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Where the 'It' Boys Are, The New York Observer, December 12, 2005

Where the ‘It’ Boys Are
By: Brett Sokol

…BUT THOSE SEARCHING FOR THE NEXT DECADE'S PRINCES, Peytons and Emins—or at least work with one less zero (for now) in the price tag—made their way across Biscayne Bay to Miami’s rapidly gentrifying Wynwood neighborhood and the New Art Dealers Alliance fair—which may explain why those Fernwood analysts who tout “investable art insight” had jumped onboard as NADA’s chief sponsor.

Betty Lee Stern, whose Aaron and Betty Lee Stern Foundation has been a recent co-sponsor of exhibits at the Met and the Whitney, parked herself in NADA co-founder Zach Feuer’s booth, making it clear where she felt the strongest voices (or, ahem, investments) in contemporary art lay. Adam Weinberg, the Whitney’s director who followed in Ms. Stern’s wake, shared her enthusiasm for the fair. “I’m more excited about the go-for-broke attitude here,” he said.

The same boldface-named collectors who had torn through Basel also picked much of NADA clean, fortunately, as it’s no fun to actually go home broke. Mr. Feuer had sold a set of four videos by Nathalie Djurberg to the Rubells at $5,000 each, while geek-chic gallery owner Daniel Reich didn’t even bother to rise out of his chair as visitors poked around his booth. “They’re all sold,” he barked when asked about his Hernan Bas holdings.

It was all a bit much for Miami painter and artblog.net editor Franklin Einspruch. “When you want to check someone’s pulse, you don’t do it after they’ve gone on a three-mile jog and done a line of coke,” he e-mailed during the fair, calling cheery economic forecasts based on Miami sales ridiculous.

Still, the only dealers in attendance not smiling were those who’d been denied a berth among NADA’s 83 slots. “I would have made a killing there,” groused one rejected Wynwood gallery owner. “All you need is their stamp of approval for collectors to start throwing down.”

It was a belief that NADA charter member and Chelsea gallery owner Oliver Kamm became painfully acquainted with after a score of gallery owners back in New York begged him to put in a word with this year’s selection committee. “When NADA was just a bunch of dealers meeting over a pizza lunch, nobody came,” Mr. Kamm said. “But when you add an economic component, suddenly everybody’s your best friend.”

Over at Bellwether’s booth, gallery owner and NADA co-founder Becky Smith had given prime space to two of New Yorker Adam Cvijanovic’s paintings—windblown houses in flight with a mass of cultural detritus swirling around them—but it hadn’t even been necessary to hang them. The two prospective buyers—including New Line Cinema co-C.E.O. Michael Lynne—that she’d called a week earlier had both been standing outside NADA’s doors as she unpacked, each ready to pounce on one of Mr. Cvijanovic’s $20,000 paintings. And don’t even think about asking Ms. Smith if such an attitude is unhealthy.

“This isn’t a novel experiment,” she said. “I’m not trying to remain an emerging artists’ gallery for my entire career, where people show up and say”—she dropped her voice to a precious coo—“‘Ooh! Look! A cute little gallery with cute little artists!’ If I become established, it just means my artists now have real lives. Isn’t that the point? I’m not just trying to make a buck off a trend. I’m trying to help artists have viable careers, getting them onto the museum circuit and out into the world….”