The Washington Glass School

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The serious art contenders have set up in Miami for the extravaganza that is Art Basel/Art Miami Art Fairs. Some consider this fair to be most prestigious art show in the Americas, 1,087 galleries will be trekking down to Miami this week to participate in more than 20 art fairs around the city. Expect celebrities, glitz, glamor, hype, good taste, bad taste, shock art, schlock art, and showstopping wonderful art.

So Much Art and So Little Time

If you are going to the shows – be sure to stop in and visit Washington Glass School artists:
Tim Tate is showing his work at Art Miami at Dublin, Ireland’s Blue Leaf Gallery (C-9)
Erwin Timmers, Sean Hennessey and Audrey Wilson’s artworks are at Aqua, exhibiting at Alida Anderson Art Projects (Room 116).

Which fair should one not miss?
The Huffington Post has a rundown of each of the Miami Art Fairs – as if coded into high school stereotype cliques – 
* Art Basel Miami Beach: The Golden Boy
The football player with whom most want to be in good graces, Art Basel Miami Beach is the biggest, most well-known fair of them all. As in high school, there is no shortage of people who think the popular kid is overrated and maintain they have no interest in gaining his approval. That may be true. But its status as prom king is hard to dispute.
1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, December 6-9.
* Pulse: Teacher’s Pet
Never one to step too far outside the lines, Pulse is nothing if not reliable. You know you’ll find strong paintings, photographs, and drawings in an efficiently laid-out space at reasonable prices. The fair organizes its own installation, performance, and video programs, but you won’t see too many galleries giving over their booths to such impracticalities. Most are more interested in making money than in making a statement. Still, that’s no reason to skip over it: Like Brian Johnson in the Breakfast Club, Pulse might surprise you.
The Ice Palace, 1400 North Miami Avenue, Miami, December 6-9.
* Art Miami: The Super Senior
As the super senior is to the football star, so Art Miami is to Art Basel Miami Beach. It is the only player to rival the golden boy in size and know-how. Plus, it’s been around since before Miami was cool, and doesn’t need to try particularly hard to draw visitors or exhibitors. (It was founded 12 years before Art Basel Miami Beach arrived.) Its old school attitude can border on stodgy, but Art Miami undoubtedly fills a niche: It is one of the few fairs outside ABMB where you can find secondary market material like Picassos, Matisses, and Pisarros.
3101 NE 1st Avenue, Wynwood, December 5-9.
* Scope: The Frat Boy
The frat boy may not technically be a high school archetype, but high schools are filled with future Greeks. Those rowdy, sometimes macho, always devil-may-care personalities are a good analogy for Scope. Plus, in a bizarre example of analogy collapsing into reality, some real live frat boys made an appearance at the fair two years ago in New York. (Artists Richie Budd and Will Robinson invited four New Jersey Greeks into a glassed-in cube to drink beer for hours on end and generally make mischief as part of an art installation called “Come on Guy.”) We can’t imagine that kind of stunt would fly at any other fair.
100 NE 36 Street at Midtown Boulevard, Miami, December 4-9.
* Aqua Art Miami: The Girl With Glasses
At first glance, Seattle-born Aqua Art Miami might not look like anything special. Like many small fairs, it is based in a hotel. But if you look past its modest exterior (think Rachel Leigh Cook in “She’s All That”), you’ll see it has a great bone structure. You may even spot the beginnings of a very promising career or two.
Aqua Hotel, 1530 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, December 6-9.