Where Billionaires Wait in Line | Art Basel Miami Article

As featured in the December issue of Social Life Magazine, now available to our collectors and friends

A DAY AT ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH

BY KEVIN BERLIN

It’s 11 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, and I’m standing in the only place in Miami where the billionaires are waiting in line: It’s for the VIP private view of the 22nd edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, at the Miami Beach Convention Center, across the street from the historical botanical gardens. This is the cornerstone of what started as a dream to expand the legendary Art Basel from Basel, Switzerland. The 90 people in line and myself are about to experience 286 galleries from 38 countries, including 34 first-time exhibitors, and thousands of artists and artworks. ABMB is the easily the largest and most important art fair in the Americas. It is said that more private planes arrive in Miami this week than at any other moment in any place around the world.

But first, let’s go back in time. How did Miami become so popular as an art destination? At first glance: It’s the weather, stupid. Yet in the early 1900s, Miami was hardly a luxury destination. Three things made for a transformation: new technology for getting rid of mosquitoes, the invention of the air conditioner, and a railroad system that finally linked Miami to the rest of the country. All this, for you history buffs, occurred in the only major city in the U.S. founded by a woman, Julia Tuttle.

Let’s get back to the fair and take a stroll. What do we see? An endless labyrinth of illuminated booths featuring paintings, sculptures, installations rising to enormous heights, and a sea of very well-dressed people, some of them impossibly fit. How to even start? Here are the latest presentations of artworks represented by many of the most influential galleries and gallerists in the world: Hauser & Wirth, Perrotin, Larry Gagosian, Pearl Lam—the list goes on. There are also unique areas like Meridians, which feature large-scale projects that push the boundaries of the traditional art-fair layout. Those in the know might recognize Matthew Marks by his signature eyeglasses. I see women Insta-posing next to sparkly, multi- faceted sculptures. Nearby, a guy chatting in a corner with a baseball cap on turns out to be Leonardo DiCaprio.

Unbeknownst to me, Fredric Snitzer Gallery has just sold all 13 paintings by Hernan Bas, at prices ranging from $23,000 to $400,000. There are also works in the secondary market, including by Josef Albers, Tom Wesselmann, and Andy Warhol, ones I never saw before. I admire monumental new works by figurative giants like the 97-year-old Alex Katz, and the ever irreverent Ai Weiwei.

If a work has made it onto a wall at ABMB, it is an achievement, the dream of many young artists. What’s different this year? Surprisingly very little politics, almost no religion, lots of flowers, and for the first time in recent memory, lots of nudes. A crowd is gathering around an enormous white marble sculpture of a hand with truncated fingers, except the middle one. It’s another surprise from Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, who is perhaps best known for Comedian, a work that consists of an

actual banana duct-taped to the wall that recently resold at an auction for $6.2 million.

It’s almost 6 p.m., and I’m standing in the Collectors Lounge drinking espresso martinis with the usual suspects. Samsung is sponsoring a small reception to unveil its new collection of digital screens to display artwork. I chat with close friends from New York and London that I haven’t seen since last year. I make the acquaintance of a whole family from Medellín, Colombia. We chat about who’s doing what later tonight. The Pérez Museum’s not-to-miss reception opens in two hours. I haven’t yet been to the other 20-plus art fairs, including Design Miami, Art Miami, Red Dot, NADA, Pulse, Scope, Untitled, Wynwood Walls, and the Graffiti Museum. The entire city is wide awake. I just realized that it’s only the first day, four more to go. Oops. I’m not a car, but I do run out of gas.

Kevin Berlin is an international artist best known for painting, sculpture, and performance. Berlin, a Yale University Alumnus, studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Shanghai Daily, The Miami Herald, USA Today, MTV, Tokyo Television, BBC Radio and over 40 television stations. Berlin's works are found in collections including Kim Basinger, Luciano Pavarotti, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush and Quincy Jones. Berlin's recent solo exhibitions include shows in Miami, Palm Beach, New York, London and the Hague. www.kevinberlin.com | @kevinberlin