Art Basel Miami Beach descended upon the right coast again this month, December 5-8, 2012. The Huffington post says, “It’s no easy feat getting chosen to participate in the country’s biggest art fair. And even if you are accepted into Art Basel Miami Beach, it’s certainly not easy to stand out amongst the hundreds of artworks, glamorous fairgoers and champagne carts.” Here are some highlights of ABMB below, in case you weren’t able to visit the fairs in person.

Reports below via Art News:

Adjacent to Art Basel, a new fair called “Moving the Still,” a collaboration between Tumblr and Paddle8, spotlighted the suggestive, hypnotic computer animations that are created with the Graphics Interchange Format and known as GIFs. (The format is 25 years old, but people are still arguing over how to pronounce it.)

A post-Degas mural by Anthony Lister on NW 23rd Street. PHOTO ©ROBIN CEMBALEST

The works, assembled after an open call and selected with the help of a committee including Roselee Goldberg and Michael Stipe, feature quick movements–a smiley face melting, a banana being peeled–repeated in endless loops.

Keep your eye on this Cindy Sherman film still.

A GIF by Joe Kay featuring a Cindy Sherman film still, 2012. GIF BY JOE KAY FOR MOVING THE STILL.

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction? A handmade iPod by Cuban artist Abel Barroso, who is also showing his carved pinball machines in a solo turn at PanAmericanArtProjects.

Abel Barroso, Ipod Touch, 2012, xylograph on wood. In Art Miami. IMAGE COURTESY FERNANDA TORCIDA.

On Hyperallergic, Hrag Vartanian reports being surprised during his own perambulations about the absence of contemporary renderings of the human figure. But animals were everywhere–dead ones especially. Judging by the offerings in Miami, taxidermic creatures have become the new trophy heads. Marcus Kenney’s creatures at Jonathan Ferrara’s stand at Pulse, brought a Mardi Gras bling to the conventional hunter’s trophy by using real animal parts mixed with buttons, fabric, feathers, sequins, leather, shells, beads, glass eyes, silk, and more.

Marcus Kenney, Stellah Terrah, 2012, reclaimed taxidermy, fabric, feathers, plastic, acrylic, beach glass, beads, paper, cotton, twine, thread, bronze, silk, polish, buttons, fur, synthetic hair, metal, pins, etc. At Pulse. COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY, NEW ORLEANS.

Two Art Cops roamed the fairs giving tickets for infractions like “self indulgent,” “too reliant on personal history,” “theory bound,” “too much emphasis on process,” and more. They made sure to give their write-ups to the dealers rather than the artists. Most seemed to take it with good humor. The Cops turned out to be a performance piece, of course. The perpetrators were by Generic Art Solutions, an official project of the Pulse fair via Jonathan Ferrara gallery.

You’re under arrest! The Art Cops. PHOTO © 2012 ROBIN CEMBALEST

Hans-Peter Feldmann’s installation in a witty show of six artists’ take on the Renaissance at the Bassincluded a painting that summed up how everyone felt after a long day of looking at art.

Detail of Hans-Peter Feldmann’s installation in “The Endless Renaissance” at the Bass Museum of Art.

If you were at the fair, share your first hand report here on WallSpin!

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