MIAMI – When the fairs are over, the roving art world circus decamps, the paintings, sculptures, videos and other works move into their new homes (or go back to their galleries), and down go the temporary installations and pop-ups that dot the parks, beaches and plazas around town. It all went by in a blur, but not everything in Miami is as ephemeral as cocktail-party small talk or a memory of the art you saw on Day 5, Fair Number 6. Here are a few of the indelible, three-dimensional, tangible and yes, permanent creations that will endure beyond South Beach.
1. John Baldessari’s BMW M6 GTLM
ARTIST JOHN BALDESSARI BESIDE THE BMW ART CAR HE DESIGNED. PHOTO COURTESY BMW.
To create the latest addition to its ongoing Art Car series of commissions, BMW tapped the legendary Los Angeles artist John Baldessari, who embellished a M6 GTLM race car with his signature – and his signature coloured circles. Baldessari’s “rolling sculpture,” which was unveiled on 30 November at Art Basel Miami Beach, will be driven by BMW’s Bill Auberlan in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona race in January. For all of its speed and utility, the car “is definitely a typical Baldessari,” said the artist “and the fastest artwork I ever created!”
2. Ole Scheeren’s STAGE for Dean & Deluca at Design Miami
ARCHITECT OLE SCHEEREN'S STAGE, A FOOD-RETAIL CONCEPT FOR DEAN & DELUCA AT DESIGN MIAMI. COURTESY OF THE FAIR.
Dining is typically neither an aesthetic nor culinary high point of fair-going, but with STAGE, his food-retail concept for Dean & Deluca at Design Miami, architect Ole Scheeren elevated the ordinary act of grabbing a sandwich to a bespoke experience. “This is a spectacular platform for the making and consumption of food,” says Scheeren of the stainless-steel-clad rectangular two-part structure. “It’s a theatrical platform. I wanted to highlight the expertise of the staff and put them in the spotlight.” Were the hungry and undercaffeinated attuned to the “emotive experience” of STAGE? Maybe. But it was consumer-friendly, sleek and the cold brew was top notch. Scheeren’s prototype will appear in US locations in 2017.
3. Studio Job’s Tree of Life
STUDIO JOB’S TREE OF LIFE OUTSIDE OF MIAMI’S FAENA FORUM. PHOTO VIA @LUISRACING87.
A sculpture as surreal as our contemporary moment but a lot more fun to contemplate, the 26-foot-high interpretation of an oak tree by the Belgian design duo is permanently installed outside the Faena Forum. The oak’s branches grow through a brick castle while overhead, a rainbow bisects a brain wearing a cowboy hat while milk pours from a tilting gold pitcher. To see the sparkling sculpture in movement, view Studio Job's Instagram.
4. Ugo Rondinone’s Miami Mountain
UGO RONDINONE, MIAMI MOUNTAIN, 2016. © ART BASEL.
Less ornamental but equally exuberant is Ugo Rondinone’s 41-foot-high vertical Miami Mountain, on view in Collins Park in front of the Bass Museum of Art. A variation on the New York-based artist’s Seven Magic Mountains installation in the Nevada desert, the Miami iteration was part of Art Basel Public, the outdoor sculpture exhibition presented annually during the fair and curated this year by Public Art Fund director Nicholas Baume. Commissioned by the Bass, the sculpture will inaugurate the museum's newly renovated building with a Rondinone retrospective in spring 2017.
