African Art to Shine at Miami’s Art Basel December 6-9

The 11th annual art carnival known as Art Basel Miami Beach is set to kick off next week and will feature Art Africa Miami as its cultural hub. The Miami Beach Convention Center will be hosting the showcase for more than 50 contemporary artists from the global African Diaspora from Dec. 6 to 9.  Typically, Art Basel (which was founded in 1970) pulls from more than 250 leading art galleries from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, exhibiting modern artworks by more than 2,000 artists. Until 2011, when Neil Hall — owner of TheUrbanCollective’s Art Africa Miami — stepped in, the main show hadn’t had black galleries represented.

“The only criterion is that excellence will always trump race,” he told the 2011 Art Basel crowd. “So if we produce the finest of things, others will follow. We have a tradition of that.”

This year’s exhibitions will showcase a wide spectrum of black culture, including a musical memorial of Mambo King Cachao, a celebration of Jamaica’s 50th anniversary and many more pieces from a potpourri of the Diaspora’s best contemporary visual artists.

article by Stacy-Ann Ellis via theroot.com