#Rank Miami Blog

We have no idea how well this will work, but we are going to try. If you can’t make it to #rank, but want to participate, call in to our teleconference. The phone number and access code are listed below. Please note the teleconference will be recorded. Date and Time: Thu 12/30/2010 06:00 PM (GMT-05:00) […]

One thing we were not able to realize at #rank as much as we would have liked was to have lively (contentious), open-ended (informal) discussions about art fair culture. We are also interested in the connections between the fairs, the market, and more broadly to cultural production. In that spirit, we are hosting a post-#rank […]

In my original post about #rank, I argued that there were too many events going on back to back without enough time for reflection. Having time to casually discuss what we were attempting to do at #class, as I’ve said, was an important access point for visitors. Another thing that also helped people drop their […]

Now that I’ve given myself and Jen Dalton a critique about how we shaped #rank, I want to turn the discussion away from the structure towards what actually happened.  I’m going to work through the events based purely on my subjective recollection of the events regardless of chronology.  It’s my personal form of ranking the […]

Now that I am back home from Miami and have had a couple days to think about #rank, I am feeling rather that, just rank. Every year that I’ve gone to Miami, I leave feeling like I’ve lifted the curtain and stared at the great god Pan and learned some horrible truth about the universe. […]

I have heard that, as an artist, if you’re not uncomfortable you must be doing something wrong. Unless it’s actually the opposite and if you are uncomfortable, you must be doing something wrong… I hope not. Because I have been realizing for awhile now that being uncomfortable is my natural state. But I have been […]

Art Road Show is a spin off of the popular Antiques Road Show.  The host of Art Road Show, Alan Lupiani, will pair up local artists with art fair insiders, including art dealers, curators, and writers, for a five minute critique of the artist’s work.  The objective is to engage the highly diverse local arts […]

Rebecca Goyette, performative artist, will present “Hug it Out.”

#Rank Miami examines the (c)overt class and ranking systems surrounding the Miami art fairs. In the expressly commerce-based bubble of the Miami art fairs, artists’ ranks might be established/defined in relation to gallery representation and/or the need to maintain a dayjob to support themselves and their families. For artists who must work outside the studio […]

Acting as the Absurd Tailor, Man Bartlett will take measurements of fair-goers and relate them to the measurements of the art for sale at SEVEN and other fairs. Based on actual and imagined relationships, the artist will draw conclusions about which work is best suited (or not) for the potential buyers.

Hidden from one’s self is a covert set of beliefs that control one’s thinking, one’s actions, and one’s feelings. The covert set of hidden beliefs is the limiting set of beliefs to be transcended.

Vox Populi, alongside other invited members of Philadelphia’s non-commercial and collective art organizations, will execute a variety of performances for the duration of one hour which will be transmitted to SEVEN via a live video feed. illustrating the gap between the philosophy of DIY artist-run galleries and that of art fairs. Vox and collaborators will […]

 Rank concerns those already on the inside, where many of us would like to imagine ourselves being. Or would we? This discussion explores whether the regional artist—the community-college studio teacher, the local figurative sculptor—might present a viable model for contemporary artists, not just pragmatically, but conceptually: by dint of being slightly outside the mainstream, […]

An exploration of talent, loyalty, and Miami transplant LeBron James as the Ubermensch; a stirring homage to the sad city of Cleveland and historic failures everywhere as told from the perspective of Jeff Koons’ Three Ball Total Equilibrium. Performed by Nic*Rad. 

 An art movement is no longer defined solely by a moment in time, but also by the process of art making. Through the investigation of the art world’s educational turn and Bravo’s Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, Jeffrey Augustine Songco will share ten elements behind the emergence of RTV (or Reality Television).

