Flavorwire

The ninth edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, which runs through Sunday, got off to a big start last night with Isabella Rossellini, Lance Armstrong, Naomi Campbell, and Danny Glover purportedly prowling the aisles and a roster of international galleries reporting healthy sales. Particularly strong this year is the Art Positions section, with its younger galleries surrounding an artificial, rolling, grassy lawn, complete with real palm trees. Three New York galleries look especially good here: Foxy Production, with a single sculpture by Hany Armanious, Australia’s representative to the next Venice Biennale, that repositions traditional monuments; ZieherSmith’s bold offering of Eddie Martinez’ graffiti-inspired, expressionist triptych that filled the whole booth; and Simon Preston Gallery’s enchanting presentation of Kara Tanaka’s mechanically spinning silk skirt.

Other standouts at this year’s fair include Beatriz Milhazes’ decorative black-white-and-gold tile floor, filling the space of Foundation Beyeler; Ivan Navarro’s glass and mirror phone-booth-like structure with lighting above and below that magically extends the view to infinity at Paul Kasmin Gallery; Nick Cave’s giant, ritualistic figures covered in white buttons at Jack Shainman Gallery; a room full of vintage Man Ray photographs, sculptures, and paintings at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art; a mix of modern and contemporary masterpieces in Galerie Gmurzynska’s booth, which is dynamically designed by Zaha Hadid; and AXA Art’s museum-like display of 20th century design objects from Miami Beach’s Wolfsonian Museum and Poul Kjaerholm and Greta Magnusson Grossman’s modernist furniture in the Collectors Lounge.

Click through below for a selection of our favorite works from the fair.

Sicardi | Houston | Oscar Muñoz | El juego de las probilidades (The Game of Probabilities) | 2001/2008