The preview of the fourth New Art Dealers Alliance (Nada) not-for-profit, co-op fair in Miami last night was chock-full of top collectors.
The $100 tickets did not deter anyone keen to see the 82 galleries, but the 4pm start was rigorously enforced by security, so that the few collectors who sneaked in early (one spotted was American TV executive Dean Valentine) were quickly shown the door.
The stream of buyers included the Rubells, Glenn Fuhrman and Eileen Cohen. Matthew Higgs of White Columns said that “everyone has come,” and his stand duly benefited, selling two works to major collector David Teiger, and quickly running through half a wall of pieces by US artist William Scott, one to British artist Chris Ofili before the fair began.
Collectors were fighting over a pair of paintings by Josh Smith, an American artist recently taken on by Luhring Augustine, at Oslo-based gallery Standard. Four works went for between $3,000 and $16,000, each had second or even third reserves placed on them within minutes of the fair’s opening.
KaiKai Kiki’s stall was buzzing with numerous staff members dressed in kimonos, selling Reiko Sakurai paintings and scores of $6 face towels by Keiko Hayata, surely the cheapest works in the fair. Within the hour, Nicole Klagsbrun had sold a Beth Campbell mobile for $5,500 and almost all of Adam McEwan’s cheeky text message drawings at $2,200 each, while Carl Freedman of Counter Gallery reported brisk sales of monolithic porcelain towers by Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez at $8,000 each.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as ‘Nada: collectors flock to budget fair'