If fatigue was setting in from Art Basel Miami Beach’s VIP preview on Tuesday, it didn’t show during the opening of NADA Miami on Wednesday, where dealers, collectors, and more crowded into Ice Palace Film Studios to see booths by around 170 galleries. On the whole, those enterprises trend younger than the ones that show at Art Basel, but the offerings this year at NADA were surprisingly more understated than what can currently be seen across the causeway.
Almost every booth featured at least some figurative painting, the art-making mode of the moment, and collectors seemed to be going for it. Beth Rudin DeWoody and Mera and Don Rubell, stalwart supports of emerging artists, were spotted walking the aisles. Though NADA said it would enforce Covid protocols, mask-wearing seemed to be taken as an option, not a requirement, as dealers made sales and reacquainted with colleagues from whom they had been separated by the pandemic. Below, a look at the 10 best offerings on view.