Art Basel: More Top Picks

Welcome back to another year of Art Basel. You've seen our first picks, now check out even more ideas for burning your arty candle at both ends this week. So many shows, so many parties, exhibitions, exhibitions within exhibitions. Whichever of many potential routes you take during these next five days, do yourself a favor and hit up a few of these choice events.

Wednesday, December 3
● Cartier Cocktail Party, Miami Beach Botanical Gardens. (2000 Convention Center Drive, 19th Street and Dade Boulevard), 6 p.m. Find someone with a VIP pass and latch on. AB sponsor Cartier tapped filmmaker David Lynch to play interior designer for their acclaimed 4,000-square-foot dome in the middle of the Botanical Gardens. If you’re diced from the cocktail reception, at least try to get inside to see the gold walls, hand-painted carpeting, a film Lynch created for the affair projected onto the ceiling, and specially-designed-for-Basel Cartier jewels abound.
● Honorable mention: “Jesus is My Homeboy” Exhibit, Wolfgang Roth & Partners Fine Art Gallery. 201 NE 39th Street, 2nd Floor, NE 2nd Avenue; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. WWJD. “Shock artist” David LaChappelle exhibits his take on it by juxtaposing Christ himself and bizarre modern settings. This one pushes the envelope – you won’t know whether to laugh or be disturbed. Also won’t be able to get enough.

Thursday, December 4
● SCOPE Party, Shore Club. 1901 Collins Avenue, at 19th Street; 9 p.m. The long and short of it is that this is the perfect party to kick off a long, artsy weekend. SCOPE—AB’s edgier younger sister fair—always draws a good crowd that naturally comes with good music, interesting people to meet, and so on. Nice to see starving artists treated like boy-band superstars every now and then.
● MOCA Shaker Art Basel Party, Louis (in the Gansevoort South. 2399 Collins Avenue, 23rd and 24th streets. MOCA represents the best of Miami’s contemporary art scene. This is their VIP rendition of honoring artists featured in their very own Goldman Warehouse exhibit. Don’t miss Swedish performer Tobias Bernstrup.
● Honorable mentions: “Masters Mystery Art Show” at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach (1 Lincoln Road, at Collins Avenue), 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Probably the only chance you’ll get to own a piece by your favorite artist/celeb/VIP. Check out works by Patti Labelle, Carlos Santana, John Legend, Andy Garcia, Jose Feliciano—the list goes on. Everything sells for $50, which benefits students at Florida International University, Miami. Not bad. Also: Miami Art Museum’s “Party on the Plaza” with Interview Magazine, 101 W. Flagler Street, NW 1st and NW 2nd avenues; 7 p.m. Dedicated MAM members need to get dressed up and get out there for this. Live music, expensive and delicious hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, and all the hipness that is Interview. It’s a splurge for a very cool scene.

Friday, December 5
● Celebrating Democracy at the Wolfsonian. 1001 Washington Avenue, 10th and 11th streets; 5:30 p.m. Contemporary artists’ commentary on Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” posters of the 1940s. Perfect way to wind down a year of political overkill. It’s wrapping, and rumor has it that artsy Miami insiders will gather afterward for a little soiree.

Saturday, December 6
● A-List party at LIV in the Fontainebleau. 4441 Collins Avenue at 44th Street; 10 p.m. The end of Basel is the perfect time for Ocean Drive mag to bring their current cover girl Pam Anderson to town to host a party at LIV. It will be fabulously sceney, drawing Miami’s most beautiful people into Miami’s Vegas-style mega-club. Worth trying to get into after a long day of art gazing. Otherwise, go upstairs to Plunge, have a few drinks, weep, and reset.


Carlos Santana Tickets
Capitol Theater At Overture Center Tickets
Madison Tickets