Once again, Positions is the lively corner of Art Basel Miami with its global sampling of solo installations by emerging artists. We are all used to funky venue names these days, but one booth has visitors guessing about nomenclature thanks to a collision/collusion of exhibit and exhibitor: mother’s tankstation. These Dublin dealers are showing Japanese-born, Irish raised Atsushi Kaga who’s there in person, with his mom, tailoring cloth carrier bags at a crowded workstation. In addition to his works in appliqué and apparel, Kaga shows touching little paintings that speak to his upbringing, in which stuffed-toy animé figures populate somber compositions of old-masterly hue. Other standouts in Positions include Paulo Vivacqua, who brings some beach into the convention center, at Laura Marsiaj, Rio, and LaToya Ruby Frazier, injecting harsh black and white working class realities to Miami’s sunny festive glamour, at Michel Rein, Paris.
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