How big is your bigness? Gather your thoughts on fame and success for a relational discussion on being a legend.  Is there a difference between success and significance? Austin will serve up “Dirty Harrys” (root beer and Jack Daniels) and use Dirty Harry’s (Clint Eastwood) response to a bad police captain’s comment, “Do you know […]

Mapping UBS is a presentation for #Rank Miami that involves the real-time mapping of Art Basel Miami’s primary sponsor’s history, ethical and cultural activities, and their impact. Using a series of visual aids, the project maps UBS’s activities in real time. Each element of the construction is accompanied by live narration weighing the pros and […]

Art stereotypes a mini survey: We hear them all the time, but we are so used to them (or irritated by them!) that maybe we switch off. But as long as they are still doing the rounds, does the perception keep re-kindling the myth? – or is it really true?! This is a mini survey […]

“they gave us mirrors and in them we saw a sick world” (índios by legião urbana – asong that describes the experience of the indigenous brazilian people when faced with the colonizers) it could be said that art fairs combine aspects akin to the ones experienced during a visit to a shopping mall, church or […]

Are you holding back on approaching someone you’d like to be friends with because you think they are in a group that’s out of your league? Are you concerned about whether you’ll still be included this year at school or whether you’ll feel like an outcast — or worse, be picked on? And what about […]

From Lorenzo’s Tomb to Dakis’s yacht, the artist’s rarified social milieu exert a powerful influence on the form of his artistic production. Art that was intended or once thought to be uncommodifiable–Land Art, Conceptual Art, installation, performance, even relational aesthetics–has been voraciously commissioned, collected and consumed. With LA MoCA’s 2010 annual fundraising ball–which was reconceptualized […]

Identifier Corporation Pres. Pumpkin Folgers VP. Corduroy Jackson W 46th St & Broadway Ave New York, NY 10036 (T) 646-801-6212 Attention: William Powhida & Jen Dalton: Identifier Corporation, has been providing a unique service for visual artist, musician, and the performing arts since 2000. We have  great understanding that the name we are born with […]

If we were forced to wear our resume on our sleeve, would we be proud, indifferent, or ashamed? How much is our identity rolled into our given rank? I will be creating various wearable ranks (t-shirts) that correspond to different positions in the “art world”: artist, patron, collector, critic, gallery director, curator, etc. Within each […]

Art is beautiful in part for its ability to express the ambiguous, the non-verbal and the mysterious. It can also be used to represent subjects in ways that appeal to the mind in novel ways. with novel effects. Unfortunately as a born literalist I find it impossible to wrap my mind around a complex problem […]

Mutant Student Groups Think Tanks are alternative art world incubators for students who want to launch experimental independently run student organizations. On December 4th from 4 to 6pm, Nsumi will create a micro-performance space through which alternative student leaders can come together for dreaming up and spawning new mutant groups. Mutant student group types include […]

Whether you’re a collector, artist, patron, or plain old art lover, art fairs can be a challenge to anyone’s ego. Get a brief ego evaluation from Dr. Lisa and she will give you a free personalized Ego Diagnosis Badge with a number from 1-10, according to her evaluation, indicating the state of your ego according to her chart. In […]

 Project Present, 2010, is a contemporary art trading game intended to highlight the purest transaction in the art world: the Artist Trade.  While in the context of the highly consumer- and career-driven environment of the Miami art fairs, artists still have the ultimate way of hedging their bets and maintaining sincerity.  Each participating artist […]

What Are You Worth? The value of a work of art is subject to many market conditions including chance. Try your luck. Grab a pen out of the fishbowl receptacle and see what your signature is worth.

#Rank Discussion: Healing from PTAD (Post-Traumatic Art Disorder) Contemporary art is defined in this moment by labels such as Pluralism (what does this mean?) and Post-Modernism (soooo old). Why? Well, no-one has bothered to come up with anything better, or no-one knows… But is anyone TRYING to know? As an artist, I cannot attempt to […]

Destineez Child explores themes in trickle down marketing and cultural phenomenon surrounding places like convenience stores, hair salons, car washes and flea markets. Some of our high-end concepts include the oscillating ashtray, fools gold grills, press on toe nails, strollers with living space for a cat, and booster seats constructed out of old phone books. […]

