Gone are the glamour, the money and the crowds of Art Basel Miami Beach, and once again Miami’s art community faces a bigger challenge than hosting a mammoth art fair: How to nurture and develop a richly diverse but complex art scene that remains underfunded, splintered and, by some measures, troubled.
ARTKABINETT social network for fine art collectors displays many emerging works via member uploads in our Collector Connnector.
By most accounts, the fair was a success, with strong sales opening day and record-breaking attendance on Saturday.
Miami’s art community basked in the glow, but the post-Basel reality is harsh: Some galleries in Wynwood are closing, museums have trouble raising money, and artists have to take on day jobs to make a living.
“Artists are struggling, even the artists who are doing well are struggling,” says art dealer Fredric Snitzer, the only Miami gallerist who has had a booth in the Miami Beach Convention Center during Basel every year. “I don’t think this community supports its own artists.
I’m always amazed at how much business we do outside of here with collectors who value our artists more than our collectors do here.”
He’s not talking about the handful of collectors who open their collections to the public in Wynwood and the Design District, host and employ art students, lend works to museums, and spend fortunes to develop world-class collections that do include Miami artists.
“They do plenty,” Snitzer says (pictured here).
But, he asks, how many people make “a cultural commitment” to collect Miami artists, to patronize museums, to support funding for the arts?
“The community needs to open their eyes,” Snitzer says. “We are in Paris 1910 and there is a Picasso on every corner more or less.
There are tons of great artists here, but the community needs to step it up and support them.”
During Basel, some artists worked installing not only their artwork but that of others at booths in the satellite fairs. Other artists work year-round installing, handling the cashier station at museum stores, designing websites, teaching at colleges and universities.
Artist Jiae Hwang works part-time at the Apple store on Lincoln Road tutoring customers on computer use. Artist Natasha Lopez De Victoria of the TM Sisters duo works at a boutique.
Artist Christy Gast installs work, is a grant writer, and teaches at New World School of the Arts. She had significant exposure during Basel. Her Herbert Hoover Dyke Project, a video projection and a series of sculptures, was featured in the projects room at the de la Cruz Collection.
Her work also was showcased at the Gallery Diet booth at the satellite fair Pulse, where she created an environmental installation in the garden.
Yet her mood during Basel was tempered. “Excited? No, I would not use that word to describe how I’m feeling righ now,” Gast said then. “I’m missing my own opening [at the de la Cruz Collection] and I have a job and a meeting in a few minutes.”
Yet the New York artist who moved to Miami more than two years ago is satisfied to be doing it all. As faculty, she has access to expensive equipment she can’t afford and the exchange with students is enriching, Gast says. “I just piece it all together in a way that works best for me,” she says. “Everyone has a different way of being in the world as an artist.”
All the artists interviewed by The Herald expressed similar positive and mixed views about their jobs.
One artist privately characterized his feelings using humorous Cuban slang for having a tough time making ends meet, “Successful, but comiéndome un cable,” he says.
Most artists choose work that in some way adds to their artistic practice. Those who work in museums develop relationships with curators, collectors and administrators.
“I don’t think that’s something that is particular to Miami,” says gallerist Nina Johnson (shown here) of Diet Gallery. “Most artists anywhere have some kind of supplemental income.
Whether you are selling a work for $5,000 or $50,000, you might sell one piece now and maybe not another for six months.”
courtesy: Fabiola Santiago/Miami Herald
