While some top art dealers and collectors boarded the first plane home as soon as the most exclusive pre-fair vernissage festivities were finished, many celebrities stayed through the weekend at Art Basel Miami Beach. Among the 70,000 attendees who traipsed through the 250 or so galleries was a transplanted Tinseltown. Instead of collecting, however, the stars went clubbing. Le Baron, the Parisian nightclub-turned-art-fair pop-up hot spot, emerged at Nikki Beach Club Miami, where by Friday night the entire fashion world had flocked.
Vogue editor-at-large Hamish Bowles, designer Riccardo Tisci, print magnate Peter Brant’s sons, Harry and Peter, and sartorialist Scott Schuman showed up that evening, followed on Saturday by Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Demi Moore. Actress Kate Mara hung out at the Architectural Digest Oasis pop-up lounge at the Raleigh Hotel, designer Roberto Cavalli hosted cocktails at the SLS Hotel South Beach and the Moncler fashion house fêted its 60th anniversary at 1111 Lincoln Road. And by the weekend’s end art and its admirers were competing for attention, with the hype over Latin American and Brazilian artists nearly reaching the buzz surrounding a budding celebrity romance.
Our picks for Friday night’s top places to see and be seen at Art Basel Miami Beach:
10. The Glass House Café at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden had a breakfast celebrating its exhibitions: “Chamberlain at Fairchild,” “Design at Fairchild: Sitting Naturally” and “Garden Lights.”
9. Marcelo Krasilcic’s book 1990s debuted at Lords South Beach Hotel with music by Kai Kuhne and Renata Abbade.
8. Freehand Miami Hostel hosted a “Bow-B-Q” with Bow and GrandLife Hotels.
7. New York’s Neue Galerie exhibition “Postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte: Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection” was fêted at Wolfsonian-Florida International University, hosted by director Cathy Leff.
6. Architectural Digest celebrated the AD100 list and designer Mark Cunningham at the Oasis lounge at the Raleigh Hotel.
5. Photographer Matthew Rolston launched his book Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, sponsored by Hendrick’s Gin, with four five-by-five prints from the book on display.
4. The Morrison Hotel Gallery at Dream South Beach hosted a second night of cocktails at the Electric Room pop-up. On exhibit: Jack White, White Stripes Canada Tour, 2007 by Autumn de Wilde; Keith Richards and Ron Wood, Los Angeles, CA, 1979 by Henry Diltz; Bruce Springsteen, Darkness, 1978 by Frank Stefanko; Debbie (Harry. Shades by Chris Stein; Black Keys, 2009 by Danny Clinch; and Jim Morrison, NYC, 1967 by Joel Brodsky.
3. Artist Bill Viola and director of MoCA, North Miami Bonnie Clearwater were in conversation for Art Basel Miami Beach’s Art Salon series.
2. Paddle8, the online auction house, had a party for its exhibition of GIFs called “Moving the Still,” in Wynwood (pictured here).
1. Folks raised money for Sandy victims during a MoMA PS1 benefit at the Delano Beach Club on Friday, with a DJ set that included Dave 1 of Chromeo and Arthur Baker.
Photo courtesy of Art Basel/InterContinental Miami
Our picks for Thursday night’s top places to see and be seen at Art Basel Miami Beach:
10. Russell Simmons hosted a party celebrating Raphael Mazzucco’s collection at the St. Regis in Bal Harbour with Talent Resources and Rosenbaum Contemporary.
9. Miami Art Museum director Thom Collins had a reception for the new exhibit “New Work Miami 2013,” with music by Spam Allstars.
8. Chopard and W magazine editor Stefano Tonchi previewed the Milton Greene photography collection “Marilyn Forever” at Soho Beach House.
7. Hyde Beach at the SLS Hotel South Beach was booming with Visionaire magazine and Net-A-Porter’s Art Basel party.
6. Scope Miami officially kicked off with an outdoor VH1 lounge where Metric performed against a backdrop of Artists on the Rise, a group of three emerging artists whose work was featured in the lounge.
5. Fendi Casa’s exhibit celebrating Andy Warhol’s contemporary artwork opened at the Fendi Casa Luxury Living Showroom.
4. Russian heiress Maria Baibakova hosted a cocktail party in her penthouse apartment at the Setai, in honor of artist Matthew Brannon’s commission for Lincoln Center.
