In years past, art advisor Wendy Cromwell would have to lock down her most significant purchases for clients during the first hour at Art Basel Miami Beach. This year, while she made several quick acquisitions within the $100,000 range at the VIP opening, she didn’t have to pull the trigger on larger and more expensive artworks.
The pace is indicative of a new market, dealers said midway through the first day of the biggest contemporary art fair in the U.S. Fresh works from the studios of in-demand artists like Issy Wood, Bisa Butler, and Flora Yukhnovich could have been sold dozens of times over, they said. Large canvases by Albert Oehlen, A.R. Penck, Alex Katz, El Anatsui, and Georg Baselitz lingered—as did blue-chip trophies by Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon priced between $10 million and $20 million.
“Everyone is saying slower but steady,” said art advisor Lowell Pettit, whose clients bought works up to €70,000 (around $75,000), but were still on the fence about a $7 million purchase.
The stakes were high heading into the fair. Art Basel Miami Beach arrives at the end of a volatile year, which has seen a market contraction at auctions and galleries.
“The pace of sales has declined and prices have come down,” said Thomas Danziger, an attorney, who counts galleries among his clients. “Even the top galleries are bringing more things that are priced to sell than in previous years.”
The vibe is markedly darker, colored by anxiety over the war in the Middle East and Ukraine, high interest rates and slower cash flow. Some collectors skipped Miami this year because they were simply not in the mood given the art world’s rift over the events in Israel and Gaza, dealers and advisors said.
Frank Stella, Delta (1958). Image courtesy Yares Art.
Consider that the most expensive work at the fair, Frank Stella’s 1958 painting, Delta priced at a whopping $45 million at Yares Art, was a somber black canvas. Many galleries scaled back on parties. Auction houses Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips axed their annual client dinners and parties in Miami. Alan Faena’s typically over-the-top art installations on the beach gave way to a minimalist, AI-designed labyrinth by Sebastian Errazuriz.
“People are not being as lavish with their expenditures,” said art advisor Todd Levin. “They are being thoughtful about whatever funds they have available to get the best result.”
By mid afternoon, dealers appeared visibly relieved and began broadcasting a litany of sales. “I feel very confident,” said Vincenzo de Bellis, director of Art Basel’s fairs and exhibitions platforms. “The show is very solid. The quality is very high.”
Hauser and Wirth got the bragging rights for the most expensive reported sale of the first day: Philip Guston’s 1979 canvas Painter at Night, priced at $20 million. It had been previously sold for $12.6 million in 2017 as part of the collection of Emily and Jerry Spiegel at Christie’s.
“People are buying,” said Gordon VeneKlasen, a partner at Michael Werner gallery, which placed works by artists including Wood and Peter Saul.
“If you price reasonably, you sell immediately,” said Alberto Mugrabi, a scion of a major art collecting and trading family.
Proyectos Monclova. Courtesy of Art Basel.
Vito Schnabel Gallery, a first time participant to the fair, dedicated its booth to 1970s paintings by Ron Gorchov, and four of six sold with prices in the range of $200,000 to $350,000, according to the gallery. But the two most expensive works on the booth, priced as high as $750,000, were not sold.
Jeffrey Deitch placed a $6.5 million painting by Barkley L. Hendricks, the subject of a solo show at the Frick in New York. (Only one painting by the late artist has sold for more than that at auction: Yocks from 1975, fetched $8.4 million last month at Sotheby’s.)
The slower pace was a function of fewer speculators, who have fueled the market since the pandemic.
“They hardly look at things,” said Bennett Roberts, whose Roberts Projects gallery sold multiple works under $120,000. “This is better. It’s more considered.” A $350,000 painting by Amoako Boafo, a darling of speculators since 2019, was yet to be sold.
On the other hand, committed collectors were looking for opportunities. Those who showed up at the VIP opening on December 6 included local collectors Don and Mera Rubell, Marty Margulies, Beth DeWoody and Jorge Pérez. West Coast collectors Steve Wynn and Pamela Joyner made the rounds, as did celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio, Serena Williams, and Jared Leto.
“People with lifelong interest in art stay committed,” said Blaize Lehane, partner at François Ghebaly. “They are here. They are buying.”
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By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Salina Post
Soft holiday music played as residents and visitors milled around tables filled with local artisan goods at the Salina Art Center Warehouse for the second Holiday Art Market.
Salina Downtown Inc. and the Salina Art Center hosted the event for 22 local vendors on Saturday, Dec. 2, allowing new, hobbyist or seasoned artisans to sell their artwork.
