Miami Winter Music Conference

The Miami Winter Music Conference starts tomorrow, March 25th to the 29th, and it's one of the biggest events for electronica in the world. With it's vast schedule of events, parties and club nights it brings a huge international crowd to Miami every year, to dance to top-shelf DJs and hear the latest in club music. A bit more about it from their site:

"Winter Music Conference, in its 23rd year, is regarded as the singular networking event in the dance music industry, attracting professionals from over 62 different countries. With its high concentration of top international artists, DJs and industry professionals, WMC permeates the international press and is thereby one of the most publicized events in the business. Every aspect of the industry is represented including the top technological innovators, artists, DJs, producers, radio and video programmers, retailers, distributors, audio manufacturers and many more. There are countless reasons why people from all over the world return year after year for this event, the most outstanding one being that there is nothing else in the world like it."

Art Basel Miami 2007 - Part 3

This is my last batch of pictures from the Art Basel Miami 2008 fair. These are a images from inspiring, sexy, cool or simply kooky artwork that caught my eye while I walked up & down ABM hallways. I actually had to really pay attention to where I was going, drawing a mental map, to make sure that I did see (almost) everything. The grid pattern lay-out got me lost a couple of times wondering whether I should be turning right or left or asking myself "did I go down this aisle already?" I loved the fair and will make sure to attend it again next year armed with comfortable shoes, a full stomach and more time. I forgot to mention that the admission fee was US$30.00 and I thought it was very steep. I understand that it's a very high-end art event and they want to keep the riff-raff out, but 30 bucks is a lot considering that you don't really "get" anything for it, besides what you take home in your mind. Enjoy!

Art Basel Miami 2007 - Part 2

Visiting Art Basel Miami is like going to a huge museum show where you can see the best in international contemporary arts. The thing with museums is that you can admire and covet everything you see on their walls but nothing is available for sale, hence the name "museum". The artworks are usually part of their permanent collection through acquisitions or on loans from other museums and private collectors. At Art Basel you can actually take home a Picasso, a Miro or an Andy Warhol original, hence you have the big bucks - I mean BIG BUCKS! That's what makes this fair so cool, it's that besides getting your creative juices going, you can actually dream of owning a museum-quality piece of art. And there are tons of it to choose from. It's is overwhelming to see the sheer quantity of top names that are displayed on it's many gallery stands. I lost count of how many Warhols I spotted by weaving through all those hallways. Making a fashion analogy: it's like walking through a big shopping mall which every other shop sells Prada, Dior or Gucci runway pieces - not key chains or sunglasses - but couture level clothing. Welcome to Art Basel!

Here are a few more images from a few of my favorite artists that I came across during my art excursion in Miami on Sunday. From the top: Damien Hirst, Kehinde Wiley, Candida Hofer, John Currie, Julian Opie, Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara below.

Click on the artit's name to view older Little-Pumpkins posts on them.

Art Basel Miami 2007 - Part One

I have been hearing about Art Basel for years and somehow always managed to miss it by not scheduling my trips down South properly to early December when the fair usually takes place. I have always loved contemporary arts - a "frustrated artist" myself - and the thought of attending such an internationally renowned art event would have been a dream come true. Well, as a new Florida resident I had no excuses not to attend the event this year and that's what I did this past Sunday. The main event takes place at the Miami Beach Convention Center in South Beach, a gigantic concrete box that houses the fair itself, plus there are smaller parallel art exhibitions around the city of Miami as well. There you will find over 160 of the world's leading art galleries for modern and contemporary art showing the "crème de la crème" from 2000 plus artists' works. That includes painting, photography, sculpture, installation, film, performance, video and digital art. Sounds exhausting, huh? Well, it is! There is so much to see and absorb that a single visit makes it almost impossible to really make the most of such a huge event. It is an overdose of sensorial information and after a couple of hours walking around, in and out of the stands, I was drained - physically and mentally. I had my little digital camera on me and I must confess that I was embarrassed to use it at first. I always looked down on those "silly tourists" that take pictures inside museums but this was not a museum and after the first few shy shots I was snapping pictures of everything. As I have way too many images to post I will break it up in three different "articles" so I can show you some of my favorite works from Art Basel.

High Art Beach Towels

Jump-start your holiday shopping, or replenish your stash of towels before guests arrive, with bath or beach towels decorated with images by the artists Cindy Sherman, Elizabeth Peyton, Jeff Koons, and Kehinde Wiley. The limited-edition towels will be sold at the Raleigh Hotel pool in Miami Beach during the annual Art Basel Miami Beach show, from Dec. 5 to 9. They will also be sold through Target.com and Worksonwhatever.com, starting Nov. 19.

The 60-by-70-inch, 100 percent cotton terry towels are $50 each, and the proceeds will be used to support public art projects around the country.

Via The New York Times

Street Art @ Miami's Design District

Great street graffiti art in Miami's Design District neighborhood. It was clearly a commissioned mural but nonetheless fabulous and really striking, as I spotted it from about 2 blocks away. It reminds me of an "Adam & Eve in Paradise" reference and I am sure it might have been the artist's inspiration as well. The mural is the work of Danny Fila, a Miami-based street artist. I can't help seeing Shakira the longer I look at the girl's face. Am I crazy or doesn't she look like that Colombian fire-cracker?

South Beach Sea Shells

An iddle mind is the devil's workshop or sea shells as finger nails.