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12.18.2008

FAIR WEATHER: Trends and Coincidences-"We Are the Borg"

Miami Art Fairs, Art Basel Miami Beach, Aqua, Art Miami, Bridge, Pulse, Red Dot, Scope, Rubell Collection
Already posted:




At ABMB: Anish Kapoor sculpture at Lisson Gallery, London



Well, of course they're not the Borg. I mean no disrespect to the artists by referencing science fiction, but these geometric forms are so compelling--and occasionally so otherworldly--that I wanted to show them as a group. (Can you tell I'm a closet curator?)

With geometric form as the starting point, mathematical calculation and meticulous construction were very much in evidence. There were also a number of optical surprises. When you looked into the red Anish Kapoor sculpture above, for instance, you weren't sure whether you were looking into it, or if it was bulging outward, or if it was simply flat across. You can't tell from the picture either, can you? (It's a bowl.) And the Chris Duncan orb below is actually flat circle whose geometric pattern is worked in perspective.




At Pulse: Chris Duncan at Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York








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At ABMB: Mona Hatoum sculpture at Galleria Continua, San Gimigniano, Italy

Visible through the orb is Ai Wei Wei sculpture, below


ABMB: Ai Wei Wei illuminated glass-bead cube at Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne and Beijing
Detail below




ABMB: Artist unidentified at Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London



Scope: Jose Vielva at StuArt Gallery, Santiago, Chile
Of all the sculptures I saw, this is the one I found most compelling, a confluence of math, science, architecture and art





ABMB: More from Anish Kapoor at Lisson Gallery, London




Bridge, Wynwood: Norman Mooney cast aluminum Star at Chi Contemporary, Brooklyn
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Posted by Joanne Mattera at 3:57 PM 5 comments
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FAIR WEATHER: Trends and Coincidences-Suspense

Miami Art Fairs, Art Basel Miami Beach, Aqua, Art Miami, Bridge, Pulse, Red Dot, Scope, Rubell Collection
Already posted:
FAIR WEATHER: Deal or No Deal
FAIR WEATHER: Prologue
FAIR WEATHER: Art Basel
FAIR WEATHER: The Containers
FAIR WEATHER: Art Miami
FAIR WEATHER: Art Imitates Art
FAIR WEATHER: Pulse
FAIR WEATHER: Trends and Coincidences-Animals
FAIR WEATHER: Trends and Coincidences-Cut Paper
FAIR WEATHER: Trends and Coincidences-Looms with a View
FAIR WEATHER: Aqua Hotel
FAIR WEATHER: Aqua Wynwood
FAIR WEATHER: Trends and Coincidences-Stacks and Bales
FAIR WEATHER: Trends and Coincidences-Giants
FAIR WEATHER: Trends and Coincidences-Manual Labor
FAIR WEATHER: Scope
FAIR WEATHER: Red Dot
FAIR WEATHER: Bridge, Both Locations


While not great in number, the suspended sculptures I saw were varied and interesting. I wish I had seen the installation of Pae White's cascade and Jacob Hashimoto's tiny ammassed parasols. Art is a challenge to make and can be more of a challenge to transport and install.



ABMB: Galleria Francesca Kaufman, Milan, with Pae White's magical cascade
Detail below




Art Miami: Cifo Foundation exhibition in the New Media area, with Madgalena Fernandez's light and video room



ABMB: At Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, Miroslaw Balka's, er, soap on a rope
Detail below






ABMB: At Mary Boone Gallery, Jacob Hashimoto's joyous multilevel, multilayer construction with hundreds of tiny parasols suspended between horizontal pegs.
(At first you think of those little things that come with tropical drinks, but the geometry of the elements and the sheer complexity of the structure quickly dispel any connection to the Tiki Tiki Lounge.)


Posted by Joanne Mattera at 3:29 PM 4 comments
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FAIR WEATHER: Bridge, Both Locations

Miami Art Fairs, Art Basel Miami Beach, Aqua, Art Miami, Bridge, Pulse, Red Dot, Scope, Rubell Collection
Already posted:


At the Catalina Hotel: The "exploding monitor, " titled LCDblossom_Future-genetic-Anomalies #1, 2008, by the artist [dNASAb] at Frederieke Taylor, New York. This is a strong sculpture and video installation in a room full of them, below


To my eye, Bridge has always been one of the weaker fairs. Certainly some interesting galleries and artists have taken up residence, and that was true this year as well, but over the years I’ve noticed a dealer migration into other, stronger fairs. Why it had two locations this year--at the Catalina Hotel on the beach, and in Wynwood-- was a mystery, when the good stuff would have fit handily into one small venue.
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Here’s what I liked. (Other galleries, like Project, Toomey Tourell, LTMH, and Garden Fresh were mentioned in the various Trends and Coinicidences posts, and Chi Contemporary, with a fabulous presentation in Wynwood, is coming up in one shortly.)

Installation at Frederieke Taylor Gallery, New York


Wynwood: Out and proud art at the Barbara Ann Levy Gallery, West Palm Beach, above and below



Catalina: Laugh out loud at Kidder Smith, Boston, with Peter Buchman's painting



Wynwood: The Williamsburg Gallery Association, Brooklyn

I like the cooperative spirit at work here. Artists have done this kind of thing, too, with open studios and cooperative galleries. For small dealers it makes sense to work communally, even if some of the galleries included also had booths of their own. (Even at the bigger fairs some galleries joined forces, presumably to share the work load and expenses.)

