This is the weekend that Art Basel will be taking place in Miami. There is an insane amount of art to be seen, and many of the artists that have been featured on this and other art sites dedicated to “underground” art, are being shown in some of the booths at the event. Black Maria Gallery is one of them, and will be a part of the Aqua Art Miami in booth #23. Some of the artists that will be featured are: Paul Chatem, Steven Daily, Ken Garduno, Jason Hernandez, Tom Neely and more. The preview of works is up on the galleries website if you want to check them all out.
Art Basel is one of the events that I would love to go to, but there are a few other sites that were able to attend and have ongoing coverage. Stop by Arrested Motion and Daily Du Jour for more pics of the work that can be seen at Art Basel this year.

Check out the rest of the art: Black Maria Gallery @ Aqua Art Miami

As opposed to the “Art of the Day” section, the new “Artists Profiles” category will be more of an introduction or a small feature of sorts.
So the first artist for this new area is Australian sculptor, Sam Jinks. His work is amazingly realistic, and at first glance is very reminiscent of Ron Mueck. Without being able to see these works in person and just judging them on pictures alone, it does look as though Sam has been more successful at making the surface areas of the sculptures look more like real skin than others have. I like that on a few of the pieces he has decided to add tattoo work as an element.

One of the sculptures entitled “Doghead”, reminds me a bit of Tom Neely’s wolfhead series. Not like it would ever happen, but I think it would be great if those two artists did a collaboration piece.

Head on over to Sam’s website to see more work: Sam Jinks Homepage

All weekend long, if you are in San Francisco you might want to stop over to the Concourse and check out the Alternative Press Expo. It will be filled with all sorts of indie comics, and there will of course be the original art and prints that many of these artists will no doubt have with them.

I love indie, self published comics, but it is really the art/prints that I am going to see. So I have put together a little list of some of the artists that you will be able to check out at the show. I am told it is not very big, nothing like SDCC, so finding some of these artists shouldn’t be too hard in case I wasn’t able to get the table number they are at.

- Food One, Dave Crosland & Scott Morse will be at #314, and then later that night at the Space Gallery on Polk for a live art with screen printing on an item you bring.
- Tom Haubs and Ken Garduno will be there, with some original works and a new zine.
- Hi Fructose will be there at #350-351, make sure you stop by to pick up some back issues.
- Lesley Reppeteaux & Daryll Peirce will be at table #119
- Alex Pardee will be there with ZeroFriends at #150. Bunnywith 2 will be sold, and a new 8″ x 10″ print that looks amazing.
- Ben Walker will be at table #446
- Camilla d’Errico will be at table #272, with some prints, keychains and books.
- David Choong Lee will be at #254-255
- IDW Publishing will be at booth #331-332, and I think Ben Templesmith will be signing.
- Jim Mahfood will be at table #314
- Jeremy Tinder will be at #349 with his new “Papercutter” book
- Tom Neely will be at #360-361 with some books

Along with the A.P.E there is also two shows opening that go along with the Expo.
At Varnish Art, the group show “Crom” opens. It’s all work inspired by the Conan movies from the artists that are there for APE. The show opens at 7pm and will have work from N8 Van Dyke, Jon Wayshak, Alex Pardee and many more. Check it out

Also, Panelists IV opens at Giant Robot SF at 6:30pm – 10pm. The show will feature work from such comic artists as: Allison Cole, Matt Furie, David Horvath, Mats!?, Tom Neely, Jeremy Tinder and many others. Check it out Here