Ping Pong at NADA Art Fair
By Jordan Melnick | December 3rd, 2011 | 2 CommentsA yearly contemporary art fair for emerging galleries located, since 2009, at the Deauville Beach Resort, NADA sits casually between Art Basel Miami Beach, with its crème de la crème exhibitors, and the relatively small Wynwood mavericks, Seven and Fountain. The mood in the Deauville’s elegant ballrooms is calm, but that doesn’t mean NADA is a lax affair. The dealers, many of them in their 20s or early 30s, are ready to deal and often wired in to their laptops (invariably Macs) with a look of utter absorption.
NADA was one of my favorite fairs last year, and, while I didn’t enjoy it as much this time around, it was certainly worth the visit. One booth in particular that struck my fancy was the Cumulus Studios space in the back of the Richelieu Ballroom, which featured a black ping pong table (materials: aluminum, rubber, paint) by Tom Burr of New Haven, Conn.
As you can see, the ping pong table is functional, which, at $150,000, it better be. (Also pictured: powdered-coated, stainless-steel bench by Miami artist Jim Drain.)