Before writing a concise review of Art Palm Beach 2016, I have to look back and be thankful for the gorgeous weekend we had in West Palm Beach. Whoever decided to escape to Palm Beach County’s mid-winter contemporary, emerging, and modern art fair – Art Palm Beach – could not feel more rewarded.
It’s going to be hard penning down a single article to review all the good features we discovered in Art Palm Beach 2016 with such large number of participating galleries exhibiting paintings from abstract, modern, to still art and original sculptures from artists around the world. This year, we spotted truly innovative designs that were strikingly elegant yet functional.
So to put together this Art Palm Beach 2016 Review, here are highlights of the four days event whose contemporary art scene grows bigger and more international with each passing year. Art critics and enthusiasts could enjoy plenty of Art Forums with panel discussions and storytelling from acclaimed artists and moderators. There were fervently conversations by artists about developments in their lives that inspire them into new work dimensions.
Art Palm Beach 2016 was an example of the continuous growth of art fairs in South Florida. It might not be in veritable SoBe fashion but it is one of the best attended in Florida and with a great collection of exhibits under the same roof that will make it easy for anyone to decide what art piece to go for. The show was very elegant this year with impressive life-size gators, enormous bunnies and snails, a Micky Mouse looking like a facsimile of deadmau5’s, and a captivating pyramid tower that stood in the center of the Convention’s Hall like an archetypal structure of ancient Egyptian civilization.
55Bellechasse, a Paris-based Contemporary Art Gallery presented significant art from artists they represent, like Niloufar Banisadr who was born in Tehran and whose work is abstract, narrative, contrasted, harmonious, and aesthetic. They also exhibited works by Christian Conraide, a South African living in Mexico whose work is very rich in the Mexican culture he has adopted.
New art galleries made a debut for the first time in Art Palm Beach 2016. The organizers of the fair paid special heed to include in this edition, artists from Latin American countries. The presentation on Friday by Suzanne Snider, Curator, Author & Art Historian, revolved around her upcoming book “Central American Modernism” in a way to make a statement of how modernist artists from countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama have traveled to Europe, Mexico, the US and South America to experience Modernism, and how they have inserted it in their own culture resulting in unique creations of picturesque, strikingly eye-catching works.
Venezuelan and Colombian artists revealed that they are constantly producing new work ready for the spectator to enjoy colorful, expressive, and playful art. Canale Diaz Art Center exhibited works of Reymond Romero, Danny Esquenazzi and Aureliano Parra among others. Artist Reymond Romero, born in the Venezuelan plains, is transforming the legacy of expert generations, extending the use of the thread and its constructions into the Contemporary Art field. Playing with changing colors that move according to the position of the observer, Reymond is creating a perceptive art related to the tactile experience which is implicit in weaving.
Danny Esquenazzi – a Colombian artist who has updated geometric abstraction working with diverse elements – believes in the power of the spectrum of melded light over affective mobility. Of all his works instill new definitions in the use of color, blending colors and shadows to excite the eyes with hue scales and gradations.
Canale Diaz Art is a cultural space in Coral Gables, primarily focused in fine arts, but also open to other art forms, such as literature, education and music, among others; mastering the main vanguard trends in Latin-American contemporary art. It also serves as a new gate in the city of Coral Gables and beyond to showcase emerging talents from Latin America.
Being Art Palm Beach 2016 an international fair that includes the greatest artwork being made all over the world today, artists from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Korea, USA and United Kingdom among countries were also represented. Continuum Gallery from Germany exhibited beautiful art pieces including photography, painting, and sculptures. Artists from Korea like Kyunglim Lee presented her art that fuses the overall predominant geometric abstraction with a sensual and even mystical radiance. Lee, who lives in the United States, exhibited her abstract drawings and paintings that are the result of a complex thought process based upon her consideration of a set of 10 Chinese and Korean language characters.
Photo Gallery of Art Palm Beach 2016
This selection of the best of Art Palm Beach this year offers a perspective into why this fair is worth making a trip for.
Showing varied and fantastic creative artworks, Art Palm Beach 2016 proved why it has been a major art fair in Palm Beach County for 19 years now. With fine arts that complement with extraordinarily well thought-out presentations, emerging, mid-career, and established artists will come back next year for another edition to celebrate art in the Palm Beaches which is becoming a haven for global institutions, curators, critics, and collectors in contemporary art.