Here we go again: it is Miami time for the art world. Over the next week hundreds of galleries representing thousands of artists will descend on southern Florida for an annual event that is part cultural bazaar, and part art world summer camp. Once again, there are a multitude of art fairs: NADA, Untitled, Miami Project and Pulse just to name a few. At the top of the art world pyramid though, stands the fair that got the whole week humming: Art Basel Miami.

For someone who is in Miami working, on-line art fair catalogs are a god send. I spent a few hours scouring the Basel online catalog in search of work/exhibitions that I “must see” in the relatively brief time I will have to spend at the cavernous Miami Beach Convention Center. I am also always curious as to which artists from past issues of New American Paintings have made it to what is arguably the biggest stage in the commercial world today (for example, Andrew Brischler who appeared in NAP just a couple of years ago and now finds himself at the big show with GAVLAK).

Andrew Brischler (NAP #98)
Gavlak

In the next few days I'll be posting lists comprised of artists, artworks, and exhibitions appearing at this year’s installment of Art Basel Miami that I am eager to see. I focused mostly on emerging artists. There is obviously a plethora of historic and blue chip work that will be on view as well, but I tend to focus on the new and interesting at these things.

Today's list is comprised of former New American Paintings artists that you'll find at this year's Art Basel. Tomorrow we'll start posting other artists at the fair. - Steven Zevitas, Publisher

Recently on view at Danese Corey Gallery in New York, artist Shelley Reed’s mural-sized paintings evoke the work of realist French or Dutch paintings from a bygone era—although at a slight removal given their monochromatic palettes. Each section foregrounds exotic animals juxtaposed with still life scenes and set against expansive landscapes, which are dotted with Rococo and neoclassical architecture. The indulgent paintings are an amalgamation of art historical tropes, bringing to mind a myriad of references. - Nadiah Fellah, NYC Contributor

Shelley Reed | Installation, In Dubious Battle. 2013, oil on canvas, 7'x47', Courtesy the artist.

Check this cause for excitement across NYC. Despite KAWS' global presence — including regular exhibitions in Tokyo and Hong Kong, plus an iconic float in the 2012 Thanksgiving Day parade and a redesign of the MTV VMA Moonman — the Brooklyn-based artist and designer hasn't had a proper solo exhibition locally in years. He's back in a big-time way, commanding both Mary Boone Gallery's downtown space and Galerie Perrotin's recently opened Manhattan base. — Brian Fee, Austin contributor

KAWS | ANOTHER GENERATION LOST, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 94 x 144 x 1 3/4”. Photo: Farzad owrang. Courtesy Galerie Perrotin, New York.

Melissa Manfull’s (NAP #85) solo show Schemata at Taylor De Cordoba is a really great visual embodiment of the artistic process, as it tangibly shows Manfull’s growth and expanding mastery of mediums.  Since her first pieces were shown at Taylor De Cordoba in a group show in 2007, her work has changed in subject and color, though not in the detailed, inquisitive nature of her drawings psychological musings. - Ellen C. Caldwell, Los Angeles Contributor

Melissa Manfull | Prisoner's Dilemma, 2013, Acrylic on panel, 60" x 40." Courtesy of Taylor De Cordoba.

Jamison Carter’s solo show at Klowden Mann is explosive, inviting, and bright.  Neon bright.  White Light from Dark Matter is Carter’s first solo show at Klowden Mann and it features a variety of two- and three-dimensional works that interact and play off one another seamlessly throughout the gallery’s new Culver City location.

At an artist talk and conversation between gallerist Deb Klowden Mann and Carter, Carter explained that a phrase from a song “shards of light” had stuck with him and in this show, he aimed to make that notion tangible.  And indeed he did. – Ellen C. Caldwell, Los Angeles Contributor

Jamison Carter | White Light from Dark Matter, installation view1, courtesy of Klowden Mann, photo by Lee Thompson.

The image of the female nude is arguably the closest thing the subject of painting has to a readymade. The recent exhibition on view in the West Wing at Corbett vs. Dempsey by Jonathan Gardner, Nudes, consists of just three paintings installed in the corner of the main space, otherwise occupied by an exhibition of Konrad Klapheck’s charcoal drawings. The images recall twentieth century favorites – namely Picabia, with hints of Magritte and Balthus, currently featured in a similarly titled exhibition Cats and Girls, on view at the Met. In each of the three images, Gardner sets up simple parameters that allow for an immediate read, but not a simple one. In an off-the-cuff throwback to an antiquated genre, it appears that the approach of artist as stylist, or rather painter as the painter of styles, presents surprisingly interesting challenge for Gardner. Of course the depiction is nothing new – we’ve seen a million of paintings on the subject – but these three hold strong. Undiluted by any satirical content, the paintings are direct, yet comic and complex; for this reason they are different. Walking a fine line between representation of a subject, and representation of a style, the three tableaus are not quite sexualized enough to be perverse, nor awkward enough to be sympathetic. Instead, the nudes represent a removed and distant caricature of painterly female representation of the teens and twenties, in particular – though sans personality, and without any symbolic content; purposefully emptied of any recognizable trait that would tie them to that context. Nude or otherwise, the figures are somehow ontological – in the sense that despite their seemingly forward appearance, they are a material that serves themselves. Just as the physicality of paint serves the formalist, the image of the girl Gardner paints is the subject of that painting. – Stephanie Cristello, Chicago Contributor