3. Also at the Setai, designer Domenico Vacca opened his club, DV Club Miami, for the season.
2. The InterContinental Miami officially opened its new restaurant Toro Toro, with Chef Richard Sandoval at the helm. To celebrate the hotel’s $30 million renovation, actor Jeremy Piven plugged in the lobby’s new Digital Canvas installation.
1. Vito Schnabel held a buzzy Dom Pérignon party at Wall, the nightclub in the W South Beach Hotel.
Art.sy president and COO Sebastian Cwilich spent Art Basel’s VIP preview day walking around the fair with Wendi Murdoch, passing celebrities like André Balazs and Chelsea Handler, P. Diddy and his entourage, and designer Tommy Hilfiger. We caught up with Cwilich before his Soho Beach House bash.
Q: How did the Art.sy/Design Miami collaboration come about?
A: Dasha Zhukova thought it would be a great idea to extend the Art.sy platform to include collectible design, given that collectible design can be a more accessible way for people to get comfortable with art. So Dasha introduced Carter [Cleveland] and me to Craig Robbins and Marianne Goebl, and here we are.
Q: How will this collaboration change the experience of the fair?
A: Most importantly, this allows the design enthusiasts and collectors from around the world who can’t make it to Miami to view a substantive portion of the objects at the fair and, if they’re interested, go on to connect with the dealers. For people who are coming to the fair, this allows them to preview the fair and come prepared. Additionally, Art.sy’s functionality allows people in Miami and around the world to read live posts related to Design Miami and the works on view—written by dealers, curators and collectors at the fair.
Q: How has technology changed collecting more generally?
A: It used to be that a collector in New York could walk down to the Soho Gallery Building on West Broadway and get a sense of what was happening in contemporary art. Now, as the art world has become much bigger and much more geographically dispersed, collectors need a better way to find out what’s happening. Online platforms are one great way to do that.
Q: What were the challenges of adapting the fair to an online platform? What have been the greatest benefits of doing so?
A: I think the key is not to adapt the fair to online, but rather to focus on ways we can extend the experience to greater numbers of people. We can’t allow someone to touch the objects online—yet!—but some of the storytelling possible via Art.sy posts, or via filtering technology that allows us to immediately see the 60-plus chairs on view at the fair, are things you can’t do so easily in person.
The 11th annual Art Basel Miami Beach kicked off on Wednesday with a star-studded schedule. Our picks for opening night’s top 10 places to see and be seen:
10) Billed as the “first upscale hostel in the U.S.,” the owners of New York’s NoMad Hotel launched the Roman & Williams–designed Freehand Miami Hostel with a party for Timo Weiland and music by Weiland and Alan Eckstein.
9) Designer Diane von Furstenberg discussed art, creativity and the market with W magazine editor Stefano Tonchi at Design Miami.
8) Guests watched live music at the Absolut Art Bureau’s art bar installation by Los Carpinteros. The open-air bar, Güiro, will serve Absolut cocktails each night until midnight.
7) Pop-Up Piano Miami launched on Wednesday with a fundraising concert at the Perry South Beach Hotel with hors d’oeuvres by the One Group and Grey Goose cocktails. The night continued with DJ Yissel Cabrera and eight pop-up pianos on display before being scattered across the city.
6) Interview Magazine and Valentino took over the rooftop of the Webster Miami boutique to showcase Valentino’s new Pop Art–inspired Pop Pois capsule collection.
5) To celebrate the long-awaited Drive-In in far West Texas, Ballroom Marfa hosted cocktails at Cabanas in the SLS Hotel South Beach.
4) Daphne Guinness dined with Will Smith, Chris Bosh and Ray Allen at the Roger Dubuis Velvet event at Villa Azur Restaurant & Lounge, hosted by Haute Living magazine and Dom Pérignon.
3) NetJets, the private aviation company, held its annual Collectors Cocktail party (in collaboration with online art site Artspace) at the Bath House, highlighting works by six international artists selected by curator Micaela Giovannotti.
