time to visit new orleans

Art Fag has a nice feature on Prospect.1 New Orleans:

Prospect 1 New Orleans: The Antidote To Miami

"...I’d probably be a lot more cranky right now if I hadn’t just spent a few days in New Orleans visiting Prospect 1., curator Dan Cameron’s Biennial brainchild, and the literal antidote to art fair malaise. Organized in part to help rebuild the city after the devastating effects of hurricane Katrina, the biennial takes place in seemingly countless locations across town. Three days ago I probably would have complained about having to drive through traffic, but in contrast to Miami, a very unfriendly car city and one often noted for it’s robust and expensive T&A culture, exploring the city of New Orleans offers stunning architecture, rich cultural history, great cheap food, amazing music, and right now a large amount of phenomenal art. Probably the most exciting aspect of Prospect 1. lays in the artist’s response to Katrina and the city itself, a focus that could have easily backfired..."

PR: Prospect.1 New Orleans [P.1], the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the United States, opened to the public on November 1, 2008 in museums, historic buildings, and found sites throughout New Orleans.

IT AIN'T FAIR Art Basel 2008

Opening December 2, featuring Deitch Projects, Peres Projects...

Aaron Bondaroff, New York City’s "Downtown Don", brings his expansive community of artists, musicians, and weirdos to IT AIN'T FAIR. The second exhibition in Bondaroff and Al Moran’s groundbreaking O.H.W.O.W. space in the "West of Wynwood" district, this watershed project gets celebrated curators Tim Barber, Kathy Grayson, Andreas Melas, Dan Nadel, Pablo de la Barra, Nicola Vassell and Terence Koh to activate their various teams of artists in a huge multimedia exhibition featuring painting, sculpture, video and performance from artists all over the world with a focus on downtown Manhattan...

miami art basel and the shaky economy

How will Art Miami 'fair' this coming week? Check out one opinion here:

Art Basel Miami Beach and the New Economy: Diminished Expectations or Potential for a New Democracy?

...But is a high octane platform like Art Basel capable of running on cheaper fuel? Because at current prices, galleries cannot continue to rent large booths, ship art, pay for insurance, book hotels and flights and arrange dinners without a strong confidence in market return.
If the fair no longer guarantees an A-list of international collectors, if major Europeans stay away from Miami this year, as many Americans apparently neglected Frieze, FIAC and Berlin in recent months, then ABMB would become both more parochial and less lucrative...

On a side note, I was in an LA boutique about two weeks ago and overheard a prominent LA gallery owner say that they too had just pulled out of Art Miami because it wasn't worth the art sale gamble, extra spenditure, and hassle. He/she made predictions that other art fairs would collapse and the gallery "big-wigs" would soon be making cut-backs.

Want to re-live the past with me:
here, here, here, here, here, here
Oh, the good times!