Miami’s vice: celebrity meets art in Art Basel Miami

“My name is Richard, I’m from New York City and I’m happy to be here in Art Basel Miami,” singer Richard Kennedy of dance-music act Hercules and Love Affair announced last week, before launching into a spirited solo set for an eclectically dressed crowd in a room surrounded by paintings.

Technically speaking, though, Kennedy was not at Art Basel Miami, the annual art-and-design showcase held at Miami Beach, which ended yesterday. He was 11km away at a thrift store in the Little Haiti neighbourhood, performing as part of an effort to connect a burgeoning community of local artists with the international jet set that descends in a buying frenzy each year.

“This is the largest art moment on the planet,” said Karla Ferguson, owner of the Yeelen Gallery, which opened last year in Little Haiti. “We want our voices to be heard.”

On Saturday, she hosted the second edition of Fade To Black, a party celebrating the work of African-American artists. Ferguson hoped that holding it at her gallery would introduce out-of-towners to Little Haiti, which lately has seen an influx of artists priced out of other areas.

Over Basel’s 12 years here, the spreading business of showing and selling art has transformed the city and its waterfront environs into a weeklong Dionysian cultural playground — complete with a host of celebrities.

Last week, you also had the likes of Joe Jonas, Kim Kardashian, Usher and a bevy of supermodels making the party rounds in South Beach as Art Basel Miami Beach gatherings drew celebrities, art collectors and fashionistas from around the globe.

Both MTV and VH1 hosted Basel bashes. Beyonce’s little sister Solange Knowles sang at an after-party for a dinner by private watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen, which was hosted by actor Jason Alexander and where guests included Into The Woods’ actress Emily Blunt and Victoria’s Secret models Karolina Kurkova and Adriana Lima.

Kardashian stepped out at a Paper magazine party wearing a black crop top and thigh-high split skirt — far more than she did on the magazine’s talked-about cover that featured her nude backside. Meanwhile, Usher and Beastie Boys’ Mike D walked the red carpet at the ArtHaus VIP lounge at Select Air Fair, one of at least 20 satellite art fairs surrounding Art Basel.

Perhaps, the art week’s most memorable celebrity moment was Miley Cyrus’ bizarre private performance on Wednesday, when she smoked pot onstage, sang a duet with a topless woman and sang an original song she said she had been inspired to write after a cat spoke to her while she was sleeping.

“Imagine taking Cannes, a rock festival, a home and boat show, a whole lot of expensive art and fashion week, and smashing them all together, and you’d be approaching Art Basel,” said Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann.

On Wednesday, at the highly coveted VIP preview of Art Basel, he sat in a friend’s booth, Galerie Gmurzynska, at the Miami Beach Convention Centre and watched as a 1918 Picasso, Vnus et Amour, got snapped up for US$1 million (S$1.32 million), after a bidding war that included music mogul Sean Combs. “The level of fiesta is quite extraordinary,” Luhrmann said, as he was handed a glass of champagne to celebrate.

And yet, the companion fairs that have sprung up around the main Basel event and the even more exclusive nightly bacchanals, on yachts and in strip clubs, still do not, somehow, cover all the cultural territory.

So a slew of alternative fairs and pop-ups has arrived to fill niches, especially those that do not cater to blue-chip artists, well-heeled buyers or the typical canon of work. Outside the big-tent atmosphere and away from the flashbulbs, experimental pieces, political themes and underrepresented populations can thrive.

“I get depressed when I come to the fairs because it’s not about the experience” of engaging with art, said Cheryl Pope, a Chicago sculptor, installation and performance artist.

Pope discussed the idea of showing at the fairs with one of her galleries in Chicago, but ultimately decided to present in an alternative, non-commercial exhibition called Auto Body. On Thursday, she staged a performance piece, Up Against, in which she burst 700 water balloons, suspended from the ceiling, with her head.

“Nothing’s for sale here,” she said of the show held at a former garage. “It’s making a statement.” AGENCIES