Oh my, I firmly believed yesterday was Tuesday for the first few hours … And this morning, I think I need a day off. But, no, I’ll soldier on; breakfast with a once-a-year friend, then return to art fairs!

Yesterday afternoon, thanks to Constant Companion’s ingenuity, we entered the vast halls of Art Basel Miami Beach. I’ll share only one section of the fair (more to come, more to be seen). Frankly, I saw little more than that and, wow, it was so worth it.

I have come to enjoy the Meridians section of Art Basel, in fact, I usually make it my first destination. Here, numerous large-scale sculptures, paintings, installations, and films are shown. Galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia bring the best of the best.

I’ll simply show what I saw in no particular order; in a word, amazing

Last year might have been the first year the work of a Native American artist, Edgar Heap of Birds, was included (see 4 December 2022 post). This year, works by two* were in the section. Julie Buffalohead (Ponca), like many of the artists I saw the day before draws her inspiration from traditional narratives that focus on the role of women.

*On my way to Meridians, I saw a number of works by Jeffrey Gibson, to be shared another time.

This amazing installation by Saif Azziz (Libyan/Yurok) is multifacted. Images of native plants and fauna etched on the surface of the fence. Glimpses through the natural knot holes give peeks at additional artworks. Resilience is one of the themes expressed by Azziz.

At least one local artist was included in the 2023 Meridians. Reginald O’Neal is known for figurative paintings, often depicting residents of Overtown. The Cellist, viewed from the back,* is a critique of the old policy in Miami Beach of not allowing any person of color, even the most reknowned performer, to remain in the city after dark.

*The front page of today’s Miami Herald features O’Neal’s sculpture … from the front!

I was drawn to Marcelo Brodsky‘s* work, 1968: the fire of ideas 2014-2018. I graduated from high school in 1968 and the multi-year archival images he assembled reignited memories of that era. Two images from the 1973 student riots in Greece also caught my eye. I studied in Greece long afterwards, this date is memorialized every year.

*So, I took a rest opposite the evocative wall of images and a gentleman sat next to me. I had captured him and his cashew shirt the day before at Untitled. Wouldn’t you know … it was Marcelo Brodsky!

I loved the study by Mexican muralist Alfredo Ramos Martinez. Just the small snippet gave the vivid impression of what the whole work must express.

As I walked past the many galleries to reach Meridians, I saw work by artist Alan Shields. This is a name with which I’m not familiar. His Luci Run (Stillborn) Out Left Pete (1969) is one of his early works, shortly after he moved to New York.

Ebony G. Patterson has become a superstar, understandably. Like the fenced in space created by Azziz, this multi-media work is a statement about postcolonialism; it contains statements about race, gender, class, and violence experienced by Black women. Are they represented by the escaping butterflies?

Not all the remarkable artists represented in Meridians have been included. My apologies –

And then there were the clothes!