Huê Thi Hoffmaster
Sure Thing, 2025
oil on canvas
84 x 119 in.
213.4 x 302.3 cm.
On Wednesday, Art Basel Miami Beach opened its VIP preview with something the art market hasn’t felt much lately: momentum. The skies were clear outside, while inside a queue of well-heeled attendees snaked around the convention center, waiting for the doors to open. A cluster of extravagantly dressed older collectors, many sporting multiple large glinting rings, swarmed the entrance, scanning for acquaintances who might let them edge ahead. A tanned woman in gold heels and a skin-tight yellow-and-pink leopard-print dress put it best, muttering as she stepped inside, “Lord, I haven’t seen it this busy in years and the fair hasn’t even started yet.”
Whether there were actually more attendees than in previous years—or simply the feeling of more—the mood was undeniably buoyant, bolstered by a $2.2 billion November auction season in New York. Perception is reality, as the political strategist Lee Atwater once said, and in the art world that goes double. The excitement from last month appears to have continued into December, despite lingering anxiety in the gallery sector and a larger-than-usual number of first-time exhibitors.
By mid-morning, major early sales were already circulating. At the top end, David Zwirner reported selling a Gerhard Richter for $5.5 million, followed by a 1967 Alice Neel for $3.3 million, two Josef Albers paintings from his Homage to the Square series for $2.5 million and $2.2 million, and a Ruth Asawa wall-mounted wire sculpture (ca. 1969) for $1.2 million. Hauser & Wirth sold George Condo’s Untitled (Taxi Painting) for just under $4 million; two Louise Bourgeois works followed at $3.2 million and $2.5 million, and additional sales by Ed Clark, Henry Taylor, and Rashid Johnson all reached the seven figures. A substantial group of additional sales between $80,000 and $800,000 included works by Pat Steir, Günther Förg, Qiu Xiaofei, Annie Leibovitz, Lee Bul, Nairy Baghramian, María Berrío, Catherine Goodman, Angel Otero, William Kentridge, Jenny Holzer, Firelei Báez, Nicole Eisenman, Cindy Sherman, Roni Horn, Uman, Jack Whitten, and Ambera Wellmann.
Even so, many dealers told ARTnews that the pace felt more measured than last year’s edition. “It’s much quieter and a bit more serious, which is better,” New York gallerist Nicola Vassell said. Major collectors—including the Rubells, Beth DeWoody, Jorge M. Pérez, Komal Shah, and Lisa Goodman—were seen moving through the aisles.
Sales aside, many in attendance framed the week more in terms of psychology. “People are going into this with a really positive attitude,” art advisor Mari-Claudia Jiménez told ARTnews. “It’s the glass half full—everyone’s looking at everything in the best possible light.” Had New York’s auctions faltered, she noted, the reaction to Miami’s booths might have been very different.
At West Palm Beach’s Gavlak, an untitled 1960s Helen Frankenthaler work on paper sold for $300,000, while contemporary works by Jessica Cannon, Maynard Monrow, T.J. Wilcox, and Nancy Lorenz brought in another $100,000. Founder Sarah Gavlak attributed much of the energy to mood rather than macroeconomics. “The sales [in New York] boosted this confidence. It’s all psychological. It’s emotional,” she told ARTnews.
Gavlak, who has been based in Palm Beach for 20 years, argued that Miami Basel has been essential to shaping American taste. “This region wasn’t known for very much,” she said. “But Miami Basel is one of the reasons contemporary art became popular in America. People come here, they have an experience, they start collecting.”
The current slower pace of business, Gavlak continued, may ultimately benefit galleries focused on long-term relationships. “It’s how I’ve always worked and, if you’ve never left that, you don’t have to return to it,” she said.
Eric Firestone, whose booth drew steady foot traffic throughout the day, said he avoids bringing anything “played out” in the market, preferring work that creates a sense of discovery. By Wednesday afternoon, he reported selling three Pat Passlof works for $250,000–$300,000; three Huê Thi Hoffmaster pieces for $25,000–$95,000; and three Lauren dela Roche works for $30,000–$75,000.
By late afternoon, it was clear that while the top end of the market remained steady, the overall pace was calmer. “There’s no urgency in the market,” one prominent New York advisor said. Sales were still happening, she noted, but “the pace is more spread out”—a “new normal” that galleries are adjusting to, even if “it’s a hard pill to swallow.”
Thomas Danziger, the New York lawyer who represents a global cadre of art collectors, took a similar view. “The 2025 fair got it right,” he said, praising exhibitors for bringing “safe but not boring works which don’t shock but actually sell,” and noting the prominence of the Zero10 section, where a crowd-pleasing Beeple sculpture—depicting prominent billionaires and the artist as robot dogs—suggested that digital art had “moved beyond one-trick NFTs.”
And then, delivering the kind of line that could only be said in Miami, Danziger added, “Let’s face it: no matter what’s on the walls, for New Yorkers like me, December in Miami is never a hardship.”