Some of my favorites from the 2010 Art Fairs in Miami

I spent 3 busy days in Miami in early December (with 46,000 other art lovers) taking in Art Basel Miami and the satellite fairs.

Here are just a few of the artists that I found inspiring:

The stunning photography of Japanese artist Shinichi Maruyama at NY gallery, Bruce Silverstein. His black and white images capturing water in motion are intricate and awe inspiring. According to his bio, the artist, born in 1968 has focused on this current series since 2005:

"For the past five years, in a group of astonishing images he calls the Kusho series, Maruyama has focused on the technical and formal characteristics of the photographic medium itself. Using the latest high-speed strobe technology, Shinichi developed a fascination for liquid and motion imagery. His latest work is a stunning, abstract collection of images made with sumi calligraphy ink, water, and tempera paint captured in mid-air."

Here are just a few images from this limited edition archival print series:

The beautiful, fragile watercolor portraits by Kim McCarty were both innocent and seductive. The work was on exhibit at several galleries including the David Klein Gallery in Birmingham, MI.

According to McCarty, these poignant watercolor portraits "depict adolescent and preadolescent children hovering between presence and absence, innocence and wisdom, and past, present, and future."

McCarty's work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, UCLA Hammer Museum and the Honolulu Academy of Art.





I was fascinated with the intense, richly pigmented portraits by Spanish artist Salustiano. His uses up to 26 layers of natural pigment in his work to create the pure intense reds.

He created the cover image for a catalogue to accompany the recent exhibition entitled “The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama,” which explored art as a catalyst for peace and inspired readers to actively engage in pursing peace in their lives through art. It is a good mission for all

And my hands down favorite was the work of Sandeep Mukherjee at Brennan & Griffen (the former LA and now New York gallery). The artist, born in Pune India and now living in LA. His most recent body of work incorporates painting and embossed drawing on Duralene. The result is a rich, jeweled body of work with an almost mosiac quality.

Mukherjee’s paintings aspire to become a conduit to another dimension of experience where the possibilities are many and ultimately open ended for the viewers to inscribe for themselves.

His work is in public collections including Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA: Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA.