Miami Basel 2007 Report (Part 1) - Toes in the sand*

We stayed at the Shelborne hotel along with a couple dozen other people from DC. Perfect location (next to the Raleigh) but not a hotel I would recommend. Of course, unless you spend the big bucks for some place like the Shore Club or the Setai, most of the hotels in Miami beach are pretty shabby chic. This is a view of our hotel's rooftop signage from the roof of the Raleigh where we attended a Scion party that featured great graffiti art and good swag.


At least we had a partial ocean view from our room ...


A balloon designed by a graffiti artist that flew from the Raleigh's roof during the Scion party.


Another cool neon sign on the roof of The Hotel's Spire Lounge where the Hirshhorn hosted a nice cocktail party. After that, headed over to the Essex House for Nathan Larramendy Gallery's party where I got to meet Stella Lai, an artist I admire very much.


At the Rose Bar in the Delano. Bunch of DC friends and assorted other folks stopped by to say hi. It's the second year we've gathered there during Miami Basel so I think it's a tradition now.





The artistic star power in this picture is pretty mind-blowing. Whoa. Sheila and Nick Pye and Andy Wilson and Jiha Moon at the little cocktail party I co-hosted with Martin Irvine last night in the Miami design district.



Go to Intermix and buy cool t-shirts designed by Jiha. Part of the proceeds from sales go to Russell Simmons' Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. We went to a swanky event at the Intermix store in South Beach Saturday afternoon that featured Jiha's t-shirt and the work of rising art star Shinique Smith. Got a glimpse of Russell but we were much too shabbily dressed for anyone to take much notice of us.

In general, I'm not good at recognizing celebrities when I see them. I thought I saw Donatella Versace at the main fair on opening night, but I just googled some images of her and turns out the overly tan, bleach blond I saw being followed around by cameras was not her. But must have been somebody notable! We sort of crashed a Rush party on the roof of the Delano one night and met art mega-stars Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, and Shinique Smith. Also, went to a Peres Project "performance art" party at Goldrush** where we saw Terence Koh. Finally, Angela and Veronica saw Mandy Moore enjoying balls of fried chickpeas at the falafel joint next to our hotel.


Dr. Fred came to the party last night too! He and I have been trying to get together in DC but ended up having to travel to Miami to bump into each other.

Chris and Allison and Allison's parents came too! For those of you who don't know her, Allison is a terrific art consultant. A couple years ago, she helped us purchase an Andy Warhol wallpaper cow. The same thing was being sold at the main fair this year for six times what we paid. Woot woot!

There were lots of rejuvenating milkshake breaks.


*"Toes in the sand" refers to the gratifying feeling of lounging barefoot in the sandy area by the Raleigh's pool with your arty friends around midnight after an exhausting day at the fairs during Miami Basel.

**Goldrush is a classic strip club. Best line of the night: "I think those girls are Brazilian."