It is Wednesday afternoon in Miami Beach right now, and Art Basel Miami Beach has been open to invited guests for a little over four hours. Those people include Owen Wilson, who was wandering the aisles with Peter Brant, Jake Gyllenhaal, whose security guard kindly asked onlookers to “please point your camera in another direction,” and all the art types you would expect at this sort of thing.
How’s the art? As usual, it’s a mixed bag. There’s plenty of middling material, but also juicy surprises around almost every corner—a little room of Fairfield Porters at Hirschl & Adler, a tight Ajay Kurian and Michele Abeles doubleheader at 47 Canal, a bevy of Sturtevants at Ropac, a huge, elegant Urs Fischer at Sadie Coles HQ, two David Hammons—a recent one, covered in fabric, at White Cube, and a splashy Color Field-y one from 1969 at Mnuchin—and the list could go on.
In the slide show below, a quick look—mostly highlights—at the fair, which runs through Sunday at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
Christian Marclay at Paula Cooper Gallery.
A 1989 Anne Truitt at Matthew Marks Gallery.
Sturtevant and Tom Sachs at Thaddaeus Ropac.
A 1989 Cady Noland at Gagosian Gallery, which also sported a huge late de Kooning (all white, red, and blue), a 1962 Ruscha ("FISK," it reads, in white on teal), and quite a bit more.
Zak Kitnick at Clifton Benevento.
Constant Dullaart at Carroll/Fletcher.
Picabias, and one Duchamp, at Galerie 1900–2000, of Paris. A nice addendum to the "Café Dolly: Picabia, Schnabel, Willumsen" show on view at the Museum of Fort Lauderdale, a 50-minute drive north of here.
Jack Early at Fergus McCaffrey.
Jack Whitten and Melvin Edward 'Lynch Fragments' at Alexander Gray Associates.
Jamian Juliano-Villani and Van Hanos at Tanya Leighton Gallery.
David Korty and Nancy Lupo at Wallspace.
Bjarne Melgaard keeps going more and more absurd, more and more Cobra, at Gavin Brown.
A 1992/93 Felix Gonzalez-Torres stack at Andrea Rosen Gallery.
Carrol Dunham and Ugo Rondinone at Eva Presenhuber Gallery.
Jon Pestoni and Sam Pulitzer at Real Fine Arts.
Blade Runner and popcorn. JPW3 at Michael Jon Gallery.
Jaya Howey at Bureau.
Ajay Kurian at 47 Canal, which was also showing recent photos by Michele Abeles.
Boom. Katharina Grosse at Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder.
Jason Rhoades behind a rope at David Zwirner, of New York and London.
Martin Creed at Gavin Brown's Enterprise.
Urs Fischer at Sadie Coles.
K8 Hardy at Reena Spaulings Fine Art.
Camille Henrot delivering, with drawings and ikebana arrangements at Metro Pictures.
A Kabinett section suite of paintings by Etel Adnan at Galerie Lelong's booth.
Jonathan Meese being very Jonathan Meese at Sies + Höke.
A wall of Dan McCarthy—all rainbows and color and life—at Anton Kern.
Giorgio Griffa and Liam Gillick in back at Casey Kaplan. New Kevin Beasleys on the ground to the left.
A new Dan Graham pavilion, titled Come On In, at Copenhagen's Galleri Nicolai Wallner with a painting by Alexander Tovborg.
Sweet, sweet cakes at the Hummingbird Bakery.
A new Tabor Robak at Team. Drinking Bird, it's called. It features a 60-minute video animation paired with a live stream of headlines from CNN, presented at text below. The clock is atomically accurate.
Many exhibitors have been smart about building little partitions or mini galleries for the works of individual artists. A luxurious little example: this suite of Karen Kilimniks in a side room at 303.
A Tanya Bonakdar Gallery stunner: Tomás Saraceno, Haim Steinbach, Agnieszka Kurant, and Ernesto Neto.
An alley-oop at Berlin's Mehdi Chouakri from the late Charlotte Posenenske, in front, to John Armleder in back.
Mickalene Thomas's living room installation with her documentary about her mother Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman playing, at Kavi Gupta.
An untitled 2005 Ed Clark banger at New York's Tilton Gallery.
Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen at Galerie Bärbel Grässlin.
A new painting by William Pope.L at Mitchell-Innes & Nash.
Bob Mnuchin wheeling and dealing. A gorgeous circa 1969 David Hammons painting up top, a Cy Twombly drawing on the ground, and a Frank Stella behind him. Funky Stellas are out in force.
Left to right: Joyce Pensato, Josiah McElheny, and Diane Simpson at Corbett vs Dempsey.
Two ladies enjoying video art.
Duane Hanson at Christoph van de Weghe.
Alexander Calder's Rouge Triomphant, ca. 1959–63, at Helly Nahmad Gallery.
Netjets employees protesting outside the Convention Center against proposed contract changes from its new owner, Berkshire Hathaway.