Tolomeo, 1989 by Pier Paolo Calzolari

 
  Annette Schönholzer and Marc Spiegler, codirectors of Art Basel Miami Beach
 
  John Waters, Visit Marfa, 2003

It’s been a very good year for the folks behind the prestigious Art Basel contemporary art shows. This summer, record numbers flocked to the 42nd annual Art Basel in Switzerland. The company then purchased the Hong Kong International Art Fair, the leading show in Asia, giving it critical leverage on that increasingly important continent. And this December 1 through 4, Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB), sister event to the Swiss behemoth, celebrates its 10th anniversary.

After launching in 2002, ABMB quickly established itself as the most significant art show in the Americas. Dealers, collectors, curators and art enthusiasts of every type from Manhattan to Milan to Moscow descend en masse on Miami Beach for the extravaganza, which has grown to include an international selection of more than 250 galleries, cutting-edge exhibitions, performances and crossover events featuring music, film, architecture and design. The show has also helped transform Miami into a leading cultural capital that boasts some of the world’s most ambitious private collections. This, coupled with the tropical climate and South Florida’s location at the social and economic nexus of North America and Latin America, makes the city a perfect backdrop for the show and helps draw an elite global audience.

Esteemed local curator Massimiliano Gioni, associate director of New York City’s New Museum and artistic director of the Trussardi Foundation in Milan, has been involved in the Miami art scene since before the beginning. “The very first time I went to Miami, it was because the Rubells invited me to be on a panel there; it was a couple years before the show started,” says Gioni, referring to Mera and Don Rubell, who own one of the city’s most important private collections, housed in a 45,000-square-foot former Drug Enforcement Agency warehouse. Gioni feels that the city of Miami might be the factor that ultimately differentiates ABMB from the plethora of other art fairs. “I think the best art fairs are the ones that happen not in a vacuum, but rather in a context rich with many other stimuli,” Gioni offers. “And that is particularly true of ABMB, where the show grew at the center of an incredibly lively scene of important collectors and interesting, evolving institutions. Particularly the collectors, with their private museums, foundations and showcases—they have created a whole new paradigm in Miami, which the show has both complemented and helped expand. And of course there is the incredible setting of Miami and its legendary parties,” he says with a laugh. “Irony aside, I think the fair combines blue-chip and young art, modern and South American art, in an ideal mix.”

But does Gioni, as a leading curator living in what is arguably one of the most important contemporary art capitals in the world, really need to attend the show every year? “First of all, there is no end to my addiction to art, so I would go anywhere to see more,” Gioni says. “In Miami, I try to go and see things that are not so easy to see in New York; for example, I love the galleries that specialize in modern art and even the quirky kinetic sculptures. And the museums in Miami always have their best exhibits up during the show. I still remember a complicated, uneven, pretentious and yet somehow beautiful show curated by Roger Brueghel a few years ago.… At the very center of the marketplace in Miami it is also possible to see the least commercial art made today.”