Last December the art world breathed a collective sigh of relief as Art Basel Miami beach got under way. The mood at the fair was noticeably cheerier than 2008, when all the air kisses, hand shakes and fake smiles could not disguise most participants’ fear of the coming apocalypse. Since the recession continued to batter the art market for most of 2009, this year’s fair was still more subdued than the all out bacchanals of years past, but as they say, “the show must go on,” and it did.

Nowhere was this more evident than at Jeffery Deitch’s beachfront party at the Raleigh Hotel. Deitch’s annual private bash has become the place to see or be seen on the opening night of the fair, and this year guests were treated to a superb performance by indie darling Santogold. Deitch’s role as the unofficial ringleader of the downtown New York hipster set now has interesting implications for L. A., as he was recently appointed director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. This is the first time a major art dealer will run an American museum, and it remains to be seen whether Deitch’s street/pop/kitsch aesthetic will infiltrate the hallowed halls of one of L.A.’s most respected institutions.

The blurring of boundaries between the traditionally public and private sectors of the art world was a recurring motif at ABMB. One of the city’s major non-profit exhibition spaces, the Bass Museum, debuted “Where Do We Go From Here?” an exhibition of selections from La Colección Jumex—Mexico’s largest private collection of contemporary art. The fair’s festivities also included the debut of the museum-like De La Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space in Miami’s Design District. Home to the personal collection of Rosa and Carlos De la Cruz, the exquisite three story space outshone any of Miami’s current public exhibition spaces.
Los Angeles artists featured prominently throughout the fair and it’s festivities, from Pae White’s transformation of the Collins Park Oceanfront into a glowing village to Shepard Fairey’s inclusion as a speaker in the “Art Conversations” series. Fairey’s acceptance into the fine art world from his previous categorization as “street” or commercial artist is another indicator of how much the landscape has changed. In his talk at the fair, Fairey stated, “I think that initially, I wasn’t interested in the art world because it’s such a narrow conversation. It’s more the spillover to the rest of culture that I’ve been impressed by.” If the beginning of 2010 is any indication, the spillover has become a deluge.