The market included jewelry makers, wood carvers, leather workers, ceramic artists, sculptors and visual media artists — all selling their handmade works of art.
Dex Umekubo, a local singer and guitarist, sang Christmas songs between the classic holiday radio hits.
One of the almost two dozen artisans at the market included Nicholas Pahls, the owner of NAPCraft, who uses hand tools to carve wooden spoons, boxes and decorations.
Photo by Olivia Bergmeier”>Pahls was born and raised in Salina, where he grew up alongside the city’s art community. Today, he teaches first grade at Coronado Elementary.
While chatting with visitors to his booth, Pahls would continue carving some works in progress with a widdling knife.
“I do that so people can ask questions about the process,” Pahls said. “I think if they can see what you’re doing, they’re a lot more interested in one — buying something but two — just knowing what you’re doing.”
Photo by Olivia Bergmeier”>Often, customers don’t understand the process of handmade goods, which Pahls said he enjoys taking the chance to educate.
Behind the finished works displayed on the NAPCraft table, tools like chisels, small adzes and wood planes decorated his station to show customers the process of wood carving.
“My favorite part is people who ask questions about what I do,” Pahls said. “When you come to something like this [the Holiday Art Market] where it’s all handmade stuff, it’s important for people to see what that looks like when it’s getting made.”
READ MORE: 43rd Santa’s Gifts and Goodies Christmas market in Washington
Photo by Olivia Bergmeier”>Anita Specht, a patron of the Holiday Market and neighbor to Pahls, said she enjoys seeing the community’s creativity and supporting local artists.
As Specht approached Pahl’s booth, he joked that she wasn’t allowed to buy anything as neighbors. Specht assured him she was buying gifts for friends.
“Anita gets to hear me in my garage at 12 a.m.,” Pahls said. “Anita’s gifts come from her just allowing me to do that without complaining.”
Specht laughed as she responded, “I don’t know how he does it. Well, he doesn’t complain when I don’t rake my leaves.”
“It’s okay because I don’t do it either,” Pahls replied.
Specht heard about the Holiday Art Market through some friends attending the event, so she wanted to take the opportunity to support local artists.
The market allowed shoppers to find unique gifts for friends and family for the holidays, offering a memorable experience for Salina residents and visitors.
“I think it’s wonderful. It opens up a lot of opportunities, especially for single people to get out and meet other folks,” Specht said. “I think it makes life in Salina more pleasant and enjoyable.”
Photo by Olivia Bergmeier”>Some of the vendors at the market include members of the Salina Art Center Warehouse, who visit to use ceramic and other art equipment.
Eddie Cheremond, a regular ceramic artist at the Warehouse, decided to take his hobby to the vendor stage, selling some of the artwork he made in the Warehouse.
LISTEN: 🎙Leslie Bishop shares details for Salina Downtown holiday events
His hobby began small, starting with the goal to make a few personal items before he became hooked on the craft.
“I wanted to replace all the bowls and cups I have at home with my own handmade,” Cheremond said. “I started doing that, and it was very calming and soothing — so I kept doing it.”
After replacing the store-bought ceramic items in his home and his stockpile of artwork grew, he took the opportunity to sell some of his work at the Art Market.
Photo by Olivia Bergmeier”>Salina Art Center Director of Education Darren Morawitz encouraged him to have a vendor table at the event, and Cheremond said he was glad he took the chance.
“Throwing, in general, for me, is a way to de-stress,” Cheremond said. “To not think about anything else besides the work, for me, it’s just really calming.”
The Holiday Art Market concluded at 2 p.m., with the Salina Art Center Warehouse clearing for Tuesday’s flow of local artists.
Local photographer, Danielle Jorae, always knew she wanted to be an artist and a writer one day. Her dream has finally become a reality with the recent publication of her book, “Lighthouses of Michigan – Lower Peninsula”
Jorae owns a small business, Reflections Photography, which focuses on portrait photography. She wanted to expand her business to highlight her other photo projects, so in 2021 she established a second photography business, Michigan Reflections, which focuses on Michigan landscapes. In growing this side of her business, she found herself traveling the state to get the perfect photos which has propelled her into achieving her dream of publishing a book.
“I’ve always wanted to publish a book,” Jorae said. “I’ve been writing stories since I was very young and even received writing awards throughout my school years. Being an artist has always come naturally to me so it made sense to use my creativity to develop a book that celebrates the state I love to travel so much.”
