Reporting and photography By Lieba Nesis

Art Basel Miami 2023, the highest profile and most comprehensive contemporary art fair in the US, celebrated its 21st birthday from December 8th-10th at the Miami Beach Convention Center. 277 exhibitors many of whom were blue chip giants including mega-galleries: David Zwirner, Gagosian, Hauser and Wirth and Pace joined lesser known galleries for a once-a-year extravaganza.  There were even some first-timers such as Paris’s Valerie Pinsky, New York’s Ortuzar Projects and San Francisco’s Weinstein Gallery. Art historian and CEO of Art Basel Miami Noah Horowitz, who began his tenure in 2022, has implemented numerous changes including a revamped floor plan divided into four sections and the welcoming of New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) gallerists such as 56 Henry, Mrs., and Bradley Ertaskiran into the main tent.  Many were astounded that previously featured modern art gallery Marlborough wasn’t at any 2023 Miami fairs as rumors abounded of a rejected application.

Nonetheless, excited insiders accessed the VIP tents on December 6th and 7th where from 11-7 PM you could get a sneak peek at what was in store with $5,000 per person VIP tickets sold-out way in advance.  I was fortunate to be invited on those days where Josh Kushner and his son Levi, Lionel Messi, Jared Leto, Leo DiCaprio, Serena Williams, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez along with Pierce Brosnan-who showcased 5 canvasses that included portraits of Picasso and Anthony Bourdain-attended.

I found the fair confusing as it was unclear as to whether the name at each booth was that of the gallerist or the artist with few explanations offered from the staff and a confusing morass of signs that had me doing circles for close to an hour.  However I liked what I saw and dealers raved about the epic turnout from collectors, curators and museum groups hailing from Aspen, Paris and Hong Kong.  Some big ticket surprises included the sale of Philip Guston’s 1979 “Painter at Night” from the Hauser and Wirth gallery selling for a whopping $20 million while Hauser also sold George Condo’s 2023 “Smiling Aristocrat” for $2.35 million.

Marlene Dumas’s 1987 “The Schoolboys” from the David Zwirner gallery fetched an astounding $9 million as female artists continue to rule with Zwirner reporting heavy interest in Yayoi Kusama with two of her 2015 “Infinity Net” paintings selling for $3 million and $3.2 million.  Despite the highly charged Israel-Hamas issue that has swept the art world with Jewish collectors shunning pro-Palestinian artists the fair remained politically neutral with sanguine florals heavily on display. One of my favorite paintings was Aliza Nisenbaum’s 2023 “El Taller at the Queen Museum” presented by the Anton Kern gallery that featured her students busily painting self portraits with alternative views as to what they represented-the vibrant colors and intricate facial details were mesmerizing.

A frequent complaint of this year’s collectors was preeminent art being sold before the start of the fair leaving those on display priced at much heavier prohibitive dollar amounts. Despite a sluggish economy there was definitely a brisk enthusiasm in the air which may have been due to the 50 degree weather in a normally balmy Florida.

One persistent unanswered query remains whether Art Basel is comprised of art aficionados who engage in some partying while discussing pending deals, or if it’s a gathering of partygoers looking to hobnob with celebrities with art being ancillary to drinking, dancing, and fraternizing. As a dilettante who loves the party scene I began the week on Sunday December 3rd at socialite Jean Shafiroff’s Hotel Croydon cocktail party followed by a Soho house magazine party.  The mobbed Miami Beach Soho House thankfully erected a massive tent this year and was still barely able to contain members and their one person allowed guest. Ground Zero for much of the weeks festivities were the Fontainebleau Hotel, the Faena and the Soho Beach House and if you overlooked these venues your Art Basel experience was lacking.

