With 150,000 square feet of exhibition space bursting with the works of more than a 1,000 artists, featured at 280+ exhibitors, the only “Two Fairs Under One Roof”, Spectrum Miami and Red Dot Miami promises to be the best edition yet!
This five-day contemporary art extravaganza including interactive programming takes place November30th – December 4th at the Mana Wynwood Convention Center located aat 2217 NW 5th Ave. and NW 22nd St in the Wynwood Arts District.
Featured artists include:
Fashion designer Natalia Fedner, exhibiting her chain metal textile dresses, worn by the likes of Beyonce, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart
Elephant Parade, an international exhibit of lifesized model elephants, some of which have been designed by Katy Perry, Khloe Kardashian and Max Fleischer to benefit elephant welfare and conservation programs
The first of two new zines that I am launching now during SPF ‘20, available here.
This one, ‘Twenty Nineteen – Before Pandemic’ features a selection of my photos & illustrations back when wearing masks and keeping social distance was unknown.
This past Friday evening as I was contemplating how many of the many things I had put aside I was going to try to catch up on during the weekend, my brother calls and says, “Chadwick Boseman died.” So I check my newsfeeds on all my digital devices and there it is – the words confirming the heartbreaking truth that he is gone from us.
My cellphone starts chiming, notifications coming in from texts, social media channels, missed calls, voicemails, all proclaiming, all confirming this prince, this king, this force of a man is no longer here. Then the gut punch – he has been suffering from colon cancer for years, endured surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation all the while he continued to work both onscreen and off.
It is a indication of the times that my mother’s reaction is that she is thankful that he was not the victim of a gunshot or some other horrific violent death as too many many men and women of color have been this year. 2020 is the “Annus Horribilis” people of color all across the globe.
When ABC announced Saturday that they would be showing his penultimate performance in the superhero movie that changed everything on Sunday, I dressed in the same outfit I wore to see the movie in when it had opened in 2018 with extra helping of “extra-ness” – maximum accessories a la Billy Porter and beat my face to the gods so that even RuPaul would salute me. On the couch, I put a big box of tissues beside me.
When it ended I cried, cried big baby tears for this one hurts like I lost a friend.
Stéphane Vigny, Installation at Place Royale, Nantes
If you are traveling around Europe this summer and have time to see a unique cultural project, add the amazing eighth edition of Le Voyage à Nantesto your schedule. Nantes is situated on the Loire river in Western France, set in the Estuary of the Loire, in the south of Brittany and is France’s sixth largest city, with a population of 600,000.
Created by its eponymously named organization, this summer summer festival is open now until September 1st and offers a cultural itinerary celebrating surreal art, new architecture and contemporary culture by interweaving site-specific works within the city’s cultural and historical riches, complemented with a multitude of events.
For 2019, there are over 60 different works, exhibitions and installations throughout the city all free for the public to enjoy with 14 cultural partners, 105 shops and 17 hotels involved.
Some of the highlights include:
Cornelia Konrads, The Match
German artist Cornelia Konrads brings humour and play to new monuments inspired by the existinig sculuptures at Domaine de la Garenne Lemot, located outside of Nantes, in Clisson. Upon entering the park, the sculptures Hippomenes and Atalanta seem engaged in an absurd match, creating an interplay between order and chaos that will set the tone for the other art works within the garden.
Japanese artist, Tadashi Kawamata has designed the Belvédère de l’Hermitage, a structure made entirely of wood resembling a bird’s nest hanging above a cliff, providing a platform for visitors to see exceptional views over the city and Loire river. Kawamata’s vision has seeped into the city, creating miniature nests perched on top of buildings including the turret of Le Lieu Unique, as though an ecosystem is slowly taking over Nantes.
French artist, Stéphane Vigny has created an open air museum of fakes within Place Royale. The collection of imitation sculptures comprised of Greek goddesses and mythical characters were inspired by Vigny’s discovery that many buildings were destroyed by the 1943 bombings and rebuilt to be identical after the war. Vigny’s copied copies highlight this locations falsity.