Jorae has been photographing places around Michigan for a long time but the development of Michigan Reflections in 2021 is what really pushed her to go further. “I began sharing the images I have taken around Michigan to followers on Facebook and Instagram and got wonderful feedback from all over the state” said Jorae “It has been a great way to show people what Michigan has to offer.”
“Michigan has the most lighthouses of any state, so photographing them seemed like a great way to celebrate the uniqueness and history of Michigan.” Jorae continued “I quickly decided that I was going to visit all that I could. But there are some lighthouses in Michigan that are not accessible so my goal became to visit (and climb) all the lighthouses accessible by land to get photographs of them.”
In 2022, as Jorae was close to reaching her goal of photographing these lighthouses, she ran across documents from her childhood that reminded her how much she wanted to publish a book someday. “It was in that moment that I decided I knew what I needed to do.” Said Jorae “There was no question in my mind that I needed to publish a book with these images and make a piece that allowed the artist and the writer in me to collide in the most special way.”
Jorae has plans to keep traveling and publish more books in the future.
The book is available for purchase locally at a small discount directly through Danielle here.
It can also be found on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Follow Michigan Reflections:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michiganreflections
Instagram: instagram.com/michigan_reflections
Website: https://daniellejorae.wixsite.com/michiganreflections
Follow Reflections Photography:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reflectionsphotosite
Instagram: instagram.com/reflectionsphotosite
Website: www.reflectionsphotosite.com
Courtesy photos.
A market-wide show of resilience, or a collective display of faking it until you make it? That was the question hovering over the first VIP day of Art Basel in Miami Beach on Wednesday. Although the final answer will not become clear until later, results in the early hours of the fair gave reason for at least some measured optimism.
Despite a nearly year-long market correction that has chastened many in the trade, the convention centre’s aisles were abuzz shortly after doors opened. Anyone ignorant to the broader market context would have had a difficult time detecting much anxiety. Still, conversations reaffirmed that the latest iteration of the fair is taking place in a more discerning environment than even last year’s edition, when the cracks in the trade were beginning to show.
“It’s a slightly more selective market. For us, that’s not a bad thing because we have a lot of things that are really canonised,” says Nick Olney, the president of Kasmin gallery. “We’re not aiming to push markets into some really hot streak, we’re really building things for the long term.”
Kasmin’s stand, larger than in previous years, features works by a wide range of artists, from the institutional fixtures Alex Katz and Judith Bernstein to the ascendant American artists Cynthia Daignault and vanessa german. The gallery made several sales in the opening hours, from $1.4m for Katz’s Leigh (2007) to $50,000 for 31-year-old Sara Anstis’s The tree surgeon (2023).
Several other blue-chip stalwarts were rewarded for soldiering on, albeit not at market-recalibrating levels. Thaddaeus Ropac placed three works in the seven-figure range by early Wednesday afternoon, particularly notable given the gallery’s long-time refusal to presell the pieces bound for its stands. Robert Rauschenberg’s Copperhead-Bite IX / ROCI CHILE (1985) led the pack at $1.7m, while Georg Baselitz’s Alles fällt vom Tisch (2020) and Grüße aus Dinard (2023) sold for €1.5m and €1.2m, respectively.
Gladstone Gallery placed $2.2m worth of works in the fair’s first two hours: a pair of Keith Haring works on paper for $950,000 and $650,000, Amy Sillman’s painting Machine (2023) for $450,000 and an untitled acrylic-on-archival-print work by Arthur Jafa for $150,000. Pace Gallery also closed multiple deals for six-figure prices, including Isamu Noguchi’s Plus Equals Minus (around 1945-79) for $450,000, a painting from the Korean artist Lee Kun-Yong’s Bodyscape series for $250,000 and multiple editions of Lynda Benglis’s 2023 bronze sculpture QT for more than $200,000 each.
Lehmann Maupin did similarly well with international artists and buyers alike. Teresita Fernández’s Dark Earth (Reservoir), a 2023 wall-based work, went to prominent private collectors in Europe for between $375,000 and $425,000. Lee Bul’s Perdu CLXXXVII (2023) is bound for a Hong Kong-based collection at a price in the $250,000 to $300,000 range. The gallery also placed a piece by the Brazilian duo OSGEMEOS, on show in the fair’s Kabinett sector, for $250,000 with US collectors.