2) From 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., VIPs got a first look at Art Basel Miami Beach at the convention center. The vernissage started at 6 p.m., where collectors mingled over cocktails near the main fair’s opening. Inside the collectors’ lounge, Ruinart Champagne’s mirrored installation, in collaboration with neo-Baroque designer Hervé Van der Straeten’s “Miroir” collection, was on display.
1) The Chanel-sponsored Art.sy party at Soho Beach House was one of the most elusive tickets in town. Last year the entire art world showed up, along with Hollywood stars like Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Val Kilmer. And if history is any indication, those who were able to finagle their way onto the guest list made sure to stay for dinner. Last year’s crowd of 600 was treated to petite filet mignon with béarnaise sauce, chorizo and shrimp, and stations piled high with paella, meatballs, and quinoa with squash blossoms.
Art Basel Miami Beach, the behemoth bacchanal that began as a mere art fair just over decade ago, first sprawled into South Beach, then headed across the causeway into downtown Miami, Wynwood and even Bal Harbour. This year it reached a whole new dimension—a digital one, that is. With online platforms finally taking center stage, the fair’s virtual presence is more prominent than ever before.
Last year the concept burst onto the scene with Art.sy’s star-studded Soho Beach House barbecue. Chanel will sponsor the event again this year, with hosts including Wendi Murdoch, Dasha Zhukova, Peter Thiel, Carter Cleveland and Larry Gagosian, and judging by the impenetrable guest list, it appears to be the week’s most coveted invite. But Art.sy isn’t stopping at a beach blowout this year—it has partnered with Design Miami to create an online space where Art.sy’s more than 100,000 registered users and 250,000 monthly visitors can shop the fair. Art.sy’s competitors are in on the act, too. Artspace, an online marketplace for contemporary art, will cohost NetJets’ annual Collectors Cocktail at the Bath Club, and online boutique Grey Area will show off its wares at the Standard Hotel. And even much of the art itself has gone digital, with major installations like InterContinental Miami’s 19-story LED Digital Canvas being unveiled on the hotel’s façade December 6.
This year, instead of roughing it with the tens of thousands campers descending on the Coachella Music Festival, visitors can take the indie out of Indio, California. For $5999, The Redbury in Hollywood gives guests two all-access artist passes unavailable to the general public, plus a night at the hotel and car service to the festival. Instead of fairground food, there is a breakfast basket and champagne to drink on Suzani blankets, not to mention a recovery snack for the return trip. On the west side, the SLS Beverly Hills packs patrons a lunch of Catalan ham, Spanish cheese, veggies and tomato salad and when they're back from the festival, the hotel has a room waiting, plus two sixty-minute relaxation massages at Ciel Spa, breakfast for two at Tres by Jose Andres and welcome cocktails. ('Escape' package, starts at $379.) And Andaz West Hollywood will offer a special rate of $220 each Coachella weekend, or guests can opt for a festival-friendly package, like 'So Hip it Hurts' for $485, which includes a tattoo from the Shamrock Social Club, cocktails, and a room, or ‘Walk n' Roll’ for $190, which provides lunch for the road, an ecofriendly water bottle, lunch, a limited edition tote bag plus a custom neighborhood map and pedometer. (The hotel will donate one dollar per mile walked to charity.)"
From filmmaker dinners at the Montage Deer Valley’s Supper Suite featuring Bravo’s Top Chef alum Marcel Vigneron and the hotel’s own executive chef Shawn Armstrong to the St. Regis’ Film Festival Wine Dinners at Jean-Georges’ J&G Grill to Hyatt Escala’s new $3.5 million restaurant, this year the festival is almost as much about the food as the film. Outside the theater, look out for Frank Langella, Liv Tyler, James Marsden and Peter Saarsgard at the Robot & Frank cocktail hors d’oeuvres reception on Saturday, catered by the Montage’s new Yama Sushi. Then hang out with Olympic medalist Shannon Bahrke at J&G before show time. We talked to two-star Michelin Chef Christopher Lee of Eden Miami and the Huntington
Social who will be cooking three different dinners for the Supper Club at the
Axe Hair Media Lounge, and Celeste Fierro and Liran Mezan of the One Group (STK) about the restaurant scene at this year’s festival.
Departures.com: What special events are you working on for Sundance and how did you come up with the menu?
