MIAMI, FL.- The 3rd edition of Miami International Art Fair (MIA), one of America's most exciting mid-winter contemporary art fairs, will return January 12-16, 2012 with a dynamic ensemble of 28 international galleries representing artist from Europe, Latin America, United States and Asia. The Fair will feature paintings, sculpture, photography, design, fine art glass, video and installations from a bevy of established museum collected artists as well as some of today's most promising emerging artists.

The Fair will relocate aboard SeaFair – the 228-foot megayacht venue – docked at 100 Chopin Plaza in Miami’s premiere downtown entertainment district and will include a waterside installation and sculpture exhibition in Bayfront Park.

FAIR HIGHLIGHTS
Focusing on projects that reflect on universal subject matters, Hardcore Contemporary Art Space (Miami) will present work of local and international artists who use innovative and provocative mediums to foster questions about our post-contemporary society. At MIA the gallery will bring works by the renowned Latin American artist, Gastón Ugalde. He is called "the most important living Bolivian artist" by the Konex Foundation in Argentina and is often referred to as the "Andean Warhol" by art critics. Ugalde is also known as "the enfant terrible" of the Bolivian Art Scene and gained global attention with his controversial series of "coca paintings ". Gastón has been experimenting with coca in his art since the 1980s and will exhibit a selection of coca works at the Fair. The gallery will also feature Venezuelan artist Milton Becerra. Becerra is known for addressing cultural and environmental concerns through his mixed media works and has a unique technique of weaving organic materials – a skill learned during time spent with Amazonian tribes in the early 80’s. He has been exhibited in prestigious museums worldwide including Museum of Modern Art, Paris; Ludwig Museum, Aachen; and the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro.

Cernuda Arte (Coral Gables) specializes in the exhibition and sale of Colonial, Early Republic, Vanguardia, and Modern master Cuban paintings, as well as fine artworks by contemporary artists. At MIA 2012, the Gallery will exhibit a collection of established and emerging Cuban artist including Wifredo Lam, Agustin Cardenas, Mario Carreno and René Portocarrero among others.

Black Square Gallery (Miami) has flourished in the Miami art scene since the Gallery was founded in 2010. They will exhibit works by Emilio Garcia, Pablo Lehmann, Victor Sydorenko, Taisha 3,14, Zhanna Kadyrova, Anibal Vallejo, Jorge Chirinos Sanchez and Taro Hattori.

Kavachnina Contemporary (Miami) will exhibit emerging, mid-career artists both local and foreign in various media and will feature a large scale sculpture installation in MIA’s sculpture garden at Bayfront Park. Among the sculptors exhibited will be Dutch stainless steel sculptor Ronald Westerhuis, South American artists John Angee and Cecilia Lueza, Spanish sculptor Joan Barrantes, Italian sculptor Maria Cristina Carlini, American artists Gilbert Boro, Claudia Klein and local Miami artist Jorge Fernandez.

Evan Lurie Gallery (Carmel) will feature works by renowned Italian sculptor Oriano Galloni, whose stunning figures in marble, wood, and aluminum range in height from 6 to 30 feet. A monumental 30-foot high marble sculpture entitled "White Moon" has been generously donated by the artist, and is expected to fetch an estimated $2.5 million at auction, with the proceeds from the sale benefitting the non-profit Arts for India. Galloni has also designed and donated 30 small-scale sculptures for the launch of Arts for India at the Guggenheim Museum New York on April 26, 2012. The Evan Lurie Gallery will also feature new works by sculptors Brad Howe, Carlo Borer, Kevin Barrett, and Gino Miles, as well as two-dimensional pieces by Jorge Santos, Victor Wang, Alexi Torres, and Jason Paul Bennett.

Art Link International (Lake Worth) will present a collection of Modern Masters as well as emerging artists. The gallery will feature artwork and a live painting performance Friday evening by celebrated graffiti artist John Matos – better known as Crash. Crash will donate one of his works to benefit the Marli Foundation for Ovarian Cancer during a benefit for the Foundation on Saturday, January 14th aboard SeaFair. Among the additional works exhibited will include a 1979 original Joan Miro, as well as original paintings by Robert Rauschenberg and Frank Stella, two original Botero drawings from the 1980’s, a Venetian glass exhibit of Dale Chihuly circa the 1990’s and an important painting, Dame mit Tomate, by painter Paul Klee completed in 1930, as well as works by Jimmy Ernst, Charles Green Shaw, Jim Ceravolo, A.R. Penck and Tom Wesselmann.

From the far reaches of South Korea, Ejung Gallery (Seoul) will present works by artist Lee Kyu-Hak. Inspired by the work of Vincent Van Gogh the artist uses mixed media including styrofoam, magazines, newspaper and Korean traditional paper, hanji, to create his textured works. In addition, the gallery will present work by sculptor Moo In-Soo.

An exhibition of artists Frank Hyder and Florence Putterman will be presented by Projects Gallery (Philadelphia). Hyder has participated in more than 150 group shows and has had over 80 solo exhibitions throughout North, South and Central America, including 8 individual exhibitions in New York City.