As Miami Art Week got underway, artists and collectors rubbed shoulders on the ground floor terrace of the W South Beach hotel, chicly furnished by Moooi. The night before the opening of the big fair, this was the official kickoff party for Art Basel Miami Beach 2024, hosted by Bridget Finn, the Art Basel Miami Beach show director, and Irene Kim, the head of VIP relations at Art Basel globally.

The crowd included the artists Tschabalala Self, Margaux Ogden, Miles Greenberg, as well as Eli Sudbrack of assume vivid astro focus, who currently has a show at the Bass. There were gallerists including Leopol Jose Maria Mones Cazon, cofounder of Isla Flotante in Buenos Aires and Thiago Gomide of São Paulo’s Gomide&Co, who would be arriving at the Miami Beach Convention Center bright and early the next morning to man their booths.The food was incredible; at a station equipped with HexClad cookware, chefs in brand new HexClad aprons served miniature Philly cheesesteaks made with wagyu and chalupa shells stuffed with prawns. This was the work of Los Angeles private dining concept Shoku, where fast food from Asia and the Americas fuse to create fine dining. The rosé, AIX, was from Provence, and the cabernet sauvignon, Silver Oak, hailed from Sonoma County, California.

There were more than a few veteran fairgoers in the mix, such as PR agency Cultural Counsel’s Adam Abdalla, who has been to every edition of the fair since 2007 (save 2022, when his son Henry was born). ‘Every year I look forward to seeing old friends and clients and admiring how far they’ve come in the last 20 years: Franklin Sirmans, Heather Hubbs, Nina Johnson, Bridget Finn,’ Abdalla said. ‘We all came up through the trenches together and now they are shaping the cultural dialogue.’ 

John Mathews, Head of UBS Private Wealth Management in the United States, holds the tremendous and rare distinction of having been to every single edition of Art Basel Miami Beach since its inception in 2002. ‘It was a little different than it is now,’ he had intimated to a small group of journalists just before the official opening party began, describing its transformation from an enclosed event that took up just half of its original home in Miami Beach’s former convention center, to a series of activations taking place across the city. He added, ‘We’re extremely proud of how it has grown into what I think is the art world's most dynamic and fun –and I stress fun annual event.’

And there was a lot of fun being had. Evian lined the shelves with its new limited-edition bottles designed by Pharrell Williams, and offered a custom cocktail of lemon gin, elderflower, and a sprig of rosemary. ALMA Communications’ Noreen Ahmad, chatting with Guggenheim associate curator Lauren Hinkson, was spotted sipping a Casa Dragones Mexpresso Martini from a delicately stemmed glass. Having been to more than a dozen editions of the fair, she said she sometimes felt nostalgic for the era before Uber and Lyft. When asked how anyone got anywhere, she replied, ‘I don’t know, but eventually, we would wind up at the Le Baron pop-up at the Delano, which was like the 2011 version of the Silencio pop-up at the Edition, and dance the night away.’  The mood was celebratory, marking the inaugural fair under Finn’s direction.