to share resources such as lighting and furniture. With the support of Simone Subal’s team, fewer staff members from The Approach needed to fly from London, helping to reduce emissions related to international travel. The Approach also opted not to use items that could contribute to waste after the fair like pedestals and single-use objects but noted that leftover crates were likely to go unused. The gallery plans to ship artwork by sea in the future.
Caption: Recognizing the environmental and economic benefits of reusing materials, Untitled uses the same tent, walls, and furniture annually, with the exception of the VIP lounges that change with the fair’s needs. Image courtesy of Casey Kelbaugh.
One of the benefits of CIRs is the transparent recognition of problems, which is useful for other galleries and for the businesses that support them, such as art fairs and shipping companies. Like many exhibitors, The Approach noted that it hoped to find a reusable option for crating its artwork. In response, companies like ROKBOX have emerged that are working to create adaptable, reusable shipping solutions. Similar climate-conscious solutions like EARTHCRATE are being explored to use recyclable materials to custom-build crates that reduce waste even if they have a limited use. Art fairs, including Untitled, also encourage exhibitors to use consolidated shipments.
Marking a concerted effort to work towards a sustainable industry aligned with the Paris Agreement, GCC and Galleries Commit joined forces in July 2021 with five other climate activist groups to form Partners for Arts Climate Targets (PACT). Along with Art to Acres, Art + Climate Action, Art/Switch, Art to Zero, and Ki Culture, the groups formed PACT to amplify their individual efforts and center on the four main pillars of reducing emissions, shifting to zero waste, achieving unified standards of sustainability, and incorporating intersectional environmentalism that includes social justice. Now joined by Artists Commit, the eight groups hail from across the globe and have diverse approaches to the common goal of a sustainable industry.
While these groups, initiatives, and climate-conscious decisions might look different, the vision is the same: a sustainable art industry. Data reporting and conversations continue to raise more questions, which will enable the industry to reevaluate operations and find sustainable solutions in the future. If artists ask galleries to commit to sustainability, galleries will in turn ask art fairs and shippers to provide climate-conscious options. The goal is to change the industry system wide so that sustainability is part of every decision from the studio to the art fair to the artwork’s final home.
Annabel Keenan is a widely published writer and editor and has contributed to several digital and print publications, including The Art Newspaper, Cultured Magazine, Hyperallergic, Brooklyn Rail, and Artillery Magazine, among others. She specializes in contemporary art, market reporting, exhibition reviews and is actively promoting sustainability in the art world through her writing.
Untitled Art is the leading independent art fair taking place annually on the sands of Miami Beach. Guided by a mission to support the wider art ecosystem, Untitled Art offers an inclusive platform for discovering contemporary art and prioritizes collaboration in each aspect of the fair.
Participants are selected for their curatorial integrity and international reach, with several galleries coming from outside mainstream art hubs. Emerging artists, young galleries and non-profit organizations are supported through NEST, a new sector that offers subsidized booths to mitigate traditional entry barriers associated with art fair participation. The first to launch an online art fair, Untitled Art continually invests in new technologies to make contemporary art collecting more accessible to new audiences and is dedicated to advancing responsible culture by actively using its platform to amplify under-represented voices.
Through critical educational programing, Untitled Art attracts contemporary art collectors, art historians, curators and students. It also carefully considers the context in which it is held, ensuring leading galleries from Miami are represented and local institutions are engaged. As part of its efforts to reduce its environmental impact, Untitled Art works closely with the City of Miami Beach to ensure a zero-impact presentation, reusing its custom-designed tent for each edition and donating furniture to local schools. In 2022, Untitled Art will also reignite its ‘writers-in-residence’ program, to support the advancement of art criticism while cultivating the next generation of writers.
Untitled Art 2022 will take place during Miami Art Week from Tuesday November 29 through Saturday December 3, with a VIP Preview on Monday November 28. The fair coincides with Art Basel Miami Beach, held from Thursday December 1 to Saturday December 3.
Untitled Art will return to Miami Beach from Tuesday, 29 November through Saturday, 3 December 2022.
Address:Ocean Drive and 12th Street, Miami Beach, Florida
LA FOTOGRAFIA DE ADA RIVERA. LINGUISTICAS DEL PAISAJE. PAISAJES HEROICOS.
Por Dra. Milagros Bello*
“Las fotografías no pueden crear una posición moral, pero pueden reforzarla y ayudar a construir una incipiente”. Susan Sontag, Sobre la fotografía
Ada Rivera crea poderosas fotografías que resignifican la lingüística de la fotografía clásica. Sus fotografías focalizadas en el paisaje como género establecen un juego de referencias sígnicas que conducen a una crítica reflexión sobre la naturaleza. Sus obras tanto en blanco y negro como en color muestran montajes de signos visuales contrapuestos, de un paisaje en aparente calma y armonía que esconde y metaforiza una crisis en heroica supervivencia. La obra muestra paisajes genéricos, parajes no identificados de referencias tropicale, común a todos los lares del planeta donde el sol prevalece como fuerza movilizadora de la fauna agreste y la profusión de arboledas.
