Art Basel week at ART MIAMI + CONTEXT 2022 kicked off with notable celebrities & fashion designers enjoying extraordinary art installations. View Collectors and art enthusiasts enjoy iconic, groundbreaking investment-quality art, installations, & programming recap of Miami’s foremost contemporary and modern art fair.

Collectors, art enthusiasts, and notable guests from across the globe enjoyed a week of iconic art, groundbreaking new works, and memorable moments at the 32nd edition of Art Miami and sister fair CONTEXT Art Miami, in its 10th edition. Collectors were eager to be back in Miami’s longest-running contemporary art fair and second most attended fair globally during Art Basel Miami Beach. 

The Art Basel Miami fairs opened with a VIP Preview on Tuesday, November 29, with guests including music legend Jon Bon Jovi, fashion designer Ariana Rockefeller, financier Carl Icahn, noted Warhol collector David Mugrabi, CEO of Goldman Global Arts and curator of Wynwood Walls Jessica Goldman Srebnick and others. Also in attendance was Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) Director & well-known curator Franklin Sirmans. For the 12th consecutive year, PAMM was the fair’s exclusive VIP Preview benefactor, and Art Miami has cumulatively donated more than $350,000 to further the museum’s collection and mission. The partnership remains an integral part of Art Miami’s larger commitment to the city of Miami. 

Robert Bailey, president of Rosenhaus Sports launched The Kennedy Kids Foundation during the VIP Preview event, with a silent auction of three original works by renowned artist and muralist Bradley Theodore. Proceeds from the auction benefited the charity, created in memory of local student Kennedy Bailey, which aims to prevent teenage suicide through mental health awareness, education and enhanced access to care. 

Art Miami and CONTEXT Art Miami once again attracted serious collectors, curators, museum directors, and interior designers. Throughout the week, other notable attendees included fashion & accessories designers, Christi Tasker, and Donna Karan, well-known investor and The Shark Group Founder Daymond John, and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather. The fairs provided an intimate look at some of the most important work at the forefront of the international contemporary art movement, including:

• On Friday, December 2, writer, lecturer, political activist, and iconic feminist organizer Gloria Steinem unveiled her collaborative work with artist Max Steven Grossman at the female-led Sponder Gallery’s Art Miami booth. The pair’s collaboration, “Gloria Steinem Bookscape,” is an artistic expression of Steinem’s extensive personal book collection. The unveiling event served as a fundraiser for Steinem’s foundation, Gloria’s Foundation, which supports and nurtures the feminist movement. Proceeds from the sale of the artwork at Art Miami will benefit the National Network of Abortion Funds.
• ARCHEUS / POST – MODERN presented Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “Surrounded Islands,” a mixed-media work from the 1983 art project on Biscayne Bay. The 1980s Surrounded Islands installation encompassed 11 islands across seven miles of Biscayne Bay. For two weeks, the islands were surrounded with luminous, floating pink woven polypropylene fabric, sewn into 79 patterns to follow the contours of the islands, which extended 200 feet from each island into the bay, and was enjoyed by the public from the land, the water and the air. 
• Opera Gallery premiered Rex Hausmann’s new “Hunting Blind” project, a series of highly charged, emotional paintings that make a statement on current political issues and humanitarian efforts.  
• Jordi Molla & Domingo Zapata presented “ONLY FOR SALE” at CONTEXT Art Miami. The installation and exhibition features new solo and collaborative works by the talented and provocative duo, as seen in the documentary “The Private Lives of Jordi Molla’ & Domingo Zapata.”
• In response to the shocking events currently taking place in Ukraine, galleries showcased works to raise awareness and funds for the crisis abroad. Chase Contemporary released a limited edition signed & numbered print by 11-year-old art prodigy Andres Valencia with 100% of the funds going to the Klitchko Foundation which provides humanitarian support to Ukrainians. Rebecca Hossack Gallery presented artist Phil Shaw’s limited edition run of charity prints, “Solidarity – Cолідарність,” to raise funds for the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Outside of CONTEXT Art Miami, the “STAND UP FOR UKRAINE” installation by humanitarian aid organization Nantucket Cares featured a metal playground slide, normally a symbol of childhood joy, removed from a heavily-shelled residential neighborhood in Irpin, Ukraine. 

