Kimberly Johansson with Val Britton in the Johansson Projects booth at Aqua Art Miami.

Every December, in the month's first week, the largest art fair in the United States goes down in Miami. The event brings together nearly every corner of the art world from America and abroad. The Art Basel Miami Beach as it is officially known is the sister show to a similar event which takes place each year in Basel, Switzerland. Since its inception in 2002, it has steadily grown. It now overshadows the original fair in terms of status, importance and sheer size. The fair draws the most powerful art dealers in the United States (Larry Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch,) and celebrities like Benicio Del Toro, street art phenomenon David Choe, Beyonce Knowles and Jay Z.

There are some hard realities beyond the clamor of a large scale art fair. For Oakland art dealer and gallery owners, the Miami art fairs offer a chance to cement the changes underway in the city's tumultuous art business. Over the last few years, Oakland has undergone a grand social and economic experience, which rivals that of Berkeley in the 1960s and 70s. That scene gave us Peet’s Coffee, the Cheeseboard, Amoeba Records and many other revolutionary business that balanced sustainability and innovation. The Miami art fairs are a sort of “coming out party” for many of the serious emerging galleries in America going about the business of selling and marketing culture. The connections and sales made there can help sustain a new gallery and maintain the health of a venerable one. It is a circus to be sure, but the rewards of success are great.

Just a few days ago, four Oakland-based curators/gallery directors returned from the Miami art fairs, which actually encompass over two dozen smaller art fairs, film screenings, and an abundance of parties both swanky and trashy. Oakland was represented officially and unofficially by Swarm Gallery’s Svea Lin Vezzone, Johansson Projects’ Kimberly Johansson, Rowan Morrison’s Pete Glover, and the recently opened Hatch Gallery’s Adam Hatch.

The first two curators/gallerists were there to sell art, network, see art, and mingle. Mr. Hatch went to enjoy the fairs and go about the very important task of information gathering. Mr. Glover went as a part of “Installation:5," a group show art tour for Scion, an automaker who funds many art projects, including a collaborative series of short films Mr. Glover created with David Choe.

I spoke with each curator/gallerist about the art fairs, the business of art in an economic downturn and the possibilities held in such a time. Ms. Lin Vezzone noted the equalizing force of a satellite art fair such as Aqua. At that event, she displayed the work of Sarah Smith and Andy Vogt. She elaborated on art world geography, arguing that the power of a prime spot on the art map, “… has diminished a bit, but in all reality, galleries on the periphery will not sell as much work or gain as much exposure as galleries in big cities...a gallery is going to do better in New York than it will in Oakland, and galleries cannot survive without sales.”

Ms. Johansson spoke to me of the importance of the interaction of the art world’s many parts saying, “The foundation of an art scene necessitates the social integration of many elements: artists, galleries, critics, and patrons of the arts… (The Miami art fairs) are great exposure for the artists I show and give them opportunities to be curated into projects in other venues outside of my gallery in Oakland.” Johansson Projects was also represented at Aqua showing the work of many local women artists including Jen Stark, Misa Inaoka, Kristina Lewis, Val Britton, and Yvette Molina. Ms. Johansson recently sold a piece by the last artist listed for $40,000, something not seen very often in Oakland’s art marketplace. An art fair is certainly a place for collectors to buy fresh new work or to make investments, but it is as much a place for connections. As Ms. Johansson notes, “We met curators, one that will be including Val Britton in a mapping exhibition, placed work in great collections in Tokyo and the US and got the word out about Oakland.”

The vibe at Aqua was certainly less pretentious or heated than the main Art Basel. There, collectors scramble to buy any available work. Ms. Lin Vezzone describes the mood, “…Aqua Art Miami (hotel) had a very communal setting. There were more than 44 rooms surrounding one courtyard, so people would hang out, put their feet in the jacuzzi, and socialize. It had the best “feel” of any of the fairs, I thought. I loved getting to see other galleries’ programs, meeting others doing the same thing I am. The fairs make the art world a smaller, more accessible place."

Space doesn’t come cheap at these fairs, economic downturn or not. As Pete Glover puts it, “I do know it is seriously expensive to rent space at these art fairs. Minimum would be about five grand, and space in the actual Art Basel can be up to $80,000 or more. That doesn’t include shipping and installing the art. Of course, some of the artwork being sold is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars (or even millions), so just a few sales make for a big profit.”

