RE Log Spring 2021

SPRING 2021 Ransom Everglades LOG 11 occupancy limits, advance registration and significant precautions. Art Basel Miami Beach did not have the option of a partial or adaptive in-person opening; it was simply too large. Organizers shifted to online viewing rooms – OVRs, as they called them. The OVRs allowed Art Basel to virtually connect the world’s leading galleries with the show’s global network of collectors and art enthusiasts. The most recent edition, “OVR: Pioneers,” was dedicated to artists who broke new ground in the use of aesthetics, socio-political themes and use of mediums. It featured 100 galleries and ran from March 24–27, 2021. Art Basel also studied the impact of COVID-19 on the gallery sector in a global art market report in September 2020. “It’s very important to us, to Art Basel, to support the art market any way we can,” Reed said. Indeed, COVID-19 hit everyone hard – most notably artists. “The pandemic’s been very strange for artists,” Handforth said. “It’s been very hard to show anything … It’s been very good that the online platforms are working. And commissions like The Ringing Rock have been a lifeline for artists.” Handforth also noted that local art lovers unwilling to travel can still see art in Miami. “If there’s going to be a blessing to this,” he said, “it’s going to be that it gives the local galleries a chance to really shine, really be seen.” Rubell noted that the Rubell Museum shuttered in March 2020 just months after having moved to Allapattah to take up residence in a 100,000-square-foot facility – a former fruit and produce distribution center – after 25 years in Wynwood. The Rubell’s collection, started by Jason’s parents Mera and Don Rubell in the 1960s, has always sought to identify and feature emerging young artists who make art that engages with the present. Jason Rubell wanted to make sure he continued that mission. By July, the museum reopened, protocols firmly in place. That was a relief, Rubell said, to working artists and many others: his family, the museum staff and the art community at large. And there was a significant – and surprising – upside to the otherwise burdensome COVID-19 precautions: Each visitor had a more personal and private viewing experience in the expansive gallery space. Watching members of the public engage more intimately with the art touched Rubell and the museum’s entire staff. Their guests’ joy was infectious. The experience helped Rubell realize how much his museum – and art throughout the city – really mattered. “It only made it so much sweeter when we reopened,” Rubell said. “The public engagement and public need for it – it’s almost through tragedy that comes some sort of amazing beauty for us. It was amazing.” Rose Ellen Greene Photo by Suzanne Kores