Sales were strong throughout the week, with highlights including:

ART MIAMI: 

• Keyes Art sold an untitled 1989 Reflection by Roy Lichtenstein for $1.5 million.
• David Benrimon Fine Art placed Fernando Botero’s “Dancers” sculpture, priced at $1.1 million; an untitled work from Jordy Kerwick priced at $250,000; Alex Katz’s “Ada 1-10” priced at $200,000; Yayoi Kusama’s “My Heart That Blooms in the Darkness of The Night,” priced at $200,000; Angeles Agrela’s “Jimena” priced at $180,000; Tom Wesselmann’s Delphinium & Daisies priced at $95,000; Roy Lichtenstein’s “Landscape Mobile (Limoges)” priced at $75,000; Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “50 Cent Piece” screen print priced at $55,000; Fernando Botero’s “Man with dog” priced at $75,000; an untitled work from André Butzer priced at $35,000; an untitled work from Keith Haring priced at $25,000.
• Opera Gallery sold two Fernando Botero pieces, “Nature morte a l’ananas” for $880,000 and “Donna sdraiata con capelli lunghi, Versiliese” for $600,000. 
• Cenuda Art placed Wifredo Lam’s “Woman on Bird” sold for more than $500,000, Manuel Mendive’s “My Energy” sold for more than $50,000, a work from Amelia Pelaez sold for more than $30,000 and two works from Joel Besmar sold for $14,000 each.  
• Cortesi Gallery sold a work titled “Purpura y Plata” by artist Jesus Rafael Soto for $350,000.
• Sundaram Tagore Gallery placed Hiroshi Senju’s “Waterfall on Colors” for $320,000. The gallery also sold two works from Chun Kwang Young, “Aggregation 19 – DE096” for $150,000 and “Aggregation 8 – D053 Blue” for $190,000. 
• Maddox Gallery sold Andy Warhol’s “Siberian Tiger” for $250,000
• Sponder Gallery placed Tigran Tsitoghdzyan’s “DS Mirror for Ukraine.” The artwork depicts a Ukrainian model, and is covered in yellow and blue gestural drawings to represent the colors of the Ukrainian flag. A portion of the proceeds from this sale benefited the Ukrainian Women’s Fund. 
• Robert Fontaine Gallery placed Andy Warhol’s Personal Polaroid Camera, accompanied with an Original 1980 polaroid photo by Warhol, “Big Shot Polaroid on William Burke’s Table.”
• Turner Carroll Gallery sold three paintings by rising star Clarence Heyward. The artist’s works are also collected by the Rubell family collection and are catching the attention of numerous institutions.
• Timothy Yarger Fine Art sold four of Pancho Luna’s six new sculptures for $25,000 each, as well as four sculptures by Argentinian – American artist Pancho Luna at $25,000 each and a commission of four sculptures to complement a newly constructed library of 1,500 art history books. Additionally, the gallery sold a work by Mads Christiansen for $25,000 and received a commission for an immersive experience installation in a private residence valued  at $450,000. 
• Turner Carroll Gallery sold a major mixed media work by Chinese American artist, Hung Liu, and we acquired an important Jaune Quick to See Smith painting, in advance of her Whitney Retrospective!

CONTEXT ART MIAMI: 

• Bruce Lurie Gallery sold “Portraits” by BREAKFAST, an interactive work made out of electromagnetic Flip-Discs, for $38,000. 
• Lustre Contemporary sold multiple works from artist Mara Minuzzo’s special presentation, with the highest selling piece being “Composition No.BR2228” for a price of $19,000.
• BlinkGroup Gallery sold works from artist Christian Albacerrin for $18,000. 
• Gallery LeRoyer sold Rock Terrien’s “Bon Appetit” for $17,500. 
• VK Gallery sold Victoria Kovalenchikova’s “The World XII” for $17,000
• Offshoot Arts Gallery sold a work by Santiago Montoya called “New Multi (X).”
• Contemporary Art Projects sold a work by artist Zammy Migdal called “Zanmondrian Installation” for $15,000. 
• Liz Clement Contemporary sold multiple mixed media wall pieces by artist Nygel Jones, as well as a contemporary stainless steel & cobalt blue wall sculpture titled “Illusion” by Miami-based sculptor Santiago Medina. Additionally, the gallery received a special commission for a large-scale painting for gallery artist Matt Spire.
• Steidel Contemporary sold “Sunset” by Didem Yagci for $18,000 and “Oceanic Soul” by Daniela Pasqualini for $5,000. 
• Alida Anderson Art Projects sold “Cuba: Isla Encadenada (Cuba: Chained Island)” by Florencio Lennox Campello for $1,500 and 50 of Campello’s drawings, with prices ranging from $95 to $500. 
• 532 Gallery sold “Vessel #3” by Sinéad Ni Mhaonaigh to a Miami collection.