Opening-hours demand went beyond the canonical names, with some young artists’ work flying off the stands. Perrotin, which split its large stand between a solo presentation of new paintings by the fast-rising California-based artist Emma Webster and a group presentation of the gallery’s other artists, also found swift success. All eight of Webster’s paintings, of climate-change-induced apocalyptic landscapes adapted from the artist’s own digital models, were placed by early afternoon, at prices from $80,000 to $175,000 each. The gallery also found buyers for works by Jason Boyd Kinsella, Alex Gardner and Xiyao Wang, at prices ranging from $65,000 to $115,000, as well as an Emily Mae Smith canvas (priced $200,000 to $300,000).
Setting aside sales, the exposure provided by a mega-fair like Art Basel in Miami Beach remains irreplaceable for modestly sized dealers. “This is a place that is key for us in terms of developing our programme and developing our collector base,” says Omayra Alvarado-Jensen, the executive director of the Bogotá- and New York-based gallery Instituto de Visión, which is selling works by Latin American women artists, ranging from $5,000 to $60,0000.
“It’s a tighter market,” one New York-based adviser said early on preview day. “Dealers who play it safe, they’re boring everyone. The ones who are willing to say, ‘This is my eye, this is my vision’, they do really well.”
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon, M.D., R-Indiana, released a statement following the passing of his friend and Perry County community leader Tom McCart
U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon, M.D., R-Indiana
Bucshon: “It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of the passing of my friend, Tom McCart. Tom McCart was a devoted family man and steadfast community leader within Perry County’s banking industry. He was known for his great sense of humor along with his unparalleled empathy, always being there for others in times of joy and sorrow. Tom will be greatly missed, and the void he leaves is truly irreplaceable. In this difficult time, my heart goes out to his wife, Debbie, and his children, and I ask that Hoosiers join me in praying for his family. May they find comfort and strength in cherished memories and the enduring legacy of a remarkable man.”
An exhibition of contemporary Native American art is now open at the Eiteljorg and continues through Feb. 25.
From the press release: “UNSETTLE / Converge: The 2023 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship features the works of five Native artists from the U.S. and Canada who create multimedia, ceramic sculpture, assemblage, beadwork and photography. The exhibition is included with regular museum admission. Details are here: https://eiteljorg.org/news-release-eiteljorg-contemporary-art-fellowship-exhibition-redefines-contemporary-native-art/”
Citizens Energy Group has announced the closure of a segment of E. Pleasant Run Parkway N. Drive, between Denny Street and near Brookfield Road, to conclude in August 2024.
From the press release: “Located primarily through Christian Park on Indianapolis’ east side, the impacted segment will allow for continued work on the DigIndy Tunnel System project. … Completed portions of the DigIndy Tunnel System already have prevented nearly 5 billion gallons of sewage from entering our local waterways. The entire system will be finished in 2025. Learn more about DigIndy online, and check out the 360 VR Tunnel Tour on YouTube.”
Applications will be accepted through Jan. 31 for the 2024–2025 Governor’s Fellowship, which places fellows in various state agencies on a rotating basis throughout the year. The application and submission guidelines can be found online at www.in.gov/gov/fellowship.htm.
Governor Eric Holcomb smiles in front of the American and Indiana state flags.
Gov. Eric Holcomb: “Our Governor’s Fellows are such a valuable piece to our team. The wide range of assistance they provide over the course of their fellowship is key to serving Hoosiers. The experience is mutually beneficial as the fellows gain immeasurable professional skills that will serve them well into their professional careers.”
More than 200 practitioners, partners and advocates recently attended an end-of-year celebration hosted by the Indiana Public Health Association in Carmel.
From the press release: “The event highlighted the Governor’s Public Health Commission (GPHC) study and recommendations, which resulted in updated state legislation and a historic investment of $225 million in the current biennium for local public health services. Now known as Health First Indiana, this initiative empowers counties to determine their local health needs and then implement programs focused on prevention, with the goal of ensuring every Hoosier has access to the core public health services that allow them to achieve their optimal health and well-being. Eighty-six of Indiana’s 92 counties have opted to receive funding in 2024.”
IPHA President Joan Trendell: “We’re thrilled to bring together partners from across Indiana to recognize and show appreciation for the dedication and persistence of Indiana’s public health workforce. There have been significant challenges and lessons over the past few years, and together we have found ways to improve, advance and sustain our collective efforts.”
Judy Monroe, MD, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation and co-chair of the Governor’s Public Health Commission: “It’s such an exciting time for public health in Indiana. State and local leaders, in partnership with community-based organizations and practitioners, have made a transformational investment in core public health services delivered at the local level. Indiana’s approach of studying the current system, talking and listening to community members, identifying evidence-based strategies across key focus areas, and then developing recommendations for improvements provides a tremendous example for other states to follow.”
