Art Basel Miami 2010

Finals are over and I made it through! Now I have time to reflect on the artwork I saw in Miami last weekend. Of course, Miami, lack of sleep, and stress has taken it's toll on my body and now I am sick! I got to see a couple of pieces from one of my favorite artists Guerra de la Paz. I'm not sure if I have mentioned them before, but they are an artist duo based in Miami. I found this great video of their booth at Scope that I saw last weekend. Its nice to see the set up for the show and hear about the work from the artists themselves. I was surprised to see art from Jen Stark, who I recently stumbled upon when browsing the internet. I liked her so much that I bookmarked her page! So it was great to see her work in person too! I really enjoyed a lot of the work and noticed that I saw a lot of work from the same artists that I saw last year. The fairs I attended were Scope/Art Asia, Nada, Pulse, Art Miami, Aqua, Ink, and Fountain.

Final Critique and Art Basel Miami Beach!

Well, the creation of this blog has caught me a very busy time. First, I have my final critique next Wednesday where I will be debuting some very different work from my midterm critique. I have literally gotten "out of my box". I have put some photos below of my previous work from the midterm and then my new work in progress, so you can see just how different of a direction I went in. Although I had not done my mixed media assemblages for that long (about a year), my new direction is refreshing. It took some time to figure myself out and develop new ideas. I thought about some of the found objects that I loved so much and why I loved them, whether it be the color, shape, or subject. I chose some of my favorite objects to explore, recreate, and manipulate. Writing down some of the elements that I found most appealing, which were color, texture, very large or small objects, and repetition also helped me. I work very intuitively, so once I get started, concepts are formed and things come together.

These assemblages are currently on display at UCF's Center for Emerging Media

These houses are made out of wood and vinyl. They will be used to create a neighborhood installation.

This is a 5.5' photo of a 5.5" found object that I currently have an obsession with. I also painted this "big head" on a 5.5' wooden board.

The second major event happening this week is Art Basel Miami, the largest International Art Fair of the year. Art Basel is held in the Miami Beach Convention center from Dec 3-6, but there are many other satellite art fairs that are in the surrounding area during the same time. Most of the other students in my program are going so it should be a great time. This event is extremely beneficial to our art education, especially that of the international art world. I will be posting about my experiences in Miami, so stay tuned!!