Grandes Expectativas: Art Basel Miami Beach II – Dave Powell

Grandes Expectativas: Art Basel Miami Beach II

Dave Powell

However, I certainly don’t wish to emulate today’s louder Right-Wing pundits by blithely skating over the surface of a deep issue, so I’ll admit there’s at least one additional significant factor underlying the moneyed-patrons-to-subsisting-artists ratio, and that is geography. As so aptly stated in the triple-mantra of real estate, likewise, a viable art market is pretty much a matter of "Location, location, location;" and if Miami’s got nothing else, it’s definitely well placed… Which surely bodes well for the prospective longevity of Art Basel.

Firstly, on a global scale, Miami Beach lies at the aerial crossroads of three continents: Europe, Greater North America, and South America. Whereas the former two landmasses are taken for granted as steady sources of potential art consumers, I submit that we ignore the lower two-thirds of the Western Hemisphere as a serious cultural region. If, Latin America (Central and South) is presently home to only some 7% of the world’s population, but let’s look at the long haul…

Buenos Aires is already the second most populous city on Earth, with Sao Paulo holding seventh, projections show Brazil alone at over 200 million souls in a mere decade or so. Since their self-reinvention in 1997, the Andean Community of Nations has set high goals for political and economic cooperation, and through the year 2025 Latin America’s cumulative GDP growth will outpace the global average by over 25%. According to the Population Reference Bureau, by 2050, the total Latin American population will approach 800 million, putting twice as many non-American Latinos in the Western Hemisphere as US citizens. A decade from now over two fifths of the Miami region’s four-million-plus inhabitants will be Hispanic, and by 2025 the home of Jeb and the Sunshine Chad will supplant Hillary’s Haven as the third most populous state: that’s a whole lot of potential art buyers. A longstanding and vital hub of air transportation, Miami is also a banking portal, and now the city is vying hard to host the headquarters of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. If the city succeeds, they will forever secure Miami as the monetary aorta between the Americas: perhaps Basel’s success last year foreshadowed a coup of similar magnitude in the realm of aesthetics?

Back to the matter at hand: Art Basel Miami Beach 2. I lived in South Beach a while back (my reward to myself after serving seven years hard-time in Manhattan). Exhausted, I unexpectedly abandoned Miami after just two years, finding the area relentlessly glitzy, shallow, and materialistic (as I’m sure many Noo Yawkahs are similarly apt to gauge). Nonetheless, perhaps it is just these features that play into Miami’s utility as a future art bastion. Going back last year for the premier of ABMB, I was impressed with how far the area had come, and honestly, I was astonished by the event as well. If nothing else, the sheer magnitude of the convention was breathtaking. For all I know, next month I might be writing a piece titled, "Why ABMB2 Flopped," though I seriously doubt it. After nearly 20 years of intimate involvement in America’s east coast art scene, steadily hopping back and forth between the Empire and Sunshine States, it is my thorough conviction that Miami is poised to become America’s third great "Art Capitol." The fact that this event is held to coincide with the prime vacation season for all those Northerners and Europeans wishing to take in some palms while escaping the winter chill, is precisely the factor that was needed to crystallize the cultural situation.

In the short haul, the NYC gallery owners might have done well to band together (pragmatically, not cynically) in a boycott of the event in the first place. Optimistic idealism aside, there is a limited amount of patrons’ luxury dollars to go around, and in the ever-tightening global market, art shan’t likely be spared thy neighbor’s covetous competition. But said self-imposed abstinence wasn’t about to happen because simply, the sales were just too conveniently hot in the midst of a chilly economy.

For those who altruistically longed for the growth of art in America’s tertiary cities, the time-honored proverb holds that it’s always wise to be careful what one wishes for… And in the ultimate twist of ironic necessity, before long some readers might even find themselves joining the silver-foxy snowbirds in their annual migration south, only to learn too late (as I had), Miami’s definitely a nice place to visit, but…