PULSE Miami Beach Art Fair 2019 Report – Well-Named

At the entrance was an elaborately beaded tank—a greeting courtesy of The Casspir Project, which stops you in your tracks. The African like patterns decorating the tank perhaps symbolize the rebirth of life post-Apartheid. As you enter the big PULSE tent, more in the family of Casspir Project weapons surround you. They seem to set the stage, making you hyper alert to what feels like more political themed art. Take a few steps beyond though, and instead you have the feeling that PULSE is about having a sense of humor.

Like most of the Miami Art Week art fairs, you found what strikes as some of the highest quality works of the week, but in a distinct minority of what was being shown. More than other art fairs that week, perhaps PULSE went from high art to those one imagines were pieces churned out just for a commercial sale. Was some of PULSE very conventional? Yes, by this writer/photographer team’s lights. But, were there top Miami Art Week picks meriting a look-see? Yes.

Like other tent-based shows, you feel cheered and welcomed by the brightness. Because PULSE was far from the Miami Beach central and Miami proper shows, they offered a free limo shuttle to the others’ thereabouts or transport hubs.

Will it be the same in 2020?

Luck of the draw, one concludes, but by this year’s measure, definitely a stop to put on the short list.

For more information visit the Pulse Art Fair website.