Memo From Miami: What to Do at the Fair

Courtesy of i8 Gallery, Reykjavik and Luhring Augustine Gallery, New YorkA scene from Ragnar Kjartansson's “Bliss,” a 12-hour re-creation of the final scene of “The Marriage of Figaro.”

Jet-set snowbirds, unite: it's that time again, the week that promises to occupy every inch of Miami - well, a few relatively small affluent neighborhoods, at least - with steroidal event planning, loco brand collaborations and a bona fide smorgasbord of art. It's Art Basel Miami Beach, and anticipation for 2012's slate of trade fairs and revelry may only be matched by a universal desire not to hear the question “are you go ing to Miami?” again until this time next year.

Though there are 19 art fairs in total by popular count, “the fair” refers to only one: Art Basel Miami Beach, the 11th edition of which previews on Wednesday at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Then, a day later, the most consistent alternative to ABMB, the NADA Art Fair, will celebrate its 10th anniversary, at the Deauville Hotel. Shaking up the margins is Untitled, and like an errant 2008 presidential primary cutting ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire, this tent-based upstart on the beach at 13th Street held its V.I.P. vernissage yesterday. With names like Pulse, Seven, Scope, Aqua, Pool and Ink, taken together, some of the remaining fairs could be confused for nightclub listings, and maybe this is fitting given that velvet rope law is absolute in Miami Beach.

Of course there a re also parties on the docket. While he may not have much to celebrate as of late, Jeffrey Deitch's Wednesday shindig, co-hosted by Vanity Fair at the Raleigh (an event that predates his tenure as director of LA MOCA), will happen again, with music provided by the Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li, among others. Having made a splash last year in the dunes behind Soho Beach House, with a barbecue fit not only for royalty but for venture capitalists, Art.sy will host its sophomore party that same night, this year presented by Chanel. While invites to Visionaire's Thursday bash at the new SLS Hotel, with Net-a-Porter, should be as hard to come by as ever, the core entertainment will suspend the restrictions of capitalism; it's a “Free Store” organized by the artist Jonathan Horowitz, where guests can donate and/or pick up personal objects at will. Rounding off the week, MoMA PS1 and Volkswagen may have come up with an ingenious solution to crow ding as well as to karma - their event on Friday at the Delano, with D.J. sets by Chromeo and Animal Collective, is a benefit for those affected by Hurricane Sandy, with $100 tickets and $1,000 V.I.P. passes benefiting the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance. (With the exception of the Sandy benefit, all of these happenings are strictly invite only.)

Courtesy of Cheim & Read, New YorkQuotes overhead: Plane Text delivers artist-authored aphorisms, such as this one by Jack Pierson, over Miami Beach.

If you bemoan a lack of commerce-free substance during the Miami art fairs, well, don't. Area museums are opening a new season of exhibitions: Bill Viola at MOCA North Miami; Josiah McElheny at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens; and six solo projects at the Bass Museum of Art. Today in the Design District, the artist-run nonprofit Bas Fisher Invitational inaugurates a show touting the cyber chic work of (mostly European) young artists like Simon Denny, Timur Si-Qin, Anne de Vries and Absolute Vitality Inc. (Keller/Kosmas). The fifth and final “It Ain't Fair,” organized by the Los Angeles gallery OHWOW, moves to a warehouse on the beach; from Thursday evening on it will be filled with art made by flashy bad boys and girls: Nate Lowman, Laurel Nakadate, Terry Richardson and James Franco, to nam e a few. In addition, the gallery's pirate radio station Know Wave Radio will be enlisting special guests, from Mykki Blanco to Cat Power. Then there is ABMB's roster of extra-curatorial programming, which includes ample talks, films and performances, among them “Bliss,” an outdoor dusk-to-dawn screening (beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday) of the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson's 12-hour re-creation of the final scene of “The Marriage of Figaro.” And overhead all week will be Plane Text, a collaboration between Morgans Hotel Group and Van Wagner Communications to fly artist-authored aphorisms - by the likes of Jenny Holzer, Ed Ruscha, Sol LeWitt and a dozen others - over the beach, dragged by the sorts of small planes that typically advertise bottle service and cruises.

While Jennifer Rubell's popular breakfast installation held at her family's collection in the Design District seems to have gone AWOL this year, the kooky cul inary collaborative outfit Kreëmart will be on hand at the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation collection Saturday morning, presenting Carlos Garaicoa's “Sweet and Safe”: a trenchant, chocolate-fueled pantomime of banking (open to the public with limited capacity). As ever, excess as entertainment is expected.