Jan 10, 2024
Creating a memorable experience includes appealing to all the senses and this year Miami Art Week impressed with delight. The iconic and eccentric locale warmly embraced artists, entertainers, fashion and interior designers, and influencers of all kinds. Davidson Hospitality Group’s Creative Director, Design & Construction, Staci Patton, in partnership with Indiewalls – a full-service art consultancy, explored the various events on the occasion of Art Basel with our Nobu Hotel at Eden Roc Miami Beach Resort the seaside place to see and be seen. Dive into our take on the merging of culture and design standouts.
Art – as a community and an entity- is a constant connective bridge between multiple industries and their consumers, so it is only natural that prominent brands and celebrities would engage with the Miami Art Week and Art Basel market. Individual artworks and artists will always be subjective in their appeal; “art” as a celebration and a culture has enduring mass appeal.
With the art week attracting art lovers from around the world major beverage and fashion houses held strong a presence with launches and parties collaborating with artists luring in the night light elite. Davidson’s South Beach icon Nobu Hotel and Eden Roc Miami Beach was the luxury stage for merging culture and entertainment. Three unique events hosted Hollywood stars, fashion designers, models, musicians, and CEO’s of emerging companies.
OFFSET AND D’USSE LIGHT UP THE NIGHT AND BARNEY’S LAUNCH A NEW MAGAZINE AT NOBU
Musician Offset lit up the night with the D’USSE Cognac by Jay-Z exclusive beachside party at the Nobu Hotel. Stars in the crowd included Chance The Rapper, Leon Bridges, Ja Rule, Lakeyah, and more. D’USSE glamorous atmosphere included impressive cognac displays, bold lighting and live performances.
In a second night of pool side entertainment, iconic fashion store brand Barneys New York entertained several icons Cindy Crawford, Tommy and Dee Hilfiger, and Wayne Gretzky for an evening to celebrate the launch of their print magazine. The Nobu Hotel Miami served as the exquisite venue for indulging in delectable delights from sushi to caviar by Nobu Restaurant and sponsored signature Ketel One Vodka Cosmopolitans, a nostalgic touch returning as modern beverage of choice.
The Nobu Hotel Eden Roc Miami Beach was the undeniable place to blend music, style, and luxury, creating a memorable Art Basel experience.
While Art Basel is the main draw for art enthusiasts and buyers across the globe, Miami offers a wide range of art exhibitions to showcase emerging yet accomplished artists. Conveniently located steps from the convention halls are the eye-popping shows set up on the South Beach sand. Each show offers variety of investment points and many cases a chance to see the artist perform and share their inspirations for their works of art. We collected our standout moments from the off the beaten path surprises of Untitled Art Fair, Scope, Design Miami, and this year’s newbie Alcova.
Every day at Davidson Hospitality we work with our art curators, like our Miami Art Week partner Indiewalls, to celebrate the fact that outstanding, well-crafted artwork is available and plentiful from independent artists at all price points for our hotel properties. Working with a collective mission to connect our hotels with emerging, local artists on a global scale; we want bespoke art to be accessible to everyone. Miami Art Week and Art Basel is intrinsic to this mission, and all the fairs do an excellent job of showcasing diverse artists in the blue-chip premium level to the accessible artists breaking the mold.
Untitled Art Fair’s larger focus is on international and performance art pieces, finding ways to be memorable – such as the performance by YONAMINE represented by the Michael Janssen Gallery from Berlin. With a wide range of price point traditionally Untitled has been a place for discovery of new faces and this year did not disappoint.
Scope was another breezy beach side venue focusing on large scale and motivating installations. Stand outs like Jeremy Pope’s Flex installation showcasing his narrative of manhood, masculinity, and self-love; to the immersive graphics of Hoxxoh energetically launching Acura’s newest 2024 ZDX model; and last but not least the memorable Lucy Sparrow’s Feltz Bagel shop, a colorful and tactile installation featuring her fully hand sewn works in a way that invited you in for a cushy coffee, or make your own bagel sandwich.
Design Miami fed the souls of designers seeking artful creations that offer function and pure beauty to place in their interior spaces. Exquisite and amorphous pieces beckoned you to sit down or touch various forms of furniture with artful accessories that could jolt any design. Yet in an exciting US debut Alcova, took it a step further with their unique approach to representing artful rooms for discovery. Check out our Milan recap where we first discovered the avant-garde showcase. At the Biscayne Boulevard Gold Dust Motel they offered another off-the-beaten path location to feature unique artisans in each motel room overlooking the social pool space for contemplative discussion.
Our observation of trends emerging out of Miami Art week are that experiential, representational, and shifting stylistic queues prevailed. ‘Pollination’ is a great way to sum up Miami Art week and one of our favorite moments by Fernando Laposse for Perrier-Jouët’s at Design Miami. This organic and powerfully colorful display captured the essence of artweek with artists, designers, and admirers buzzing around picking up tantalizing inspiration, motivation, and re-implantation of creativity.
“Where We Stand,” a special collection of curated artworks by A Carnick at Design Miami, honored the power of design through storytelling and there an overt display of nurturing connectivity.
From digital A.I. to real life. The installation by Andrés Reisinger in the Miami Design District “Take Over” was his first in the flesh installation – an homage to his beloved whimsical hue of pink manifested in a tactile, bouncy, fluffy draping over a storefront adjacent to luxury brands that choose to call the district home. There is something so warming about his approach to color and draping layers, softening hard architecture offering an embrace.
From the reverberations of various eye-catching installations, throughout Miami Art week, solidifies our point of view that tastes are rapidly changing in the design realm. A desire to ‘feel’ may be the most impactful summary of these artists who played with organic forms, almost extraterrestrial like, finishes such as colored wood stains and unfinished aluminum to steel, and lastly a return to color theory fundamentals for maximum motivation. Miami offered a stage for the beauty and power that can be drawn from our most intimate, rooted connections – this time through Art.
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