Daily Front Row

2010 December 1

Dear Daily! Live from Art Basel Miami Beach

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Rula Jebreal and Ingrid Sischy at the Bruce Weber bash
CLINT SPAULDING/PatrickMcMullan.com View Gallery

(MIAMI) Dear Daily!

Art Basel officially opens today, but Miami madness has already begun! Andre Balasz kicked off the week by pulling up to his cocktail party at The Standard in the fabulous new Riva boat, designed by Marc Newson, a former Design Miami Designer of the Year.  The limited-edition Acquariva glistened in the sun while a lucky few were setting up dates for sea trials.  If you prefer a boat over art, Nadine Johnson shared the following: “Acquariva is available for sale for a 1 million British pounds.” Okay then!

As the sun was setting, Balaz and Stuart Parr were holding court on the dock with certain art world luminaries such as mega-dealer Larry Gagosian, W’s Stefano Tonchi and Vanity Fair’s Todd Eberle.The talk of the night? The many upcoming exhibitions of the week, from Jennifer Rubell’s breakfast exhibition called “Just Right” to "the island," a one day, invite-only exhibition presented by Shamim Momin and Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND).  Artist Ryan McGinness, who was running off to install his exhibition, “Women,” informed me of his unique location for his show.  “It's at a strip club,” he revealed. Yes---McGinness’ fluorescent blacklight paintings of nudes will be on view at Club Madonna, known to locals as a “Gentleman’s Club.”

After I confirmed my date and time for my Acquariva sea trial (I cannot wait for my test drive on Friday), I carefully navigated my Louboutins from the dock at The Standard to the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Opening Night Party. Hosted by Vanity Fair, the night celebrated 2 new exhibitions: Jonathan Meese’s “Sculpture” and Bruce Weber’s “Haiti/Little Haiti.”  The powerful photographs by Weber, a fashion world favorite, chronicled Miami’s Haitian community from 2003 to 2010.

Calvin Klein, Julian Schnabel, and Jeffrey Deitch all descended on MOCA to show their support for Weber, as did many Miami notables including the uber-collectors, the De la Cruz family, Emilio Estefan, Alonzo Mourning, and Ricky Martin. Martin, who helped rebuild homes in Haiti after the earthquake, had a unique perspective on Weber’s photographs.  As he looked at the works carefully, Martin flashed his charismatic smile and simply said, "These are absolutely beautiful." Until tomorrow!

xoxo Lisa