Want to don a deer mask and shake your hips as DJs spin electronic dance records in the backyard of a South Beach mansion? Yes, do that. Want to fill up on delicious chicken and tabouli from Sufrat Mediterranean Grill and wash it all down with rum cocktails from Santa Teresa 1796? Absolutely, why not?
This year, SPIN did all that and more at our Art Basel celebration, hosted on Friday evening in partnership with Creativo.
We gathered around the luxurious pool with a few hundred of our best friends, favorite models, fine artists and all-around beautiful people, soaking up the over-the-top vibes of a house that felt like a piece of art in itself. DJ Marcela Franko, DJ Tess LA and DJ Davo kept the night alive with energetic EDM jams, heavy house cuts and beloved hip-hop favorites, providing the perfect soundtrack to a delightfully debaucherous night.
The theme was “Anything Goes,” and we certainly took that to heart. When in Rome, you do as the Romans do, and when in Miami for Art Week, you come to private parties with open bars dressed in a handpainted tunic that costs $3,000. Well, one man named Michael did exactly that, and the rest of the high-profile crowd came dressed to impress, albeit with decidedly less one-of-a-kind art hanging from their shoulders.
Tucker Halpern, known to SPIN readers as one-half of the Grammy-nominated electronic duo Sofi Tukker, was at the party celebrating the release of the group’s latest disco-sex single “One On One.” It’s a funky collaboration with their longtime friends The Knocks, and it hadn’t even been out for 24 hours when we sat with Halpern on a creamy white couch in one of the mansion’s chill-out rooms.
“Those guys are really good friends, Ben and Jay from The Knocks. I met them right around the same time I met Sophie. I was DJing and opening for them in college, and we had a fun party night, stayed out all night, kept in touch. When we first started making music, [they encouraged us] to pursue this, so I always try to give them the most credit for us even existing. To do songs with them throughout our career is something we’ll always come back to.”
This was not a work night for Halpern. After a series of sets at the Hard Rock nightclub Daer, LIV at the Fontainebleau and the South Beach Faena Hotel, the music man was finally ready to kick back and enjoy the fruits of his labor with the SPIN crew.
“We’re lucky,” Halpern says of his life. “It feels like a lot of nights are celebrations just because we play so many shows, but this is definitely an especially fun one.”
As we milled about the party, we found ourselves discussing the finer points of mixed media portraiture while eyeing the women at the Lagoon Bay bar dressed in bright blue stewardess uniforms. We couldn’t help but feel they were serving serious Britney Spears in “Toxic” vibes, and really, why don’t we see that more?
Speaking of art, it was strewn about the rooms for all to enjoy, because it’s not an Art Basel-adjacent party without a giant portrait of Andy Warhol sitting next to a giant Dalmatian and a TV set.
Miami-based Andrea Cardenal was one of the artists on display, alongside Karen Bystedt, Marko Brandon and Ysabel LeMay. Cardenal’s pieces included four mixed-media portraits of women, each depicting an archetype of the modern woman, all of which can be such double-edged swords.
Cool confidence is celebrated in men, but when a woman is standoffish, she’s an “ice queen.” Fiery and passionate women are too angry or emotional, and successful women who break through the glass ceiling are too mean or seen as controlling divas. Cardenal painted these figures and emboldened them with recycled materials, such as a crown of nails, or an earring from her grandmother’s old collection of costume jewelry.
“These portraits are meant to be very powerful,” she says. “They’re staring directly at you, challenging you. It’s always a representation of something I’m going through or something we’re all collectively experiencing. It’s great when people have their own experience with your art, but I feel like the creative process is important to me because it expresses what I’m trying to say.”
There was no shortage of powerful women, especially when Pitbull protege Vikina stormed the hangout circle in the middle of the pool to perform her song “Wow.”
“In English, a dog says ‘woof,’ but in Spanish, a dog says ‘wow,’ and bad bitches say wow,” she told us after working the entire backyard like it was the set of her latest music video. She performed a string of originals, including her newest single, “Sexy Sonic,” “Bambole” with Deorro and “Take A Shot” with her mentor Pitbull.
“I’m really excited about Art Basel and collaborations like this that bring so many people to Miami, and I love representing that,” Vikina says. “I feel very responsible for the culture that we’re building here, and this has a huge effect on it.”
We considered all this as we tasted Su Casa Mezcal provided by the alcohol venture fund, Top Shelf Ventures, sampled strawberry-flavored tequila from Mis Amigos, sipped fine wines from Stewarthill, and dutifully chugged bottles of Icelandic water between shots of Helix 7 vodka and Askur Gin. We weren’t trying to completely black out before midnight, after all.
Thankfully, Relief Now was on hand to provide guests with handy hangover relief bags to keep headaches and dehydration at bay. The Rally Bags included electrolyte powder, makeup remover towels and other goodies. Truly the best Basel party goody bag we could imagine.
Then we had a nice chat with Sasha Bernier, the head of Creativo, who helped SPIN put this whole magical evening together.
“We’ve been doing this for five years, and we realized that we all have differences, but we’re all the same,” Bernier says. “We all want to have fun. We love music, we love dancing, we love drinking. You realize we’re all more the same than we are different, and that’s what Creativo is doing; bringing cool people together from different backgrounds to have a good time.”
Whether you wanted to get tipsy on Bespoken Spirits or brighten your mind with nootropic drinks from Odyssey Elixir, there was something for everyone at every speed at this “Anything Goes” soiree.
Shout out to our special guests at Griffitts LLP, and congratulations to everyone at the party on a night well done. No one fell in the pool (although it felt like someone might!), the drinks were delicious and the music was bangin’ was start to finish. A perfect house party, indeed.
