Our final stop on the ‘art train’ today was to NADA’s art fair here in Miami. The New Art Dealers Alliance has been active since 2002, and consists of a non-profit collective of professionals working with contemporary art. Their mission: ‘to create an open flow of information, support, and collaboration within [their] field and to develop a stronger sense of community among [their] constituency.’ Their enemy: the adversarial approach to exhibiting and selling art. Unfortunately, the fair closed its doors 20 minutes after we arrived, but what we did see was interesting to say the least– a lot more experimental art at this fair than the others we had visited. My ‘best in show’ had to have been Kota Ezawa’s illuminated photo boxes. And while we were leaving, we had the chance to quickly peruse a little pop-up shop from Cerealart, which had some great design pieces for sale like the Yoshitomo Nara Clock we know and love. Check out photos from our brief visit to NADA after the jump…

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Fair stop 2 of 3 in our art-packed day was to Photo Miami, and I have to say we were thoroughly impressed with the majority of the 43 exhibitors at the show. The overall theme to the fair was international media-based art, a mix of cultural, pop, natural, and other compelling photography. Josh and I even got photogenic with Patterson Beckwith, who was practicing a very interesting photo methodology where he took two seperate photos of us and exposed them on one single polaroid sheet in about 20 seconds (see his portrait studio online to see examples of the work). It’s a pretty classic photo that is sure to grace the office wall when we get home. While our snap-shot photo quality is nothing in comparison to the extreme talent we saw this afternoon (taking photos of photos is a little weird anyways), we hope you enjoy our Photo Miami favorites after the jump…

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Today was an action packed day of art exhibition viewing for Josh and I, as our Art Basel adventure continued. Our first stop was to Pulse Miami in the Wynwood District, which can be best be described as a small and manageable high end fair– Pulse showed the works of 52 exhibitors, mixing the works of both young and established collectors in an impressive and diverse combination of mediums. This was one of our favorite fairs, and an even better way to explain what we saw is to show you some photos of the work that really caught our eye, check them out after the jump…

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Italian Laurina Paperina’s character illustration work was a breath of fresh air and light humor while walking through Pulse Miami today. The project she was presenting was called The Amazing Pape– an impressive collection of drawings and paintings that made us laugh and smile. The characters ranged from Travolta and Jackson in Pulp Fiction to Mario and Luigi (Luigi caught with his pants down and leopard underwear showing). Her work found us off our guards, we saw so much of the ‘I’m too sad to explain this piece‘ exhibitions, this was a great change. Check out more images after the jump of Scarface shooting himself in the foot, the Karate kid and more. Genius!
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We had an opportunity to check out an amazing new media installation by Isreal born, San Francsico dwelling Shirley Shor yesterday at Scope Miami. She’s part of an emerging generation of new-media artists who are redefining how computers can be utilized as vehicles for artistic production. The piece we saw and immensely enjoyed playing with was called Terra Infirma– a platform filled with smooth white sand mountains, and a projector hanging high above sending down a real time animation of colored lines. It created what looked like gridlines or some kind of landscaped topographical maps. She says, “these landscapes are a synthesis between the code and the territory.” Her work has been described as “liquid architecture”, generating art on-the-fly with computer code. Check out her video explanation here.

We experienced a lot of great emerging art at Scope Miami, but there were several artists that stood out of the crowd. One of them was Neasden Control Centre, a mysterious ‘Willy Wonka’ type who covertly moves between the UK and Spain. He’s been around for a while, and has become a coveted resource for installations and movie/animation projects by companies like MTV, VH1, and Adidas. His work was exhibited by Galerie Heliumcowboy Artspace based in Hamburg Germany, alongside other great work from artists like Boris Hoppek and Friends With You. I love the way Neasden Control Centre uses mixed materials to create work that literally jumps out of the wall at you.

Anyone who has been reading this site for more than a few months knows I have high expectations when it comes to Sushi. In fact, I’m not really ashamed to say I’m a complete snob when it comes to eating my raw fish. Quite luckily, my world travels have allowed me to experience a lot of ‘takes’ on sushi, from all you can eat versions in middle-of-nowhere USA, the full luxury ‘Lamborghini of sushi experience in Ginza,’ to eating Toro sliced right off the belly of a 500lb tuna in the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo at 5am right before my eyes, so fresh it was literally swimming in my mouth. Suffice it to say when someone says “this is the best sushi restaurant I’ve ever eaten at” — although I always take them up on an offer to experience it first hand — I’m always a little bit wary of what the ‘best’ means to them. Shoji Sushi in South Beach, despite the hour wait (even though we had a reservation a month in advance) was quite delicious– a top-choice recommendation from a friend. In my traditional ‘reviewing process’ I left it up to the kitchen and wait-staff to order their favorites for us. We had quite the spread. Top picks included spicy rock shrimp tempura, bonito ceviche, and an array of rolls of which I’ll never know the name, but of which I’ll always remember the taste and presentation. Dessert was most memorable though, a tempura cheesecake in a bath of creamy carmel that stopped us all in our tracks– extraordinary and immensely enjoyable. By the time we left we had completely forgotten how long we waited to eat; the cuisine was truly worth every second.

Yesterday we cruised over to the Wynwood Art District (that’s the fancy title for what sure looked like Miami’s ghetto) to check out Scope Miami in Roberto Clemente Park. From the very beginning, we knew we were in for a treat. A huge tent set-up housed a wide — and I mean WIDE — variety of emerging contemporary art shown by a plethora of exhibitors from all over the world. This is Scope’s 5th year in Miami, and it’s heralded as Miami’s first alternative art fair, upholding a tradition of one-person and thematic group shows presented alongside museum-quality programming, collector tours, screenings, and other special events. All of our senses were definitely peaked as we strode through the aisles of Scope. Check out more photos of our favorite pieces after the jump.
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The concept of a terrarium, and the idea of creating an entirely independent eco-system has always intrigued me, but it wasn’t until I saw the work of Paula Hayes that I became truly transfixed. Hayes, born in Concord, Massachusetts received her BS from Skidmore College and MFA from Parsons School of Design in NYC. Her biography boasts lectures and exhibits worldwide. The terrariums are built inside impeccably-clear blown glass tear drops. We stumbled on her work in a gallery a few blocks from the Design Miami event , and encourage anyone in the area to drop in and take a peak.

Jose Parla’s Cityscapes exhibit on Friday night completely exceeded my expectations, I’ve been a long time fan of Jose’s work, but never had a chance until now to see such a wide range of examples across several different mediums in one place. His work ranged from large-scale tagged murals to smaller watercolor brush strokes– this show boasted his versatility, and from what the guys at Spoonfed said (the gallery representing him), it seemed to be a launch pad towards higher success; most of the show was sold before it even opened. I was lucky enough to grab one of 4 watercolors before they were all gone, a gorgeous addition to my small but quickly growing art collection! Jose was gracious, soft spoken, anti-corporate (declining a Nike shoe deal earlier this year) and a pleasure to support– I can’t wait to see where his talent takes him next. More pictures of the show after the jump.

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