UNTITLED Miami Beach 2018 Review— Sun, Sand, Art - part of Miami Art Week, and held in a sunny tent by the oceanside with art from across the world
The talk on the free Miami Beach tourist shuttle bus during Miami Art Week 2018 was not unlike the rumor mill of 2016 that first sent this photographer/writer team trekking across the sand to the oversized tent housing the UNTITLED art fair. If you want to see something more cutting edge, goes the banter, make your way there. In 2018 as before, UNTITLED did not disappoint.
Arriving on the third day of the show there was a decidedly laid back vibe. You too may first think that the oceanside setting plays no small part. Sun streams into the tent. Everything is bright. Colors pop more in the sunshine. When you want to take an art siesta you can grab a bite or a drink and sit on the tent’s beach patio and then recharged take on another section of the show. You feel happy. In the back of your mind, you begin to think that Art Basel Miami’s lighting could be improved. You also think this show feels right-sized—something that can be fully digested in an afternoon’s time.
UNTITLED Touts Diversity
The organizers of UNTITLED tout the diversity of the galleries (133 -- from 29 countries and 55 cities) but you feel it even more as each booth feels different and new. We found neon art so striking it made us take a new look at a genre we had previously barely noted. Beads, stones, sticks--- materials made into something anew —were ubiquitous. From golf club headed snakes, to post-modern deconstructed Turkish rugs, to recycled phone headsets, to recycled recycled jeans made into wall art, to life-sized mannequins holding heads or getting pre-coital, much of the art seems informed by humor and joy that is contagious.
The parting shot—in all senses—was a shotgun fashioned from a school bus, courtesy of an Italian artist and a Florence gallery. It’s clever commentary for sure, but in the sunny atmosphere, it’s difficult to feel chastened.
