Constant Companion and I ended our Art Week immersion into the best that was offered at Art Miami and Context, two side-by-side fairs, on Saturday. Somehow we made our way through more than two hundred international galleries. Quickly, I realized that after eight days of visits to gallery shows, art fair booths, private collections, and outdoor public art, I was visually saturated. I found it difficult to give this plethora of arts due justice. Again, we separated to take what was offered in our own ways. The following is some of what I was able to take in.

Once again, I found that, generally, one visual image seemed to catch my eye. It started with a work by Yayoi Kusama,

I was much more familiar with this Japanese artist’s works that feature dots. Thus, I was attracted to this floral display.

I knew the names and work of some of the artists represented by my target image of the day, flowers, others I was not. Among the known was Alex Katz,

Tom Wesselman,

Kenny Scharf,

Angela Beloff, Diego Rivera’s first wife,

And I cannot leave out Diego Rivera,

A number of flower images on view were by artists with whom I was not familiar, including Jonas Wood, who works with embossed handmade paper.

German artist Stefan Gross’ vibrant mixed media presentation

The almost sculptural flowers by South Korean artist Byunjin Kim,

This piece drew me away from flowers, to a few other images as well as the work by another South Korean artist, Bahk Seon-Ghi, who creates conceptual images with suspended pieces of charcoal,

The second work so reminded me of a piece I had seen on my last trip to South Korea at the Seosomun Shrine History Museum in Seoul (see April 1, 2021 post). The gallerist at Gallery Bk confirmed my observation.

Other artists whose work I could not pass by where Andy Warhol,

Christo‘s Surrounded Islands (1983), a part of our local history. The image was from Hexton Gallery, which is planning a new publication.

Another very beloved local artwork was by the Scull Sisters, from Cernuda Gallery. Their mixed media, 3D artworks have delighted many of us for a long time. If you can, note the baby on the balcony in the upper right corner. The man below is not appreciative!

Though we had the best intentions of quietly visiting a few smaller fairs we’ve enjoyed in the past, on Sunday Constant Companion and I ended what the Context promoters characterize as “the most important week for contemporary art in America” quietly at home, reflecting on our own eclectic collection art which we enjoy being with daily.

I realized that I missed lots of artwork and I know that as usual I was quite satisfied with what I saw.

In the meantime, a habit acquired during my recent visit to Las Vegas a few weeks ago (see Nov 21, 2021 post) is to check my phone for the number of steps walked daily. The record this past week was over 10,000 steps in Art Basel Miami Beach. Art Miami/Context was a close 2nd with over 9,000 steps!