Archive for the 'Fairs' Category
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
TACfocus :: Pulse Picks
Martin Wittfooth at Copro Nason
Here’s our winners from the Pulse Art Fair.
Mogan Lehman presented a successful solo exhibit of recent graphite works by Eric Beltz, set against a backdrop of the artist’s newly editioned wallpaper ($1,200 will get you a roll). We’ve been vocal about Beltz for some time, and it looks as if some major institutions have caught on. Word is one prominent NY museum was amongst the several buyers who snatched up these stand-out gems.
Eric Beltz
Richard Heller, as always, continued to display a talented group of younger illustrative artists including Brendan Monroe, alongside a generous helping from the gallerist’s treasure chest of early Marcel Dzama drawings. Unfortunately some of what we saw here seemed like gallery show leftovers, which later reappeared at our visit to Heller’s booth at the Armory Show, where pockets were undoubtedly flowing a bit more freely.
Copro Nason pulled out some long celebrated heavyweights in their Old School Vs. New School display, including R. Crumb, Rick Griffin, and Robert Williams‘ seminal Appetite for Destruction (which also made an appearance with another gallery at Scope Miami this past December), juxtaposed against recent works by Ron English, Travis Louie, Laurie Lipton and others. Here, we came across the single most inspiring piece of the entire fair – an ambitious oil painting executed by emerging NY based artist, Martin Wittfooth. Take note.
Additional nods go to Rosamund Felsen Gallery’s display of paintings by Gegam Kacherian, an Armenian trained artist based in Los Angeles, and Al Farrow’s Synagogue sculptures, constructed from gun parts and ammunition, on display at Catherine Clark Gallery.
Read on for our photo recap, click images for larger views. Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
TACfocus :: Galerie L.J. – Bridge Art Fair
AJ Fosik
Wandering the narrow corridor of bland or just plain bad art that was the Bridge Art Fair, we were saved by Paris’ Galerie L.J. (formerly L.J. Beaubourg), and their international collection of street-inspired artists, including Swoon, A.J. Fosik, Brendan Monroe, Fafi, Koralie, Supakitch, and Alëxone. With such a distinctive showing, the gallery clearly would have been more at home at Pulse or Scope. In fact, many of L.J.’s artists are represented stateside by galleries exhibiting at those fairs, as well as at the Armory Show. Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
TAC Radar :: NY Art Fairs
SCOPE Pavilion, 2008. Image: James Painter Belvin/SCOPE
The Armory Show and its surrounding satellite art fairs open in New York next week. With an enthusiasm for emerging and mid-career artists, we find smaller fairs are often the most interesting. Below is a short-list of galleries on the TAC radar that are exhibiting at the SCOPE, PULSE, Bridge and Fountain fairs.
SCOPE
David B Smith – Josh Keyes, Gregory Euclide
hpgrp Tokyo – Kanako Ohya, Kazuhiro Ito, Miki Kubota, Tadaomi Shibuya, Yasuyoshi Botan
Jonathan Levine – Camille Rose Garcia
Krampf Gallery – Willem Kerseboom Gallery – Ren Zhenyu, Wang Zhijie, Yin Kun, Yoshitomo Nara, Zhang Haiying
Ok Mountain – Anna Krachey, Colin Leipelt, Jesse Greenberg, Okay Mountain Collective
Shooting Gallery – Erik Foss, Greg Gossel, Ron English
PULSE
Mixed Greens – Alessandra Exposito, Kimberley Hart
Morgan Lehman – Alix Smith, Eric Beltz
Richard Heller (also exhibiting at The Armory Show)
BRIDGE
Cinders Gallery
Gallery LJ Beaubourg
McCaig-Welles Gallery
Fountain
Ad-Hoc Art
Glowlab
McCaig-Welles Gallery
Monday, February 9th, 2009
ARCO Spain
ARCO, Spain’s largest international contemporary art fair, opens in Madrid this Wednesday, Feb. 11 and runs till Feb. 16. The 28th edition of the fair will feature 244 galleries from 31 participating countries. Of particular interest are ARCO 40, a juried selection of galleries exhibiting no more than 3 artists, with work produced in the past three years, and Panorama: India, focusing on 13 of the nation’s contemporary galleries.
Friday, January 9th, 2009
Uncertainty as London Art Fair Approaches
Nick Walker’s new print, The Empire State, will be released by Black Rat Press
at The London Art Fair.
The London Art Fair opens its doors next week, on January 13th. Many will be keeping a close eye on the second most substantial British venue for art sales (the younger Frieze Fair holds the top position). With the recent slowdown in attendance and sales figures at both Art Basel Miami last month and at the Freize Art Fair this past October, the outlook remains questionable for the first major fair of the new year.
