Jeffrey Deitch Champions Ultra-Emerging Artists in Miami Pop-Up

For more than two decades, the New York art dealer Jeffrey Deitch has been organizing eye-catching pop-ups during Miami’s annual art week, which is anchored by the Art Basel Miami Beach.

This year was no different, except that his latest exhibition features a lineup of ultra-emerging artists that will almost certainly be new to most viewers. It was organized by American Art Projects, a platform spearheaded by a Deitch associate director, William Croghan, and his partner, Benno Tubbesing, the former director of the German gallery Ruttkowski;68‘s New York branch.

The show, which runs a for a month in a capacious two-floor space in Miami’s Design District, is titled “That Was Then, This Is Now,” and it showcases predominantly West Coast artists that are part of a loose community. “It really started with access to space, sharing ideas, and observing the artists we are interested in,” Tubbesing told me.

The two curators, who met a few years ago at Art Basel in Switzerland, tested out their curatorial premise earlier this year in Berlin during Berlin Gallery Weekend. “It clicked,” Croghan said. “There was interesting energy, and we wanted to keep on going.”

For the Miami edition, they worked with Deitch and a friend, Sam Robins, the son of collector Craig Robins, the Miami developer behind the Design District.

“Berlin was the starting point,” Tubbesing said. “It was like a rabbit hole. We kept meeting people” to include. The current version of the show, which opened on Tuesday at 119 NE 41st Street, features about two dozen artists.

They include Mario Ayala, who is also featured in a concurrent show of selections from Craig Robins’s collection, “Walking On Air,” at the nearby headquarters of his firm, Dacra, and Alfonso Gonzalez, Jr.

The opening was packed, and when I arrived, Tubbesing was escorting the Serpentine Gallery‘s artistic director, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and his entourage through the show.

The exhibition also includes a curated selection of books, clothing, and ceramic cups from the participating artists. “For people who are fans but may be priced out of a major piece, furniture and smaller objects create a different entry point,” Tubbesing said. The ceramicist Sharif Farrag, for instance, has created more modestly sized cups that are for sale alongside his elaborate glazed ceramic pieces.

Artist Adrian Schachter (son of Artnet contributor Kenny Schachter) has several paintings in the show, but he is also showcasing his fashion line, Adrian Cashmere by displaying text-laden sweatpants and T-shirts throughout the space.

What does Craig Robins think of it all?

“Jeffrey Deitch has been a true partner in shaping the artistic landscape of the Miami Design District since 2002,” he said in an email. The show “continues that conversation in a powerful way. The exhibition brings together a remarkable group of emerging and established artists whose work resonates deeply with the District’s commitment to creativity, experimentation and cultural exchange.”