There’s an unwritten rule that if you want to get the freshest stuff at the grocery store you stick to the perimeter. The same guidelines apply to art fairs. Their organizers tend to group the brand-name galleries in the center of the shows, where larger displays and well-known artists dominate; around the edges, focused spaces and smaller exhibitors with early-career creators and more ambitious programs offer visitors more interesting fare.
That held true at this year’s edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. With nearly 300 exhibitors, ABMB maintains the tradition of mega fairs being too large—the feeling of attending is less one of a bountiful artistic feast than of being swallowed up by a grain silo; during my almost seven-hour visit I still felt rushed to see every booth. But among the surfeit there were still treasures to be discovered.
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The small-scale Ray Materson embroideries at Andrew Edlin Gallery are each a delectable morsel of tongue-in-cheek autobiography from an impressive outsider artist.
- Brian P. Kelly