Red Dot and Bridge Art Fair

Red Dot Miami, Photograph AFC

With 24 fairs in Miami this week, the gradient of what you’ll get is incredibly large, ranging from “My chances of finding excellence are equal to discovering a Picasso in the trash” to “the fair guards gave me a hard time because I don’t have enough plastic surgery to be here”. I suppose it’s all the kind of viewing experience you enjoy; sorting through all kinds of cheap crap to find a few good works versus skipping all that for the good stuff, but with Bridge and Red Dot falling into the former category and my tastes the latter, I ended up dreading the experience of looking at art.

Rather than recreate that experience, I’ve decided to post the two good works I saw, and move on to fairs that actually deserve the attention.

Chris Doyle, at Sam Lee Gallery

I can’t figure out how Sam Lee Gallery ended up at Red Dot. Most of the work in his exhibition space was quite nice, setting him apart from, well, everyone. The image I’ve posted above doesn’t do the work justice, but I really enjoyed these tiny watercolor homes. Each painted from memory, the scale and image placement suggest the kind of fluidity associated with old or dim recollections.

J.J. Garfinkel, Myriad Quay, 2007, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 45 x 48 inches, Hogar Collection, Bridge Art Fair.

Want to see some more work that doesn’t photograph well? This is painting for painters, so it’s probably best to just go see J.J. Garfinkel’s Myriad Quay in person. Those looking for the work will need to bear in mind, that the fair takes place in what appears to be two buildings, the artist’s gallery, Hogar Collection, in the second. It’s not that hard to find, just difficult to go through if you already been disappointed with the first half of the fair.