Batman inspired Thierry Mugler boat - The Thierry Mugler Spire Speedboat

Speed-freaks and fashionistas will dig the Batman boat by runway designer Thierry Mugler modeled by Spire Boat Builder, set to debut in September this year in the 2011 Monaco Yacht show. The boat is a blend of nostalgic 50s era chrome and tailfin-inspired car aesthetic with the comic book style of Bat mobiles. But designing for a floating lifestyle maybe a new trend.

Aquariva by Marc Newson

Batman inspired Thierry Mugler boat - The Thierry Mugler Spire Speedboat

Speedboats and yachts have become the new luxury art objects after Gagosian Gallery launched Aquariva by Marc Newson which combined Italian riviera chic from the 60’s with the best of aerodynamic design by Riva

Batman inspired Thierry Mugler boat - The Thierry Mugler Spire Speedboat

Other nautical inspirations include the Greek billionaire art-collector Dakis Joannou’s Jeff Koons-commissioned work for his yacht Guilty. Koons’ idea came from WWI  boat-camouflaging techniques called razzle dazzle, or razzle camouflaging, but his angular abstract shapes also recall pop-art by Roy Lichtenstein.

The Jeff Koons' designed boat for Dakis Joannou

Dennis Ingemansson designed green concept boat

Dennis Ingemansson designed concept boat

Nothing could stop Art Basel from having another successful year in Miami. Not a recession, not adverse conditions—though heavy rain and flooding destroyed a few works of art—could keep the droves of people from returning to south Florida and jamming the aisles of all participating spaces and the streets of the Design District.

What felt like most of Miami—and New York, LA, and Europe’s art communities—flocked mostly to the Miami Convention Center in search of fine art and design. The more adventurous patrons made their way across the causeway and back to the mainland.

Comparing SCOPE to Art Basel at the Convention Center is like comparing the Uptown and Downtown scenes in New York; they’re total opposites. For those who have never been, Art Basel is made up of several different parts: Art Basel, SCOPE, Pulse, Art Asia, and the bevy of neighborhood galleries that fling open their doors during the week and curate exhibitions of their own. Truth be told, these are often the most interesting shows to experience, as they have no preconceptions and are akin to Dash’s old shows at Deitch circa 2005: completely uninhibited.

New York Street Artist Judith Supine's Newest Work

One such show was “Art Whino,” which was held at Charcoal Gallery on 1st Avenue in Miami. A somewhat industrial and raw space, the exhibition was curated with the likes of Barry McGee and early Shepard Fairey in mind. Silkscreens as far as the eye could see, paired with stencils on canvas…on top of other stencils on canvas, chunky oils, and collages. Paired with knowledgeable curators and the artists themselves mixing with their constituents, it had a refreshing absence of the structured art-fair feeling.

"It's Better to Burn Out Than to Fade Away," at Charcoal Gallery's Art Whino

In the big top, Gagosian and Deitch were the undisputed heavy-hitters. Jeffrey brought out his customary big guns—Julian Schnabel, Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey, Keith Haring, Swoon, and Ryan McGuiness—while Gagosian countered with the likes of Richard Prince, Basquiat, Warhol, and Jeff Koons.

Barry McGee's "99 Bottles on the Wall"

"Aung San Suu" by Shepard Fairey at Deitch Projects

Jeff Koons at Gagosian

Stay tuned for more Art Basel updates throughout the week.

Last month in Paris, during event to promote the launch of a show of work on September 13th by French pop artist Xavier Veilhan at Château de Versailles, the Versailles museum director Jean-Jacques Aillagon announced to the Associated Free Press that Japanese artist Takashi Murakami had been chosen to appear at the venerable institution in 2010.  Murakami is often described as the “Japanese Warhol,” due perhaps to his Pop art style and extremely prolific production of work.  Of course another artist often described in this way is Jeff Koons, who in the winter of last year displayed many of his significant sculpture pieces at Versailles, which though iconic as contemporary art, were perhaps incongruous to that particular location.

Though the Jeff Koons in Versailles show last year was generally concluded to be both a successful and well attended exhibition, with almost 1 million visitors attending, it did garner significant controversy.  Prince Charles-Emmanuel de Bourbon-Parme, a French aristocrat in the line of succession to the French throne and a descendant of the palace’s original creator, Louis XIV, mounted a hight-profile legal challenge to the installation, which ultimately failed. Prince Charles-Emmanuel cited the Koons exhibition as “pornographic.”  As Takashi Murakami is also known to produce relatively illicit subject matter in his art, this exhibit may as well stir up some ire with French traditionalists.

Jeff Koons at Versailles

Takashi Murakami currently has simultaneous solo exhibitions this month in both Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, New York and at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris.

New Murakami