art basel recap // so i was virtually there...

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last year, i had the awesome/outlandish opportunity to attend art basel miami beach for my previous job at converse. it was a pretty cool experience, marked by a whirlwind of wonderful/weird memories -- i bought ridiculous south beach souvenirs, attempted to go to my first strip club, ate unreal cuban food at the famous versailles restaurant, helped some co-workers graffiti a huge wall in wynwood (by helped i mean bought the supplies + provided refreshments), and of course saw A LOT of amazing art.

though i didn't make it this year, i found my instagram feed flooded with images from the event -- so i was virtually there and this a collection of iphone screenshots i took from the event:

last year #fomo // me

instagram by sarah owen // trend forecaster for wgsn

instagram by amy rauner // footwear designer for converse

instagram by nurit yeshurun // director of concept and style at tiffany + co

instagram by morgan solomon // jewelry designer + former buyer at bloomingdales

instagram by tribble & mancenido // visual artists + photographers

instagram by brandon michaels // concept + brand designer

instagram by adam cohn // creative director of brand experience at converse

there's always next year in...

some thoughts: in recent years, art basel miami beach has seriously blown up. during the weekend long event, the city is overwhelmed with all kinds of art fairs and parties popping up everywhere. when i was down there last year, i was actually stressed out about how much art there was to see and how many things there were to do. it was a lot to take in but amazing nonetheless. somewhere in the sea of instagrams from this year's event, i saw the art basic image. and while i can't seem to find anything about it, anywhere, i'm thinking art basic is the reaction to this feeling of over-stimulation. excited to see what's next...

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required reading // links worth sharing

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1. nyt calls millennials the "slash generation" // well said.

2. mourning the death of microsoft clip art // rip.

3. ferguson now has the most powerful street art in america // put your hands up.

4. social media as part of the design process // it's a virtual reality.

5. the ultimate art basel instagram cuts the cheese // artsy fartsy.

6. new immersive installations and hybrid spaces at art basel // these are weird + welcoming.

7. a wake-up call to artists who risk losing their art in search of their career // the struggle is real.

8. “i collect not as a collector, but as an artist who finds things to use,” says allen ruppersberg // collecting as part of creating.

9. emerging female talent from pulse miami beach art fair // my kind of ladies.

10. what's up? nada, miami beach // wish i was there.

* image via hyperallergic // microsoft office *

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small talk // artists tribble & mancenido

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atwood road // 2014 // panels 1 -5 // tribble & mancenido

* my friends * frank tribble and tracey mancenido, or tribble & mancenido, are recent graduates of sva's art practice graduate program. they met back in 2004, while both in undergrad working at the same jean georges' restaurant in the meatpacking district of nyc. after helping each other out with personal projects, they started collaborating and creating projects together. their ideas became seamless and they decided to collaborate from that point on. they have now been making work together for almost a decade. 

tracey and frank say, "if outkast and wu-tang had babies, we could be those babies." their work featured in this post will be shown at miami project with sasha wolf gallery, during art basel miami (from dec 2-7 in the wynwood district).

255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 1 // tribble & mancenido

cultureisland: what is your artistic process?

tribble & mancenido: for us, art is deliberately and precariously held together without formal resolve. we see our work as allegories of connectedness and similarity, touching on themes of personal space, memory and the domestic. our practice is photo-based, with express regard for being both voyeur and subject, and a particular interest on social interactions and its documentation. these interests range across three areas: the everyday, the home and the archive. embedding ourselves into different social and cultural situations has become an integral part of how we make art. for a former project, hurry up & wait, we became truck-drivers in the united states for an entire year to live, work and be part of that subculture- documenting our journey, and the anonymity of living on the road.

255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 2 // tribble & mancenido

cultureisland: can you tell us more about your recent work?

tribble & mancenido: our current practice considers the similarities of the everyday of the domestic space, of the necessities of each individual’s life, and the familiarity of a home. in the work atwood road, we continue our investigations of being both subject and voyeur, investigating the interiority of our shared lives, moments and objects while using each other as a mirror reflection of one another. our constant dialogue as a collaborative is also a constant reflection. our intent is for the viewer to contemplate its interiority in relationship to his or her own domesticity. they may not even know it was once our own, but what is most important is that it is a distinct portrait of a home. an actual physical place for a person to simply exist. from august 2013 - august 2014 we lived in and sublet 7 apartments mostly through the commonly used online platform airbnb. during this time we stayed in many apartments and differing neighborhoods such as bed-stuy, clinton hill, south slope and the upper west side. in doing so, we stepped into the domestic lives of others, temporarily assuming their daily rituals and surrounded by their objects, both precious and utilitarian. we focused on the details that could possibly tell the story of a person’s life, while also addressing the anonymity of such constructions. the significance of personal objects was transferred onto us by the owners, and now onto the viewer as objects and photographic archives that we have created. the work ranges from nuanced shifts in dimension created by printing inside the edges of the frame taking on the subtlety of sculpture, to using actuals grids as an ode to typography often used in photography, to several polyptychs with fading color that visually mimic the fading of memory and time. our work challenges the everyday perceptions of our environments with close studies of photography’s materiality and subject at hand. we are all creators and anthropologists of the dailyness of daily life.

255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 3 // tribble & mancenido

cultureisland: where do you find inspiration? who are some of your favorite artists?

tribble & mancenido: we find inspiration everywhere everyday, concentrated on a shared experience, with lots of reading, seeing, doing and conversation. some of our favorite artists include judd, irwin, kosuth, duchamp, gary simmons, tim rollins and kos, lorna simpson, bernd and hilla becher, taryn simon, do ho suh, on kawara.

255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 4 // tribble & mancenido

cultureisland: what are your favorite places to see art in nyc?

tribble & mancenido: les galleries, bushwick galleries, museums and other artists' studios. 

255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 5 // tribble & mancenido

cultureisland: what other places in miami do you plan to check out during art basel?

tribble & mancenido: the private collections -- rubell, margulies and de la cruz. the moca and perez museums. the nada and independent fairs.

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* photographs are by tribble & mancenido // frank tribble & tracey mancenido // check out more of their work here + here, follow them on instagram here *