‘Welcome to Miami’
Wednesday night on Miami Beach included parties with Serena Williams, Alan Faena, Paddle8 and Leonardo DiCaprio. BY LEIGH NORDSTROM AND KRISTEN TAUER PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEXIE MORELAND
MIAMI BEACH — Forget the Convention Center and its many exhibitions — Serena Williams is at Art Basel with her paintings, and they come with a side of fashion.
Williams, herself a Floridian, traveled to Miami to open a pop-up of her Serena clothing line on Wednesday night at the Faena Bazaar; the walls of the shop were lined with the tennis legend's own paintings.
“It's something else that I do — don't ask me where I have time for it,” Williams said of her side hobby, between mingling with guests like Caroline Wozniacki and Audemars Piguet chief executive officer François-Henry Bennahmias.
Motioning toward a red painting on the wall, she explained it was about capturing layers of emotions. “This particular one
I did a couple of years ago and it's a part of our texture series, and it talks about emotions and anger and the layers of it that you have,” she said. “And I really feel like sometimes you only see one layer of that. But it goes deeper. And there's also meaning behind that: it's from hurt, it's from being abused, it talks about that, going through different violence. Like a friend of my sister died of gun violence. It's all those layers that a person has in them. And really, that's what the whole collection is about. As a human, you don't really see those layers that we all walk around with. You only really see one. But this really represents all the layers under.”
Williams has been painting for upward of 10 years. “I didn't bring my oldest pieces. I should've but I didn't,” she said.
As for the rest of her Basel plans? “I'm going to stay here for a little while. It's going to be fun,” she said. And that might be the last bit of fun for her for a while: she's sitting the holidays out this year.
“I don't celebrate holidays; in fact, I'm leaving at Christmas to start training, to start playing tournaments,” she said.
“Welcome to my home. Did you walk around?” Alan Faena was welcoming guests at his private home on Miami Beach for a celebratory dinner, just a short drive from his collection of Faena properties, and the invitation to walk through his various living spaces was certainly enticing. The man of the hour was sitting on a throne in his living room, which was packed with friends — including Michèle Lamy — a giant golden Buddha sculpture, glowing candles and an extensive crystal collection. Walls painted “Faena Red” enveloped the space, adding to the sensual mood.
“It's a big collection from the 1800s, and each one of them has a story,” he said of the various crystals surrounding him, the scent of Palo Santo wafting through the room. “Every base is different, and have been done by artists 200 years ago, so it's ►