Ada Rivera Broken Nature Series II, 2020
En ese paisaje que en primer lugar muestra escenarios que desbordan en fuerzas bucólicas, – en sus atardeceres luminosos, sus destellos, contraluces y silueteados de las formas- se crean reminiscencias de paraíso olvidados, de terrenos baldíos. Sin embargo, dentro de esa aparente armónica visual aparecen ensambladuras, armazones de madera que se instalan impertérritos al lado de un árbol o en la panorámica infinita de un horizonte. ¿Es la naturaleza intervenida por la mano del hombre? En otras fotografías, no hay ensamblajes industriales sobre el paisaje sino geometrías superpuestas que enigmáticas flotan en las nubes o intervienen sobre los árboles; son geometrías que la artista intencionalmente ha creado con programas software. Rectilíneas radiales o entrecruzadas, cuadrados en movimiento, crean tracciones centrifugas, o cuadraturas reclusivas, a la manera de recintos tensionales que intervienen la orgánica sinuosidad de las siluetas naturales. En ambos casos, la fotografía paisajística de Ada Rivera se resignifica, saliendo del marco tradicional de reproducción de la realidad, y muestra el paisaje como espacio de confrontaciones, y aposento de discrepancias sígnicas. El paisaje en esta fotografía contemporánea es un terreno sitiado, cautivo, enclavado. Rompiendo con la inocencia y la añoranza melancólica de un paisaje romántico, la artista crea un lugar de reflexiones socio-antropológicas sobre la naturaleza y su devenir en esta era del Antropoceno. En su obra no hay registro narrativo sino discurso metafórico; una topología de la crisis que enuncia el paisaje como arbitraje entre la supervivencia y la destrucción. El paisaje es un ente visual heroico que subsiste en la colisión de los intereses de los capitales inversivos y de la conciencia de la preservación, que se debate entre la borradura y la permanencia.
Rivera, en su prolífica producción, ha ampliado enormemente su investigación de soportes hasta el punto de añadir originalmente a su imagen fotográfica, el uso de luces de neón en formas geométricas entrecruzadas, que se superponen sobre la imagen, creando notables efectos luminosos, situando su obra en los lenguajes más contemporáneos de la Fotografía. La obra se establece como un proyecto estético logrado que confirma el oficio y el saber fotográfico de la artista, su manejo técnico singular en los encuadres, sus armonías compositivas, su manejo de luces, contraluces y atmosferas, su fuerza en las cromáticas escogidas y sus gradaciones, sin embargo, el verdadero aporte es su lingüística fotográfica en las que pone en revisión nuestro planeta y su precario futuro. La obra de Ada Rivera establece sin preámbulos “la transparencia del mal” (Jean Baudrillard) de nuestras sociedades modernas. Su aporte se entrelaza a otras voces de mujeres fotógrafas que miran con conciencia el planeta y sus vicisitudes y sus amenazas en aras de un proyecto civilizatorio de dudosos resultados.
Ada Rivera Naturaleza en Cautiverio IV 2021
*Ada Rivera, nació en la ciudad de La Vega, Rep. Dom, donde a muy temprana edad, asiste a diversas disciplinas incluyendo Pintura, escultura y música en el Palacio de Bellas Artes de su amado pueblo. Realizó estudios en Diseño y Decoración en la universidad “Pedro Henríquez Ureña”, luego viaja a Europa donde realiza estudios de licenciatura en Artes Plásticas en la universidad de La Sorbonne en París, sumándole a esta, estudios de Pintura en la Academia de la Grande Chaumiere. Más adelante se traslada a Italia donde continúa ampliando sus conocimientos en Historia del Arte y de los Estilos. Posteriormente ejerce estudios de curaduría en Arte en Saint Martin Lane School of Arts, en Londres.
Este inmenso recorrido por el arte, la ha llevado al mundo de la fotografía, donde formaliza su pasión de toda la vida por esta disciplina la cual busca compartir su percepción de todo lo aprendido. Desarrolla su obra fotográfica focalizada en los usos de fotografía contemporánea, entre ellos el uso del neón agregado a la superficie de la obra fotográfica. Ha desarrollado una fotografía conceptual en la que orienta su atención al planeta y las transformaciones de la naturaleza en la sociedad industrial contemporánea.
Ada ha participado en innumerables exposiciones, entre ellas en el 2021 dos importantes exhibiciones en la ciudad de Miami, Cross Aesthetics y Concurrences/Oblique Views/Art Basel Season 2021, curadas por la Dra. Milagros Bello en el espacio curatorial MIA Curatorial Projects en Miami. De septiembre 1 a octubre 15 participa en la X Edición del Festival Internacional de Fotografía y Video Photoimagen curada por Carlos Acero Ruiz en el Museo de Arte Moderno de Santo Domingo, República Dominicana. Próximamente exhibirá en ARS Contemporáneo donde continuará presentando sus series sobre Naturaleza en Cautiverio.
Ada Rivera Naturaleza en Cautiverio VII 2021
Este inmenso recorrido por el arte, la ha llevado al mundo de la fotografía, donde formaliza su pasión de toda la vida por esta disciplina la cual busca compartir su percepción de todo lo aprendido. Desarrolla su obra fotográfica focalizada en los usos de fotografía contemporánea, entre ellos el uso del neón agregado a la superficie de la obra fotográfica. Ha desarrollado una fotografía conceptual en la que orienta su atención al planeta y las transformaciones de la naturaleza en la sociedad industrial contemporánea.
Ada Rivera Naturaleza en Cautiverio VI, 2021
Ada ha participado en innumerables exposiciones, entre ellas en las 2021 dos importantes exhibiciones en la ciudad de Miami, Cross Aesthetics y Concurrences/Oblique Views/Art Basel Season 2021, curadas por la Dra. Milagros Bello en el espacio curatorial MIA Curatorial Projects en Miami.
De septiembre 1 a octubre 15 participa en la X Edición del Festival Internacional de Fotografía y Video Photoimagen curada por Carlos Acero Ruiz en el Museo de Arte Moderno de Santo Domingo, República Dominicana. Próximamente exhibirá en ARS Contemporáneo donde continuará presentando sus series sobre Naturaleza en Cautiverio.
