Art Miami And Sister Fair, CONTEXT Art Miami, Draws Over 84,000 Fairgoers

“How do you like your company,” Mira Lehr’s art dealer, Howard Rosenbaum, asked of Rosenbaum Gallery’s sprawling Art Miami booth, where her large Mangrove inspired canvasses hung alongside Picasso’s, Miro’s, a Mark Bradford that sold for five million and a Rothko that broke records with its sale. We were at Art Miami’s opening night, the party that kicks off the Art Basel week, with such glamour, it’s easy to forget the serious money that underpinning it.

“This was our most successful fair to date when you consider the volume of sales of important art works, the overall quality of the artists and respected international galleries that exhibited,” Nick Korniloff, Director of Art Miami, said. Blue chip artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Robert Indiana, Damien Hirst, George Condo, Wifredo Lam, Jackson Pollock, Josef Albers, Alexander Calder, Jeff Koons, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, Marc Chagall, Ed Ruscha, Keith Haring, Frank Stella and Richard Serra, filled the hall. Next door was Art Context, linked by a VIP area.

Forest Whitaker, Brooke Shields, Shark Tank‘s Kevin O’Leary, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Audrey and Martin Gruss, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and his wife Aileen Kennedy, Alice Louise Walton, Eileen Guggenheim, Kim Heirston, The Originals actress Claire Holt, Josh Altman of the Altman Brothers, Brandon Boyd, NFL player Gosder Cherilus, Chip Bowers, President of Business Operations, Miami Marlins, United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, and Alan Dershowitz were among those browsing and shopping.

We were arrested by New York philanthropist and jewelry designer Kara Ross’ interactive exhibit. “Unleashed by Kara Ross is a non profit media company that celebrates and supports female artisans and entrepreneurs,” said Jacqueline Brennan. “We’re here at Art Miami doing an augmented reality showcase of our film series, ‘Connecting Thread.'”

Later that week, another sister fair, Aqua Art Miami, opened. “We curated an engaging variety of artists and galleries that show work by people who are thinking outside of the box and creating new art that pushes boundaries,” said Director Grela Orihuela, who curated the successful five day showcase.