Sculpt Miami 2011

Sydia Reyes, Crest and Thoughs, 2009, steel, enamel, stainless steel, 108”x19”x36”, (6 pieces).

By Shana Beth Mason

Now entering its fourth year, Sculpt Miami offers a unique outlet for the oncoming wave of Art Basel Miami Beach-goers: a visual arena exclusively dedicated to contemporary sculpture. As a medium, sculpture often finds itself relegated to the confines of the Miami Beach Convention Center or within the walls of a commercial gallery. Monumental sculpture is seen, at best, sparsely throughout the Greater Miami landscape in the form of special commissions and the Art Unlimited section of Basel, itself.

Director Gala Kavachnina has opted for a more liberal approach to presenting monumental sculpture in the form of a mini-fair branched out into a Wynwood location and in the garden adjacent to the Red Dot Fair in Midtown. Master sculptors, including José Bedia, Alejandro Mendoza and Ronald Westerhuis, are among the 28 artists who will be showcasing their work.

Ronald Westerhuis, Erotica, stainless steel.

Likely, this promises to be an unusual break in the steady stream of satellite fairs: while there is a fair exclusively devoted to print material (the INK fair), there has yet to be a comprehensive presentation of sculpture on its own terms. Kavachnina delivers both recognizable and critically challenging work with her artists, all with diverse international backgrounds and vastly different material usages.

Dominant elements are hardened, seemingly impenetrable surfaces of bronze, steel, cast iron and carbon fiber: exquisitely polished stags toting machine guns, shining sharpened flames rising upwards and stout, imposing rhombuses and angled squares will create a space that requires both navigation and contemplation, simultaneously. Bedia and Mendoza both work with gradations of bronze, a nod to the inherent nostalgias of memorials and heroic sculpture resident in their native Communist Cuba. Westerhuis elects steel polished to an almost chrome-like coloring, acting as a free-standing object capable of reflecting its surroundings and its observers. Other participants include Italian sculptor Maria Cristina Carlini (whose monumental works have been seen in the People’s Square and the Forbidden City in China) and New York-based sculptor James Tyler (whose colossal “brickhead” sculptures have already been seen about Midtown Miami). The primary objective appears to be gestural, versus narrative, sculpture using their respective components as dialectic suggestions rather than proofs. Whether by nature of the medium or subject matter, the works to be seen during Sculpt Miami require a greater commitment to imagination: something that has either been corrupted by the overtly literal creations as seen in oversized  “pink snails” lining 5th Street in Miami Beach or the ephemerally envisioned, often convoluted Postmodern creations within Basel’s walls.

KCHO, Columna infinita, 2004, bronze.

Sculpt Miami will very likely outshine its own host venue at Red Dot, having an international array of master artists contributing large-scale sculpture in a truly democratic environment. Even if only slightly apart from the borders of the typical commercial art venue, this young fair ventures into sorely needed aesthetic territory. With coveted Calder mobiles, Flavin neon lights and Murakami high-gloss flowers tucked away into the elite corners of Art Basel Miami Beach, Sculpt Miami offers an accessible but rigorous interactive exploration.

Sculpt Miami 2012 has two venues:

• 46 NW 36 St. Wynwood Art District, 33127.
• Red Dot Art Fair Tent, 3011 NE 1st Ave., 33127

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Contact: Gala Kavachnina at 305 448 2060

info@sculptmiami.com / www.sculptmiami.com,
Fair Hours: November 29, VIP Preview & Press, 6 - 10 pm

November 30, 11 am -7 pm

December 1 - 4, 11 am - 8 pm

VIP Event, December 3. 46 NW 36^th Street, Miami FL 33127, Hours: 8 pm-11pm

Sculpt Miami Collection will be on view at 46 NW 36 St. Wynwood from December 6, 2011 to October 30, 2012.

Shana Beth Mason is a South Florida-based art critic and consultant. She pursued an M.A. with a focus on Modern and Contemporary Art from Christie’s Education in London.