I’ll eat my words…

…every single one of them; the words I used to bemoan the fact that South Florida has no culture.

I moved from Philadelphia 13 years ago. A city that has a very vibrant and rich art scene, only a couple hours away from New York City where I could catch a Broadway or off Broadway show if the spirit moved me. I missed living in a city where great food and fabulous hangouts where not hard to find. I would commiserate with others who felt the same way; some of who couldn’t take it any longer and moved away. I stayed and the landscape of  South Florida art culture changed right before my very eyes and I- am- loving- it.

Last week the art and design world descending upon Miami, clogging our local traffic with fabulousness. Art Basel one of the largest art shows in world with more than 260 leading galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, showcasing works by more than 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries took over the city. The first show Gail and I attended was Design Miami (which was going on at the same time across the street); which we enjoyed. Oh, I must say the most impressive thing I saw there was a Chandelier made from Dandelions featured by Carpenter Workshop Galleries. Real Dandelions (not the fake crap that Ikea carries) fab, fab, fab the picture does no justice, seeing it in person makes your heart smile. And Thais who was onsite from the Gallery was just the loveliest.

Also there was the Swarovski Crystal Palace installation, which was cool. I didn’t attend any parties, but Gail did the Vanity Fair party…. maybe I can get her to write a bit about it later.

Ok, so on to Art Basel which we did on Saturday. I was impressed by some of the pieces I saw especially some of the more contemporary work; (pic in another post). There was ingenuity abound! Of course they had some of the old Masters work like Picasso and Matisse with one piece selling for over $6.1 million dollars. The place was an international love fest filled with excited chatter in just about every language you can possible think of. There was so much ground to cover that next year I am heading Art Basel with a game plan to see more, because I know I didn’t do it all.

Today I am tired but for now… content (as I eat my words with a helping of humble sauce).

10 Dec This entry was written by Ray-Lee and published on December 10, 2012 at 11:15 am. It’s filed under Art & Design, Home Decor, Home Design, Innovative design and tagged Art Basel, Carpenter Workshop Galleries, creativity, Design Miami, Miami Interior Designer, Swarovski Crystal Palace, Vanity Fair party. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.