Ada Rivera Naturaleza en Cautiverio VII 2021
Ada Rivera Naturaleza en Cautiverio VIII 2021
Ada Rivera Naturaleza en Cautiverio- II 2020
Ada Rivera Naturaleza en Cautiverio I, 2020
*Curadora La Dra. Milagros Bello es doctora en Sociología con una tesis doctoral en Sociología del Arte por la Universidad de la Sorbona (París VII-Jussieu), París, Francia. La Dra. Bello es miembro de la Asociación Internacional de Críticos de Arte (AICA). El Dr. Bello ha comisariado numerosas exposiciones de arte contemporáneo a nivel local y nacional. Cabe destacar que, en el marco de la 59ª Bienal de Venecia, comisarió la exposición “Americanos. Imaginarios actuales” y dio una conferencia en Personal Structures/Reflection, en el Centro Cultural Europeo, en Venecia, Italia. Es escritora de arte para revistas de arte locales e internacionales, y fue editora en jefe de la revista de arte internacional Arte Al Día. De 2000 a 2014, ha enseñado como profesora de arte en los niveles de posgrado y licenciatura en la Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University, Miami International University (The Art Institute/Miami), y el Istituto Marangoni/Miami. En la actualidad, es la directora y comisaria jefe de MIA Curatorial Projects en Miami, antiguo Curator’s Voice Art Projects fundado en 2010 en Wynwood Art District, Miami. La Dra. Bello es mentora de artistas y motivadora de jóvenes artistas emergentes.
rt Basel announces further show highlights for its largest edition yet in Miami Beach
Art Basel announces further show highlights for its largest edition yet in Miami Beach
• The Meridians sector, curated for the third time by Magalí Arriola, Director of Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, will feature 20 large-scale projects by renowned and emerging artists • 29 galleries will present specially curated installations within their main booths in the Kabinett sector • Art Basel’s Conversations series will return to the fair with 35 speakers across nine panels to provide insights into the evolving global art scene • Art Basel, whose Lead Partner is UBS, will take place from December 1 to December 3, with preview days on November 29 and November 30 at the Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC)
Since its launch in 2002, Art Basel Miami Beach has served as a dynamic platform uniquely bridging the art scenes of North and South America, Europe, and beyond. The edition marking its 20th anniversary will be the largest to date, featuring 282 exhibitors from 38 countries and territories – more than half of which hailing from the Americas. In addition to its Galleries, Positions, Nova, Survey, and Edition sectors, the fair will host 20 large-scale projects as part of the Meridians sector, 29 curated installations within exhibitors’ booths in the Kabinett sector, as well as nine panels with leading art world voices in its renowned Conversations series.
Meridians The Meridians sector invites exhibitors to showcase monumental works which extend beyond the standard art fair format. Magalí Arriola, Director of Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, will curate the sector for the third consecutive year.
Highlights from Meridians include:
An immersive visual environment by Cauleen Smith including the film ‘Sojourner’ (2018-2022), whose title pays homage to the feminist abolitionist. Presented by Morán Morán and Corbett vs. Dempsey. • ‘Let The Mermaids Flirt with Me’ (2022), a presentation of a new suite of stainedglass paintings in lightboxes by Christopher Myers, installed within a freestanding octagonal structure evoking a chapel. Exploring the relationships between Black bodies, diaspora, and the ocean, this deeply poetic work will be activated by a performance, animating the figures depicted in the glass. Presented by James Cohan Gallery. • Devan Shimoyama’s ‘The Grove’ (2021), which monumentalizes the common sight of shoes joined at the laces and dangling from utility wires to evidence both presumed gang territory or violence and moments of celebration and play. Presented by Kavi Gupta. • ‘Columbus Day’ (2019-2020) Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, which consists of 24 primary ink mono prints and 24 ‘ghost prints’, which are the secondary pull of the print plates and represent how Indigenous communities are often viewed namely, as “not there,” faded and having disappeared. The text of the prints highlights the destruction of these communities and their lands by Columbus and consequences through the present day. Presented by K Art. • ‘Birth’ (1984), a monumentally scaled, hand-crocheted wall-hanging by pioneering feminist artist Judy Chicago and the largest of her seminal Birth Project (1980- 1985) works. ‘Birth Project’ was an international collaboration of female needleworkers and responded to the absence of imagery related to birthing as one of the most foundational female experiences. Presented by Jessica Silverman. • An installation of chairs suspended from the ceiling and 6-hour daily performance work by Colombian artist María José Arjona, ‘Silla’ (2011), on matter, objecthood, experience and the body’s critical role in movement as a form of political choreography. Presented by Rolf Art. • A sculptural work by Simon Denny adapted from a delivery drone – ‘Amazon delivery drone patent drawing as virtual Rio Tinto mineral globe’ (2021) – employing augmented reality to facilitate a series of performative group experiences activated by viewers’ devices. Presented by Petzel and Altman Siegel. • A performance titled ‘Corpo Ranfla 2.0’ (2022) by rafa esparza, in which the artist will impersonate a lowrider cyborg turned into a 25-cent ride-machine. Consisting of a one-time occurrence, with the remnants of the performance – the retrofitted, 25- cent pony ride structure – on display over the course of the week, the work is a reflection on the social and political landscapes that lowrider car culture has existed and evolved in for decades into the present. Presented by Commonwealth and Council. • Visual activist, humanitarian, and photographer Zanele Muholi’s ‘Muholi V’ (2022) a new bronze sculpture that marks a new chapter of self-expression and self-assertion for the artist. Presented by Stevenson.
