Art + Design in Miami: Painstaking Process
Our collection of the most beautifully detailed and maniacally constructed works from the Miami fairs
In our third selection of the goods from Art Basel and the surrounding Miami fairs, we focus on the meticulously detailed and painstaking work of artists who tend to get romanced by the details. Below you’ll encounter precise and repetitive line drawings, lottery ticket collages and sticker-composed Hindu deities that explore the complicated inner-workings of the creative mind.
This aerial of an imaginary golf community from Clay Ketter reminded us of a bit of a Rorschach test in its creative use of symmetry. Dubbed “Spider Woods” 2010, this piece comes from the Wetterling Gallery in Stockholm.
Tom Friedman displayed “Untitled (Broadway Boogie)” 2011, a complex circuitry of colors and lines from Luhring Augustine, New York. Meanwhile, the Kashya Hildebrand gallery at Art Asia presented Aghighi Bakhshayeshi’s “Untitled” 2011, a dazzling calligraphic composition that had viewers in a trance.
“Veil From Oceanus” 2011 is part of Sam Messenger‘s “Six Veils” series, a set of ink-on-paper pieces that accomplish rich monochromatic textures through razor-thin intersecting lines. This piece came from the Davidson Contemporary gallery.
Also from the Davidson Contemporary gallery, Ghost of a Dream‘s “5 Times Daily” 2011 takes discarded lottery tickets and rearranges them on a panel to make geometric patterns reminiscent of Navajo tapestries.
Seen at Pulse, Joan Linder‘s hyper-detailed drawing “Purple Weed (71st Street D Line MTA left and right)” 2011 uses old school quill-and-ink techniques to record a fascinating natural subject—shown by Mixed Greens.
Adam Fowler cut and layered graphite renderings to create “Drawing One (trilogy)” 2010, which we caught at Pulse through Margaret Thatcher Projects.
We loved the radial design of Dean Smith‘s “Untitled (a18)” 2011, a work of graphite on paper on view through Gallery Joe. His short, slender marks create hypnotic movement that belies the static medium.
This fun and colorful take on ritual Hindu iconography uses a multitude of stickers to compose a distinct take on a timeless image. Called “A World of Joy” 2009-11, we were lucky enough to catch this piece by Ye Hongxing at Art Asia.
Building off of the minute fragments of broken LCD displays, Josepha Gasch-Muche’s “17.2.2011” is a luminous piece that combines ethereal abstraction with gritty construction. Seen through the Heller Gallery at Art Miami.
Marco Maggi’s “Graph” 2011 is a graphite-on-graphite drawing from Nara Roesler at Art Nova. The industrial geometric forms are endlessly complicated and multidirectional, giving the piece many distinct points of interest.
Sticking nickel-plated pins into gatorboard, Tara Donovan’s “Drawing (Pins)” 2011 further develops the artist’s dedication to simple compositions rife with tactile innovation. The Stephen Friedman Gallery exhibited this famed American’s work last week.
Contributions by Josh Rubin, Jonah Samson and Karen Day
