Maybe more interesting than what happens at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair during the day is what happens at night during the parties. Here are photos from some of those events that have taken place over the past few days.

Above photo: Friday, December 2: Gagosian Gallery party at The Standard Hotel

Thursday, December 1: The X-Patsys (Robert Longo, Barbara Sukowa and Jon Kessler) performing at The New World Symphony

Click “Read More” for additional images.

Friday, December 2: Visionaire party at The Delano Hotel 

Thursday, December 1: Le Baron Miami at The Delano Hotel, late night

Thursday, December 1: A Frank Ghery-designed building at the Performa Ten Great Years Celebration

Friday, December 2: Dzine installation launch, hosted by Andre Balazs and with Kanon Vodka at The Standard Hotel

Saturday, December 3: Jerry’s Diner, 5:30 am

“Until now, every magazine was a bunch of pages stapled together. It arrived in your mailbox folded, mutilated spindled — usually with more ads than editorial. Last year, a group of us enjoying the sun, skiing and unique cultural climate of Aspen Colorado, asked ourselves, ‘Why?’

Why, for example, couldn’t a magazine come in a box? Why shouldn’t an article exploring jazz be accompanied by an LP record illustrating in sound our words in print? Why couldn’t each article be a separate booklet, in the shape, color and paper most appropriate to the subject?

We kept asking why for months. Aspen magazine is the answer.” – August 1966 advertisement for Aspen

Since I first stumbled upon some excerpts from Aspen my freshman year in college, I have been enthusiastically telling anyone who will listen that the magazine stands, perhaps alongside Wyndham Lewis’ and Ezra Pound’s Vorticist journal BLAST from the 1910s, as easily the best (and, for that matter, although here the hyperbole is somewhat less warranted, most influential) publication of the 20th century.  Regardless of its short run and truncated distribution – it only spanned ten ‘issues’ over six years – its influence on contemporary media radiates through to even the most somnambulant of readers, as magazines such as Visionaire (and, perhaps, even our own Dossier) have picked up on Aspen‘s discursive folding-over of various, often incongruent, forms of media; and, crucially, they have appropriated its sort of lofty self-awareness of, among other things, the very implications of publishing: of calling this disseminated assemblage of various works a ‘magazine.’

But you really don’t need me to convince you of anything. The list of  contributors that founding editor Phyllis Johnson brought together for Aspen‘s short run is truly astounding, and should, in a sort of silent, coercive demonstration, do all of the convincing itself.  Among them: Andy Warhol, John Cale, Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, William Burroughs, Marcel Duchamp, Philip Glass, Richard Serra, Jasper Johns, Ken Jacobs, J.G. Ballard, John Cage, Carolee Schneemann, Morton Feldman, Timothy Leary, Gerard Malanga, Alain Robbe-Grillet Robert Rauschenberg, Hans Richter, John Lennon, Merce Cunningham, Willem de Kooning, La Monte Young.

Like its contemporary cousin Visionaire, Aspen has had the good fortune of being regarded as a ‘collector’s item’; and, unfortunately, for most that means that getting a copy of a fully-intact issue is something of a monetary issue.  Thankfully, UbuWeb has been kind enough to post every issue, in its entirety, on its site, in a very clean, navigable layout.  Click on the image above (of the cover of the third issue, designed by Andy Warhol) to navigate to that page.

Seldom does art change before your eyes. No one, for instance, goes to the Reina Sofia expecting to see Guernica leap into vibrant color. But then Visionaire, the boutique publisher of multi-format art and fashion albums, has always enjoyed exceeding our expectations. Their new issue, Visionaire 56 Solar, a collaboration with Calvin Klein Collection, is a titillating combination of art and innovation: when exposed to sunlight, the album’s grayscale images bloom like ecstatic geraniums. It’s Spring, after all, and why shouldn’t they?

The Solar’s pages are printed with a special photochromic ink. When viewed indoors, they appear in black & white, the cover itself a lovely gray-white woven patch taken from a Roe Ethridge photograph. Most of the images look marvelous as-is, but when taken outdoors, sunlight infuses them with remarkable new color and depth. Seeing a Richard Phillips photograph shift from subdued two-tone to wild polychrome is like watching fireworks explode in a bottle.

Other artists featured in Solar include Yoko Ono, John Baldessari, Ugo Rondinone, Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Mario Sorrenti, M/M (Paris), Alex Katz, Richard Phillips, Olaf Breuning, Peter Lindbergh, Ryan McGinley, Richard Burbridge, and Glen Luchford. All of the work is brilliant.

Visionaire, the boutique publisher of multi-format art and fashion “albums,” has released its first fifty issues as a single collection big enough to fill a Goyard trunk. As it happens, this particular Goyard trunk opens into a chiffonier, and each issue can be stored snugly in its own shelf, slot, compartment or pouch. For Visionaire, who specialize in a sort of art couture, packaging their library in a piece of designer luggage makes perfect sense. Á bon vin, point d’enseigne, as they say.

Each limited-edition issue is a miscegenation of art and fashion. Included in the collection is Issue #44 (Toys), a set of five Japanese-inspired baubles done by designers like Versace and Valentino. Then there’s #47 (Taste), a collaboration with IFF, which comprises a dozen or so “flavor-strips” of outrageous variety. And let’s not forget #24 (Light), a series of large-format transparencies—including work by Andreas Gursky and Christopher Bucklow—viewable via a portable light-box carrying-case. The bad news is each trunk is priced like a Tuscan villa; the good news is that the Visionaire collection contains so much designer chic that you’ll never have to fly to Italy again.

While Monday everyone was still busy talking about last week’s Demolition Party, (where yes, Jude Law participated in the destruction of a French hotel, and no I was in Corsica and didn’t go) tomorrow no doubt everyone will be talking about last night’s Lacoste-Visionaire party, held on the Paquebot on the River Seine. The party was to celebrate Lacoste’s 75th anniversary, and to sneak a peak at Visionaire 54 Sport, a collaboration between the two brands.

Thanks to a pretty lax schedule I go to my fair share of parties in Paris, often under the guise of whatever party being the best party in Paris (or else why go, right?). My friend Taylor (aka Joy@institutedubonheur) claims her parties in the Jardin Bagatelle top the list; friends of Andre (no last name) say Le Baron on any night of the week is the best in town (though don’t ask me how a superlative can span a full week at a time; that seems wrong, right?) But if Joy can unite Paris’ best and brightest (and ultimately have a tiresome blue-blooded mix) and the Baron’s doormen can filter out who’s hot from who’s not (until the club becomes almost frigid from coolness, despite having the best music in town) last night demonstrated that a party can be hot, AND exclusive, AND at the same time really fuckin’ fun!

Amidst the fanfare of swimming pools and water gun fights, Lacoste kindly provided bathing suits and pool toys for those inclined to take a dip, such as Christian Louboutin, Mark Ronson, and Ellen Von Unwerth. Meanwhile, on deck Margherita Missoni and Karl Lagerfeld took shelter from the debauchery in the VIP section of the helm in deck chairs adorned with the beautiful images we appreciate so much from Visionaire. While getting in was not so easy, (a special thanks to the lovely Melissa Little over at Lacoste for her persistence in getting myself and Pucci-designer-gone-photographer for the evening, Devika Dass, into the party) once in, there was something for everyone. The party boys got to party, (half naked in pools and on the dance floor) the fashionistas got to be fashion-ey, the drinks were cold, the music: awesome, the see-and be seen-ers both got their rocks off, and we had a blast! We can’t wait for the book in the fall.

Mark Ronson

Karl Lagerfeld

Christian Louboutin

Margherita Missoni

Yours Truly