By Saxon Henry
ARTINFO
January 15, 2007

PALM BEACH, Fla.— Though a number of galleries seamlessly segued from Art Miami to PalmBeach3 in three-day’s time, the proximity of the South Florida venues is where the similarities between the two fairs ended.

As many gallery owners explained, this was not merely an exercise in transporting the same work from one convention center to the next.

“This is a completely different crowd than attended Art Miami,” said New York gallery owner Sundaram Tagore. “They’re more sophisticated, knowledgeable about art and seem to be part of the New York orbit.”

Tagore had a decidedly different booth in Palm Beach than he had in Miami Beach, he explained. Selling well here were Susan Weil, Lee Waisler and Sohan Qadri, which Tagore connected to the large number of potential long-term clients. “This is a very stylish show,” he said. “We’re meeting a lot of people who are extremely influential in the art world.”

Fair Favorites

During the fair, I caught up with inveterate collector Carter Pottash and Miami Beach designer Constantin Gorges, who both voted local gallerist Sarah Gavlak’s booth a must-see. They were drawn particularly to the work of Jose Alvarez: Pottash fancied one of his large mica creations (Untitled), while Gorges favored Optical Entities for its brilliant color.

The large-scale photography in the Holden Luntz (Palm Beach) booth was a study in contrasts, with Kimiko Yoshida’s saturated colors interspersed with Jean-Baptiste Huynh’s stark images, creating a dramatic interplay of visual richness.

Striking imagery and color was also drawing reactions from attendees at Galerie Schuebbe Project (Dusseldorf), where Helmut Sturm’s Blue Phantom ($230,000) was creating a stir. “It has been this way since people started coming through during the preview [on Jan. 11],” remarked director Christa Schuebbe. “I didn’t expect that everyone would have such a strong reaction to the painting. It’s quite remarkable!”

The private preview also resulted in a great deal of excitement at the booth of Pan American Art Projects (Dallas/Miami), where director Janda Wetherington sold William Cannings’s inflated steel sculpture This Is Not a Beachball during the first hour of the show. “I’m most pleased with that first piece,” she said.

The Usual Suspects

One savvy collector who was in attendance at PB3 but not buying was West Palm Beach attorney John Morrissey, a longtime collector of Ted Mineo and Natalie Frank. He said he steers clear of purchases during art fairs because of the inflated prices. However, he noted he was in awe of the number of Julian Opie’s he had seen during a stroll through the show.

And there were other familiar names around the aisles. The usual suspects in terms of high dollar signs were lurking in a variety of booths: Picasso’s linocut Grande Tete de Jacqueline au Chapeau (1962) was being offered by the Contessa Gallery (Cleveland, Ohio) booth; and Galerie Terminus (Munich) had several pricey Gerhard Richter paintings and a Lichtenstein (Woman with Peanuts) that could be had for a mere $7.5 million.

Raves and Rants

One newcomer to the fair was the very strong Galerie de Bellefeuille (Montréal). Work by Robert Indiana, Paul Béliveau and Marcia Myers stood out here. Béliveau’s Les Humanités CCVIII was being offered for $19,200, while Myers’ fresco on linen, titled Scavi MMVI – XIII, carried a $25,000 price tag.

“We’ve had the gallery for 26 years, and my husband and I have been coming to this fair for years, but this is our first time to participate,” said gallery owner Helen Bellefeuille. “We’re very pleased in terms of the people we’ve met and the number of sales we’ve made.”

One important deal: Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture, which graced the center of the gallery’s space, sold for $235,000. “It’s very exciting,” Bellefeuille said.

However, the reaction of Annina Nosei (New York) was starkly different. “My placement was terrible and the organization of the show was pitiful,” Nosei said. “I made a huge mistake by not staying with Art Miami this year; this is the worst fair I’ve ever participated in.”

Displaying Colombian artists Federico Uribe and Sandra Bermudez, and Lucia Warck Meister (the winner of last year’s Palm Beach Biennial), Nosei blames her lack of sales on the fact that she was not given the location she was promised. “I do fairs all over the world and no organizers have ever misrepresented themselves more,” she fumed.

In fact, the eponymous owner was so livid that she left the fair a day before it ended, leaving her secretary to man the booth while she returned to New York to prepare for the next art event in Bologna. Hopefully, it will fare better for Nosei.

Original Article : http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/24788/fair_report_palmbeach3_2007/