Performance art director Ludovic Nobileau, sculptor Malachi Farrell and performer and clock maker Constantin Leu have created the ‘Human Clock’, an installation which fuses performance art and sculpture at Place Graslin. The installation measures the hours of night and day, alternating between human time and machine time, proposing new rhythms and rituals. The public view different events at set times throughout the day to watch man battle machine, where smoke, ashes, vegetation and other elements burst out of the clock as he tries to tame the tempo of time.
Additionally, Le Voyage à Nantes has partnered up with the city’s hotels to create a collection of permanent hotel rooms designed by artists, extending the cultural voyage during vistiors’ stays and immersing guests into the artist’s aesthetic world.
Film still from Solange’s new film, When I Get Home (2019).
Happiness is when you find out that there are ways to be super cool in the blistering heat of a South Florida summer like the upcoming exclusive screening of the interdisciplinary performance art film When I Get Home (2019) by visual artist and singer/songwriter, Solange Knowles at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) for the museum’s free Community Night on Thursday, August 1.
PAMM’s Community Night program, “Art as Film,” features a stellar line-up of selections from Miami’s film producing community through a series of shorts that highlight the best of Miami’s film scene. The program will include presentations from AD Hoc Cinema, Black Lounge Film Series, Coral Gables Cinema, Cosford Cinema, FilmGate, Flaming Classics, Miami Film Festival, Media + Archival Studies, Oolite, and Third Horizon Film Festival.
The evening will conclude with an extended director’s cut of Solange’s new film, When I Get Home (2019). The film will premiere across renowned museums and contemporary arts institutions across the USA and Europe from July 17, 2019 before closing as part of Chinati Weekend on October 13, 2019.
The film was directed and edited by Solange Knowles with contributing directors Alan Ferguson, Terence Nance, Jacolby Satterwhite, and Ray Tintori, with artist contributions that include Houston-based Autumn Knight and Robert Pruitt and sculptural work by the artist, “Boundless Body” an 8 by 100 ft. rodeo arena displayed in the desert of Marfa.
When I Get Home is an exploration of origin and spiritual expedition while confronting how much of us we have taken or left behind in our evolutions, and the role of fear in this process. The artist returned to her home state of Texas to explore this theme through an expedition of a futurist rodeo, uplifting the narrative of black cowboys and honoring her Houston lineage through this visual meditation. The extended version of the film is screened exclusively from July 17, 2019 across partner institutions in USA and Europe. For full screenings information see BlackPlanet and download a digital When I Get Home Film Poster from WeTransfer. (we.tl/whenigethome)
WHEN: Thursday, August 1 6-10PM WHERE: Pérez Art Museum Miami 1103 Biscayne Blvd Miami, FL 33132
WHO: Superfine! ArtFair! A sleeker, sexier, smarter art fair that still manages to stay friendly and approachable, the second edition of Superfine! NYC touches down in the ever-bustling Meatpacking District this May 2-6. 1,200 works of art by 78 international progressive art galleries, curators, solo projects, and collectives bring their unique perspectives to New York’s top emerging art fair. 2018’s fair continues to break down barriers between New Yorkers hungry to expand their own collections, and the artists and galleries at the forefront of new contemporary art.
WHAT: The caliber of the exhibiting artists and galleries is outshone only by their passion for a friendly, transparent, and approachable new art market. You’ll discover countless ways to appreciate and take home our cutting-edge artists and galleries’ offerings. Whatever your taste, you’ll fall in love with art at Superfine! NYC, and have a good time doing it. It will feature a full daily and nightly program including the Twilight Vernissage Preview Opening Night, a Dim Sum Collectors’ Dinner and a Girls’ Night Out (For Art!), in partnership with the Lower Eastside Girls Club, benefitting local female-driven arts organizations.
