This past week I spent a few days with my team bonding, strategizing and getting enlightened in Miami Beach. Crazy as it may seem, we chose to travel during one of the most popular weeks: Art Basel.
We weren’t trying to drive ourselves nuts, but, as planners, we get off on a few key things: insightful thinking, co-creating, creativity and culture. So it only made sense that we not avoid Art Basel but jump right into it — the event, the artwork, the community of patrons (1%ers) and artists, and the late night “scene.”
My favorite part was watching the dressed up ladies — Miami style. Lots of tight dresses, artificial boobs and sky-high heels. While there were folks who took the opportunity to express their artistic side with their outfits, it was much less of an art-y scene than a fancy one. Oh well.
The exhibit was huge. There were moments when I feared I would turn into the Jack Nicholson character in the Shining who goes crazy in the film’s outdoor maze.
I spent hours getting mesmerized by the art and was able to capture a few of my favorites until my phone died :(. Luckily, because it was an exhibit versus a museum, the pieces had little description. I actually prefer that. I was forced to respond to the art from my gut more than my head. This particular point was discussed amongst the team during our sushi dinner Are we better off NOT having an art education to truly embrace art work? There was even an art piece challenging us with this very question towards the end of the exhibit!
I wished the art had been pushed farther. Very little interactive or moving art. Static. As folks who play in the digital world, we wished there were more modern exhibits.
Yet, there was still some amazing pieces. We saw lots of work that played off reflections and turning things upside down — literally. I’m always a sucker for bright colors that hit us viscerally or anything surrealistic. I loved the work that played with space and of course those pieces that freak me out a bit (I’m a bit morbid for those of you who haven’t spent much time on Beautyskew :)). One of my favorite group of paintings was a selection of photographs with totally obscure headline descriptions. Clearly the artist was playing with the rules of artistic descriptions. Or were there connections that I just needed to read into? Hmm… Finally, one of my favorite artists was from Japan and definitely captured a sense of the bizarre.
Here are some of my favorites:
