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# Making Connections, Seeing Double at Art Miami
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/making-connections-seeing-double-at-art-miami/
- Published: 2013-12-06T03:33:38.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:17:37.000Z
- Description: MIAMI — One of the good things about the glut of art at fairs is the chance to make unexpected visual connections — to watch sparks fly between artworks you'd never otherwise see together. At the sprawling Art Miami fair, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the associations and affinities that jum
- Author: Jillian Steinhauer
- Tags: Art, Art Miami Art Fair, Miami Art Fairs, Review, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:59 (2012, 2013, part 2)

![artmiami-entrance-HOME](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/12/artmiami-entrance-home.jpg)

MIAMI — One of the good things about the glut of art at fairs is the chance to make unexpected visual connections — to watch sparks fly between artworks you’d never otherwise see together. (If you can keep your brain focused, which I grant is a big “if.”) At the sprawling [Art Miami](http://www.art-miami.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) fair, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the associations and affinities that jumped out at me from among the aisles. Here, in no particular order, are some of them.

## Sijan and Shaomin

![Left: a work by Marc Sijan; right: Shen Shaomin, "I Want to Know What Infinity Is" (2011–12)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/12/sijan-shaomin.jpg)

Left: a work by Marc Sijan; right: Shen Shaomin, “I Want to Know What Infinity Is” (2011–12)

This one may be a little obvious, but it was too good to pass up: eerily lifelike sculptures of wrinkly old ladies! This is classic art fair stuff, although [Marc Sijan](http://www.petermarcellegallery.com/marc-sijan.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) really takes it to a new level with the levitation (see: amazed child in photo). Despite the quasi-gimmicky-ness of it, Sijan’s work, on view at Peter Marcelle Gallery’s booth, showed a pretty amazing level of detail. [Shen Shaomin](http://www.galleryek.com/artist/Shen%5FShaomin/?ref=hyperallergic.com)‘s piece, exhibited by Eli Klein, is more contemplative. Both are compelling for the amount of craft and skill involved.

## Mendelson and di Robilant

![Left: Shari Mendelson, "Silver Vessel" (2011); right: Tristano di Robilant, "1600 (with raindrops)" (2011)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/12/mendelson-robilant.jpg)

Left: Shari Mendelson, “Silver Vessel” (2011); right: Tristano di Robilant, “1600 (with raindrops)” (2011)

[Shari Mendelson](http://toddmerrillstudio.com/?team=shari-mendelson&ref=hyperallergic.com), showing with Todd Merrill 20th Century Studio Contemporary, makes beautiful vessels clearly inspired by classical forms but made from recycled plastic bottles. Not too far away at the fair, I saw [Tristan di Robilant](http://jamesbarronart.com/?projects=tristano-di-robilant&ref=hyperallergic.com)‘s “1600 (with raindrops)” on view at James Barron Art. Robilant uses a classic medium to create an unconventional form — the inverse of Mendelson. Both artists pull off a delightful contrast of the overall form of their works with their materials and texture.

## Anderson-Staley and Luster

![Left: Keliy Anderson-Staley, photographs from "[Hyphen]-Americans: Tintype Portraits" (2005–13); right: Deborah Luster, photograph from "One Big Self series - Louisiana State Penitentiary portraits" (2009)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/12/staley-luster.jpg)

Left: Keliy Anderson-Staley, photographs from “\[Hyphen\]-Americans: Tintype Portraits” (2005–13); right: Deborah Luster, photograph from “One Big Self series – Louisiana State Penitentiary portraits” (2009)

Some of my favorite works at Art Miami were photographs, specifically the work of [Keliy Anderson-Staley](http://www.edelmangallery.com/anderson%5Fstaley/anderson-staley-main.htm?ref=hyperallergic.com), on view with Edelman Gallery, and [Deborah Luster](http://arthurrogergallery.com/artists/deborah-luster/?ref=hyperallergic.com), shown by Arthur Roger Gallery. For her *\[Hyphen\]-Americans* series, Anderson-Staley explores Americanness and diversity by taking photographs of Americans with hyphenated identities. The tintype format gives her portraits and their subjects a formidable grace, and the unifying aesthetic emphasizes the concept of a shared nationality. Luster, meanwhile, has spent years photographing prisoners in Louisiana. Her gelatin silver prints on aluminum not only recall tintypes; they also offer their subjects a similar quiet dignity. And the title of the series, *One Big Self*, suggests a goal similar to Anderson-Staley’s: a focus on the ways we connect rather than how we differ.

