The beachside art experience of SCOPE Miami Beach returned to the sands of South Beach at Ocean Drive and 8th Street for the fair’s 21st edition. Fostering an environment for discovery, this year saw more than 130 exhibitors alongside the fair’s flagship program, The New Contemporary, which encompassed special works, installations, and immersive experiences focused on art contributing to local community engagement and global politics alike. In addition to showcasing mediums from NFTs to glassblowing and everything in between, the fair’s 2022 roster of events also included panel discussions, wellness programming, and entertainment.
Upon entering, our first stop was at the booth of Gallery 1202, where we were captivated by the hyper-realistic portraits of Maudy Alferink. From afar, Alferink’s large-scale images deceived the eye, appearing to be photographs, framed in reflective colors. In fact, they were oil on linen paintings, depicting glamorous subjects painted with garments made up of children’s television characters, like What’s Up Doc? featuring a figure in bunny roller skates, or Elmo, in which a garment made from ribbony fringe and a pile of the red puppet-like character engulfs a seated model, whose legs are outstretched in a pair of thigh-high tube socks.
Maudy Alferink, “What’s up doc?” 2022, oil on linen, 45 x 67 inches; courtesy of the artist and Gallery 1202.
Down the way, the booth belonging to MakersPlace was filled with screens of all sizes as a means of showcasing digital works and NFTs from the likes of The Holoverse, Marco Santini, The Rewind Collective, and Austin Wilde in collaboration with Banksy. There, an NFT by Osinachi called Laundry Day that lured us into the booth, with four vertical screens coming together like windowpanes, exhibiting sections of the vibrant, collage-like laundromat scene. Next, we stopped for a look at the presentation of Echo Fine Arts—a group show featuring sculptural abstractions by Etienne Viard, entrancing imagery by Cecilia Paredes, and the sharp, captivating c-type prints of Dean West.
In awe of the range of materials showcased at the fair, from tactile to virtual, we visited The Contemporary Art Modern Project to get a closer look at a collage by Silvana Soriano titled Sherene, where the artist’s use of paper and fabrics suggested that the main subject (a girl dressed in an entire shirt that had been plastered to the canvas) was exploring a retail environment. Nearby, the artist Catty Wong’s cartoonish plays on classical portraiture (presented by Miami Art Life) came alive when activated by an AI app. And on view with bG Gallery, we stopped to see a series of three-dimensional faces by Gil Bruv that were crafted entirely from painted wooden sticks.
Lucy Bull’s installation at SCOPE Art Show 2022.
Next, it was next to impossible to miss Lucy Sparrow’s fabric-made interpretation of a McDonald’s restaurant with golden arches abounding and a uniformed employee behind the checkered counter, completing transactions chosen from a menu labeled McFelt. Amid fabric-laden tables, fabric wall art, and an installation of recognizable flooring tiles that transported us back to the days of happy meal toys, we read a menu that detailed the price of felted food items like cartons of French fries and burgers with faces, baked apple pies, soft drinks, and super combo meal bags—all crafted by the artist.
Nearing the end of our visit was Moberg Gallery, where we found a group show featuring Ruben Sanchez’s vibrant cubist composition Shower with Lobster and a ceramic with like shapes titled Equilibrio. And at ArtTime was Tsuyu Bridwell’s cloud of paper butterflies—Mesdames Butterflies—that hung from the sky in front of a group presentation of canvas works. Finally, we visited the booth of Stick Together Gallery, which was filled with breathtaking packing tape compositions by Max Zorn. Displayed on LED lighting boards, the sepia scenes ranged from intricate skylines to intimate moments of portraiture.
ArtTime’s booth at SCOPE Art Show 2022.
Osinachi, “Laundry Day,” courtesy of the artist and MakersPlace.