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If anyone felt differently about Bridge, please share your comments.
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Posted by Joanne Mattera at 12:40 AM 2 comments
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12.17.2008

FAIR WEATHER: Red Dot

There's no mistaking where you are

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I liked Red Dot's hotel space last year at the South Seas Hotel, but I like this space better. The booths were large and the aisles airy. I didn't love everything I saw here, but one gallery--Eric Firestone from Tucson--was a revelation, and there were quite a few others who had work I liked.

If the real estate dictum is location, location, location, the dealer's must surely be presentation, presentation, presentation. (Well, and location, too.) Firestone had the corner booth as you walked in, and he brought his own wood flooring. Talk about welcoming. Inside the booth there was museum-worthy geometric abstraction by two artists I'd never seen before: Jorge Fick--a Black mountain contemporary of Robert Rauschenberg and John Chamberlain--and Douglas Denniston. The gallery handles their estates.

The corner booth: Eric Firestone Gallery, Tucson




A wall of oil paintings and framed gouaches on paper by Jorge Fick. This work is from the period 1965-1975, but it looks as fresh as any geometric abstraction being done right now.

Below, a closer look at some of the pieces:






In the "office," larger work by Fick, oil or oil-and-acrylic paintings from the Pod Series, each 63 x 45 inches. The middle work has a bit of Woodstock Nation about it, but the other two have traveled well into the 21st Century--especially the orange and green painting at right



Selection of Douglas Denniston paintings from mid century. I particularly like the paintings--idiosyncratic, with a color sense redolent of the Southwest



Across the aisle, LewAllen Contemporary, a Santa Fe gallery, held court, with work below by Dan Christensen, left, and Ronnie Landfield, right



One of the things I love about the Miami fairs is the Latin American galleries that participate, often bringing great caches of abstract geometric work by Latin American artists. Here it's a booth devoted in large measure to the largely dimensional work of the Venezuelan Jesus Rafael Soto.


Jesus Rafael Soto at Gomez Fine Art, San Juan
Detail below:


Other likes:

Reeves Contemporary, New York


Eo Art Lab, Chester, Connecticut

John Belingheri painting at Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco
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Posted by Joanne Mattera at 9:14 PM 0 comments
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FAIR WEATHER: Scope




This section of Wynwood was cheek-by-jowl with fairs: Scope, Art Asia, Photo Miami, Art Miami, the Green Fair and, just up the street, Red Dot and Bridge


By the time I got to Scope, fair fatigue had set in. The symptoms? Inability to concentrate, distraction, irritability, achy knees, and a disconcerting tendency to cover the same ground two and three times--i.e. going in circles--all wrapped in a mantle of hunger and exhaustion. So you'll understand when I tell you that I wasn't sure I was seeing what came next.

First I came upon a mirrored car parked outside the entrance to the fair. Then I saw a maiden asleep alone in the in the grass (at least I think she was alone). And then I saw a superhero, perhaps 20 feet tall, rising out of the ground, wearing a blue jersey with a large red S on his chest.



The mirrored car . . .
. . . the sleeping maiden


. . . and the superhero rising out of the ground


(This image from The Obama Art Report )


And then back to reality, which in this case was a long, light filled entrance with the image of a sumptuously dressed Renaissance (?) woman. Here are some installation images, followed by a few particulars. You've seen additional work from Scope in the Trends and Coincidences posts, and will see more in additional thematic posts.


The Scope entryway

And a few shots, below, to give you a sense of the space






Bryan Rojsuontikul installation at Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington, D.C.



Pepe Lopez installation at Hardcore Art, Miami



Ted Larsen installation at Pan American Art Projects, Dallas and Miami




Some work was selling very well, including these small watercolors by Dawn Black (not sure at which gallery), at $250 each














Posted by Joanne Mattera at 6:37 PM 0 comments
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FAIR WEATHER: Trends and Coincidences-Manual Labor

FAIR WEATHER: Trends and Coincidences-Giants




Aqua Wynwood: Margaret Murphy, Henna Hands, at Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia


It's not surprising that hands turn up frequently as a subject for artmaking. They make the art. Where would we be without them? Still, there was a surprisingly large and varied group of hands, from the quirkily quotidian to the quietly poetic.



Aqua Hotel: Shawn Barber, Robert Atkinson's Hands, watercolor, 30 x 22 inches; at Billy Shire, Culver City, California


Aqua Wynwood: Valerie Hammond, Guirland, 2008, photolitho/relief on handmade paper, 72 x 48 inches; at Wildwood Press, St. Louis


Bridge on Collins: Lyndi Sales, Fortunes and Fortunes, 2008, lottery coupon paper; at Toomey Tourell, San Francisco





Bridge on Collins: Anahita Vossoughi, Untitled (hands), oil on chromecoat paper, at Leila Taghinia-Milani/Heller Gallery, New York

Full view below




Aqua Wynwood: Margaret Purphy, Henna Hands installation, magazine coupons and acrylic on panel, at Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia


Posted by Joanne Mattera at 5:00 PM 0 comments
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