NADA Is Everything

#MiamiArtWeek has been real.

Miami, Miami Beach, South Beach…they all may be growing, evolving, challenging one another, as well as the environments surrounding them, not to mention its thousands of locals and visitors alike, but some things will never change.

The future is nigh, though.

Nah, the future is here, and thanks to the non-profit New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) and its annual NADA Miami fair at Ice Palace Studios, the future of art is oh-so-bright.

As a result of this weekend of art, if not one’s appreciation, then, at least, one’s knowledge of art is bound to be altered, for once you see something, you can’t unsee it, right? When something catches your eye, and you go to it, you become curious, a part of it and it a part of you, and you want to learn more about it or you want a piece of it. A pic, if nothing else, because phones.

Now in its 16th year, NADA Miami is your passport to tomorrow, your introduction to who’s coming down the pike by a robust group of (young) galleries from all around the world. In Spanish, the word “nada” means “nothing” – but NADA is everything. It is everyone and everything (even a Warhol fix).

NADA Miami always will be the place where I discovered the young East Chicagoan-turned-Brooklynite Robert Nava, where I admired the first Barbara Kruger piece – titled “(Surveillance….),” from circa 1984 – I ever saw, mere days after learning a little bit about her and her influence though Netflix’s Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj and its “Supreme” episode.

It is where, up until today, you may see Puerto Rican culture-celebrating art by a British artist – Carolina Caycedo – represented by a Guatemalan gallery. This survey will take you from Warsaw to Tokyo to Melbourne to Buenos Aires; up to New York, across to Portland, and down L.A.; to Mexico City, San Juan, and Madrid.

NADA Miami is the world. Who knows who or what you will find representin’ down one of its corridors. At one point, I found myself back at home, in the Bay Area, when I stumbled upon the Creative Growth Art Center booth.

Creative Growth is based in Oakland, and it primarily works with artists with developmental, mental, and physical disabilities, providing them a professional studio environment, encouraging their development as individuals and as artists, and offering them – and here’s the word of the moment – representation.

Doesn’t get any cooler or purer-art than that, does it.

NADA Miami led me to Creative Growth artist John Mullins, who has these two 2018 “Untitled” pieces on view and for sale at the fair.

Remember: You’ve got through today to make something out of NADA.

Get!