Thinking about art in Miami!
This is SO weird, but now that it’s been about three weeks, I can come up for air regarding Art Basel-Miami Beach.
This is not about Art Basel-Miami Beach really……….it’s more about the fact that I was cleaning out my big sack of stuff from Art Basel and remembered that I stuck a card in the big sack of an artist whose work I really liked. His name is hard to remember for me since I don’t know a lot of artists with names spelled like his (being that I’m an ordinary American-Southern artist) His name is Karim Ghidinelli. Now could you remember how to spell his name, I ask you if you didn’t know how?? http://karimghidinelli.com
This site really doesn’t show you what I saw of his work in Miami……at the ArtCenter/SouthFlorida complex.
My friend, Robin Walker, told us about his work when she and Nancy came across it the day before….so she took us back over to the art center after dinner on Friday night. I enjoyed visiting there as much or more than all the other places we went over the several days in Miami.
The work……..IT IS FABULOUS……….surface quality (I can’t do without it), mark-making with meaning, and wonderful craftsmanship/technique. We saw some work I don’t see on his website……work that was maybe 6 feet tall and in a couple of panels. It represented a portrait of someone he knew, only not an ordinary portrait. One that was composed of script or writing the subject of the portrait had written.
Karim organized all this script into a wonderfully executed/designed artwork. …..beautiful layers of paint, and/or metal inscribed with script and wax or whatever he used for the other layers. We talked to him about what he did with the work and I’ve forgotten (if I ever knew) everything he said about how he worked on those pieces………..they were exquisite. It’s impossible to really see what he does on the website. I don’t see the pieces I’m talking about either.
I haven’t done the work or the description of what he told us about the work justice. Sorry Karim………you know how it is when someone else describes what the artist means or does!
Karim's work is wonderful–thanks for sharing the link. That level of development is amazing–when a person is so expressive and competent in a number of media and ways of working–all these different threads happening, and all are part of a whole. I can only imagine the depth of his creative life.
…I will be keeping an eye/ear out for his work in the future.