MIAMI, FLA.- Aqua Art Miami, part of Art Miami LLC, kicked off its 10th Anniversary earlier this week to commemorate Miami Art Week with an energetic VIP Private Preview event and Opening Public Day in the boutique indoor/outdoor Art Deco Aqua Hotel in the heart of South Beach off Collins Avenue. Known for its playful spirit and dynamic exhibitors, enhanced by this year’s line-up of top innovative performance artists, Aqua Art Miami completely transformed all 47 hotel rooms to showcase 46 galleries from seven countries and 180 artists from 16 countries which presented a dynamic range of high-quality emerging and mid-career artists working in all media, ranging from painting, photography and works on paper to design, sculpture, installation, performance, video and multimedia art.

On December 3’s VIP opening night, more than 3,000 collectors, art luminaries, journalists, curators and social influencers attended the evening’s opening soiree with a line of eager guests lined blocks beyond the hotel entrance. Attendees had the unique opportunity to be the first to experience a wide range of emerging and mid-career artist selections of world-class artworks, innovative cultural programming, and interactive new-media art. In the picturesque outdoor courtyard, guests enjoyed curated music by Sound.wav, with one visitor surprising guests with a fully-clothed impromptu dip in Aqua Hotel’s hot tub. Despite the rain on December 4, over 1,500 people attended the opening public day.

VIPs, curators, art buyers, journalists and notables at Aqua included Lewis Kruger, a collector and the Chairman of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City; Maria Brito, celebrity art advisor to P. Diddy Combs, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rihanna; Joseph Becker, curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Wendy Kaplan curator and department head at the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art; Sydney Williams, curator at the Palm Springs Art Museum; Jane Stoker, collector and philanthropist; and Lisa Roberts, collector, author and trustee of Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others.

Sales were strong on opening night, requiring many exhibitors to rehang new work for the following day. Seager/Gray Gallery of Mill Valley, California reported the sale of a blown glass bird by artist Jane Rosen for $24,000 and a book sculpture by Andrew Hayes for an undisclosed price. The Good Luck Gallery of Los Angeles sold 11 small works by Jeff Cairns, as well as pieces by Elias Telles, Harry Steinberg, Noah Erenberg and Andrea Joyce Heimer on opening night. Pele Prints sold four notable works on their most successful preview to date by artists including Mary O’Malley, Alicia LaChance, Benjamin Pierce, and Laura Berman.

During the December 3 VIP private preview, notable guests enjoyed cocktails and innovative performance interruptions in the courtyard. Performance artists Amy Kaps and Michael McCall captured the audience with two matchless, interactive performances not seen anywhere else during Miami Art Week. In a colorful and crowd-engaging performance piece titled “Unraveled in Aqua,” Kaps literally unraveled herself from over 1,700 feet of flagging tape that began as a dress and resulted in a trail marking her journey throughout the architecture, people and objects within the space. In a one-on-one performance titled “Assembling Heaven’s Collection,” McCall conjured up the spirit of famed curator, Walter Hopps, bartering with those who want representation in Heaven’s Art Collection using foreign currency from various countries where Hopps visited during his travels for the Menil and Guggenheim Museums. The pieces procured during the performance will consequently be shipped to Heaven by a courier to be named at a later date.

During the December 4 opening public day festivities, guests experienced once-in-a-lifetime performances by the celebrated Karen Finley who hosted “Artists Anonymous” sessions, 12-step program for visitors who felt that their lives had been affected by art. Surprise guest artist speakers, including notable curators and collectors joined and offered testimonials of transformation. Karen also provided incredible one-on-one painted psychic portraits in the Aqua courtyard for collectors.

“It’s incredible to see how Aqua is evolving curatorially in its 10th anniversary year. This year we are proud to feature the most diverse roster of galleries to-date, a mix of established returning exhibitors and young galleries completely new to the Miami art market. The hotel setting is unique in that walking into a room, rather than past a booth, engages guests more intimately in the viewing experience. The incredible outpour of positive feedback we’ve received on Aqua is unbelievable and I am thrilled to see what the rest of the week has in store.

Art Miami Aqua is open to the public from Thursday, December 4 through Sunday, December 7 and will continue to present a number of dynamic installations and a series of interactive performance programs throughout the week that encourage audience interaction in the artistic process. For the 2014 program, exhibitors were selected through a newly formed Advisory Committee, comprised of Mat Gleason of Coagula Curatorial, Los Angeles, Nancy Toomey of Toomey Tourell Fine Art, San Francisco, and Henry Chung and Robert Walden of Robert Henry Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY.