Art Basel

A friend of mine and I are working on a story about the number of galleries carrying similar pieces at the fair.

The full discussion of affordable pieces you can find at satellite fairs vs Basel's elite.

Is over-spending passe, yet?

While Basel tops the chart at $33,000 for a small booth, can smaller fairs (with surprisingly varied booth fees) help exhibitors cut out of Basel? Long time Basel Miami dealers at SCOPE? Feeling woozy in the new world order?

Stay tuned...


(three hour sketch by me, model in Marie Antoinette)

Art Wrestling: Arm Wrestling for Art and pride

This is not a picture of me arm wrasslin Shamim Momin, this is me wrasslin another woman in a kiddie pool full of oatmeal at an art event in San Diego. As soon as I saw this announcement for the wrestling event I knew I was going to win.  

Artist Joshua Ukon along with the glitterati put together a great presentation for Art Perform. The idea simple, let the collectors battle it out and turn their muscle power into aquisitions power.

HOWEVER, Shamim (shown here from the NYT article  about a few of her favorite things)

kind enough to let me win when it was my chance to hold her

 hand in this fantastic art event put on at Art Basel Positions (the shipping containers) And yes I now reign as the undisputed queen

 of arm wrassling for art. The only one who was able to prevail against me--Left Handed-- was the male winner from Dietl, and I am hoping for a re-match at the Armory. Art Handlers unite!

I've been left after the event totally smitten by both Shamim's arm wrestling abilities, and her amazing curatorial smack down at Basel in general. Her work at "The Station" (ArtFagCity has a nice discussion METHLAB!!!)

 And then STYLE points, after leaving to

 get dressed and come back and wrestle in heels (total respect) and full party dress. I have

 decided to see if I can get into the Whitney Internship program this year, and get her coffee and stuff (will keep you posted to see how my application turns out)

My secret weapon was trash talking and artist/blogger Matthew Langley. He helped me become my art wrestling alter ego. Truth is, while I do unload and load alot of heavy crates as a exhibitions manager, and I am strong, I am a horrible arm wrestler. I just WANTED 

to win. The regulation table, helped tremendously.

The crowd's energy was amazing! They really supported me and the adventure just began when the battle was over.
What was amazing was the next day, how intense my fanbase was! Love and eternal

 respect to the crew at Dietl.

I won a great piece from Wallspace. Two (2!) Martha Friedman's Giant Rubber bands $3200 each. (A beautiful exhibition at Station, of the same piece that has a smaller installation in the Trailers, photo stolen from ArtFagCity)

Baby! Victory has never been so sweet.