Magalí Arriola, Art Basel’s curator for Meridians, says: ‘Sculpted bodies, sexualized bodies, performing and singing bodies – brown, black, and white bodies– have made themselves present in this new edition of Meridians, challenging art historical canons and their relationship with the representation of power, opening new perspectives for art’s activism around gender and race, and infusing optimism and hope to how we might envision our future.’ For the full list of artists and galleries presenting in Meridians, please visit artbasel.com/miami beach/meridians.
Kabinett Offering galleries, the opportunity to present concisely curated installations within their booths, the Kabinett sector will feature 29 participants. Highlights from the sector include:
A presentation of new works by Alberta Whittle specifically made for the fair, following Whittle’s representation of Scotland at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale de Venezia. Presented by The Modern Institute. • New works by Izumi Kato, whose animated paintings and sculptures allow subjects to exist between the physical and the spiritual realms. Presented by Stephen Friedman Gallery. • Rare and seminal works by Ascânio MMM, whose sculptures and reliefs are rooted in mathematics – presenting a complex game of logic. Presented by Casa Triângulo. • Margot Bergman’s never-before-seen flower paintings that are part of her ‘collaborative paintings’ (2013), which merge Bergman’s approach with original authorship of thrifted works. Presented by Anton Kern Gallery. • ‘Bayou Fever’ (1979) by Romare Bearden, comprising of 21 collages that provide a storyline and set design for modern dance with the purpose of being choreographed by Alvin Ailey. Presented by DC Moore Gallery. • A salon of both historic and new intimately scaled, never-before-seen works by Dewey Crumpler. Presented by Derek Eller Gallery.
For the full list of artists and galleries represented in Kabinett, please visit artbasel.com/miami-beach/kabinett.
Conversations Conversation is a platform for the exchange of ideas on topics concerning the global contemporary art scene. Featuring 35 speakers across nine panels, it will bring together leading artists, gallerists, collectors, curators, museum directors, and critics. Participants in this edition will include artist Agnieszka Kurant, cultural strategy advisor András Szántó, collectors Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, collector and CEO and Co-Founder of Design Miami/ Craig Robins, art historian and curator Drew Sawyer, artists João Enxuto and Erica Love, curator and Co-Director of the Serpentine Galleries Hans Ulrich Obrist, artist Joshua Citarella, collector and real-estate developer Martin Margulies, and writer and Artnet News art business editor Tim Schneider. Topics range from representing and collecting artists from Africa and the African diaspora, and the carbon footprint of technology to counterintuitive approaches to the art market.
Highlights include: • A conversation celebrating the pioneering photographic practice of Ming Smith. • A sonic lecture by artist, musician, and poet Chino Amobi. • A panel featuring major collectors Carlos & Rosa de la Cruz, Craig Robins, and Martin Margulies who have helped establish the Miami ecosystem, to mark 20 years of Art Basel Miami Beach.
Running from November 30 to December 2, the program is curated by Emily Butler, Art Basel’s Conversations Curator, and is free to the public. All panels will be livestreamed on Art Basel’s Facebook channel. Recordings will be available on Art Basel’s website following the event. For further information please visit artbasel.com/miami-beach/conversations. The Legacy Purchase Program For its third edition, the City of Miami Beach will acquire through its Legacy Purchase Program up to two artworks from the Nova or Positions sectors to enter the City’s public art collection via a public vote. The new acquisitions will be on view at a dedicated, publicly accessible area of the MBCC. The Étant Donnés Prize The CPGA (French Professional Committee of Art Galleries) and Villa Albertine are joining forces for the first time to launch the Etant Donnés 2022 Prize, awarded to a living artist active in the French art scene and exhibited at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. The winner of the Etant Donnés Prize will be selected by an appointed jury and will receive a $15,000 cash prize funded by CPGA, to be shared between the artist and the gallery. The winner will be announced on November 29.
About Magalí Arriola
Magalí Arriola, Director of Museo Tamayo, lives and works in Mexico City. Arriola joined Art Basel with recent institutional experience at KADIST, where she was Lead Curator for Latin America, and Museo Jumex, where she was Curator between 2011 and 2014. She was the curator of Mexico’s participation in the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, showing artist Pablo Vargas Lugo with a project entitled ‘Acts of God’. Her other recent, independent curatorial projects include ‘What do you dream of? The Mohole Flower and other Tales’, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, August-October 2018; ‘A Place out of History’, a film screened at documenta14 and FIDMarseille (2018), produced by Destello Films; and Sunset Décor, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York City, June-August, 2017.
About Art Basel Founded in 1970 by gallerists from Basel, Art Basel today stages the world’s premier art shows for Modern and Contemporary art, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong, and Paris. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. Art Basel’s engagement has expanded beyond art fairs through new digital platforms and a number of new initiatives such as the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, Intersections: The Art Basel Podcast, and the BMW Art Journey. For further information, please visit artbasel.com.
