Since the turn of this century, the first week of December has meant the opening of the huge Art Basel Miami Beach fair. But much has changed over the years. “Art Basel Miami has grown from a sort of family-dining-room night where art and culture was discussed passionately into a mega-universal celebration,” says superstar chef Francis Mallmann, who is helming collector Alan Faena’s concurrent multi-day celebration of art and food dubbed The Last Supper. “People from the most different scenarios gather because they have something to show—a coat, a painting, a plate of food, a song, a lover—or something to say.”
The people who have something to say this year are, with apologies to powerhouse art dealers like Larry Gagosian or Jeffrey Deitch, not the usual suspects. As Miami Art Week grows, people with ties to more than one city, one industry, or one scene are private-planing in; these folks have the connections that cross milieus and change agendas.
The core art fair opens to VIPs on Wednesday, December 5, but a string of related events stretches night and day through December 8. One need not worry; there’s still an embarrassment of champagne, and with the Cipriani brothers in town to add in white-peach puree for Bellinis, it should be a fine year for all.
The Collector: Swizz Beatz
Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.
Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage
Musician and music producer Swizz Beatz’s rise in the art world has been, if not quite meteoric, unstoppable. Fifteen years or so ago, he emerged in the celebrity contingent of the art world, and by 2009 he was at gallery openings with Dennis Hopper. Earlier this year, he hosted the party for ARTNews magazine’s annual “Collectors” issue. Now, he has an enviable art trove, including the largest collection of works by photographer Gordon Parks, which recently went on exhibition at Harvard under the hip-hop star’s real name, Kasseem Dean. And you know that two-story penthouse suite designed by Damien Hirst that was unveiled at the Las Vegas Palms Casino Resort this spring? Beatz’s spouse, Alicia Keys, was its first guest. Events featuring Beatz bookend the week, with a talk on Art & Philanthropy at the New World Center with presidential portraitist Kehinde Wiley and a performance at the W Hotel on Saturday December 7.
The Hotelier: Michael Shvo
Michael Shvo in the Raleigh Gardens.
Photo: Rodrigo Varela