Every year, the beautiful city of Miami hosts one of the biggest art fairs in the world. Art Basel is held every year in Basel, Hong Kong, and Miami Beach. It is no doubt the most prestigious art international art event and thousands of people flock to Miami Beach from around the world to see these artistic masterpieces. As a Miami native, I’ve grown up constantly hearing about Art Basel every December. Each year the local news talks about which celebrities are in town for the event and all of the trendy parties that happening at the beach. Since I was little, I’ve always been intrigued over the hype of Art Basel. During the past, two years of my college career I’ve seen countless Instagram pictures of girls trying to hop on the Art Basel trend by going to bars in Wynwood and captioning their pictures “Art Basel 2016.”
So when the opportunity came for me to attend this year’s Art Basel fair with a free VIP ticket I hopped on the chance. It was finally my opportunity to experience what Art Basel is really all about. So on the final day of Art Basel, I headed out to South Beach with my two best friends to take in the sights. We attended two exhibits that were located in tents directly on the beach called Untitled Art and Scope Miami. Both exhibits had some amazing works but, I found the pieces at Scope to be seriously thought provoking. Many of the art pieces at Scope focused on political issues as well as pop culture.
One of my favorite pieces was a doll house replica of the infamous murderer John Wayne Gacy's house by artist Chris Roberts-Antieau. The artist made an eerie and fantastic depiction of Gacy's house with a view of the victim's skeletons buried underneath the house. Even though the doll house was kinda creepy to look at, I couldn't stop myself from looking at it. I thought it was the most interesting and detailed piece at the exhibit.
Another interesting piece at Scope Miami was a large scale handwritten note by the artist Michael Scoggins on sale for $8,000 dollars at the show. I felt that the note was basically a stab at what the art world has become. Scoggins was taking a jab at consumers who simply buy art to decorate their homes instead of buying a piece of art for the message it is portraying.
All in all, I really enjoyed having the opportunity to go to Art Basel this year. Art Basel is home to amazing art pieces that will really get your brain cells moving.