Partners UBS & Contemporary Art Lead Partner of Art Basel, UBS has a long history of supporting contemporary art and artists. The firm has one of the world’s most important corporate art collections and seeks to advance the international conversation about the art market through its global lead partnership with Art Basel, as co-publisher of the ‘Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report’, and as co-presenter of Intersections: The Art Basel Podcast. UBS also has partnerships with fine art institutions including the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia. UBS provides its clients with insight into the art market, collecting, and legacy planning through its Collectors Circle and UBS Art Advisory. For more information about UBS’s commitment to contemporary art, visit ubs.com/art. Art Basel’s Associate Partners are Audemars Piguet, whose contemporary art commissioning programme, Audemars Piguet Contemporary, works with artists to support and develop an unrealised artwork which explores a new direction in their practice, NetJets, the world leader in private aviation; and Louis Vuitton which nurtures a longstanding commitment to the arts by collaborating with international artists. Art Basel is also supported globally by BMW, who will be presenting its Art Commission “Pulse Topology at Superblue”, and Ruinart, La Prairie, Sanlorenzo, and On. Art Basel’s show in Miami Beach is supported by Tezos, Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, Chubb, VICE, FARFETCH, Arkive, as well as Casa Dragones, Château d’Esclans, Saint Laurent, Perrier, Kannoa, and Quintessentially. Hotel Partners include Grand Beach Hotel Miami Beach; The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach; and W South Beach. Art Basel’s Global Media Partner is The Financial Times. For further information about partnerships, please visit artbasel.com/partners.
Upcoming Art Basel shows Miami Beach, December 1–3, 2022 Hong Kong, March 23–25, 2023 Basel, June 15–18, 2023 Paris+ par Art Basel, October 19–22, 2023
Indian Beach Park, 4601 Collins Avenue Miami Beach, FL 33140
SATELLITE is pleased to announce their exhibitor list featuring over 40 projects and nearly 200 artists participating in its 7th and most experiential edition to date. Taking place from November 29 to December 4, 2022 on Indian Beach Park, 4601 Collins Avenue. The artist-run and independently owned fair will feature immersive installations, AR/VR activations and unforgettable live performances.
SATELLITE SHOW is a groundbreaking art experience, recently called “Miami’s Best Art Fair” by the Miami New Times. SATELLITE presents its experiential project in Miami, New York and Austin.
140 CHARACTER ABOUT:
SATELLITE offers patrons and collectors a unique experience where art is at the forefront of creative expression, activism, and curiosity.
EXPANDED ABOUT (100 Words)
SATELLITE ART SHOW presents interactive projects by young dealers, artist-run spaces and non-profits. By fostering a range of programming, SATELLITE is able to offer patrons and collectors a unique experience where art is at the forefront of creative expression, activism, and curiosity. Our exhibitors are encouraged to provide our visitors both an opportunity to collect new works of art as well as to present exhibitions that are engaging, experiential and interactive. SATELLITE is expanding perceptions on art and community and providing an inclusive environment for guests to feel comfortable in exploration and discovery.
ABOUT 2022 (Under 50 words)
SATELLITE ART SHOW, “Miami’s Best Fair” (Miami New Times), returns for its triumphant 7th edition featuring over 40 immersive installations and nearly 200 artists at their new beachside location.
ABOUT 2022 – FULL
Satellite Art Show
November 29 – December 4, 2022
INDIAN BEACH PARK | 4601 Collins Avenue | Miami Beach, FL 33140
SATELLITE ART SHOW, “Miami’s Best Fair” (Miami New Times), returns for its triumphant 7th edition featuring over 40 immersive installations and nearly 200 artists at their new beachside location.
Miami Beach, FL. – SATELLITE is pleased to announce their exhibitor list featuring over 40 projects and nearly 200 artists participating in its 7th and most experiential edition to date. Taking place from November 29 to December 4, 2022 on Indian Beach Park, 4601 Collins Avenue. The artist-run and independently owned fair will feature immersive installations, AR/VR activations and unforgettable live performances.
FIRST VIEW | VIP + PRESS PREVIEW
TUE | November 29 | 1pm – 8pm
SHOW HOURS
WED | November 30 | 12pm – 7pm
THU | December 1 | 12pm – 7pm
FRI | December 2 | 12pm – 7pm
SAT | December 3 | 12pm – 7pm
SUN | December 4 | 12pm – 5pm
AFTER-HOURS EVENT SCHEDULE
WED | November 30 | 7pm
Tulsa Artist Fellowship & Queen Rose Art House presents TULSA: An Evening of Music & Performance Kalup Linzy, Stephon “Steph” Simon, Antonio Andrews, aka Dial Tone, OK Christina Henley AKA DJ XTINA (Tulsa, OK)
THU | December 1
House of YES (Brooklyn, NY)
*VIP Ticket holders are eligible for entry to After-Hours events. After-Hours events are also ticketed by event.
General (day pass) | $20 // VIP – First View (week pass) | $100
Reduced-rate tickets will be available on-site during the fair for Students, Seniors and Miami Beach residents who present a valid ID. Children under 12 are admitted free of charge.