Jonathan Gardner | Nude with Lemons, 2013. Oil on linen. 40 x 46 inches. Image courtesy of Corbett vs. Dempsey.

There are more than two-dozen exhibitions by New American Paintings’ alumni on view this month. Among them are the always environmentally conscious Alexis Rockman at Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, hot Chicago export Scott Reeder at Lisa Cooley in New York City, and the extraordinary Sarah McEneaney at Locks Gallery in Philadelphia. 

I am not overstating it when I say that Sarah is one of my favorite painters working today. Her ability to construct space intuitively gives her intimately-scaled egg tempera paintings a shocking immediacy. It might be tempting to lump Sarah in with the widespread trend of “faux-naïve” that has been pervasive in the last decade, but there is nothing “faux” about her paintings. My sense is that there is no strategic impulse at work at all. Sarah’s pictorial language simply is what it is and can be no other way

Sarah McEneaney. Courtesy of Locks Gallery.

In Seattle, you may need something stronger than a Miami mojito to get through the shortest, darkest days of the year that surround our single, Affordable Art Fair, which inhabited the Seattle Center this past weekend. In a city where questions of whether enough people collect work by local artists to sustain the community and keep them from fleeing towards Los Angeles, Chicago and New York routinely float back into conversations, a fair that aims towards friendliness (pink knit graffiti shrouded the trees at the exhibition entrance) and transparency (all art had to be $10,000 or less, with the prices labeled) over exclusivity seems ripe with possibility.  Back for its second run in the city, and more robust in both scale and attendance, one highlight of last year remained consistent: despite its international roster, Seattle artists and galleries comprised the strongest moments of the fair’s fifty booths. Work that many of the area’s strongest painters created in the past year made appearances, creating a well-timed, “best of 2013” Seattle painting compilation, the highlights of which are after the jump. - Erin Langner, Seattle Contributor

Affordable Art Fair Seattle installation view. Image courtesy of the Affordable Art Fair.  Photo credit: Julia Bruk.

I struggle with patriotism. Growing up, Independence Day was a conflicting sea of perceived warmongering and Bruce Springsteen. Then came 9/11 and the outpouring of patriotic merchandise that compounded my mixed feelings, and that day closed just in time for Thanksgiving and the melancholy surrounding a day dedicated to our pilgrim ancestors who, despite their mostly unfortunate relationship with America’s indigenous peoples, made our existence possible. It’s not easy to fess up to an inherent discomfort with the culture you were born and raised in. In fact, if “these colors don’t run” then my assertion is akin to at least mild treason. The truth is I’ve always wanted to be a patriot, but it has seemed impossible to accomplish this sentiment without acknowledging Honey Baked Ham and denying words like nuclear family. Consequently, I forgot about tall-grass prairies, sod houses and head cheese. I neglected the patchwork quilts, the dandelion greens and the buffalo. I forgot about ol’America. Artist David Ford (NAP #71, #89, #107) refreshed my memory. Earlier this summer, still buzzing on hot dogs and pie from the Fourth, I met Ford in his studio, perched above his snack shop in the Crossroads Arts District of Kansas City. That’s right, in addition to establishing himself as a successful, self-taught artist, Ford has crafted one of the most noteworthy creative hubs in KC with YJs, his eclectic snackerie slinging coffee, American fare, and art conversation on the daily. Indeed, with an intense studio practice, a successful small business, and a well-travelled spirit, Ford may be the epitome of the American dream. – Halcombe Miller, Kansas City Contributor

David Ford | I Love Indians, 2011, Acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 48”

Artist Tracy Stuckey (NAP #106) sets reality and romanticism on a collision course in his paintings of icons, legends, and heroes of the American West. In his recent work, Stuckey assumes the role of storyteller, crafting his tall tales of equal parts humor, theatricality, fiction, and reality. The artist’s “refashioned fables” put a satirical spin on mythic views of this often-romanticized region and stand as commentaries on the West today. - Karen Brooks, Guest Contributor

Tracy Stuckey | Red Rocket Rider, 2009, oil on canvas, 40 x 66 inches. Images courtesy of the artist.