At this year’s SCOPE Miami Contemporary Art Show, duo Bruno Levy and Blake Shaw present Sweat Shoppe, their multimedia performance group.  Situated in an open and inviting space outside of the booth environment, the Sweat Shoppe’s interactive installation space hosts local bands, DJs and live performances each day of the SCOPE Miami Art Show –  combining art, music and technology in an innovative and accessible way.  The performance aspect of Levy and Blake’s Sweat Shoppe showcases the artists’ creation dubbed ‘video painting’.  Video painting allows Levy and Blake to ‘paint’ video anywhere they choose – temporarily marking architectural surfaces with their video images.

In the context of SCOPE, visitors are given the opportunity to use rollers to video paint – revealing through each stroke a video image projected onto the wall.  Video painting was created by the artists through their own specially designed software used in combination with other elements such as light projection and roller paint implements rigged with a button that triggers LED.  It may be difficult to understand the technological complexities of Levy and Shaw’s video painting creation, but participating in the performance is simple.

SCOPE International Contemporary Art Show is a large, global contemporary art fair that supports innovation and work in new media.  SCOPE can also be found annually in New York, London, Basel and the Hamptons.  SCOPE Miami Art Show is on through 6 December 2009.

Courtesy: Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo/ The Quiet in the Land, Laos/ the Artist

The Mizuma Art Gallery of Tokyo is showcasing artist Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s ongoing project Breathing is Free: 12,756.3 at Art Positions in Art Basel Miami Beach 2009.  This complex and meaningful project is a statement on the current condition of the refugee and, in Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s words, a ‘reflection and offering to the refugees whose lives are to run or to perish’.  As an artist with resources and a passport, Nguyen-Hatsushiba is part of the global elite, whose mobility effortlessly enables movement across national borders.  Through his step and sustained mental and physical discipline the artist physically embodies the desire and struggle of the powerless refugee that is on the move and longs, as the artist notes, ‘to be on “the other side” instead.’

The work is defined not only by Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s act of running, but by the deliberately plotted path the artist takes which crosses any national and ethnic divisions.  In his effort to run 12,756.3 miles – equivalent to the most direct circumference of the earth – Nguyen-Hatsushiba chooses urban areas with a history of forced displacement.  The artist has completed runs in places such as Geneva, Tokyo, Singapore, Manchester and Ho Chi Minh City.  The paths taken in each of these places forms a  shape – often organic – with metaphorical meaning.

Courtesy: Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo/ The Quiet in the Land, Laos/ the Artist.

On view in the Mizuma Art Gallery booth at Art Basel Miami Beach is video footage from a selection of Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s runs paired with ‘earth drawings’ or ‘running drawings’ which map his route from an aerial perspective.  These ‘drawings’ are actually lambda prints created by transposing GPS data of his movements onto aerial photographs of each of the cities chosen for the project.  These GPS transfer prints reveal the symbolic shapes formed by the path of his runs.

Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s film The Ground, the Root, and the Air:  The Passing of the Bodhi Tree from 2004-2007 (single channel video, 14 min, 30 sec) is also on view.  This video explores globalization and resulting loss of tradition in Luang Prabang, Laos.  The image of the runner, an empty stadium, the lantern, the Mekong River and the Bodhi tree serve as symbols of this economic change – as well as hope for the future.

Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba has shown internationally and can be found in important collections such as the Centre Pompidou and the Whitney Museum of American Art.  He received his BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art.  Nguyen-Hatsushiba currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City.  His current project for Breathing is Free: 12,756.3 is set in Chicago.

Art Basel Miami Beach ends 6 December 2009.

Arthouse of Austin TX presents Corner Store by Okay Mountain in the IMPULSE section of this year’s PULSE Miami Contemporary Art Fair.  Commissioned by Arthouse specifically for PULSE, the installation is  elaborately researched and accurately realized.  Corner Store envelops the visitor within the environment of a gas station or convenience store typical to Texas and the Southern United States.  All elements of Corner Store‘s retail environment are realized by Okay Mountain, including wall murals, posters, video (surveillance camera), lighting, musical and ambient soundtrack.  Multi-media sculptural elements define the space and include the counter, coolers and products for sale like cans of ‘Shit with Beans’ and the ‘Sans L’Enfant Morning After Peanut’.  All of the items and their prices are listed in a products flyer available to each visitor.  The contents of the store can be purchased from appropriately attired clerks behind the counter.

Okay Mountain humorously critiques the consumerism that defines the art fair, while making typically inflated art prices accessible to all visitors with some products priced under $10.  Brazenly referencing Claes Oldenburg’s The Store (1961), the concept of Corner Store is nonetheless relevant through its placement in the contemporary art fair environment and through the completeness with which it executes the convenience store prototype.  Corner Store‘s immersive quality is thoroughly engaging and creates an uncanny familiarity for the American visitor.

PULSE Contemporary Art Fair is dedicated solely to contemporary art, with its IMPULSE section dedicated to solo artist presentations.  PULSE takes place annually in both Miami and New York.  This year’s PULSE Miami is located at The Ice Palace through 6 December.

