MIAMI MEMORIES 2008
by Walter Robinson
We’re done with Art Basel Miami Beach 2008, not to mention the dozen or so satellite fairs. Finished. It’s over. We’re moving forward, looking ahead. Ahead to the frigid winters in New York, England, Germany, that is. But some fond memories linger. However you feel about art fairs, you got to admit that December in South Beach is beautiful and balmy. Plus, a few other things.
A sculptor’s idea of a painting
Robert Chambers has a machine that flings a saucer, daubed with paint, straight at a wooden panel at supersonic speeds, embedding it with shards of crockery and splattering it with streams of pigment. It’s nothing less than a sculptor’s idea of painting, a deliciously physical marriage of Lucio Fontana, Jackson Pollock and Julian Schnabel. Works from the series were on view at the artist’s open studio in Coconut Grove.
Art in the yard
Founded in 2003 by test-prep guru Lin Lougheed, CasaLin is an "urban garden" (i.e., someone’s tropical backyard) located a block away from the Rubell Family Collection in Miami. Each year CasaLin organizes an outdoor art exhibition to correspond with Art Basel Miami Beach. The 2008 installment featured works by six Miami artists, including an inverted Pushmi-pullyu made with two John Deere tractors by Robert Chambers, an oversized web of woven manila rope by Julie Davidow, a garden shack covered with Miami moss and air plants by Mette Tommerup, plus works by Ralph Provisero, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova and Frances Trombly. A pleasant, low-key alternative to the typical Miami art hullaballoo.
For more info, see www.casalin.org
