Miami Art Fairs, Art Basel Miami Beach, Aqua, Art Miami, Bridge, Pulse, Red Dot, Scope, Rubell Collection
Already posted:
ABMB: Sarah Morris at Capitan/Petzel, above, and at White Cube, London, below
It wouldn't be Art Basel Miami Beach if the crystalline compositons of Sarah Morris were not on exhibition. These are splendid paintings! Made with household gloss on canvas, they are typically shown on an outside wall and they stop you in your tracks.
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With Morris thus setting the scene, there was a range of geometry--not just angles but curves, as flat pattern, or with a suggestion of depth, or with actual dimension. One surprise was the degree of decorative pattern, which I'll talk about more when we get to that section of the post.
ABMB: Heimo Zobernig at Galeria Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid
Scope: Ted Larsen's two- and three-dimensional geometry at Pan American Projects, Dallas and Miami
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Art Miami: Merrill Wagner at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York and elsewhere
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ABMB: Odili Donald Odita at Jack Shainman, New York
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ABMB: Gert and Uwe Tobias, Team Gallery, New York
. Art Miami: Amy Ellingson at Charles Cowles, New York
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I'm not focusing on materials in these posts because keeping track of the information is more than I can do, but a few mediums stand out. Ellingson's paintings are encaustic, noteworthy because the substantiveness of the medium creates a dimensionality that complements the deep visual space of her compositions.
David Poppie's work, below, is a mosaic made from Prismacolor pencils sliced lengthwise. (His pencil-point mosaic opened the Pulse post.)
Pulse: David Poppie at Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York
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In the fairs this year, there was a whole set of geometric expression that refered directly to pattern and decoration, and to textiles. For instance, Philip Taaffe's paintings, one of which is shown below, channel tie dye, stained glass, and the Alhambra; Delson Uchoa's unstretched painting referenced
tapestries, or more specifically, Colonial floorcloths (the poor-person's "carpet"); and several other artists seem to have incorporated Amish quilt patterns. Interestingly, all of this decorative geometry was made by men.
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ABMB: Philip Taaffe at Jablonska Galerie, Berlin
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ABMB: Jorge Pardo at Capitain/Peztel
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Scope: Jacob Ouillette at Dean Project, New York
ABMB: Delson Uchoa at Galeria Brito Cimino, Sao Paolo
Channeling the Amish "pinwheel" pattern: The ubiquitous Heimo Zobernig at Capitain Petzel, above, and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, below
Aqua Hotel: Matthew Rich at OH+T Gallery, Boston
From textile-referenced patterns, there's an easy flow to geometry in which curvilinear elements prevail, sometimes within the matrix of a grid.
ABMB: Bridget Riley at Pace Wildenstein, New York and elsewhere
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Art Miami: Charles Arnoldi at Modernism, San Francisco
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ABMB: Gabriel Orozco at Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris
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Pulse: Linda Besemer acrylic painting at Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, California