NinaJohnson

BY SCOTT INDRISEK | DECEMBER 01, 2015

BlouinArtInfo.com

Last we checked there are upwards of 1,918 satellite fairs orbiting around the main event of Art Basel Miami Beach. (Don’t quote us on that figure.) But if you’d rather your art experience not involve booths, tents, and major corporate sponsorships, rest assured that there are plenty of gallery and museum exhibitions on view this week, as well as eclectic one-off shows.

Start with the inimitable Alex Bag at ICA Miami, which premieres a new work, “The Van (Redux),” starring the artist’s 5-year-old son. (The museum, now under the leadership of director Ellen Salpeter and deputy director/chief curator Alex Gartenfeld, also has aShannon Ebner show up.) Check out Rachel Harrison’s 58-piece photo series, “The Voyage of the Beagle Two,” at the under-renovation Bass Museum’s temporary satellite space. And while the Bass is closed, its front lawn will still serve as the site for ABMB’s Public programming of sculpture and performance — don’t miss Pope.L’s “The Beautiful” (“a new choreographed crawl performance” in which “four men, dressed as Superman with skateboards strapped to their backs, roll onward in the dark”). That conceptual crawl kicks off during Public’s VIP opening (December 1, from 5pm to 7pm) and is reprised for the public on December 2, from 7pm to 9pm.

Head over to Gallery Diet for Ann Craven’s “I Like Blue,” a series of new paintings, many of them featuring the moon in Maine. At Bas Fischer Invitational, the group exhibition “Planes” spotlights work by Peles Empire and Braford Kessler, among others, as well as a selection curated by Copenhagen-based Loyal Gallery that includes Brian Belott, Brad Troemel, and Jesse Greenberg. Locust Projects has shows from Martha Friedman and Beatriz Monteavaro, as well as Martine Syms, whose poster-based “Nite Life” project will appear on local bus stops as part of the non-profits Art On The Move initiative.David Castillo Gallery turns its space over to Sanford Biggers and Xaviera Simmons.

Several of Miami’s luxury properties are also intent on giving “hotel art” a good name. The Nautilus features “Wonder Wheel,” a jam-packed installation (including Slavs & Tatars, Jon Rafman, Petra Cortright, and many others) sited in the hotel’s lobby. Speaking of luxury hotels: the Surf Club, affiliated with the Four Seasons on Collins Avenue, will host “Light + Space,” with work by Larry Bell, Mary Corse, John McCracken, and others. The Shelbourne Wyndham Grand has new work by Bosco Sodi, as well as a Harley Davidson composed of Bounty paper towels by the relentlessly quirky Will Ryman. At the Sagamore Hotel, something a bit more ambitious: “Portals,” a series of high-tech, wired shipping containers that host 20-minute conversations about the nature of beauty between Miami art lovers and others in Afghanistan, Iran, Honduras, and Mexico. Reserve your “portal time” here.

Larry Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch team up for “Unrealism” at the Moore Building, a group show of dozens of figurative artists, including Jamian Juliano-Villani and David Salle. An even more sprawling exhibition is at the Rubell Family Collection: “No Man’s Land” — like its title suggests, there’s nary a male artist in sight — which includes Isa Genzken, Jennifer West, Cady Noland, Anicka Yi, and many, many others. The omnipresent, social-media savvy JR is showing his “Unframed Ellis Island” photos at the Melin Building in the Design District from December 2 through 7. Meanwhile, the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse has Anselm Kiefer and Susan Philipsz (with extended hoursduring the fair). The Perez Art Museum Miami has exhibitions by Nari Ward, Jeff Wall, Firelei Baez, and others (plus you can donate Legos to Ai Weiwei, naturally). PAMM will also host a Ryan McNamara/Dev Hynes multimedia extravaganza on the evening of December 3.YoungArts has a 15-channel Isaac Julien film and something involving chalk by Daniel Arsham. Mana Wynwood focuses on three exhibitions culled from private collections: Latin American work from the holdings of Jorge M. Perez and Tiroche DeLeon, and a bounty of Californian art from the Frederick R. Weisman Family Collection (including Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, and other heavy-hitters).

And besides that much-anticipated Jeb! Bush fundraiser and exhibition, there’s a very different politically charged event on tap: “Radiant Presence,” a series of work made by nine artists with HIV/AIDS, projected on the façade of Dimensions Variable on December 1, from 6pm to 9pm.

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