Stand by for a petite post of gossip. We ran into some Philadelphia people (or people with Philly connections) at the fairs, in the airport and on the street. Here’s a list.
Sylvester Stallone and entourage of cameras and body guard wandered by us at Art Basel to see his abstract paintings at Galerie Gmurzynska; two priced at $40,000-50,000 sold immediately we hear. When we saw him, he was standing right next to an iconic Robert Indiana LOVE. What a Philly moment! Frank Hyder and Helen Meyrick were looking happy at Projects Gallery‘s Red Dot booth in the tent in spite of the torrential downpour; Hyder had work in the booth that was selling and an inflatable in downtown Miami with other inflatables on a piece of land from the city. Here are some inflatable facts: The cheapest place to make them is Mexico. The 22-foot balloon made of a vinyl-like textile cost Hyder $2,200 plus the cost of a blower and paint. “Sometimes they blow up,” he said. Blogger, artist and curator Lenny Campello, was booth-tending at Mayer Fine Art with some works he had previously curated into a show, Aqui Estamos, at Projects in Philadelphia. Henry Bermudez wins our trifecta! We saw him on the plane–in the same row as us!!!– on the way down and later bumped into him outside ABMB and then saw him at Red Dot. Gil and Becky Kerlin, the Gallery Joe duo, were happy to have sold works by Rob Matthews, Astrid Bowlby and others within the first hours of the first day of Pulse. Christine Pfister, Pentimenti Gallery director, was taking notes for her re-entry to the Miami fairs next year (she didn’t have a booth this year). By the way, Pentimenti was invited to be in the Volta New York art fair in March. She’ll show work by Matthew Cox in her booth, she told us in an email. Volta’s our favorite New York fair!
Michael Taylor, Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was smiling and happy at ABMB. Peter Barbarie, PMA Curator of Photography was happy, too. PMA Trustee Lynne Honickman and her husband Harold, were also looking happy, at Pulse. Taylor wouldn’t say why everyone was happy, but we think the two curators may have bought some art. Lorie Mertes, Galleries at Moore College director, dipped into and out of a brunch at Dennis and Debra Scholl‘s (of the Scholl Collection) and later gave a talk at her previous institution, Miami Art Museum. Julien Robson, Curator of Contemporary Art at PAFA, walking purposefully through ABMB, turned and waved his “hi.” We wonder what he was in pursuit of. Dan Byers, formerly of the Fabric Workshop, now Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Carnegie Museum of Art, outside ABMB on a balmy night, said he misses Philly and that he purchased something for his institution that fills a hole in their collection. We can’t say what the piece is but you may have seen it in Philadelphia not too long ago. And on the plane coming home, we saw artist Steve Cope, who teaches at St. Joseph’s University, looking like we felt, tired and ready to go home.
