Galeria Mayoral and Polígrafa, the two Catalan representatives at Art Basel Miami

Art Basel is a multinational art market and has managed to position three major world-class fairs from the first one it created in the 1980s in Basel to the current ones in Miami and Hong Kong. The pandemic turned last year's edition into digital, but this year the presence is back. This year, at the fair we find the presence of two Catalan galleries, the Barcelona Galeria Mayoral and Polígrafa. Art Basel Miami opens to the public tomorrow, December 2nd and until Saturday, although the preliminaries for collectors and the media began on November 30th and December 1st.

The first of them, Mayoral, also based in Paris, is taking part for the second year in a row "although this year is the first physically, as last year the covid did it differently", acknowledged Jordi Mayoral, director of l'espai dedicat a les avantguardes catalanes i espanyoles del segle XX. The room, which for years has been carrying out a very valuable recovery work on authors from this period, participates in the official gallery section. Among the works are pieces by Antoni Tàpies and Joan Miró, as well as the poignant expressionism of Antonio Saura. For the director it is "a source of pride to be able to participate in this event." When asked if having a space in Paris had helped him enter the prestigious competition, Mayoral replied that "all help, despite the work of a decade in the pursuit of excellence, I think has been decisive."

For her part, Polígrafa is a veteran, participating from the beginning in both Baselia and Miami. In the Miami edition he participates in the Editing section and the current owner, Álvaro Puigdengolas, net of a historical lineage of artists, comments that "the proposals we bring when we go to one place or another are quite different. when we come to Miami we like to work with North, Central and South American authors - like Liliana Porter ... - who are the majority public that accommodates this fair ". On whether the digital edition went well, Puigdengolas points out that "although the market for digital art and digital media transactions is growing every year, the truth is that being able to be in front of the work I think is crucial for to make a purchase and, above all, what works and what amounts even more ".

The protocols demanded by the pandemic, the insecurity with the transport and the arrival of the works on the agreed dates, as well as an alleged weakening of the market in Miami - which has been in decline for more than five years - have made it impossible for more Catalan galleries. In previous years RocioSantacruz and DNA had participated in the Untitled Fair, 3 points and N2 in Art Miami, Bombon Projects in NADA and Palma Dotze in the Latin art fair.