Irene Sperber

You can bet your newly accrued NFT account that Miami-Dade will not allow the fairest of fairs to have the stage all to themselves. With a profusion of positive publicity, people and proficiency on the doorstep? I think not.

"How is Art Week planning to razzle, dazzle, and frazzle us during December's Art Basel?" I pondered as seasonal sugarplums danced on my head.

A universe of satellite shows orbit the Art Basel/Design Miami mothership. Revolving around the anchor is Art Miami along with over ten more fairs; sprinkle in museums/galleries Downtown, Little River, Miami Beach, Allapattah, Wynwood and beyond. Hotels glam up with their own rendition along with private collectors and a large Atlantic Ocean sized splash of shiny parties accessorized with matching guests from around the globe.

I may be overstating since there are still a few, um, issues with this pesky pandemic situation, but you know Miami-Dade is going to turn up the megawatts no matter — responsibly of course.

Art and collectors skew to the younger side this year, so smooth out those life lines and let's get to learning something new.

Miami's oldest living art fair, ArtMiami is still strong in the game with AM's 31st year along with its sister fair, CONTEXT (9 years strong) in the adjacent tent. Local galleries exhibiting for the first time at AM will be Burgess Modern & Contemporary (Fort Lauderdale), Nicole McGraw Fine Art (Palm Beach).

• www.artmiami.com/practical-info
• The Art Miami Pavilion, One Herald Plaza
• NE 14th Street, Downtown Miami
• Nov. 30 - Dec. 5

Miami's Design District needs to be on your calendar. Alex Proba, Founder and Creative Director of the multidisciplinary design studio, Studio Proba answers a few questions. (Miami Design District's Annual Design Commission choice for this year.)

Irene Sperber: "When planning for the Tomorrow Land installation for the Miami Design District during Art Basel 2021 and beyond, what Miami image are you most interested in communicating to the Art Basel audience? What criteria do you think has changed for The District during the "gap year" of 2020?"

Alex Proba: "The last few years have been unprecedented-beyond what any of us could have predicted. This project means more to us (Studio Proba x Enjoy The Weather) now than it would have at any other time. With every piece of art that Studio Proba releases to the world, we have one main goal: we want to make you happy, if only for a second. We all need positivity and joy in our lives, even in hard times like these. Our work is a celebration of colors and patterns that positively stimulate the senses. Art is an emotion for me, one that can transform an environment by adding life and personality. And then 'Enjoy The Weather' is literally bringing this art, 'Tomorrow Land,' to life, adding another level of excitement through VR. We hope that interactions with the art will create a space that radiates hope for a better future together."

Sperber: "Which specific event/installation are you most excited about for the coming Art Basel season?"

Proba: "I am mostly excited about all the conversations that will be hosted throughout the events, as I personally think that conversations and human interaction has been missing the most in the past years."

"Enjoy the Weather" presents an interactive, virtual game built around AR technology. On an app you will be able to digitally gather Studio Proba's shapes, then other participants can discover and play with what shapes you "collected."

More in the Design District at the Moore: The iconic Moore Building, housing the site specific Zaha Hadid installation, "Elastika" (2004), is always a showcase. The Deitch Gallery takes advantage of this space to show "Shattered Glass," curated by Melahn Frierson and AJ Girard. "Shattered Glass" was a giant hit in L.A. with a selection of mostly young artists. 15 new emerging artists have been added into the Miami version. This exhibition is going to strike at gut level, with a strong relationship to the artists, community, and their subjects.

• The Moore Building
• 191 NE 40th St, Miami
• Opening Monday, Nov. 29, 5-8 p.m. Then Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sundays, 10 to 8 p.m. through Dec. 5.

MANA in Wynwood is featuring a Pop UP by The55Project and Mana Common titled "Just Breathe...", a live meditation celebrating freedom, adventure and art, oddly enough.

The varied event highlights current Brazilian artists chosen by curator Felipe Hegg, "representing the power of cooperation, liberty, and art." Balance your viewing with shows reflecting how to maintain a sane demeanor with exhibitions plugged firmly into the now of complicated relationships between us and the planet, us and the nuances of humanity, us and the future and all that entails. It's a balance folks, so you may want to plot viewing habits skewed toward a little stone cold reality with a much needed breather.

• 2450 NW 5th Avenue, Miami 33127
• Nov. 30 to Dec. 5, 1 to 8 p.m.

Frost Art Museum at Florida International University presents "Bob Dylan: Retrospectrum" from Nov. 30 through April 17, 2022 debuting at the beginning of Miami Art Week 2021.

The U.S. premiere of the new series of his paintings "Deep Focus" will be discussed on line in "Talkin' Dylan: Sound to Sight," Nov. 30 from 2 to 5 p.m. Find info at dylan.fiu.edu. Yep, the old folk, folk/rock musician is still thinking his thoughts all these years and world confrontations later. Maybe he can see what we can't.

Take a hike out to FIU in west Dade to see Dylan along with Sunday Breakfast in the Park: "complimentary breakfast, a lecture by artist, architect, and filmmaker, Alfredo Jaar, and guided tours of Frost Art Museum exhibitions and the Sculpture Park." RSVP for the in person lecture https://frost.fiu.edu/exhibitions-events/events/2021/12/breakfast-in-the-park-alfredo-jaar.

• Breakfast in the Park
• 10975 SW 17th St, Miami 33199
• Sunday Dec. 5, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

And while we're on the subject of FIU, The Wolfsonian Museum (an off site campus of FIU) 1001 Washington Avenue on Miami Beach is hosting "Strange Objects, New Solids, and Massive Things" discussing Dutch architecture and design if you're so inclined to peer into the work of Archi-Tectonics, (architecture firm founded by Winka Dubbeldam), a "paradigm shift in contemporary design." I knew you would. It's all changing, so keep up.

On Thursday, Dec. 2, from 6 to 7 p.m. You must register. FIU Architecture professor Claudia Busch and Dubbeldam will discuss Dubbeldam's new book of the same name: wolfsonian.ticketing.veevartapp.com/tickets/view/list/strange-objects-new-solids-and-massive-things.

In conclusion, there should be plenty of information to create a dialogue over the next few weeks as movers, shakers, thinkers and doers weigh in to probe imaginations during Art Week Miami. The future is alarming in its intensity. Thinking makes my head explode as the modern sugarplums dancing in my head are now Avatars existing on a separate plane. Artificial Intelligence, the Metaverse, global warming, and the dissection/insurrection/ predilections of our splintering tribes teeter on the brink of a new fantastical futuristic version of ourselves. Cyber land instead of humanity. Now what?

Notes and Don'ts: Don't forget the online viewing rooms if you can't make it over to the fairs.

• Art Basel: artbasel.com/ovr and artbasel.com/live
• Art Miami: hookart.com/art-miami-2021
• Design Miami, 3D virtual tour: www.designmiami.com/tours/basel-2021

Words already spoken:

• "I would rather die of passion than of boredom," Vincent Van Gogh
• Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working," Pablo Picasso
• Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing," Georgia O'Keeffe