Verge Art Fair
Miami Beach 2010
2-5 December
The Catalina Hotel & Beach Club
1732 Collins Avenue
Public Hours
Friday & Saturday, 3 – 4 December, Noon to 8 pm
Sunday, 5 December, Noon to 6 pm

Miami 2010 Professional Preview: Thursday, December 2, 2010, Noon to 6:00 pm
(Admission to the Professional Preview is given to press and VIP (both Verge and Art Basel Miami Beach cards are accepted) cardholders only. The Opening Night Preview is for those cardholders and for paid public admission.)
Opening Night Preview Reception: Thursday, December 2, 2010, 6:00 to 10:00 pm

Tickets At The Door
Opening night preview: $20
General admission: $10,
$5 for students and seniors
www.vergeartfair.com

VERGE emerging art fair is proud to announce a stellar list of exhibitors showing living artists (isn’t that what “emerging” used to mean?) for its return to Miami Beach, coinciding and located only two blocks from Art Basel Miami Beach and the newly relocated Design / Miami. For its first year under Fair Director Maria Jenson, Verge will once again raise the bar for real luxury and comfort of the art viewing experience for attendees. Tired of eating out of trucks or cold sandwich cafe food? Verge Miami has you covered. A popular spot for collectors and attendees, VERGE offers 5-star dining options at the Catalina’s Kung Fu Sushi and Maxine Restaurants. Just drinks? Never fear–no overpriced $12 bottle drinks at VERGE! Join us at hotspot The Red Bar at the Catalina for daily FREE cocktail mixers at its famous Happy Hour from 7-8pm. Yes, free drinks every day!

“VERGE consistently breaks the mold, providing the vision to introduce new artists that are quickly scooped up by a market famished for new direction.” says Director Maria Jenson. How many artists now commanding high prices got their start at VERGE? Droves. And there’s no question as to why. Save yourself the trading floor frustrations, skip the others and find tomorrow’s stars at VERGE today before the run to cash in on their newfound popularity after their VERGE premier.

This year, VERGE welcomes back another impressive list of popular regular exhibitors, including ANTIDOTE curatorial collective from Brooklyn, New York, Rush Arts/Corridor Gallery, New York, New York, The Fashion Institute of Technology/Fine Arts Dept., New York, New York, Projects Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, the ever-keen eye of Sara Nightingale Gallery, Shelter Island, New York, the always-provocative work of Van Uxem Projects, New York, NY, and a room of whimsy by HD Studios and the fantastic Hollye Davidson of hometown Miami, Florida. RUSSELL/PROJECTS of Richmond, Virginia will present Drawing Show works by art star Peregrine Honig, of Bravo Channel’s famous “Work of Art” artists reality show. Newcomers this year include Miami galleries including Artformz, presenting a special “Small Works” show of works under fifteen inches square, and the robust program of newly opened Art Modern Gallery, presenting not one, but two rooms of new and emerging art, and Hot Commodities, presenting the work of over a dozen local Miami and New York artists. International galleries from around the world are rolling out spectacular exhibitions for VERGE attendees, including Black And, an emerging gallery from Holywell Bay, United Kingdom, presenting a special video project also showing at MANIFESTA 5, the G2 Gallery of Tokyo, Japan, Amsterdam’s Kahmann Gallery, and Fredrik Strømsæther Projects of Paris, France. Rounding out the VERGE showcase this year is Team Art! of Chicago, Illinois, Olga Papkovitch Projects, New York, New York, Vital at Verge, New York, New York, Pure Luck, Brooklyn, New York, New York, New York’s US+U., and What It Is Gallery, hailing from the Oak Park outskirts of the city of Chicago, Illinois, and Scotch Projects from New York’s Lower East Side.

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL AT VERGE
Once again, breaking the mold. VERGE will serve as the center of the Cirque du Soleil on Miami Beach at its Opening Night Preview Reception with amazing live performances on location to wow attendees, with everything from contortionists (by a two-time Russian Gold Medalist), sky jumpstilt walkers, jugglers, Cerceax acts and more! If you’ve ever attended a Cirque performance, this not-to-be-missed event will give attendees the once-in-a-lifetime chance to get up close and personal with Cirque performers like never before!

DRINKS, ANYONE?
After this last couple of years, we could sure as hell use one, and we bet you could too. Come on over, we’ve got you covered. Chillax at The Opening Night Preview with Bombay Sapphire, Bacardi Rum and Grey Goose Vodka. At both the Opening Reception and the VIP Rooftop Pool Reception, we’ve got you covered with the not-so-subtly amazing MamaJuana Specialty Rum and tasty mixer recipes throughout the evening. Keep an eye out for the MamaJuna ladies working the crowd throughout the evening! Prefer a nice glass of wine? Check this out: Verge has partnered with VERGE wineries–that’s right: VERGE wineries–to offer a signature brand Syrah wine straight from Dry Creek Valley. Full-bodied, fully-breathed and sumptuous, every bottle is a revelation in wine-making.

SPONSORS & PARTNERS
Cirque du Soleil, VERGE Wineries, Miami Art Guide, Art We Love, VANlist, The Catalina Hotel and Beach Club, Vital Publicity, Nunibelle Consulting, Artfacts.net, Mutual Art, Artlog, Yelp.com, Bambuser, Artnear, Artcards.cc, Artcalendr, Artprice.com, Bombay Sapphire, Bacardi Rum, Jewel of Russia vodka, Grey Goose vodka, Kung Fu Sushi, Maxine Restaurant, Mayor’s Office of Film & Cultural Affairs, The Fashion Institute of Technology NYC, The Original MamaJuana, Rush Arts NYC, Farofa Nation, Miami Art Guide, WP1.com, and E. Clark Travel / American Express

THE DRAWING SHOW
Continuing in the effort to advance the interests of unique approaches to the current state of visual art, Verge is proud to announce its commitment to mounting a section devoted exclusively to drawing as a medium that overlaps all disciplines. The Drawing Show will present drawing as a unique artistic practice, one that is universally accessible, and often the first step in an artist’s exercise of ideas that inform both their larger creative practice and the cultivation of new forms of visual art.

As a touchstone to the evolutions influenced by and visited upon artistic practice by the art marketplace and its requisite economic fluxuations, drawing continues to serve as a subversive force, both in its delineation of artistic ideas as well as in its potential to inspire and serve as the first step in production unrestrained by economic categories.

EMERGING LATIN ART
Recognizing the unique cultural environment of Miami as a gateway to South America, Verge will offer a speial section devoted to a survey of the best in emerging Latin art. As a constantly growing demographic within the United States, developments within Latin art can no longer be ignored without consequence to the state of visual art as a whole. This platform is a surprisingly overlooked devotion to the subject not represented anywhere else in the Miami art fair marketplace. By offering a section devoted to the exploration of new trends and ideas surround emerging Latin art, Verge is poised to act at the forefront of an otherwise underserved and underrepresented realm of artistic production.

COLLECTIVES & PROJECTS
Since the onset of the Recession, a growing movement among artists has taken hold to organize into collective and artistic groups who have taken charge of their own reception in the public sphere. These groups often operate at the fringes of commercial centers, in places remote from and yet accessible to traditional commercial centers. This has translated in the realm of emerging art as a unique approach to participation in the art marketplace. Freed from the constraints of previous decades’ definition of collectives as anti-capital or even hybridized independent approaches to their own public reception, these groups have evolved into saavy operators capable of fully delivering on the needs of their own self-interests. Verge is invested in providing an alternative platform for these groups and their projects.