Fair Enough: Seven

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

Seven was no ordinary art fair. Indeed, by its own press materials, it was not an art fair at all. It was an exhibition: “We are not challenging the ubiquitous tradition of the 'Art Fair' but think we can improve upon it, especially in Miami with its unique possibilities.”

I think they did. For one thing, entry was free. For another, the lobster woman who passed me in the doorway certainly suggested “unique possibilities,” an idea that extended its full measure when I entered a large exhibition room that contained both a Wojnarowicz shark floating in air and a wall which, like a sci-fi wormhole, gave way to an interstellar view from the other side of the galaxy. Plus they had a very long wall of small paintings and drawings that was the best installation of such work anywhere, possibly ever.

Visiting the fairs meant a lot of criscrossing Biscayne Bay, since ABMA and most of the hotels, plus Aqua Art and a few smaller fairs, were on the beach side. That rectangle outlines the area in which many of the fairs were located. In addition to Seven (designated by the red-dotted #1), there was Art Miami, Pulse, Red Dot, Scope, and the Margulies and Rubell Collections

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Seven was a collective effort by seven New York galleries: Pierogi Gallery, Hales Gallery, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Bravin Lee Programs, Postmasters Gallery, P.P.O.W. and Winkleman Gallery. It was held in a warehouse space in the Wynwood section of Miami, across the MacArthur Causeway from the beach, and just south of a cluster of other fairs.

The works were installed museum style with plenty of space between them. The galleries seem to have made a decision to mix things up so that visual relationships, rather than gallery affiliation, determined placement. I didn’t always get the artists' names and gallery affiliations, so if you know something I don’t, email me with the info and I’ll put it in.

View of the large information room, where each gallery had its artists' binders and catalogs

Below: Douglas Florian gouache-on-paper paintings; Bravin Lee Projects

Above and below: Nina Bovasso installation; Bravin Lee Projects

Ati Meier work on paper in foreground; Pierogi

Bay in foreground: Artists from Hales Gallery and P.P.O.W

Below: Who's painting is this? I like it

Shane Hope lenticular pigment print; Winkleman Gallery

Detail below:

Hope was there with his 3-D drawing maching. It felt more like a science project, but so what--it demonstrated how a drawing can be realized in three dimensions . . .

Above: the setup

Below: the result.  OK, so it looked like gray poop, but it was interesting to see the line--i.e. extruded gray plastic--build up layer on layer

Installation with work by Andrew Bick and Ivin Ballen

Above: Ivin Ballen painted sculpture; Winkleman Gallery

Below: Andrew Bick painting; Hales Gallery

 Large exhibition hall with a long wall of small paintings and drawings, presumably an effort by all seven galleries

Below: some of the work

Another view of the wall and the space

Below: a guide to the work

Opposite the long wall are these paintings and installations

I can identify the David Wojnarowicz shark; Chris Astley sculpture; Adam Civjanovic tromp l'oeil painting at Postmasters. Image from the Seven website

Chris Astley cast concrete and mixed-media sculpture, Groan Line (which I put into the Art or Trash post only to throw you off; I like it); Bravin Lee Projects

I didn't watch the videos, but the setup was inviting

I want to end this post with a brief visit to #rank. The project, conceived by Jen Dalton and William Powhida and underwritten by the Edward Winkleman Gallery, convened artists, curators and others to discuss the side of the art fairs that's not all famous artists, rich collectors and multimillion-dollar sales.  It occupied a large corner in one of the large exhibition rooms. That pink wall you see below is chalk-friendly paint.  Powhida has just published two posts on his thoughts about the project, so here (because I'm running out of steam and I have a lot more posting to do)  I'll just show you a few pics from the event I attended: Age, Gender and Location Bias, moderated by Joanie San Chirico with a panel consisting of curator Rebecca Taylor, the Getty Museum; artist Nicole Cohen, Berlin and New York City; and artist Laelia Mitchell, Boston.  

Below a few views of the Age, Gender and Location bias session:

Above: Panelists Nicole Cohen (in green sweater) and Laelia Mitchell to her left

Below: moderator Joanie San Chirico in black sweater, center, with Jen Dalton to her left

Quite a large group gathered during the 90-minute discussion

Below: View over San Chirico's shoulder. That's William Powhida with chin in hand; do yourself and a favor and read his posts about the project

Want to see more of Seven? The Seven collective has produced a terrific website with a soup-to-nuts Flickr page showing everything from the walls going up to the drinks going down.
 
Next up: Scope