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The Sexy, Powerful, and Intimidating List: Who to Network With in Miami This Year
Dust off your business cards and get your social calendar ready.
Dust off your business cards and get your social calendar ready.
Henri Neuendorf ShareShare This Article
As the art world prepares to temporarily relocate to Miami for a week of art, parties, and networking, artnet News has prepared a list of sexy, powerful, and intimidating people to connect with, whether you find yourself browsing booths or downing booze. (Or both.)
Early indications show that not even the threat of a Zika outbreak could halt those planning to attend the festivities on South Beach. Before dig your swimsuit out from the back of your closet get your pen and notebook out first. After all, we’re going to Miami to work right? At least some of us are.
SEXY
Adrien Brody
The Hollywood actor-turned-artist took a year-and-a-half-long sabbatical from his acclaimed acting career to focus on painting.The Academy Award winner is also a regular on the international art fair circuit. Having just attended ART021 in Shanghai, he’ll certainly be in Miami to mingle and look for his latest inspiration.
Dasha Zhukova
Together with her husband Roman Abramovich, the collector, philanthropist, and founder of Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art has assembled a formidable collection of contemporary art. Look out for her at Art Basel Miami Beach and the various satellite fairs, as part of the international art jet-set she will certainly be in attendance.
Franklin Sirmans
The curator and director of Miami’s Pérez Art Museum has become a fixture in the city’s local art scene. Before moving to Miami to take the helm of the Floridian institution he was a head of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 2010 to 2015. Expect to see him with VIPs in tow at Art Basel Miami Beach and the satellite fairs.
Amalia Ulman|
The Spanish multidisciplinary artist made her name with an Instagram-based performance artwork. In February a selection of the artist’s social media feed was included in the Tate Modern’s Performing For The Camera exhibition which showcases performance artworks captured by the lens. Not bad for a 27-year-old.
Vito Schnabel
After a decade-long curatorial career Vito Schnabel opened his first gallery in the Swiss ski resort town to St Moritz. Additionally the dealer recently inaugurated his New York project space with an exhibition of works by Dan Colen. He’ll probably be in Miami with his model girlfriend Heidi Klum.
Petra Cortright
The Los Angeles-based painter, video, and digital media artist rose to prominence amid a generation of post-internet artists. Cortright’s digitally assembled paintings, and self-portrait videos which capture the essence of contemporary culture have catapulted her to art-world notability.
POWERFUL
Thelma Golden
The chief curator and director of the Harlem-based Studio Museum is one of the most respected and influential curators of her generation. Golden launched the careers of an array of important American contemporary artists including Glenn Ligon and Lorna Simpson, and has a market-maker quality that can transform the artists she exhibits into stars.
David Zwirner
“Nobody’s selling expensive stuff like we do with the frequency we do” Zwirner told the New Yorker in 2013, and three years later the statement still applies. The two spaces in New York and one in London, the international dealer has real market the ability to is one of the most respected and powerful gallerists with real market-maker qualities. You can bet that he won’t just be at Art Basel Miami Beach, he’ll undoubtedly have one of the largest and most impressive booths at the fair.
Sandy Heller
Sandy Heller is the advisor to dozens of high-profile clients including hedge-fund billionaire and collector Steve Cohen. He doesn’t just have deep connections enabling him to source and secure prized works that remain elusive to others, he has the power to make or break all sorts of big money deals.
Patricia Barbizet
Barbizet was named the first female CEO of Christie’s in December 2014. She has a reputation as a adept dealmaker and is a close confidant of Christie’s owner François Pinault. As head of the world’s largest auction house, she wields a great deal of influence. Keep an eye out for her in Miami where she will be looking to schmooze big-name collectors for consignments.
Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi
In the rapidly growing middle-eastern art market Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi, president of the UEA’s Sharjah Art Foundation (and its eponymous biennial) is largely responsible for the cultural renaissance in the oil-rich state. Pushing the envelope in the conservative Islamic country, Al-Qasimi’s focus on conceptually rooted exhibitions.
INTIMIDATING
Andrea Rosen
Instantly recognizable due to her trademark blonde hairstyle, the New York dealer has been a fixture in Manhattan’s vibrant art scene for 26 year. Championing artists such as Felix Gonzalez-Torres, the gallery developed a reputation for showing conceptually rooted art. The dealer cares deeply about the artists she represents which is reflected in her studious demeanor.
Gavin Brown
The famously reticent New York gallerist prefers to let the art do the talking. And with a program that includes names such as Joe Bradley, Peter Doig, Laura Owens, and Rirkrit Tiravanija, Brown’s heavy-hitting program speaks for itself.
Amy Cappellazzo
The former head of Christie’s contemporary art department left the venerable auction house in 2014 to establish the private art consultancy Art Agency Partners with co-founder Allan Schwartzman. Only two years later the firm was acquired by Sotheby’s for a whopping $50 million, where Cappellazzo now co-heads a new department with Schwartzman focussing on 20th and 21st century private deals.
David Nahmad
The Lebanese art dealer and collector is the patriarch of the Nahmad art clan who have been described as one of the largest and most powerful buying forces in contemporary and modern art. Nahmad is no stranger to controversy having been embroiled in a long running restitution dispute over a Modigliani painting that was allegedly looted by the Nazis.
Ai Weiwei
The Chinese artist and activist developed his reputation by fearlessly confronting the autocratic Chinese communist government over censorship and freedom of speech, and his subsequent 81 day incarceration made headlines across the world. Since getting his passport back from Chinese authorities he has gone on a tireless run of global museum and gallery exhibitions.
Stefan Simchowitz
Aside from his divisive approach of collecting and selling art, Simchowitz is an outspoken critic of the culture system and the status quo of the art world’s structures. He tirelessly campaigns for increased transparency and a free market approach to art dealing rooted in economic theory.