Razzle-dazzle, Basel. I was back once again for Art Basel, the 21-year-old phenom of an art fair that takes over Miami and Miami Beach every December.
Art Basel is the “it show” of the arts world. The international confab has brought massive cultural and economic change to once-sleepy South Florida. The annual show has been dubbed the “Super Bowl of all art fairs.”
I have been attending Art Basel since its start in 2001. That is, a false start. The first Basel, originally planned for the first week December 2001, was canceled on the heels of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. I happened to be in town and stumbled upon a gaggle of intrepid artists and gallerists who rallied to mount unofficial exhibits at the iconic art deco hotels and other public spaces on the shores of Miami Beach. It was a sign of things to come. Art will not be denied.
The show at the Miami Beach Convention Center lures tens of thousands of art collectors, buyers, VIPs, art lovers and tourists from around the globe. Revolving around the show are glittering soirees, galas, brunches, fashion shows, concerts and other cultural happenings and, of course, stargazing of the celebrity kind.
That’s all good. But I must declare that, since its early days, I have been both a Basel fan and critic. Then and now, there is not enough participation from people of color at this powerful show.
Back in 2007, I wrote for the magazine In These Times: “You would think you could find a bit of racial and ethnic diversity, especially in South Florida, America’s gateway to Latin America. As I strolled through the exhibits at the Miami Beach Convention Center, I found faces of color in short supply.”
Today, the show’s galleries and artists are overwhelmingly white. There are grand exceptions. The 2023 show included the works of African American artists Bisa Butler, Faith Ringgold, Kehinde Wiley and late portrait artist Barkley Hendricks. Still, this is a fair that represents the elites of the elites, and it’s too white. There are thousands of artists and gallerists of color who could, and should, present at Basel. But the costs of presenting at a show are formidable.
Happily, while Art Basel may be the biggest and shiniest bauble on Miami’s palm tree, its best gifts are the satellite fairs, gallery and museum exhibits, and pop-ups.
Basel’s wild success led to Miami Art Week, which coincides with Basel but stretches far beyond the convention center. This year, the week hosted more than 20 satellite art fairs, more than 1,200 galleries and thousands of artists throughout Miami and Miami Beach, according to its sponsors.
At SCOPE, a sprawling satellite fair, you’ll find my home girl, Candace Hunter, Chicago’s own art star. Hunter, who is African American, is an art activist known for her award-winning collages that contain imagery of Black women.
She “is concerned with social inequality along both national and global fronts,” according to her artist statement. “My imagery explores historical moments. Moments that celebrate the beauty of a people or the necessary light upon violence against humanity, in its many forms, with special attention to the plight of women and children.” Hunter uses her art to “to give a public and present voice to those whose voices have been silenced or just plainly, ignored.”
The Women’s Live Artist Studio, based at Chicago’s Navy Pier, is showing the work of Hunter and five other artists: Chicagoans Martha Wade, Dana Todd Pope, Tyler Clark, Gretchen Jankowski and Reisha.
“The opportunity to showcase women artists at SCOPE Miami is such a big deal. Women’s LIVE Artist Studio is an entire community effort to highlight the diversity in art. Empowering and supporting minority women is not just about helping a specific group; it’s about enhancing the well-being and prosperity of society as a whole,” Wade said in a news release.
So it goes with Kiki Somerville, founder of The Fearless Artist, which is based in New York. I encountered her at an outdoor mall in Miami Beach, putting the finishing touches on her ninth annual pop-up show.
Somerville, who has surveyed many art events and galleries, trained as a lawyer and event producer. She shifted to supporting artists, particularly women and those of color, who face barriers she wanted to demolish. The Fearless Artist is a community of artists that “has forged connections and built opportunities for diverse, mission-driven artists,” its website explains.
“In 2011, I founded The Fearless Artist with an idea that all artists need a business support system,” Somerville told me. “And so, thinking about how the gallery world sort of cycles them in and out, look, what happens to them when they are no longer, you know, the flavor of the month.”
That led her to “looking at Art Basel as a place where, again, the gatekeepers of the art world sort of held sway over the future of many artists.” In 2014, she rented a space in Miami’s Wynwood district and showed 26 artists during Basel, and 7,000 people showed up, she said. This year, she presented paintings, drawings and sculptures by 30 artists, many women and people of color, some Miami-based and others from around the world.
Ironically Basel helped make that happen, but Basel is not where she wants to be.
On visits to Basel, “I’ve literally cried after seeing some of the work. I mean, it’s the perspective. It’s the way that particularly Black and brown bodies are presented and objectified and monetized. It’s again, that distance between the gallerists and the curators and the public,” Somerville said.
She sees it as “the collusion that takes place to keep Black and brown people from the leadership and participation in the economics of” the arts. “You will see Black bodies on the walls, but you will not see them as owners of galleries, or as even curators,” she noted.
“And the choices (of what to show) that are made and how that audience sees and receives the Blackness are problematic. Severely problematic.”
She sees images of “spooks” and “naked eroticism, things of that nature.”
Basel may be the “it show,” but Somerville’s brand of art is where I want to be.
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Monday. Write to her at LauraLauraWashington@gmail.com.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
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