EXHIBITORS
A R I C O (Montreal, CANADA) ✭ Ben Quesnel, Alvarez Gallery (Stamford, CT) ✭ Carolyn Colsant (New York, NY) ✭ Chu Art Gallery (Houston, TX) ✭COMPANION Gallery (Indianapolis, IN) ✭ Don Porcella (St. Paul, MN) ✭ ELAWIATR (Milano, IT) ✭ Franklin Furnace (Brooklyn, NY)✭ GALLERY A.M.P.S (Houston, TX) ✭ HOUSE OF YES (Brooklyn, NY) ✭ Jarid Blue [KingMallard] (Brooklyn, NY) ✭ Jessica Yatrofsky (NEW YORK, NY) ✭ Justin Aversano (Brooklyn, NY) ✭ MONA (Miami, FL) ✭ Moisturizer Gallery (Gainesville, FL) ✭ No Parking Studios (Tulsa, OK) ✭ Off Center Art Center featuring Kyle Heinly (Melbourne, FL) ✭ Paradice Palase (Brooklyn, NY) ✭ Patrick Todd (Brooklyn, NY) ✭ Performance is Alive (New York, NY) ✭ R. Wayne Reynolds (Owings Mills, MD) ✭ Rebekah Campbell McIlwain: A Creative House (Tulsa, OK) ✭ Save Art Space (Brooklyn, NY) ✭ SpankBox presented by Jessica Elaine Blinkhorn (Atlanta, GA) ✭ StorageSpace (Indianapolis, IN) ✭ SugarSpace (Indianapolis, IN) ✭ Theda Sandiford (Jersey City, NJ) ✭ Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Philadelphia, PA; New York City, NY; Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Greenville, SC) ✭ Trueson Daugherty (Tulsa, OK) ✭ Tulsa Artist Fellowship and Queen Rose Art House (Tulsa, OK)
ALIVE AT SATELLITE PROGRAM [Schedule TBA]
Alex Côté (Montréal, Canada) ✭ Alexander Tamahn (Tulsa, OK) ✭ Bianca Falco (New York, NY) ✭ Hope Esser (Chicago, IL) ✭ Jessica Yatrofsky (New York, NY) ✭ Katina Bitsicas and Rachel Strickland (Columbia, MO) ✭ MADeleine Riande (Brooklyn, NY) ✭ Muzelle (Miami, FL) ✭ Stephanie McGovern (New York, NY) ✭ Sarah Sudhoff (Houston, TX) ✭ Shara Lunon (Brooklyn, NY)
SATELLITE x TOPO CHICO PRESENTS Alvin Surreal (Miami, FL), Carolina KS Tonkovic (Miami, FL), Casa Planta (Miami, FL), Exti (Miami, FL), Heart Hatter (Waco, TX), Hilary Rose Mix (Los Angeles, CA), JC Rivera (Miami, FL), Jorge Torrealba (New York, NY) ,
LADD Miami Circus (Miami, FL), Last Local (Seminole, FL), Liz Tran (Seattle, WA,), Natasha Tomchin (Miami, FL), Nopeking (Paul Abraham) (Hollywood, CA), 0H10M1ke (New York, NY), Of Course I Still Love You Ceramics (Miami, FL), Patti Suzette (St. Petersburg, FL), Raw Figs Pop Up (Miami, FL), RIGO LEON ART (Miami, FL), Sergey Gordienko (Miami, FL)
ABOUT SATELLITE ART SHOW
SATELLITE ART SHOW presents interactive projects by young dealers, artist-run spaces and non-profits. By fostering a range of programming, SATELLITE is able to offer patrons and collectors a unique experience where art is at the forefront of creative expression, activism, and curiosity. Our exhibitors are encouraged to provide our visitors both an opportunity to collect new works of art as well as to present exhibitions that are engaging, experiential and interactive. SATELLITE is expanding perceptions on art and community and providing an inclusive environment for guests to feel comfortable in exploration and discovery. SATELLITE is an artist-run organization run by Brian Andrew Whiteley (Founder) and Quinn Dukes (Fair Director).
Commodity, Competition, and Collaboration in the Contemporary Art Fair
By Justin Kamp
Untitled Art, Miami Beach 2021. Image courtesy of Casey Kelbaugh.
I was talking with an artist I know recently, and we got to speaking about “collaboration,” what that word means in the context of an artistic career. I tended to define the word in careerist terms: networking, shared gallery representation, the odd branded deal with, say, an app, or a clothing company. To this artist, though, “collaboration” conjured up the utopia of her time at art school: working in a shared studio space with peers, riffing on what they were producing, letting it osmose into her own work. “It’s play, and it challenges you in ways that working solo doesn’t,” this artist told me of her time spent bouncing ideas off studio-mates in school. “But most galleries don’t care for collaborative work, because artists are commodities.”
When we talk about “the art world,” what we are usually talking about is that word, commodity, along with its attendant concerns of supply and demand, value and circulation. Works that artists make become commodities in the globalized art market, the artists themselves become commodities in the institutional gauntlet of reputation-building and canonization, and their oeuvres, and indeed their entire artistic identities, get packaged into easily-digestible cuts of product. This, essentially, was the point that the artist I spoke to made: when the creation of art becomes wrangled into a career, all propensity for collaboration is strangled out of the process, because there is no such thing as collaboration between products looking to be sold— only competition.
I don’t think I’m saying anything novel here. Art as we understand it—that is, as both product and profession—has always contended with an inherent tension that the author and curator Paco Barragan has called “the dialectic mercantilization versus autonomy of art”. Before the globalized art commodity market, there was patronage by the court or the church. If you’re not selling your work as a product, you’re creating it as an advertisement, as John Berger put it, for a certain sitter’s fortune, prestige, or wealth. Money has to be made, of course. It always does.
Untitled Art, Miami Beach 2021. Images courtesy of Casey Kelbaugh.Untitled Art, Miami Beach 2021. Images courtesy of Casey Kelbaugh.
Nowadays, that money is very often made on the international art fair circuit, which, with its flea-market format of close-proximity booths, presents perhaps the clearest encapsulation of Barragan’s notion of “mercantilized” art. Exhibitors vie for attention in a white wall version of a merchant’s bazaar, gently hawking wares to a class of collector elite. In the process, they subject the work they sell to what Elizabeth Dee called “context collapse:” stripping artistic practices of their full context and relevance in favor of selling cherry-picked samples that will best catch a passing collector’s eye. This process, as Dee points out, generally diminishes artists’ development, their gallery profits, and collector interest.