The biggest shocker to me, aside from the lack of any publicity hungry Kardashians who graced past year’s festivities, was the dearth of fashion brands who formerly shelled out big bucks for the much coveted Art Basel Miami exposure.  This was unequivocally a dumb move.  Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Dior and Chanel can hold as many celebrity attended fashion shows as they want in Paris and Milan but they will never garner the publicity of Miami Art Basel. News was spreading that fashion houses no longer wanted to spend heavily on Miami Art Basel shindigs since many coveted clients were no-shows for their events due to their busy party week; yet the international media attention would be more valuable than any million dollar advertising campaign.  Who can forget when Dior staged its massive men’s fashion show in 2019 in a Miami warehouse where Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, Ricky Martin and Kate Moss mingled with David Beckham as an all-out-rager occurred in the parking lot; or in 2021 when Louis Vuitton ferried 1,500 guests on Vuitton branded speedboats to Miami Marine Stadium to view Virgil Abloh’s last collection as Rihanna and Ivanka looked on.

Chanel’s 2021 100 year celebration at the Miami Design District’s Jungle Plaza remains iconic where Rosalia performed as a double “C” monogrammed sky blended with the stars of South Beach. Let’s not forget Dolce & Gabbana’s 2022 Surf Club fashion show where Maluma and Marc Anthony graced the crowded front row.  2023 was a different story as fashion houses spent scant money and time on Art Basel Miami and in turn received little to no publicity.

Consequently, many of the parties were sponsored by watch companies Hublot and Audemars Piguet, car companies BMW, Porsche and Lamborghini, museums such as Bass, Perez and Rubell and alcohol brands such as Don Julio, Ketel One and D’usse Cognac. Magazines also got in on the act as I attended two Nylon magazine parties one on Friday December 8th with over 3,000 attendees at a tent on 3925 Collins Avenue and another on Saturday night held at the mega mansion of Lenny Hochstein -addresses remained a secret until hours before.  The famed White Cube gallery also held its much ballyhooed party on Tuesday December 5th in a massive tent at the Soho Beach House.  While normally this event starts the week it was moved to Tuesday to coincide with the opening of the fair.  Monday was reserved for artist Nota Bene who was feted by Eleanor Cayre, Nate Freeman and Benjamin Godsill along with hundreds of art lovers at the Edition Hotel stealing the anticipatory thunder from White Cube.  My favorite party of the week was held at Miami mogul David Grutman’s Casadonna restaurant on 1737 North Bayshore Drive in Edgewater on Wednesday evening December 6th.  DJ Peggy Gou along with celebrities Leo DiCaprio, Ivanka and Jared and JR made this outdoor event electrifying. In case you haven’t heard of JR or “Jean-Rene” the French photographer and street artist was the “it boy” of Basel.

There were also some firsts as DiCaprio held his first “Art of Nature” dinner on Thursday December 7th at Superblue Miami which raised more than $9 million for the worlds ecosystems and was attended by Sean Penn, Tom Brady and Irina Shayk.  Another first was Tribeca Film Festival partnering with Art Basel and holding a discussion between Robert De Niro and artist JR at the Botanical Garden Miami on Saturday December 9th and a conversation with John Stamos December 8th.  While American Express Platinum was smart enough to avail itself of the upscale clientele of Basel with large scale beach and dinning activations in 2021 and 2022 Chase Sapphire and Capital One joined the scene in 2023. Even a long shuttered Barney’s threw a 100 year anniversary party at Nobu Miami Beach on Saturday night December 9th despite closing its doors in 2020-apparently Barney’s magazine is coming soon. There was also some decent gossip as Will Smith was spotted with a Jada Pinkett lookalike at the convention center and much disgraced Kanye West joined his “exhibitionist” wife Bianca Censori on a Sunday Art Basel “exhibition”. I concluded my week with billionaire Jeff Altman’s 3 AM Art Basel Saturday night happening held at his double mansion on North Bay Road for more than a decade. The Burning Man type event lasted until the next evening and featured drinks, DJ’s and an overcapacity crowd as one man locked outside screamed “please let me in I am here with a model and a supermodel”-a typical Miami happenstance.