Chris Lee: We are doing dinners for the cast of The Comedy as well as the Playboy Imaginative Filmmakers Spotlight Award. The menus were developed with seasonal ingredients and recipes that highlight my cooking style: combining seasonality with creativity, and inspired by abstract art.
Celeste Fierro: This year we're excited to have our new Corporate Chef Liran Mezan to spearhead the menu. STK comes to Sundance hosting private dinners for Black
Rock, For a Good Time Call and Lay the Favorite, among others.
Why is Sundance an important market for you, and how did you decide to do the pop-up?
Lee: As a chef, Sundance is full of creative, artistic people who I hope will appreciate that aspect of my food. I am happy to have the opportunity to cook for them. As a business owner, Sundance is one of the most prestigious film festivals that attracts people from all parts of the world. This kind of exposure is priceless.
What are you most looking forward to this year at Sundance? How does the atmosphere fit with your restaurant or image?
Lee: I am looking forward to doing the Showcase dinner on Sunday, it is always nice to be a part of a highly coveted event. There have been a lot of great chefs before me who have cooked for this, and I am happy to add my name to that roster. The atmosphere fits with my concepts very well. From what I have seen, the vibe of Sundance is very much glitz and glamour, but in an approachable way. You have movie stars and the red carpet, but everyone is running around in jeans and snow boots.
Fierro: The One Group, Gansevoort Hotel Group and Direct TV partnered to create a great space on Main Street, the center of the festival, hosting private dinners and a late night lounge. David Mast and Dwell magazine assisted in creating a space that was a combination of both TOG and GHG in a ski lodge setting.
Who would you most like to meet this year at Sundance?
Lee: I am still waiting to meet Mr. Redford. And since we are doing a dinner that is sponsored by Playboy, it would be awesome to meet Hef.
Liran Mezan: J.J. Abrams.
How would you describe the restaurant scene during the festival? How has it changed over the years?
Lee: The restaurant scene is going to be off the hook, full of people who know good food. It is really great that the festival flies in chefs to help celebrate these great accomplishments.
Mezan: There's a greater energy this year. You can already feel it on Main Street. Perhaps it’s an uptick in the economy, or the great films and filmmakers show. Whatever it is, we're excited.
Does the film lineup have any bearing on what you will create?
Lee: Well, I definitely took into consideration who will be in the dining room and tried to design a menu that will amuse, inspire, and impress. I didn’t have a particular film in mind, but I did think about the vibe of Sundance being relaxed and comfortable, and cold, so I went with braised short rib because it is a nice hearty winter dish.
When the 28th annual Sundance Film Festival opens this weekend in Park City, Utah, some of its most anticipated films will chronicle corporate greed, economic plight and, of course, Occupy Wall Street. From Finding North, Tom Colicchio’s documentary about hunger in America, to Queen of Versailles, Lauren Greenfield’s movie about a Florida real estate developer’s failed quest to build a 90,000 square-foot, personal state-side Versailles, to Nicholas Jarecki’s feature film Arbitrage, starring Richard Gere as a troubled hedge fund manager, the official film schedule will stand in stark relief against its unofficial scene: the parties.
According to Christopher Ryan, the talent manager in charge of the Sundance party list, this year’s Sundance will see nearly 100 more events this year than last year. With dozens of new corporate sponsors descending on Park City to create the biggest event spaces in the festival’s history, and venues like STK and Tao opening pop-up spots to rival the real thing, one can only hope the films’ frightening forecast isn’t. We interviewed Chris Ryan to hear his top picks for opening weekend.
How do you come up with the list and who gets it?
First I go through all the films and see who the talent is, then I go to their publicists and find out what events they’re doing for the talent, and then build out a list of that. I send it to select actors, directors, publicists and press and they get great marketing out of it.
How is the 2012 party schedule different than last year’s?
It’s much bigger than last year. Last year there were 270 listings and this year it’s already at 350 and I still haven’t included two lounges on that list. Maybe the economy is recovering, or brands are looking to spend money. It’s not hard to spend $50,000 on an event and get enough filmmakers and media there to make it worth it.
Where did those extra 100 events come from? Who’s new on the scene?
