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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, The Art Newspaper, November 30, 2005

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
By Marc Spiegler

Seven fairs, 461 galleries, four and a half days. The numbers simply don’t add up. Within the American art world, Los Angeles collector Dean Valentine is notoriously energetic when it comes to seeking out new work and staying informed on emerging artists. Yet last winter he reached his breaking point here in Miami. “When my buddies decided we had to go to see the Scope fair after we had already gone to Art Basel Miami Beach and NADA, I was almost in tears,” recalls the entertainment executive. “But this year is literally insane, you’d have to do 100 booths a day to see it all.”

Actually, Valentine is underestimating the dimensions of the current lunacy. Assuming, quite conservatively, that each gallery booth displays 15 pieces, a visitor would have to inspect 192 pieces an hour, for eight hours per day, from today’s noon bell at ABMB through Sunday night’s fair closures to see it all.

Of course, the major challenge of attending Art Basel Miami Beach has always been negotiating one’s way through the overwhelming opportunities, in a city teeming with ancillary exhibitions and collector open-houses. And this year the addition of four new events – Aqua, Pulse, Design 05, Pool - to last year’s trio of Art Basel Miami Beach, NADA and Scope has created an unprecedently dense situation.

“We consider it a compliment, because it shows the attractiveness of Art Basel Miami Beach,” says ABMB director Samuel Keller. “In Basel we’ve had a good experience with Liste as a place where young dealers learn to do fairs before we later select among them for our fair. I don’t want to start giving advice, but galleries need to develop their own individual profiles. Just because we reject 450 of them doesn’t mean they all need to come do other fairs here.”

Faced with such a ludicrous situation, collectors and consultants are adopting a wide range of attitudes and tactics. Some actually insist on remaining comprehensive, no matter how much it hurts. “I will try to see everything in Miami,” says Florida-based collector Mickey Cartin. “The only problem with looking at so much stuff is that I actually find my eyes starting to hurt.”

Slightly less masochistic, Miami mega-collector Don Rubell says he and his wife Mera hope to see it all, despite being heavily occupied with their own exhibition space’s activities all week. “You have to prioritize, so we’ll start with Art Basel Miami Beach and NADA, and then work through the others,” he says. “It’s probably way too much. But the problem is, ‘Who’s to say which fair is the one fair too much?’ Next year’s hot gallery could be at a minor fair here. Just remember how everyone was wondering whether it was worth going to the Zoo fair in London last year and then discovered some of the best new London galleries there.”

Valentine, by contrast plans to overhaul his approach completely. “I’m getting much fmore Zen about it,” he explains. “I can’t conceive of going to more than two fairs, frankly. But if I was looking for a third fair, it would be the one with the youngest, most untested galleries, because most collectors won’t go there.”

That new-found serenity is underpinned by a sense that he won’t be missing much in a milieu glutted with emerging artists. “What’s happened in Miami mirrors a market in which we have too much art chasing the same group of collectors,” he says. “There’s nowhere near enough good art to fill all those booths.”

Also, like most other insiders, Valentine is expecting that an informal network of collector friends, curators and dealers will keep him posted on any work that they think he would like.

Meanwhile, the professional advisors, paid precisely to do all the legwork their clients want to avoid, will be bringing extra reinforcements. “We’ll have an assistant down there and he will scout out the other fairs for us,” says Andrew Ruth of New York art advisors Ruth Catone. “We want our clients focused on what’s relevant to their collections, not running all over Miami.”

In all likelihood, Art Basel Miami Beach and NADA stand most to benefit from this year’s situation. When there were three fairs, collectors tried to see it all, diluting their attention. Today, faced with the near-impossibility of seeing all seven fairs taking place, the consensus seems to be that ABMB and NADA are musts, and that the other fairs will be visited where possible. Nevertheless, NADA director Heather Hubbs says the situation is disquieting. “Every major fair today has these satellite events, but it’s never been like this before,” she points out. “We’re trying to create an environment where people can see art and have fun, not feel pressured and confused because they might be missing something.”