MMG had this fantasy of doing blog updates every night we were in Miami – but after spending ten hours in the booth, followed by two hours in meetings, followed by brief appearances at artist and colleague happenings around the city…a few hours of sleep sounded like a more pressing need.
Now that we are back, and (for the most part) caught up with our post-fair ops, we are thrilled to share some of the fair’s highlights with you:
• We were excited to place works by Tim Bavington, Julie Heffernan, Nobuhito Nishigawara, Yigal Ozeri, Jason Salavon, Allison Schulnik, Cordy Ryman, Ben Weiner and Kenichi Yokono with enthusiastic and quality collectors.
• Kiel Johnson, Kim Dorland, Ben Weiner Jason Salavon and Yigal Ozeri all made the journey to Miami to visit us, for which we were very thankful and appreciative. We were able to catch up with them at our event at the Essex House, which we co-hosted with Catharine Clark Gallery, DCKT Contemporary, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, Electric Works, Hosfelt Gallery, Marx & Zavattero, Mixed Greens, Morgan Lehman Gallery, P.P.O.W., Paul Kopeikin Gallery and Rena Bransten Gallery.
• Sarah Douglas of Art + Auction and ArtInfo.com spoke with Catlin Moore (Gallery Manager) about works in the booth, and consequently announced the Metropolitan Museum’s acquisition of Jason Salavon‘s “Portrait (Hals)” for their permanent collection in her PULSE Miami review.
• Ben Weiner‘s “C6H1206” went to the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation’s permanent collection, while Julie Heffernan‘s “Study for Self Portrait as Flat World” went to the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation.
• Museum des Beaux Arts Montreal acquired one of Allison Schulnik‘s videos, and 2×2 Gallery in Amsterdam confirmed a solo exhibition of new works by Kenichi Yokono.
• According to the Wall Street Journal‘s ongoing coverage, Miami had approximately 40,000 people in town for the fairs…dangerously close to 2007’s 43,000, and – we feel – largely indicative of a returning market. MMG personally met some fabulous collectors and writers over the week.
• Parties were prevalent – including free concerts by Santigold and the Sex Pistols – but MMG was too booked up to attend any functions besides their own. Because of this, they lived vicariously through the coverage on ArtForum, Flavorpill and ArtLog, and are only marginally bitter.
We sincerely thank all of our fervent collectors and MMG advocates for making the trip out this year, your support of our gallery and our artists is always deeply appreciated. Furthermore, our featured artists floored us with amazing work created for the booth, and their support of our ever-developing program. We thank them for providing us with such incredible art on an ongoing basis.
Check out the iPhone photojournalism efforts of MMG’S Gallery Manager, Catlin Moore, who apologizes for the horrendous quality of the images, but hopes they illuminate a small fraction of Miami’s greatness.
Next up: PULSE New York, 2010. Check back for the gallery’s announcement of this year’s solo booth artist.