And yet, art fairs remain incredibly important to the economic survival of most galleries. According to Clare McAndrew’s Art Market Report, fairs accounted for 43 percent of all dealer sales in 2019, and while the pandemic lowered that percentage, it has quickly risen back to a high level of prominence since 2020, and looks to continue to do so. The fair as a sales method represents a general prioritizing of competition above all else, and that has trickled down to produce more surface-level interactions between individual players as well as thinner, more commodified practices. If mercantile modes dominate, then it follows that the logic of mercantilism will dominate as well.
And yet, treating craven competition as the only modality available to the art world is unproductive, even ahistorical. Traces of collaboration still persist, even within our contemporary market terrain. It was a grand spirit of economic collusion between artists, after all, that animated two of the closest historical forebears to the contemporary art fair as we know it. Paris’s Salon des Independants, for example, was started by artists such as Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in the late 19th century after the official state academy would not display their work and became an important market and artistic proving ground. The 1913 Armory Show in New York, too, was put into motion by a coalition of artists known as the Association of American Painters and Sculptors (AAPS), who likewise sought to extend exhibition (and sales) opportunities to artists who were operating outside the academic and institutional bounds of supposed good taste. Even the hyper-financialized, privately-owned fairs that cropped up in the mid-20th century—your Art Basels and Art Colognes, in many ways the templates for today’s international art selling experiences—exist downstream from this spirit of unity, with gallerists at the helm instead of artists.
There is a certain point, however, where neat statements on the persistence of the collaborative spirit begin to collapse. Collaboration may have given us the contemporary art fair, but the contemporary art fair has not, for the most part, furthered artistic collaboration. There is nothing resembling the Fauves’ syncretion at the 1906 Salon, for example, or the artistic explosion that resulted from Duchamp and Matisse rewiring audience’s brains at the 1913 Armory. Brute commodification, to Dee’s point, has only left room for approaches of a similar caliber. A gallerist I spoke to recently, for example, described collaboration with other galleries, especially at fairs, as a numbers game, where access to new markets or alleviated financial burdens are weighed against the opportunity cost of shared profits. He’s right, of course. But the point is that in a thoroughly mercantilized art world, even collaboration becomes a byword for more effective competition.
Untitled Art, Miami Beach 2021. Image courtesy of Casey Kelbaugh
So, what to do? How to alleviate this pervasive suffocation of the collaborative spirit? To make room for the sort of generative crossovers that my friend, the artist, looks back on so fondly? I have a few pipe-dream suggestions: Share profits. Charge less to exhibit, so that smaller galleries can comfortably exist, and artists don’t feel obligated to compress their practice into a conveyor belt of content just to keep up. Pay writers, as Untitled has done here, to write about art, to give artists and their practice and their place in the market serious intellectual consideration and not let them flit off into an endless press cycle. But even still, these are still pleas for top-down tweaks rather than a roadmap for collaboration.
Maybe collaboration is too diffuse a word, too easily channeled into competitive modes, and I should be more precise in what I am urging: to build coalitions. It has been coalitions, after all, that have underpinned so many of the collaborative examples I have put forth in this piece. The Paris Salon and the 1913 Armory were products of artists working together, of course, but I am also reminded of the Artists Union in New York, who agitated for the federal government to include artists in the WPA’s federal patronage during the Great Depression and managed to stretch that patronage for several years through consistent demonstration and action. I am thinking, too, of their spiritual descendants, including the short-lived Art Workers Coalition (AWC), whose protests and list of 13 Demands led to more artist-conscious exhibition policies at New York museums in the late 1960’s. There’s also the Foundation for the Community of Artists, which continued the AWC’s project into the 1990’s, providing members with housing hotlines, job placement programs, group health insurance packages, and other such resources. With that history in mind, my other recommendation might seem obvious, even trite: for artists to work together anyway. Read old issues of Art Front or Art Workers News. Bounce work off each other, refute rote competition. Remember how historian Gerald Moore described those that participated in the Artists Union:
“Living in a society that by and large placed little value on their work, artists turned naturally to each other for stimulation, recognition of their achievements and affirmation of their lifestyle. It was within the milieu of the Union that artists were able to identify themselves as artists. The young men and women who came to meet and make friends, talk shop and exchange ideas were sowing the seeds of the eventual flowering of artistic activity of the late 1940’s and 1950’s during those early years. It was the Union that was the shelter and ambience to which most of the young artists of the time were drawn.”
Justin Kamp is a writer based in New York. He writes criticism, features, and fiction. His work has appeared in The Art Newspaper, CNN Styles, Artsy, Garage Magazine, and the New York Observer, among others. Follow him on Twitter, @justinkamp_ and Instagram, @justindotcomp
I’ve often been asked in my career who are you? And I’ve often thought, what do I say to that? Do I tell them the real story or sugar coat it for them? Who really wants to know about another person’s struggle to succeed, especially when it’s not pretty? So let’s sugar coat it here. Part of my childhood comes from the book of Children’s Homes and Foster Parents, this I would not recommend to anyone. Back with a parent who was in service on a country estate in Oxford, I ended up at a great school, Lord Williams Grammar School Thame, in Oxfordshire. My favourite classes being English and History. I will say, I loved the country estate way of life, being in service, seems to be looked down on nowadays.
My Sculptural Imagination?
Why Skeletons? Have you ever really studied one? They are stunningly amazing structures, everything needs one, buildings, cars, ships, aircraft, bicycles, plants and animals. I remembered seeing them in The Natural History Museum and was awed, all the same but so very different. A little Humming Birds Skeleton is the same as the mighty Blue Whale but with small differences, that blows my mind. I had the idea of creating sculptures from skeletons many years ago but it took me many years to gain the financing to be able to start my first collection. Re-animating these beautiful structures into fine art.
