ART BASEL
A few weeks ago Kigi Love co-founder, Marcus Svensson, and I ventured down to beautiful Miami for the internationally acclaimed art show, ART BASEL. To many, this show is associated with one of the biggest party weeks in Miami, which I must disclose does seem to bother some die hard art fans as they feel it dilutes the importance of the Artwork being shown. On the positive side, this influx of people has seriously expanded Art Basel Miami in a short period of time, the amount of people being drawn to Miami has spurred hotels, retail stores, restaurants, pop ups and even local house parties to get creative with their own style of exhibition. There is literally art everywhere you look and most of the installation art is quite impressive, fun and makes you smile. If you like being able to see what’s happening on an international level in the art world this show may interest you, if you have a thing for the high profile social scene, as well as an interest in the global art scene, this is most definately the show for you! Of course Miami rarely ceases to amaze with it’s turquoise seas and white sandy beaches, I like to say it’s work and vacation mixed into one.
At these high profile Art shows, galleries often exhibit their artists’ most attention seeking pieces to grab viewers attention. I mean it is Miami so you can only imagine how creative some booths are! I do enjoy thought provoking, boundary pushing, and dramatic media driven works of art, I have fun engaging in the experiential portion of whatever they have to offer. However, on this trip I was looking for artwork for clients and came across some new artists that I connected with. I was searching for abstract expressionist pieces in larger scales and here are a few that I found interesting.
“Hashimoto expands painting and collage strategies in an ongoing exploration of abstraction and landscape through color, repetition, association, and even simple marks and gestures that when combined together, result in the infinite layers of complexity that characterize his work. Becoming a mirror of human experience.” His work is three dimensional through labor intensive techniques that display sculptural aspects. Upon further research I learned that Hashimoto has done some amazing commercial installations and has exhibited at the museum MOCA. Believe it or not, he happens to be from New York City, sometimes we have to leave our own areas to discover someone close to home!
The colors are bold and fabulous, his work draws you in and keeps you engaged for a while. I lingered around this painting for quite some time just absorbing the artists emotional message. I connected with this piece and hope to place it in a clients home to be enjoyed for many years to come.
“Born in Chiba in 1956, Nakamura received a Master of Fine Arts in oil painting from Tokyo University of the Arts, studying under the Mono-ha artist Koji Enokura.
He debuted as a painter in the 1980’s, attracting attention for his “Y” paintings, expressionist works which employed “Y”-shapes as their motif. Following this came the Diagonal Grid, C Opened, Ranging Difference – Broken Shelter, Broken Hermitage, Saisoro, Shokusocho (Phoenix) , and other series. He has been tirelessly and dynamically exploring the meaning of pictorial space, producing more than 1300 paintings to date. In Japan, he is recognized as one of the country’s most representative painters and has participated in many solo and group exhibitions, with several works in the collections of major Japanese museums.” His work is available through KaiKai Kiki Gallery
“Painting to me combines expressions of rhythm, poetry, scent, emotion….. It offers ways to articulate the spaces between words, and I cannot be concerned with its death, when working at it makes me feel so alive.” ~ Ida Ekbald
Ekbald is a Scandinavian painter, it is no surprise that she drew me in as I have a thing for everything Scandinavian! I like her use of bold colors, the harmony she portrays through each stroke and the poetic undertones her work exudes. Her work is available through Saatchi Gallery in Berlin, Germany
Hylden’s work is breathtaking, striking, and mesmerizing with his bold yet soft strokes. I love the contrast in this piece, from the pearlized iridescence on top, that is reminiscent of a sunset, to the bold black on the bottom. The sheer size of this piece is impressive, I only wish I has a wall to house this stunning diptych… sigh
“Nathan Hylden was born in 1978 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. He lives and works in Los Angeles U.S.A. His work deals with issues of temporality and also with the idea of rationality related to the creative act in itself. Playing with codes similar to those that can be met in the cinematographic industry, his pieces are produced as series and follow a very strict creative process. Starting with images of his studio silkscreened on large aluminum plaques, the pieces are then piled up to receive an allotted quantity of white paint, applied by spray or brush. Even though they are linked to each other, each tells a particular story and brandishes its own particular density. Each painting thus becomes the symbolic resumé of a particular point in time during an evolution dictated only by sequence.” His work can be found at Konig Gallerie.
Until next year Art Basel….