A lot of sponsors who dropped out in recent years have returned, like GenArt came back with the Bertolli Meal Soup Chalet. Sundance’s official sponsors are hosting new events. And the Fender Music Lodge moved to a bigger center. Axe Hair Media Center and Groom Room is all new. And Issey Miyake Sport is new and sponsoring The Supper Club. There are new vendors in the Village at the Lift, like the Miami Board of Tourism. There are also new corporate-sponsored houses on promontory point, like the Sundance Collective, who are all hosting private events and dinners.
Where will all the celebrities be during the day? Where do you go to people watch?
Good hangout spots during the day will be the Fender Music Lodge, where live music will play all day long and there will be Chopin Vodka and Monster Energy drinks, and the Miami Oasis at the Village, where there will Patron drinks. The Element Electronics Apres Ski House and the Axe Media Center will also be full of celebrities.
Which evening events have the hottest tickets so far?
The exclusive cast dinner parties are all really good, like the Supper Suite at the Montage on Friday night. The HBO party on Sunday night at the LIVEstyle Film Lounge will be a hard one to get into. The 7 for All Mankind party at the Bertolli Meal Soup Chalet is always really good too. Then after-hours at the new STK space, Hyde and Goodnight Gansevoort will be the toughest places to go. Then, the TAO space is really cool because they use the lift parking lot and redecorate it to look like Tao Vegas. Most of the celebrities will be around the Village at the Lift or the Supper Clubs that Issey Myake Sport is hosting. Then Bing has some pretty good acts performing in their space on Main Street. They just added a third floor so it will be one of the bigger venues.
For the collectors, gallerists and celebrities who had been at Art Basel Miami Beach since Tuesday, the weekend was less about art and more about the action. After partying all night at Le Baron nightclub in the Delano, the art set woke up for the beaucoup de brunches along the Collins Avenue, where they were whispering about dealer Ann Friedman selling forged artwork and collector Adam Lindemann’s not-so-complete boycott of Art Basel. And for all the complaining about corporate sponsorships taking over the main fair and its surroundings, many of the pop-up shops were just as creative as the artwork itself. The Havaianas Brazilian graffiti installation, Fendi's Craft Alchemy, Veuve Clicquot’s golden airstream and Ruinart’s Gideon Rubin display all had more viewers at a given time than many of the gallery booths. Perhaps this started to frustrate dealers, who reacted to the glut of tourists near their walls. When a collector brushed against a Peter Halley painting in Mary Boone’s booth, she tried to kick him out. “You are out of your mind,” the collector replied. To which she answered, “No, this is my gallery and I want you out!” Michelle Rosenfeld, a Madison Avenue art dealer who happened to be in the booth at the time, advised the collector, “Don’t argue.” Here's what was happening elsewhere.
10. Bonnie Clearwater, director and chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, moderated a panel with collectors Carlos de la Cruz, Dennis Scholl, Martin Margulies and Irma and Norman Braman at Art Basel Miami Beach.
9. Hakkasan’s dim sum brunch at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach in partnership with Zagat guides.
8. Final day of Gideon Rubin’s exhibition at the Ruinart area of the Collector’s Lounge. The installation of 21 cardboard faceless portraits of the Ruinart family over the years was Rubin’s first commission. “If they don’t have facial features, it makes it actually harder to paint,” Rubin says. “You still have to give them weight of being human but with the folds of the clothes and the shape of the body.”
7. The Basel Castle installation was a conceptual mini-festival of contemporary artists, musicians and games, sponsored by Popchips.
6. Leo Fitzpatrick, Luis Gispert and Tim Barber displayed new releases published by OHWOW at a book-signing event in the Design District.
5. The Standard and Le Baron nightclub hosted the annual Lazy Sunday BBQ at the hotel.
4. MAC hosted a dinner for socialite Daphne Guinness’s new cosmetics line at Soho Beach House.
3. SPiN Galactic and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, held a ping-pong tournament at the Standard.
2. MoMA P.S. 1 hosted sunset cocktails at the Mondrian Hotel honoring Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin.
1. CAN’T MISS:Thomas Collins, director of the Miami Art Museum and the Lisson Gallery screened Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, a documentary about the Chinese artist. The screening took place at The Fontainebleau, underneath Weiwei's Miami Chandeliers installation. It was the first feature film about the artist-activist who, after publicly calling the 2008 Olympic Games political propagand,a has become one of most controversial critics of the Chinese government.
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