Free Art Stand questions the idea of payment & capital for works of art. Is there a value in having work distributed in the atmosphere that surrounds major art fairs like SCOPE or Frieze or Basel or any of the numerous, large, commercially profitable international art fairs? Is there a long-term value in that situation? in future […]

The case for gender/age bias in the art market, while not a new phenomenon, is so pervasive that the entire system may need to be dismantled in order for a viable gender/age neutral paradigm to evolve. Adding in location as another barrier, if the artist doesn’t live and work in New York or another large […]

The Miami fair isn’t in one place or certainly isn’t one experience. More often than not, business is done off-site in bars and restaurants. While visitors are immersed in the experience, they can interact with art insiders from around the world over coffee, eat trashy food on the fly, splurge on one more drink, or […]

 The art fabrication business straddles an odd line between the inside/outside aspects of the art world. Some employees are unknown artists fresh out of art school and some are artists with some shows under their belt but not established, and there are some artists who have given up on their own work, then there […]

“Sorry I Couldn’t Be There” is a crowd-created video series.  Developed by members of @Platea, the social media art collective directed by An Xiao, the series features artists from around the world explaining briefly why they couldn’t attend #rank and swing by Miami.  Ultimately, the video would highlight concerns around geographic access and about who’s […]

Art Assault is a first person shooter game about hierarchies and social boundaries in the art world, and ownership of the exhibition space.

We will play the image of Art Fair as carnival, as spectacle of gluttony and lasciviousness, against the image of Art Fair as county fair, as “wholesome” place where community gathers to reaffirm bonds (and, perhaps, to reaffirm hierarchies). Women perform different roles in each of these contexts.  In light of these contrasting visions, how […]

2010 Art World Census – Make Your Opinion Matter Powhida stated in his #Class reflection, “the chalkboards never achieved what one might call ‘organized thought.’” This is especially true for those who were unable to attend. So, during the course of #Rank, attendees can easily document their discussions by filling out the 2010 Art World […]

Artists are invited to read rejection letters from a grant application, residency or exhibition submission at Building Backbones on Friday, December 3, from 3-4pm at Ed Winkleman’s space at Seven, as part of William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton’s #Rank Miami. To participate, send an image with the artist’s name and a copy of the rejection […]

“The Interview: In Which I Ask Myself All The Questions You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Care to Ask, Along Also With the Answers You Didn’t Care About” is a short performance in which art world roles (institutions, curators, influencers, the marginalized, and the artist as first-person) are examined using one artist’s experience with twitter. What […]

Sarah Wentworth – Waiting for Enlightenment Considering art to be a spiritual experience of sorts, and considering the sheer density of accumulated art works in the Miami area during the art fairs, there is a special opportunity to reap art spiritual benefit from being present in proximity. Sarah Wentworth will sit patiently in Ed Winkleman’s […]

Fortune 500 asks: How do corporations influence institutional decision-making and artistic freedom? Fortunes are geared mostly toward the careers of artists and their engagements with institutions, commercial galleries, gender issues, identity, community, life…etc. Additional fortunes will vaguely address the possibility of critics, curators, directors and gallery owners. Participants are encouraged to tweet their fortune(s) for […]

LEAN is defined as an overall methodology that seeks to minimize the resources required for production by eliminating waste. /// Learn all about the LEAN method to creating art and collect your Lean Art Taster course booklet, Sarah Smizz special edition : How to Get Your Work Shown at the Art-Fair, for all of those […]

From December 1st through December 4th, 2010 MTAA will present the collaboration’s first, only and possibly last artwork at a Miami art fair. The work is titled “Freeing Lunch.” Each day MTAA will attempt to have a large pizza delivered to Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida. The pizza is to arrive between noon and 1PM […]

We have received the green light to host #Rank Miami, taking place during the Miami art fairs this December 1-4. Building on the ideas and energy of the #Class events last winter (if you don’t know what we’re talking about see our previous project statement for #class) we will host three days of non-gala events, non-curated […]