Nonagon 2008, Courtesy the Artist and the Third Line

Dubai’s Third Line Gallery presents new work by Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian at this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Nova section.  Farmanfarmaian’s series of mosaics of mirrors succeed, according to the Third Line Gallery, in combining ‘the intricate ornamentation of Iranian architecture with the aesethetic of modern abstract expressionism’ – both of which appropriately reflect this artist’s background.  In creating these mosaics, Farmanfarmaian worked closely with Iranian craftsmen whose skill set is traditionally passed from father to son.  Individual mirror pieces were carefully constructed and painted then arranged and applied to a wooden backing to create each elaborate geometric shape according to the artist’s design.  All of the mosaics in this series fit within the diameter of a 100 cm circle.

Pentagon 2008, Courtesy the Artist and the Third Line

Aside from being aesthetically compelling through shape and the brilliant reflection of light, Farmanfarmaian’s works in mosaic contain profound symbolic meaning.  In Persian culture, the mirror represents life.  Furthermore, the carefully designed geometric shapes reference abstract ideas of creation and existence.  The circle is an important symbol that is representative of origin and of eternity; the triangle evokes the concepts of harmony and the human soul.  Numerical symbolism derived from Islamic geometry applies further meaning to the shapes.

Square 2008, Courtesy the Artist and the Third Line

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian attended the Fine Arts College of Tehran and later the Parsons School of Design (1949).  The artist has shown extensively internationally and was included in the exhibition East-West Divan:  Contemporary Art from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan at the 2009 Venice Biennale.  The artist’s work can be found in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Queensland Art Gallery, Australia – in addition to other important institutions.  Farmanfarmaian lives and works in Tehran.

Art Basel Miami Beach continues through 6 December 2009.

The Art Video Program at Art Basel Miami Beach, curated by New York’s Creative Time, presented three short films by Tom Sachs and the Neistat Brothers at the Oceanfront area last night, Waffle Bike, Obstacle Course, and Space Program. The Neistat Brothers (Casey and Van), based in New York, have made several short videos and have a new show coming out on HBO. They started working as assistants to Tom Sachs, making movies with him about his work; their collaborations are often humorous and technically uncomplicated.

Waffle Bike, 2008 (8:06), meticulously describes the construction and function of a bicycle that has been converted into a mobile waffle-making station with several peculiar features. The short film documents the maiden voyage of the bike from Manhattan to Brooklyn, in search of a pair of chickens to lay the eggs for the batter. A cage on the back houses the chickens, directly beneath a call to prayer public address system that plays as the bike makes its way through the streets of New York. The bike stores other ingredients and supplies needed for the preparation and consumption of waffles, including boxes of batter, cans of Pam cooking spray, an electronic waffle maker, forks, and a refrigerator storing whipped cream. The inclusion of unusual amenities such as a padded passenger seat and two Winchester shotguns, accessible while riding, elevates the captivating absurdity of Waffle Bike.  The film was presented as part of the night’s topic Video Art and Mainstream Distribution, along with several short films by Marc Horowitz.

Tonight at the Oceanfront area, an exclusive work-in-progress sneak preview of the feature documentary film Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, 2009, directed by Tamra Davis, will be shown at 8:30pm.

Art Basel Miami Beach, a cultural and social highlight of the contemporary art calendar, opens today at the Miami Beach Convention Center, drawing legions of artists, curators, critics, collectors, and dealers from across the world. With over 250 exhibitors from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, the show will exhibit works by over 2,000 artists. This year’s program includes the new Oceanfront area at Collins Park, a venue for cultural events, such as Art Basel Conversations, Art Perform, Art Video and Art Film. Pae White has designed a social space using theatre scrim, scaffolding, and bleachers at the Oceanfront area, the first commission of its kind by Art Basel Miami Beach.

Follow DailyServing for live coverage from the fair and surrounding events, including coverage of satellite fairs such as NADA Art Fair, SCOPE, and Pulse ,plus much more.

Art Basel Miami Beach takes place from December 3-6, 2009.

Monika Grzymala, Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh is currently showing The End of the Line: Attitudes in Drawing, which explores the work of artists utilizing the drawn line in new ways.  While contemporary art practice is overwhelmingly defined by the moving image and new media this exhibition proposes that current explorations in drawing merit attention.  The End of the Line rejects drawing’s secondary status and complex art historical legacy and instead presents drawing as a dynamic medium used to conceive anything from site-specific installations to more intimate works.

Monika Grzymala, Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

Artist Monika Grzymala brings a dizzying profusion of lines directly to the gallery walls using tape – creating large space drawings that are visceral and almost three-dimensional.  Other artists use drawing as the principle element of multi-media installations.  Garret Phelan’s work Battle for the Birds explores the relationship between man and nature, using drawing as the main element.  Drawing is presented with new life through the immense variety on display, which includes the incorporation of animation and objects.  The economic accessibility and intimacy of the drawing medium is made evident throughout the show.

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