In Basel the art fair is very, very Swiss — the attire is business suit; the pleasure is most likely dinner followed by a stop at the Biergarten. But in Miami — with all its flash and exposed flesh (much of it recently nip/tucked), the unabashed collusion of art and fashion, and the head-spinning number of celebrity-hosted parties — it’s “art world gone wild.” And in the spirit of Warhol, good times = good sales. And so at the tenth rendition of Art Basel Miami Beach the 1% came and spent, fueling a peer-pressured art feeding frenzy at Basel, NADA, and Pulse that was characteristic of fairs of yesteryear.

The Marco Brambilla / Ferrari party on Tuesday, November 29 hosted by Peter Brant, Tobias Meyer and Interview magazine set the stage for the week’s festivities. Emerging from the elevators on the top floor of Herzog & de Meuron’s parking garage (a fortuitous location change just days before the event) the feeling of power was palpable. More than 50 sexy Ferrari cars were surrounded by fine-suited Italians mingling with art VIPs, while giant bouncers — like celebrity bodyguards — encouraged ogling but not touching. Waiters passed champagne, full meals of veal and risotto and limoncello-inspired desserts. But the real star of the show was Marco Brambilla’s visually stunning 3D video RPM projected on one of the garage walls. Following his major 3D work Civilization (2008) presented in New York earlier this year, Brambilla said he chose to use the same method for RPM “to create an immersive experience; a trance-like state that the Formula One drivers experience from the extremes of the repetitive motion, the 200 mile-speed, and visually processing three things at once as they’re flying at you.” This Ferrari commission was a dream project for Brambilla, whose father took him to the Grand Prix since he was 12 years old; he was the first artist allowed to film the race and to get access to Ferrari’s archival footage.

The art meets fashion trend was in full swing. Taking a cue from Takashi Murakami's Superflat concept, repackaging high-art as merchandise, and his spectacular collaborations with Louis Vuitton, luxury brands recruited artists to assume the role of creative product designer at pop-up stores and parties. Olaf Breuning created iconic images incorporated into Bally’s new collection Bally Love; Liam Gillick designed striped bags and accessories with Pringle of Scotland; and Fendi Casa showcased Nick Cave’s Soundsuits. Long-standing art patrons The Cartier Foundation commissioned Beatriz Milhazes’s Aquarium, a stunning mobile composed of pearls and jewels based on her collage works; and Dior featured a wall of Anselm Reyle’s video work as well as a new collection of handbags and accessories inspired by his art. Bubbly and free manicures with Dior’s new nail polish colors (including NYC Black) enticed many an art visitor dying to sit for 15 minutes.  At the Bass Museum, Grey Area, the new limited edition brainchild of Manish Vora and Kyle DeWoody, took over the education room to teach Art Buying 101 for both new and seasoned collectors. If only the Zaha Hadid jelly shoes offered by the pop-up were in my size…

Luxury brands weren’t the only ones attaching their names to art. In one of the more controversial stories of the week, Miami Art Museum (MAM) announced it would be changing its name to the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County in honor of an unprecedented gift of $35 million from the South Florida real estate developer. Pitting new money against long-standing patrons, another museum fundraiser mused there’d be serious wining and dining the next week to woo disgruntled MAM trustees considering an exodus.

With Andy Warhol’s work on sale all over the main fair, as well at an outdoor screening of his never-before-seen film of San Diego Surf (1968) at The Standard Spa accompanied by a performance by 30 “Dancing Andys,” the pro-party attitude continued at the Bass Museum in Erwin Wurm’s exhibition “Beauty Business. ”  Elegantly and brilliantly playing with clichés through his formal sculptures and insightful yet twisted humor, the show featured his well-known sweater pieces and large scale deconstructed works commenting on body and home. But it was his series "Drinking Sculpture" in which visitors were instructed to participate and "drink seriously" from bottles of booze and tumblers stashed in cabinets and wardrobes named after artists Francis Bacon, Edvard Munch and Willem de Kooning that stole the opening party.

Speaking of beauty, for a city known mostly as a quiet haven for retirees before the art fair came the town a decade ago, the now-omnipresent Dorian Gray syndrome resonated with artists. Hales Gallery at SEVEN presented Bob and Roberta Smith’s text painting AS I GET OLDER I GET YOUNGER; at Basel, Deborah Kass’s large painting Young Forever generated great interest at Paul Kasmin; while at Regen Projects Gillian Wearing’s Self Portrait of Me Now in Mask preserves her image from 2011 forever. Amigos by Elmgreen and Dragset presented a sauna with massage, exercise and blood transfusions as the solution to staying gay and beautiful. 

And while patrons were away from their therapists and potentially suffering anxiety with all this youth obsession, at least two works in the Basel fair gave excellent advice and comfort. Louise Bourgeois’s mirrored installation CELL (TWELVE OVAL MIRRORS) (2008), presented by the Beyeler Foundation, spoke to the difficulties and potential for  distortion in communication, advocating “confronting yourself, knowing yourself, and liking yourself.”  At Kasmin Gallery, Jonathan Borofsky’s In My Mother’s Words concurred: “Be happy. Do the best you can do. Be good and kind.”  I almost expected to be handed a plate of warm cookies, but it’s the Basel Art Fair, so I was offered a $17 glass of champagne instead.

Performance and music have always been an integral part of the fair, and this year their presence, along with Hilton-like celebrities, was splashier than ever. In a break from the giant beach parties hosted by P Diddy and more, Nas (now infamous for the $14,000 painting he created on stage),  Macy Gray and Moby performed at Ricochet and Bardot, small intimate clubs located located off the party grid in malls. Rashaad Newsome’s Hair Affair & Five at Miami Art Museum’s Party on the Plaza was a gorgeous collaboration between opera singers and dancers voguing; and Wednesday night in the same time slot at neighboring beach hotels, it was Jeffrey Deitch’s LA MoCA beach party featuring Soulwax vs. his ex-employee Kathy Grayson’s The Hole party with music by Salem. I opted for Salem, who was sometimes completely hidden by the smoke from their fog machine, thereby shifting all emphasis to the wet and wild sex show in the Delano pool courtesy of two female strippers Grayson hired from Craigslist.

My Miami finale was a toss-up, and I sacrificed the Kim Kardashian lookalike contest presented by MoMA PS1 at the Mondrian due to time restraints. My parting gift was Jen DeNike’s beach project “Iemanjá,” one of 24 Art Public projects curated by Christine Kim. Five female dancers dressed in white and surrounding a star-shaped sand castle performed various actions from meditative repose to joyful dance in a new piece inspired by Brazilian and other ceremonial rituals. Witnessing the piece at dusk with the sand between my toes, the wind simultaneously whipping the dancers’ white dresses into billowing clouds and the kite surfers high above the waves behind them, made me appreciate the site-specificity of this live performance, and created a blissful serenade to the sea and the African sea goddess Iemanjá.