Marilyn Minter’s luminous gaze opens Art Basel Miami Beach
The celebrated artist's intimate portrait Four AM arrives at the fair's Galleries sector, presented by Gavlak Gallery. Art Basel Miami Beach returns with a wealth of contemporary vision.
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Marilyn Minter’s Four AM commands immediate intimacy. The close cropped eye, rendered with the artist’s characteristic precision and sensuality, draws the viewer into an almost confrontational gaze. Flecks of gold catch the light at the inner corner; the iris itself seems to refract colour, shifting between azure and deeper blue, surrounded by flesh tones rendered in soft peachy and salmon hues. Tiny striations of red thread through the white of the eye, suggesting the rawness of sleeplessness, vulnerability, the particular exhaustion of the small hours.
Minter, whose practice has long explored desire, intimacy and the female form through photography and digital media, brings to this work her signature ability to reveal the extraordinary within the intimate. The painting technique, built through layers of pigment and light, creates an almost sculptural quality, as though the eye itself occupies real space rather than sitting flat on canvas.
The work arrives in the Galleries sector of Art Basel Miami Beach, presented by Gavlak Gallery, the Los Angeles and Santa Monica based gallery known for championing artists who combine technical mastery with conceptual depth. For those who move through the fair’s carefully curated galleries, Minter’s unflinching portrait offers a moment of genuine human connection amidst the vast ecosystem of contemporary art on view.
Imagery courtesy of Art Basel (@artbasel).
