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Features / December 4, 2014

Miami Slideshow: Hot Art from the North & Beyond

When Canadian Shaan Syed's art was held at US customs, he held an impromptu performance at a Miami art fair. View more Miami musts in this slideshow.
UK-based Canadian artist Shaan Syed performs impromptu at UNTITLED. after his work is held at US customs. Photo: David Balzer. UK-based Canadian artist Shaan Syed performs impromptu at UNTITLED. after his work is held at US customs. Photo: David Balzer.

This week, Canadian Art associate editor David Balzer is in Miami for Art Basel Miami Beach and its dozens of satellite art fairs and activities. Click on the slideshow window above to see highlights so far from two key fairs there.

At UNTITLED., art directed by Omar Lopez-Cahoud in a brightly lit tent overlooking the ocean, Canadian galleries MKG 127, MULHERIN, galerie antoine ertaskiran and Parisian Laundry are present among other strong international offerings. UK-based Canadian artist Shaan Syed is making an impression with an impromptu performance/installation, after the work he intended to show was held by US customs.

At the press preview for Art Basel Miami Beach, Canadians Hugh Scott Douglas and Zin Taylor shone in the fair’s Nova section. Other ABMB standouts include a new Plexiglas sculpture by David Altmejd at the booth of Andrea Rosen Gallery and a series of prints and sculptures by Erin Shirreff at the booth of Sikkema Jenkins. Also of note is Avi Friedman’s Larry David towel multiple at the booth of Toronto’s Art Metropole, which already sold out on preview day.

Watch our website for more coverage from the Miami fairs in the coming week, and check out our tipsheet of where to find Canadian artists and galleries at some of the other Miami events.

David Balzer

David Balzer is the author of two books, Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else, winner of ICA London's 2015 Book of the Year, and the short-fiction collection Contrivances. He has written about art and culture for the Globe and Mail, the GuardianFrieze, Artforum, The Believer and others, and from 2016 to 2019 was editor-in-chief and co-publisher of Canadian Art.