## Gray and Marcos

![Left: "I Have A Feeling I Shall Go Mad. I Cannot Go On Longer In These Terrible Times. I Shan't Recover This Time. I Hear Voices And Cannot Concentrate On My Work. I Have Fought Against It But Cannot Fight Any Longer...Naww, Fuck It, I'm Good" (2011); right: Ángel Marcos, "The Intimate Subversion" (2013) (click to enlarge)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/12/gray-marcos-640.jpg)

Left: Cameron Gray, “I Have A Feeling I Shall Go Mad. I Cannot Go On Longer In These Terrible Times. I Shan’t Recover This Time. I Hear Voices And Cannot Concentrate On My Work. I Have Fought Against It But Cannot Fight Any Longer…Naww, Fuck It, I’m Good” (2011); right: Ángel Marcos, “The Intimate Subversion” (2013) (click to enlarge)

Both of these installations were on view as part of Art Miami’s “Think Big” initiative — a handful of curated projects scattered throughout the fair. [Cameron Gray](http://www.mikeweissgallery.com/artist/Cameron%5FGray/?ref=hyperallergic.com)‘s, presented by Mike Weiss Gallery, was a big crowd-pleaser on opening night, in large part because it contains a man in a recliner who barely appears to be breathing; he didn’t budge even when someone stepped up to check his pulse. But Gray’s [digi-animation collage video](http://instagram.com/p/he7TkrqeS9/?ref=hyperallergic.com), looping on 27 stacked monitors, is the strongest part of the work; it will suck you in and give you an eye twitch. Meanwhile, [Ángel Marcos](http://www.hilger.at/832%5FDE-Kuenstler-Werke.htm,%C3%81ngel,Marcos?ref=hyperallergic.com)‘s project, presented by Galerie Ernst Hilger, offers a similar structure to Gray’s — chair facing a grid of images, with rug(s). Marcos’s approach, however, is the opposite, as he reaches for the quietness and calm of still photographs of empty spaces in a small Spanish town.

## Hirsch and Ellsworth

![Left: Stephanie Hirsch, "Believe" (2013); right: Angela Ellsworth, "Seer Bonnet XXI (Eliza) and Seer Bonnet XX (Emily)" (2011)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/12/hirsch-ellsworth.jpg)

Left: Stephanie Hirsch, “Believe” (2013); right: Angela Ellsworth, “Seer Bonnet XXI (Eliza) and Seer Bonnet XX (Emily)” (2011)

[Stephanie Hirsch](http://www.lyonswiergallery.com/hirsch.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), at Lyons Wier Gallery, and [Angela Ellsworth](http://www.lisasettegallery.com/a-ellsworth.htm?ref=hyperallergic.com), at Lisa Sette Gallery, are connected at Art Miami by proximity, theme, and approach. Hirsch uses a standard Pop art–inflected visual, but she changes up the process and the narrative. The subject is a black woman, rather than, say, one of Lichtenstein’s white ones, and she’s created the work with beads, rhinestones, and embroidery, all generally known as “women’s” materials. Ellsworth also employs a material associated with women and domesticity: corsage pins. By using 39,804 of them, she turns two bonnets from symbols of femininity into objects of danger.

## Frankenthaler and Amos

![Left: Helen Frankenthaler, "Red Shift" (1990); right: two mixed media on canvas works by Sarah Amos](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/12/frankenthaler-amos.jpg)

Left: Helen Frankenthaler, “Red Shift” (1990); right: two mixed media on canvas works by Sarah Amos

At James Barron’s booth, I was immediately drawn to this late [Helen Frankenthaler](http://jamesbarronart.com/?projects=helen-frankenthaler&ref=hyperallergic.com) painting on display — a sea, or maybe a desert, of red that plumbs the depths of its color in a concert of spots, strokes, and stray marks. The work looks sublimely effortless. Frankenthaler’s reds reappear in the wholly different work of [Sarah Amos](http://www.cynthia-reeves.com/ny-artists/sarah-amos?ref=hyperallergic.com), on view with Cynthia Reeves. Amos uses more media and more layers in her work — both of these are print and mixed media on paper on canvas — and she’s exploring shades in a way that’s more tied to shapes and forms. But I’m charmed by the idea of a color connecting two women artists across generations.

[*Art Miami*](http://www.art-miami.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) *continues at the Art Miami Pavilion (3101 NE 1st Avenue, Wynwood, Miami) through December 8.*