The art world’s annual retreat to Miami can look very glamorous—that is, “if you squint,” says New York gallerist Margot Samel. For every capacious Escalade pulling up to the Edition, there is an emerging dealer splitting an Uber to an Airbnb with a colleague. “Miami gets expensive fast,” Samel explains. “The quiet, unglamorous choices are the ones that save you.”
Samel, who will make her Art Basel Miami Beach debut this year with a solo presentation of Argentine painter Carolina Fusilier, is one of many exhibitors who will be spending strategically in Miami. The mounting costs of shipping, booth fees, airfare, and hotels are challenging, especially on top of the year-round expenses of running a gallery during a challenging year for the art market. Jeffrey Lawson, founder of Untitled Art, told ARTnews that he had been shrinking the size of the fair’s booths to accommodate struggling gallerists’ budgets.
The consensus among young dealers is that fairs provide a level of exposure that wouldn’t be possible otherwise—which keeps them coming back, even if participation is a gamble. “For a gallery like ours, especially in a slow market, the fair can feel like stepping onto Wheel of Fortune,” says NADA exhibitor Marina Vranopoulou, founder of the Athens, Greece, gallery Dio Horia. “You spin, you hope, and you try to land in the right spot.”
Making it through Miami Art Week on a shoestring is possible. It just requires preparation, fortitude, and foregoing certain luxuries. Ahead of the whirlwind, we gathered a few tips from the dealers who are making it work.
Getting There
“We run on low-drama operations: no last-minute flights or hotels, no 11th-hour framing,” says Samel, who started planning for Miami in June. “The trick is booking hotels before the ink on the acceptance letter is even dry.” Walking distance from the fair is ideal, she adds, for avoiding hellish traffic and expensive Ubers.
Artist Alex Nazari, founder of Los Angeles gallery Gattopardo, recommends flying into Fort Lauderdale, a less popular and therefore less expensive hub than Miami International. From there, she’ll drive off in the car she rented through Costco for the low price of $250 a week, plus the $65 annual member- ship. This year, she is presenting a suite of paintings by Raffi Kalenderian at NADA (small enough to ship in a cardboard bin rather than a heavy wooden crate and easily carried home in the event they don’t sell).
And rather than compete in Miami with a million different events, she’s throwing Kalenderian a party in LA before the fairs begin. “So many people aren’t coming to Miami, and I’d love for them to see the work,” Nazari says.
DIY Art Handling
According to a recent Artnet report, add-ons at Art Basel can range from $128 to access an electrical outlet to as much as $800 for an additional light—all frills small gallerists have learned to do without. “We minimize absolutely everything,” says Vranopoulou, who even brings her own chairs from home, packed into the same crate as the art. Any works that don’t fit into the crate go into her suitcase. Once onsite, she’ll build out a conceptual, post-apocalyptic group presentation with her husband, Tom. (In true small-business fashion, family members double as cheap labor.)
Cole Solinger of the San Francisco gallery House of Seiko prefers not to outsource any work he can do himself. Tapping into skills he learned as an art handler, as well as in “remedial” woodshop at art school, he’s building the frames and slipcases for his group showing at NADA. Rather than flying out an extra salesperson or seeking one out in an unfamiliar town, he also plans to staff the booth himself for the entire fair. So will Nazari, whose preferred form of caffeine is Ito En bottled green tea. “It keeps you perky without the crash and coffee breath,” she notes.
A Little Help From Your Friends
Do-it-yourself doesn’t necessarily mean going it alone. Over the years, Samel has developed a circle of peers she can rely on for emotional support and other resources. “We share shipments, share staff, share Advil,” she says, and at other fairs in the past, they’ve shared Airbnbs. “Nothing bonds people faster than making pasta in a barely functional rental kitchen.”
Although it’s an arduous week, dealers say it’s worth going out in Miami at least once. “I let my friends who work at big galleries pay for dinner,” says one Miami exhibitor. Cutting out drinking and smoking also goes a long way. “I just don’t believe people are closing deals at 2 a.m. after four martinis anymore,” the exhibitor adds. “Get on an SSRI and get on with it.”
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