Artsy

This year’s edition of Art Basel in Miami Beach features 268 galleries from 35 countries, located in the newly reconstructed Miami Beach Convention Center. While many hewed to typical fair conventions—pristine white walls and a concrete floor—the more ambitious presentations ran wild. From a bodega to a backyard, artists’ imagined spaces dramatically altered the mood, infusing a sense of fun and intimacy into the behemoth of a building. Below are 15 of our favorite presentations.
 

Peter Blum Gallery
Survey, Booth S16
With works by Joyce J. Scott

MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient Joyce J. Scott turns beads—generally decorative elements—into powerful, frightening sculptures. Peter Blum Gallery held an exhibition of her new work at its New York space last month and wanted to show, in its Miami presentation, how the Baltimore based artist’s practice has progressed over her long career. The booth features Scott’s work from the 1970s through 2000s. Mammie Wada III (1978–81) resembles a witchy doll. A dark face protrudes from a woven green body, decorated with batches of multicolored beads—and bone. A horn emerges from the end like a tail. Mammie Wada IV (1978–81) features actual hair. A later work, Perfect Piece (1991) (the name itself a play on language that objectifies women) situates a beaded female form atop a hunched, beaded mountain.