For one week, South Beach in Miami is the center of pop culture. What is described as a multicultural event, Art Basel is the epitome of the fashion and art world of Miami. The event was held from Dec. 7 through Dec. 10 in the Miami Beach Convention Center.
Although Art Basel was first created in 1970 by Ernst Beyeler, Art Basel Miami was not fully established until 2002. Art Basel also displays work internationally in places such as Hong Kong and Switzerland. In a week long process, work from all over the world is selected by a committee to be put into the galleries.
“I felt the need to go because I’m in an Advanced Placement art class and I thought it would be a great experience for me to learn about art,” junior Emily Hollander said.
In the 2017 Art Basel, there were 20 new galleries added as well as 11 large scale works and 15 films within the nine different sectors of the show room. The different sectors this year were Galleries, Nova, Positions, Edition, Kabinett, Survey, Public, Film and Magazines.
“My favorite part of Art Basel was definitely walking around and looking at all the different kinds of art,” senior Julia Schwartz said. “Everything looked really cool and interesting, and [it] is a really fun memory”.
Art Basel featured over 268 galleries of work by over 4,000 artists from 32 different countries. On display were paintings, sculptures, pottery, photography, film and digital art. With both classical and contemporary art presented, the exhibit has several different options for its many different visitors and buyers. This year, there was a total of 82,000 visitors.
“My favorite display was a huge white room filled with balloon fish. It was made to make people understand the feeling of being small,” Hollander said.
The South Beach Convention Center is 500,000 square feet. With vines and flowers growing from its floor and a maze-like layout, it is hard for an art lover not to get lost.
“It was kind of hard to figure out where I had been and where I hadn’t been yet because the signs were confusing,” Schwartz said.
This year, the 16th annual Miami Art Basel was full of bright neon colors that could be seen from far away. The loud art from one exhibit contrasted with the mellow art in the following room, giving life to the white walls that the work was displayed against.
“My favorite piece of artwork was definitely all the neon signs and posters,” Schwartz said.
With work that sells for over a million dollars, celebrities and other famous influencers fly from all over the country to be in Miami, during Art Basel weekend. Such celebrities this year included Cardi B, Paris Hilton and DJ Khaled.
Tickets are already being sold to the general public for Art Basel 2018 which will be held Dec. 5 through Dec. 9.
