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A 30-foot bear. A 20-foot Birkin bag. This year’s Art Palm Beach is going big

Danubiana Museum of Art's installation of Viktor Freso's "The Bear." This 30-foot sculpture will arrive to West Palm Beach from Bratislava, Slovakia, and serve as a centerpiece for Art Palm Beach 2025.
Danubiana Museum of Art
Danubiana Museum of Art's installation of Viktor Freso's "The Bear." This 30-foot sculpture will arrive to West Palm Beach from Bratislava, Slovakia, and serve as a centerpiece for Art Palm Beach 2025.

Art Palm Beach is back and bigger, bringing its mid-winter contemporary art fair to West Palm Beach.

The event offers an international flair while highlighting local museums and new community engagement initiatives.

Exhibiting galleries at this year’s event feature large works, from a 20-foot Birkin bag, "BIG BIRK,” by artist is GEO and presented by Boca Raton's Denis Leon Gallery, to a 32-foot bear sculpture from the Danubiana Museum of Art in Bratislava, Slovakia. The installation, Viktor Freso's "The Bear," is a centerpiece of the event.

But annual Art Palm Beach — now in its third year — will be a far cry from the busy traffic and crowding that’s characteristic of events like Art Basel in Miami, said director Kassandra Voyagis.

“Palm Beach has that feel where you can come back multiple days,” Voyagis told WLRN. “You can actually network. You can enjoy the art in a much more, less rushed experience and an intimate experience.”

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The experience also features "Eternal Light," an immersive installation by South Korean artist HanHo, who merges traditional techniques with new technology that explores the climate crisis.

The event zooms back into South Florida's offerings. Voyagis said she wanted to “increase our involvement with Palm Beach” after receiving more interest from local institutions.

Building on the success of previous years, the art fair showcases more than 80 contemporary and modern art galleries, along with works from several local museums.

Highlights include a stop-motion animation with glass sculpture titled "Howling at the Moon," presented by the Boca Raton Museum of Art, and a bold exhibit from Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MOCAA) — a collection of 1,000 hand-painted ceramic plates created by more than 100 artists from across the Americas.

Exposing art business to underserved youth

Art isn't for the well-off, organizers told WLRN. Voyagis said their aim this year, and in the future, is to create a big community impact by getting younger people involved in the creative process.

Art Palm Beach has partnered with former NFL star and Notre Dame Fighting Irish's Greg Bell, an art aficionado whose community partnership with Voyagis began several years ago at the LA Art Show.

Through Bell’s California-based nonprofit, Athletes For Life, South Florida students in underserved communities will have a chance to experience the fair and learn art finance.

“We will impart that [art business] on them,” Bell told WLRN. “Just like in sports with an agent or a broker, there's a business to the world of art and we're going to expose that to the kids.”

Bell will discuss his experience as an art collector, which includes his personal collection of works from notable figures like artist LeRoi Johnson, the brother of the legendary rock musician, Rick James.

“It's not always about the stroke of that artist, it's about the curators, the managers, the brokers, the galleries,” Bell said.

“ There is a massive team that puts the walls up, puts the electricity — it's a team effort that goes into making the Art Palm Beach as well as Art Basel a success.”

Organizers said Athletes for Life is receiving financial assistance from Broward County. The money will help provide transportation for art students at this year’s Art Palm Beach. The event also aims to attract visitors who aren’t art collectors or “don’t have that education behind it,” said Voyagis.

"The mere presence of Art Palm Beach  creates maybe a new collector or somebody that didn't know much about the art that suddenly is very interested in it,” Voyagis added.

“That is important because that creates a platform for the future for what we're trying to do.”

IF YOU GO
What: Art Palm Beach
When: Wednesday, January 22 -26, 2025
Where: 650 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Information: More details here. Ticket info here.

Keep up with South Florida's arts and culture scene by signing up for The A/C newsletter. Every Wednesday, the A/C will offer a curation of stories and deep dives that celebrate South Florida's arts community. Click here to subscribe.

Wilkine Brutus is the Palm Beach County Reporter for WLRN. The award-winning journalist produces stories on topics surrounding local news, culture, art, politics and current affairs. Contact Wilkine at wbrutus@wlrnnews.org
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