Gabriele Heidecker

In 2006, The New York Times' art critic Roberta Smith described Art Basel Miami as, "…a decentralized sprawling mass of excitement and display, plus lots of disposable wealth. It is the art world's version of Mardi Gras." The Miami fair's more established European partner, Art Basel, has been described as "the Olympics of the art world," and "a modern art mecca" by The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal respectively. Add to these the Venice Biennale, Documenta, Skulptur Projekte Münster, the Armory show, SITE Santa Fe, the Whitney, Liverpool, Sao Paolo, Berlin, Sharjah, Sydney, Beijing, Prague and Istanbul biennials and dozens of other international fairs seemingly proliferating without check, and you have a pretty accurate depiction of the state of the roving art world epicenter today. For years, Berlin photographer Gabriele Heidecker has documented the key moments, players and artworks of this evolving phenomenon. Produced to accompany the 2007 Art Basel Miami fair, this probing photographic study includes analytic essays by a consortium of experts in the field.