One interesting addition to this year’s convention comes from Black Rat Press, a London print shop and gallery dealing exclusively in urban street art, including some names to have risen to astronomical heights in a very short amount of time. In an interview with Bloomberg, Black Rat director, Mike Snelle, anticipated selling out a new print by Nick Walker (edition of 175 and priced at 475 pounds) within the fair’s first hour.
By this time next week we should know if Snelle’s prediction will hold true, and if the rest of the exhibitors at The London Art Fair will be as lucky.
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
Asian Art Fair Cancelled
In a move reflecting the current slump in the global art market and mixed results at Basel Miami fairs earlier this month, The International Asian Art Fair, (previoulsy scheduled to be held at the Park Avenue Armory from March 11-15) has been cancelled by London-based Haughton International Fairs.
A statement released on the fair organizer’s website states: “Due to the present global economic situation we have regrettably taken the decision to cancel The International Asian Art Fair for 2009…Many of the dealers who had contracted to take part are not in a position to go forward in the current climate and as such we have decided a fair would put an untenable strain on their resources. We hope to be able to re-launch the fair in 2010 and look forward to working with our exhibitors again.”
With just a few remaining hours of the year left, indeed this is one more reminder that tonight we should all party like its 1999.
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
The Rubell + Margulies Collections, Miami
Jean Michel Basquiat, Rubell Family Collection
It’s easy to get exhausted walking the aisles of numerous Miami art fairs, where an artist’s output primarily functions as commodity. More often than not, Art Basel and its offshoot fairs have more in common with a trade-show than art exhibition. With this in mind, the few prominent private collections open to the public during Basel week offer a rare escape from the massive commercial enterprise that consumes Miami each year.
This year, the Rubell Family Collection unveiled 30 Americans, a massive exhibition joining several new African American voices with their influences from the past. The show’s title intentionally disregards racial connotations, in an effort to comment on personal issues of racial identity each artist explores in their work. 30 Americans depicts a hugely influential group including Jean Michel Basquiat, Kerry James Marshall, Rashid Johnson, and Lorna Simpson, jusxtapozed alongside the newer voices they have influence, such as Kehinde Wiley, Noah Davis, and Jeff Sonhouse.
The Margulies Collection continues to display one of the most significant single collections of installation, sculpture, photography, and video art in the world, including seminal works by Richard Serra, Dan Flavin, George Segal, Donald Judd, and Andy Warhol. Recent additions include a new visual and auditory installation by Brazilian twins Os Gemeos (acquired from their show with Deitch Projects this past summer) and a video piece by Isaac Julien.
Read on for more images – click pics for larger views.
All Images: Jeff Newman / The Art Collectors
Monday, December 15th, 2008
Pulse Fair::TAC Focus – Andrew Schoultz @ Morgan Lehman
One of our favorite displays at this year’s Pulse Art Fair was Morgan Lehman Gallery’s presentation of Majestic Projections, an impressive mixed media solo installation by San Francisco artist, Andrew Schoultz. Here, Schoultz tackles political messages, including the impacts of capitalism, global power structures and the military-industrial-complex.
Don’t miss Andrew’s upcoming show with A.J. Fosik in Philadelphia. New Ancient Structures opens at Space 1026 on Jan. 9.
Read on for an extensive photo recap – click pics for larger views.
All Images: Jeff Newman / The Art Collectors
Monday, December 15th, 2008
Art Basel::TAC Focus – The Prince + Kruger Trend
It’s interesting to note the trends that emerge every December at Art Basel, Miami. Amongst the most visible working artists this year were Richard Prince and Barbara Kruger. Prince’s popularity has soared since his Guggenheim retrospective last year and several galleries exhibited works from the artist’s Cowboy and Nurse series. Even a canvas from the brand new Canal Zone paintings, (a show of these works is still on view at Gagosian), were up for sale. The most interesting offering from Kruger was a customizable floor installation, reading “we are the slaves of objects around us (quoted from Goethe).” The $150,000 piece would be outfitted to fit the buyer’s installation specifications. More images after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
Aqua Wynwood::TAC Focus – Eric White at Quality Pictures
Eric White’s exhibit with Quality Pictures was undoubdedly our favorite pic from Aqua Wynwood fair last week. White’s new body of meticulously rendered oil canvases depict multi layered scenes of mid centurty nostalgia, where realism and the surreal simultaneously intermingle. Eric White is an undeniable tallent whose art is unmistakable his own. Get on board. Moer after the jump – click images for detailed views. Read the rest of this entry »