Fair Enough: NADA

The posts so far:
Fair Enough: And I'm Off
Fair Enough: Traveling Incognita?
Fair Enough: All Over But the Posting
Fair Enough: Art or Trash?
Fair Enough: Prologue to the Report 
Fair Enough: ABMB, Part 1
Fair Enough: ABMB, Part 2
Fair Enough: Aqua Art
Fair Enough: Pulse
Fair Enough: Seven
Fair Enough: Scope  

The lobby of the Deauville Hotel in late afternoon

Mirrored plexi and stainless steel sculpture by Carla Arocha and Stephane Schraenen

As with Scope the day before, I hit NADA in late afternoon, 3:45 to be exact. It was the last venue of the last day, open until 6:00 p.m. I was tired, but once inside I found a lot to boost my energy. NADA stands for New Art Dealers Alliance. There was a lot to see. (I'm showing you the venues out of sequence here, because we have two more to go: Ink, the small print fair, and Art Miami, second only to ABMB in size and scope.)

The event took place for the second year in a row at the Deauville Hotel, a storied venue with a glitzy Sixties-era renovation. I half expected to see Frank, Sammy and some of the other Rat Pack regulars walk across the marble lobby, drinks and smokes in hand, but mostly it was young, hipsterish types. Incongruously, this venue, with exhibition rooms named Richlieu and Napoleon--ballrooms and banquet halls when they're not home to NADA--featured the most Lower East Side sensibility of all the fairs.

We're going to start with some overview images  and work our way into the booths and then over to the solos exhibitions.

In the Napoleon Room, a diagram of which you're seeing above, galleries put on group shows, whereas in the Richlieu Room, which I'll identify later in the post, the exhibitions were given over to solo presentations

Maybe because it was Sunday afternoon, or perhaps because this venue is a good three miles (and $18 by taxi) from the Convention Center, attendance seemed light.

Above and below: views of the fair

Above: Workplace Gallery from the UK

Below: Kate Werble Gallery, New York

Wallpaper gets you to stop and look

Above: The Hole, New York

Below: Conduits/Gea Politi, Milan

Above: Installation at Lisa Cooley Gallery, New York, with paintings by Alex (as in Alexandra) Olsen 

Below: A closeup of one

A find! These paintings at Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, are by a "newcomer" named Rose Wylie. Wylie, who had her first U.S. solo at Erben's Chelsea gallery in the fall, draws from art historical references and approaches the canvas with an idiosyncratic brush.  A British resident, she has begun to attract considerable attention after several recent solo shows. She is 76 years old.

A wall of work by Jim Lee at Nicelle Beauchene, New York

Below: a closer look at one

You know I love that textile sensibility:  Alicia McCarthy at Jack Hanley Gallery

Love that material minimalism, too: Fergus Feehily at Misako & Rosen Gallery, Tokyo

Chris Johanson at Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco

I'm pretty sure those circluar elements are gallon-paint lids

Now we leave the Napoleon Room and head across the lobby to the Richlieu Room. It's a smaller room identified by its carpet with the enormous waving feathers and fronds. This being the second year, some of the galleries came prepared and laid down their own flooring. The exhibitions in this room are all solos, a leap of faith for the dealers and their artists.

Chiharu Shiota at Rotwand Gallery, Zurich

Steven Bankhead at Country Club, Los Angeles and Cincinnati

Installation at Francois Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles

Alexander Wolff at Galerie Anne Mosseri-Marlio, Zurich

Dan Shaw-Towns at Christopher Crescent, London

Jackie Gendel at Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York

That chandelier hovers ominously, like an alien spacecraft, over the booth of Invisible-Exports, New York. It looks as if it's about to land, doesn't it?

Invisible-Exports dedicated its booth to the work of Genesis Breyer P-Orrige. It's a long story, so I'll see if I can give it to you in 25 words or less. Genesis P-Orrige is a pansexual being who has embraced the physical persona of his/her now departed wife. The works you see above and below depict the late Lady Jaye and P-Orrige, who dressed and groomed alike. 

"There should be a movie about them," I said to Ben Tischer, a co-owner of the gallery. "There is," he said.  It's in the works

A view of one of the booths with what appears to be a large, brightly lit installation beyond the far window

Yes, here it is:

It was an interactive installation. People were walking along the edge of it, and the palms were placed strategically so as to sway convincingly as if in a breeze. It looked interesting from this distance, but by the time I got over to to see it in person, the lights had gone out