Appropriately enough for an Art Basel Miami season seemingly balanced on the yawning maw of apocalypse, one of the standout works on display was a vision of making a new home in hell. Shown in IBID Project’s booth at the upstart New Art Dealer’s Alliance (NADA) fair, Lower East Side artist Marianne Vitale’s mixed-media sculpture and drawings told the story of an angel, cast into the underworld, contemplating its new predicament. Here, its temporary shelter is a symbol of lean yet creative times to come. Blasted with black paint and rigged with found materials from the Dumpsters of certain famous artists, cow femurs, and an animated video of the angel’s mind-set, it sends a shiver down your spine and a tingle down your leg. Hey, it’s all about being damned in style, right?