If there was ever a person born to be an art dealer/curator/gallery director, it would be Adam Hatch. This one time nurse is currently in the complementary fields of construction and art. For roughly one year prior to Mr. Hatch’s gallery’s opening, he “guest – ran” Ego Park, the cleverly titled and well loved gallery near 23rd Street and Telegraph, which was the former tenant of the space where the Hatch gallery now sits.

On a recent weekday evening in his office, Hatch regales me with tales of the somewhat unexpected celebrity sightings he witnessed as well as the intense, sparkling energy percolating in Miami this month. Last year he attended the Miami art fairs for the first time, sharing a rental with Barry Monigle of ABCo Artspace and Vanessa Maida of the recently opened Fort Gallery.

As his small black three-legged pooch, Casper, dances around us, Hatch speaks of the profoundly democratizing and decentralizing effect the Internet has had on art , and claims that the art fairs have a similar effect. He’s a hard man to reach as he should be, juggling three jobs - two of those running art spaces. One of the two, Lobot Gallery, is the largest regularly curated non - museum art space in the Bay Area. He says that the most exciting new art displayed in Miami was to be had at the lower and mid–tier galleries on the art world's economic scale.

That's where Oakland finds itself now, albeit with a brightly flourishing art community and growing market. It took Esteban Sabar for someone like Steve Jobs to buy art in Oakland rather than San Francisco and it has taken forward- thinking art dealers like Kimberly Johansson and Svea Lin Vezzone to get Oakland in America’s largest collection of art fairs.

Next year, they will be joined by Mr.Hatch as he plans to have Hatch Gallery represented with a bevy of talented Bay Area artist in tow. He raves to me of the work of Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor as well as the work of a local, Jay Nelson, who was there with San Francisco’s Triple Base Gallery. For Hatch, the best part of the fair was “the clearer redefinition of a sort of Bay Area art aesthetic and the strong showing of local artists in evidence. Furthermore, the tight knit collaborative spirit of our local art scene could be seen even in Miami.” Upon asking what sort of artists he is looking for, Hatch replies, “There are a lot of artists on Oakland, but I am looking for people who are ‘lifers’. They spent time in their studio and do the work.” Among the artists Hatch gallery will showing in the coming year are prolific sculptor Derek Weisberg and painter Nate Crane.

What of the economic downturn in terms of art, the business and making of it?

Ms. Johansson and Ms. Lin Vezzone both did better this year than the last, which bodes well for the middle tier of the market, and both spoke of the ample opportunity to make personal connections with artists, fans, fellow gallerists and collectors. As Lin Vezzone puts it: “The cliche amongst art dealers is that you’d pay more money for an ad in a national art magazine than doing a fair, and at a fair, you get face-time. This makes the trip totally worth it.”

Ms. Johansson speaks of market alteration, “Great art is often created during times of struggle. The trendy, overpriced art might just take a much needed correction in the marketplace.” Adam Hatch sees that Oakland’s time has come, “Oakland is rapidly emerging. When I first moved in 1999, I was amazed by what I saw here downtown on a Sunday– it like a nuclear bomb went off – there was no life..! Now there are restaurants opening all around us. There are new galleries opening. Oakland’s image is changing. We are being driven by this history we don’t want to claim anymore. Oakland has heart. There are a lot of great ideas here. There is a dialogue happening in the community. The reason [Oakland’s future] is going to be successful is it has this momentum built up from years and years of having no momentum.”

While the two participating Oakland galleries fared passably this year, it certainly wasn’t the case for all Bay Area spaces at Miami this year. A well connected local curator who wishes to remain anonymous told me just this week that San Francisco’s Rena Bransten and White Walls galleries respectively sold poorly and likely didn’t recoup their costs.

Sobering news indeed, as the two spaces show many local artists, many based in Oakland. Pete Glover offers a cautiously optimistic voice, “Well, it looks like tough times are ahead for everybody in every community, so art will be no exception. I think the local, Oakland arts community is pretty self-sustaining and not as directly connected to the economics of the large scale art dealing world. Art businesses (as well as being an artist) are not really the best place to make easy money, so I think those that care about the art scene are prepared to work through any tough times. Things might get rough for all businesses, but art will always survive.”