MIAMI — No one in the New York art world was complaining about spending yesterday in sunny Miami Beach. Barbara Gladstone wore her aviator sunglasses inside. Angela Westwater picked up shell-covered boxes at Walgreens to give as Christmas presents. And everyone dressed for the location: Marc Glimcher wore peach, Jeffrey Deitch, pale yellow, and Amy Smith-Stewart, hot pink.

“It’s surprising how casual it is,” an editor at Vogue, Stephanie LaCava, wearing a yellow dress by London designer Preen, said. “But for New Yorkers, that’s always the surprise, wherever you go.”

Collectors and dealers were serious about their art. In the first preview hours of the Art Basel Miami Beach fair, which opens to the public today, Marie-Josée Kravisand Agnes Gund browsed solo (Ms. Kravis at PaceWildenstein and Acquavella; Ms. Gund at James Cohan and Fischer), while so many others — including Lance Armstrong — traveled with company. Mr. Armstrong stopped at White Cube, pausing in front of Antony Gormley’s “Shift VII” and Chuck Close’s “Andres.” Caryl Englander and Lisa Dennison stopped at Continua of Beijing. David and Danielle Ganek stopped to have their photo taken with Takashi Murakami, with Mr. Ganek’s cell-phone camera.

But there wasn’t too much time to dawdle, with so many other fairs taking place around town. Art Miami in particular is offering high quality work from New York dealers, including Laurence Miller, Andrea Meislin, Sundaram Tagore, Stefan Stux, and Alexander Gray.

Evan Penny’s wall-mounted “Panagiota Conversation #1” at Sperone Westwater’s booth at the main fair captured the experience of this bazaar-festival-endless party, her eyes speeding across canvases and booths, channel-surfing, bargain-hunting, and schmooze-crazy. The silicon and pigment sculpture sold in under an hour. But not to worry: Mr. Penny will have more work on sale during a solo show at the gallery next year, back in New York.

agordon@nysun.com