The Sagamore and guest curator Kimberly Marrero will present the latest work by artist Spencer Tunick featuring Miami Beach and the Sagamore Art Hotel as its backdrop.
Spencer Tunick's latest series of photographs and videos created on October 8th will be exclusively exhibited in December during Art Basel Miami 2007 at the Annual Sagamore Brunch hosted by Cricket and Martin Taplin, Martin Z. Margulies and Constance Collins, The Bass Museum of Art, Patricia and Philip Frost Museum at FIU, Lowe Art Museum, Miami Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art and The Wolfsonian.
The works that cover the walls of the Sagamore Hotel will showcase Tunick's recent installation at the hotel with over 500 nude residents of Miami. Within the exterior grounds of the Sagamore's pool side area and along its post modern façade the artist lead the participants through a series of staged installation photographs. For some of the set-ups Tunick incorporated props and elements commonly found at the hotel, such as electric pink & green floating mattresses, 500 bottles of champagne and large white chiffon drapes borrowed from 25 of the hotel's rooms. The final results are a series of stunning tableaus inspired by Miami living, the marvelous architecture that is South Beach's history and the unmistakable Miami landscape.
This latest collaboration with Spencer Tunick is part of the Sagamore's on-going programming, which routinely invites recognized artists to create original works in a variety of exhibition areas located throughout the hotel's interior spaces, gardens and on its oceanfront beach. Previous collaborations included photographer Massimo Vitali, multi-media artist Roxy Paine and the veteran conceptual artist Yoko Ono. In 2002, Massimo Vitali was selected to kick off the very first Art Basel Miami, with his on-site live photo shoot that featured glamorous art-world guests attending the first Art Basel Brunch which is now held annually. Last year, Yoko Ono chose the Sagamore's gardens for her world-renowned interactive piece "Onochord."
Contemporary artist Spencer Tunick is widely celebrated for his elaborately posed installations of multiple nude figures within interestingly select public settings. His temporary site-specific installations have taken place across the globe in cities including Lyon, Melbourne, Mexico City, New York and Barcelona to name a few. Tunick gathers legions of volunteers to take part in his elaborate installations which in the past have drawn numbers well into the thousands.
Creating his seminal temporary site-specific landscapes involve the recruitment of many nude figures arranged in specific public sites and follow on the tradition of the popular art of the early 70's known as land art. Embedded directly in the landscape the artist assigns the nude form as a functional art material devised to intervene within its natural surroundings as a way to transform it. The final result, also drawing from the tradition of recording the ephemeral, the artist creates a series of uniquely exquisite video and photographic documentation.
The poetic whole culminating from this sea of individual figures which are arranged in a sculptural way, further challenges traditionally held stigmas associated with nudity, privacy and social and political issues surrounding art in the public sphere.
For press inquiries, please contact Vanessa Fiorvante
Vanessa@thepattongroupinc.com