Yes, I know, You Wish To Ask Some Questions.
Question: Isn’t it morbid to be using animal and human parts?
Answer: You’re happy with elephant dung in a painting? Human blood in a sculpture? A fur or leather coat? It’s just a material, I’m recycling the skeletons. You would be surprised how many serious people have asked me, “could you do me when I die, I would much rather be a work of art, than just disappear”.
Question: Where do you get the skeletons?
Answer: I always want to say I’m a Resurrectionist. But joking aside, my skeletons all come from reliable sources, with full Cites Licences for the endangered species. I would never have anything killed for my art, everything has died of natural causes.
Question: What are you saying with your sculptures?
Answer: This is difficult to answer. Art is an experiment with an idea. I suppose I’m giving the viewer a study not only into the workings of life itself but also how that individual may have been in life.
Question: Why the gold?
Answer: Gold has been revered by humans since time began. Gold is unaffected by the passing of time, it’s eternal, unlike life. So by adding gold to my skeletons, I’m giving them immortality in a way.
Question: Has there been any controversy around your sculptures?
Answer: Yes, a few times. Once at an exhibition and I won’t mention the gallery, activists damaged one of my sculptures, calling it “unethical”. Art has always pushed boundaries, it should, it should question attitudes, ideas, religion. Art has to bite but sadly there are few artists really pushing boundaries today. In most galleries, not all, all you see is and this is my term, what I call ‘Cereal Box Art’, fluffy paintings, butterflies, cartoons, celebrity images, plastic things etc.
The great artist in the past, depicted everything, torture, death, violence, horror, pushing boundaries all the time, risking the inquisition no less. I would rather someone argue/question over the meaning of my sculptures, than just say ‘that’s nice’.
At my London Bond Street exhibition, the gallery had just placed one of my large sculptures in the window, it immediately started creating a small crowd outside. So I slipped outside to joined the crowd, it was exhilarating, the peoples’, reaction was brilliant, enthralled and amazement. There was a New Zealand Doctor amongst them, I heard her talking to someone, she said ‘it’s “perfect”, now did she mean the skeleton position or the work of art? Exhibitions also at Context Miami, Genève, St Tropez, Gstaad etc.
Question: Have you had any reactions from children?
Answer: Yes yes yes, I love this question. At a gallery exhibition in Gstaad a local school wished to bring a classroom of children in to see my collection. The gallery obliged and the children had a great time, they absolutely loved the skeletons, not one frightened child among them. Their imaginations rolled with it. I have a great photo of a bunch of them sat around one of my sculptures.
Question: Do they take a long time to create?
Answer: Yes they do. I have a great team, not all full time, plus I also have art students come in and help. Depending on the skeleton they can take up to 22 months to complete. If you take into account the acquisition and preparation of the skeletons, up to four years.
Question: Are they expensive?
Answer: Yes they are. Let’s take the skeletons. The skeletons of endangered species are horrendously expensive, they are normally one offs and I truly mean that, something you will never be able to purchase again. In some cases you could purchase a good house instead of the skeleton. As I stated everything has died of natural causes and comes with full Cites Licences, plus you have the pure 24 Carat Gold, I use huge amounts on each sculpture. Then you obviously have the time and labour put into each piece.
Question: Are they investments?
Answer: Only purchase art if you want it and like it. Spend your money on what you want, you earned it. People spend tens of thousands on a car, thousands on a bottle of wine, tens of thousands on flying first class, each of these things would buy you one of my sculptures. Are my sculptures investments? May be. Have my sculptures sold on the secondary market? Yes, and they have and done well. Will you get a high return on the re-sale of one of my sculptures in the future, I cannot promise that. But I will guarantee you this, you won’t see anything else like it, you will have a fantastic talking point, it will awe you always, it will never bore you and no one will walk past it.
Question: What have you got planned for your skeleton?
Answer: Lol, if it is at all legally possible in the future for the use of new human skeletons, I will become one of my sculptures, I do have an idea for this sculpture, but I will keep this to myself. Can you imaging owning the sculpture of the artists’ body himself, the person who started it all? It’s going to be horrendously expensive though folks…
No, it cannot be a commission, I plan to live a long time.
Question: Do I do commissions?
Answer: Yes, I do commissions, some of my skeletons in my collection are so very expensive, I cannot create the sculpture I want to unless I get it commissioned. So I offer clientele the opportunity to purchase and commission these pieces. Hyper rare skeletons in my collection: Adult Indian Elephant, Male and Female Bengal Tiger, Polar Bear, Male and Female Puma and more.
Innovation, Metamorphosis.
My new works… The Ra Collection, is loosely based on Ancient Egyptian Mythology, Religion, with a bit of the Roman Empire thrown in. My sculptures have morphed into the black and gold now, rather than all gold, I’m experimenting with the blackest of black paints, so densely black that they reflect no light. It makes the sculpture very striking to look at.
2023 is going to be very exciting for me, I have two exhibitions in the planning, one in San Francisco and the other in New York. And hopefully soon with the help of a fantastic gallery, I will have the commission for my epic sculpture ‘The Clash of the Titans’. This sculpture is a full size Black and Gold Bronze of two Bengal Tigers attacking an Adult Indian Elephant. This bronze will be created from moulds of my tigers and elephant skeletons, over a 1000 bones, then bronzes made via the lost wax process. Then I will weld every bronze bone together to create the sculpture. A huge epic of 30 months. More information from the gallery or myself. My current exhibition is with Galeria Fauchery an exciting gallery in St Tropez, Vincent Case being the owner.
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