Tyrone Pardue

After the four-hour sprint to Miami from Tampa, a hot Cuban coffee was just what I needed. Actually, it did not seem that long a journey and my trusty i-Pod was loaded with Ravi Shankar and Brian Eno for the early morning start. Try listening to Ravi while the sun comes up over the Everglades! It was the perfect 'big mind' experience.

Cartoon Sculpture

My daughter slept the whole way. Her art teacher at the University of South Florida made a strong recommendation that the students go to Miami for the world famous Art Basel show that seems to get bigger and more impressive every year. My friend Mike Braun, an emerging artist from North Miami Beach, was also launching his first exhibit, so the trip made perfect sense.

Chinese Artist Fauzhi

All I can say is that after that double Cuban coffee I was totally ready for a three-hour saunter through the Miami Beach Convention Center. What a mind-blowing show! The usual suspects were all there; Warhol, Picasso and Hockney to mention just a few of my favorites. A Warhol selling for over $2 million and de Kooning for $60 million! But what I found very interesting was the conceptual thread shared by many of the newer artists; a strong use of bold bright color, luminescence, graphics and mixed media. Lots of impasto-like paintings rendered using plastics, rubber and silicones. And lots of cartoonish images repeated in sculpture and painting. I did see a lot of rubbish too.

I have to admit I just don't get some of it. Like the crushed Camel cigarette box hanging at the end of some fishing line being moved around the floor by an electrical arm suspended from the ceiling. The new Chinese artists were causing quite a lot of interest, and stirring some debate. And true to form, the German artists stood out as leaders in contemporary conceptual thought.

"Porn" in silicone

Saturday night my daughter and I went to the opening party for Mike Braun's first showing of his dramatic and thought-provoking paintings at the Odergard Gallery in the Art and design district of Miami Beach. Mike's paintings are bold and full of energy. His earlier works darker and more imposing while his latest pieces like the Curl of Luck more optimistic but still resound with a sort of primal creative force. His launch was a big success with four paintings being sold that evening.

Afterwards, the artist, his wife Maggie Kottman (one of Miami's best interior designers and a long-time family friend) my daughter and I along with a small group of Mike's admirers went to eat and debate politics, art and the politics of art until the small hours of the morning.

The trip home, as they often are, seemed tedious. And being dark and rainy, my daughter and I could not help but feel a little low returning to Tampa.