Alexandra Peers isn’t happy that the free food has disappeared from ArtBasel in Miami Beach but she does think the celebrities who have muscled in recently are a sign that ArtBasel is now just like Sundance:
[M]any complain that the stars upend the art world’s status pyramid. At SoHo House one afternoon, Art Miami fair director Nick Korniloff waited patiently for a table only to see Will Smith ushered to it. He recounted that he asked Smith to show up at his fair in karmic payment the following day, “and he did!” “You have a who’s who of the celebrity world coming to Miami Beach to become part of the art scene” says J.P. Oliver, who oversees the Morgans Group hotels in Florida[….] Oliver says the celebs are just proof that ABMB is now as much about “design, fashion, and nightife” as it is about art, essentially following the same inevitable path that Sundance paved.
Is a Celebrity Invasion Turning ArtBasel Miami Beach into Sundance? (NYMag.com)
