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For the seventh year in a row, artist Kehinde Wiley rented a large fishing boat on Saturday to take friends to catch fish in the choppy waters off the Florida coast for his Sunday night fish fry. Wiley has been a standout star at Art Basel Miami Beach for several years running, and has been showing massive paintings of fallen figures in a state of repose with new representative Sean Kelly Gallery.
At Wiley's fish fry at the Shore Club last night, DJ Chelsea Leyland kept the ambiance lively and Patrick McMullan and Todd Eberle snapped pictures of the stylish guests, who included Pace Gallery's Nicola Vassell, entrepreneur Tracey Ryans, and architect David Adjaye. We pulled Wiley aside to get the back story on the annual event.
How many years have you been having the fish fry?
I've been doing the fish fry since 2003. I've been coming back and forth to Miami every year with the intention of enjoying the environment and weather, but also doing something with artists that defines its own shape and space -- creating a kind of subculture here that belongs to us. We choose one of the most commercial days of the fair, Saturday, to go out on the water to go fishing. It's always a joy.
How many fish did you catch yesterday?
We caught pretty much all of the fish that's being consumed here tonight – about eight fish with an average poundage of 18 lbs. There were some pretty large monsters that we pulled out of the water. We were out for half a day, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
How many years have you been holding the fish fry at the Shore Club?
It's been three years now. We were trying to find a cool place to stay and my gallerist at the time, Jeffrey Deitch, had a relationship with the Shore Club. It's a place that feels very festive, but it also has these quite corners, where you can have a private event that still feels like it really means something. Every year, we find a new incarnation to build on what we've previously done.
Who prepares the food?
Every year we try to find someone new, although last year I fell in love with this amazing chef, Sam Talbot [executive chef of the soon-to-open Mondrian SoHo in New York City], and he convinced me that he has the chops to really go in deep on Southern cuisine. He's made a believer out of me, as well a lot of people here.
Didn't you order sides from an incredible local caterer in year's past?
We still work with People's Bar-B-Que & Soul Food in Little Haiti. I think it brings a little bit of the Miami that we don't necessarily see in South Beach to the Art Basel experience. I think they really enjoy the presence and the footprint that they have here, as well.
What do you hope your friends and supporters will experience at the party?
I try to give them a breath of fresh air and provide a place where you can feel a different tempo, feel a sense of personal love and touch with friends and family that rises above a lot of the impersonal nature of the art industrial complex that deal with day to day. It's a truer example of my lived life.
