CCA News
CCA Basks in the Sun at Art Basel Miami Beach 2008
Posted on Friday, January 23, 2009, by Brenda Tucker
California College of the Arts delivered a strong presence at Art Basel Miami Beach 2008 with alums, faculty, and staff both in attendance and showing their work throughout the city.
Art Basel Miami Beach, the sister event to Switzerland's Art Basel, is one of the most important international art fairs. For one week each December over 40,000 attendees, including more than 250 leading galleries from around the world (presenting work by more than 2,000 artists) descend on Miami.
Jens Hoffmann, director of the CCA Wattis Institute, is the ringleader of Miami Basel's Art Perform series. Seasoned collectors and curious passersby gathered around his beachside stage to watch the diverse cast of characters/artists. The highlight of 2008 was Yoshua Okon's Art Wrestling, in which "aesthetes" did battle for "spectacular prizes": "Transform your muscle power into acquisitions power!" Hoffmann was described in Art Newspaper's special art fair edition as a "wiry supercurator," and by Art Basel Miami Beach magazine as a "veritable rock star."
For Surface magazine's closing party, Yves Béhar (Industrial Design chair) created an amphibious, floating pool installation for Plunge, a rooftop club located at South Beach's Gansevoort South luxury hotel.
John McCracken's (Painting 1962) sculptural contribution to the art fair was highlighted in the New York Times (Ken Johnson, December 5).
Libby Black's (MFA 2001) Workout Room installation, presented as part of PULSE Miami with her gallery, Marx & Zavattero, created quite a buzz. Mixed-media art works on display: Hermes Punching Bag, Chanel Lifting Belt, Gucci Boxing Gloves, Louis Vuitton Gym Bag, and a dozen other faux high-end workout items.
Many of the thousands of artists were shown at satellite art fairs that speckled the Miami landscape, with names like Pulse, Nada, Aqua, Scope, and art miami. Walking between the fairs and boutique hotels that housed galleries and installations for that week, you could see a barrage of street art vying for the public's attention.
Patrick Dintino (MFA Painting/Drawing 2001), Kota Ezawa (Media Arts faculty), David Huffman (Painting/Drawing faculty, MFA 1998), Jordan Kantor (Painting/Drawing faculty), Don Porcella (Painting/Drawing 2001), and Michele Pred (Interdisciplinary Fine Arts 1990), and Marci Washington (Painting/Drawing MFA 2008) were among the many other CCA faculty and alumni who showed work at Miami Basel 2008.