Art Basel is here; so are the locals – Knight Foundation
Arts

Art Basel is here; so are the locals

As anyone even slightly familiar with the art world knows, Art Basel week has arrived. Starting on Thursday at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the massive main fair opens, and all over town on both sides of the causeways, art will take center stage, in satellite fairs, in pop-up galleries, out in the streets.

Included in all this will be local shows and works, as everyone tries to catch the eye of anyone.

Museum of Contemporary Art will be unveiling its big survey show “Mark Handforth: Rolling Stop” (funded as part of the Knight Exhibition Series). Handforth is English, but he has long made Miami home. He makes sometimes-spectacular light works, and for this exhibit, he made a new piece of a solar eclipse. But “Rolling Stop” does not stop at the museum’s door; Handforth has reinstalled his fantastic “Electric Tree” in North Miami’s Griffin Park and his pink neon “Weeping Moon” on a billboard in Wynwood. On another note, Handforth was the first Miami artist that Museum of Contemporary Art showed, way back in 1996.

Out on the street will, of course, be the now ubiquitous street art in Wynwood, including a new wall from the L.A.-based Retna, whose made Miami walls one of his (and our) signatures. Literally. He has invented his own form of cuneiform script and is currently writing it all over the wall of the Wynwood Lofts (250 N.W. 23rd St., Miami) as part of the street-art collective Primary Flight’s “Go, or Go Home.” The massive Wynwood Walls will also have some new additions, including a pop-up shop with work from some of its international set of muralists.

Stay outdoors over on the Beach for the first Art Basel Art Public, which includes dozens of sculptures spread over the Collins Park area in front of the Bass Museum. Big name artists from all over the globe, including Anish Kapoor and Damien Hirst, brought in sculptures. Free and open to the public, this is one reason that Art Basel makes Miami a truly unique place once a year; don’t miss out.

“Mark Handforth: Rolling Stop” through Feb. 19 at Museum of Contemporary Art, 770 N.E. 125th St., North Miami; www.mocanomi.org.