The local Miami gallery community has a gripe with ArtBasel over who gets in to the art fair and why. The Palm Beach Post‘s Lydia Martin explores the point:

“The argument is that our galleries are just not mature enough yet,’ said Miami artist Carlos Betancourt, who hosted a small party in the slick, four-story condo he rented so out-of-town friends didn’t have to pay for a hotel.

Betancourt, who talked art with a crew of other artists (some at the party deemed the many artworks hanging in the rented condo “really bad,’ so most pieces were turned around so you only saw backs of canvasses), celebrates Basel’s presence, but: “Every year, you can go in the convention center and see some really good galleries. And some really bad galleries. They get in year after year, and some Miami galleries that have some really amazing artists get left out,’ Betancourt says.

Basel 09 Less Bling, More Ka-Ching (Palm Beach Post)