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Street Style: See Artists' Sartorial Selections at the Armory Show VIP Vernissage

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Street Style: See Artists' Sartorial Selections at the Armory Show VIP Vernissage
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NEW YORK — I went to the Armory Show VIP Vernissage last night with one goal: to bring you a glimpse of attendees’ sartorial selections. It probably wasn’t a coincidence that 91 percent of the people I approached were artists, some of whom had work on display at the fair. Unlike the blingy labels worn by attendees at Art Basel Miami Beach, several people at the New York show designed pieces in their own ensembles, and vintage was a popular choice. From the bizarre Flamenco-dress wearing Spanish artist who would only allow me to photograph her on the floor to the video director/performer who told me he was from the future, until I begged him to name a city (he named three), ARTINFO brings you Armory Show street style.

Click on the photo gallery above to see artist style at the Armory Show.

 


Slideshow: The Trippiest Works at the Independent Fair

From a Watermelon Rock to a Resin Bong, the Trippiest Works at the 2012 Independent Fair

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From a Watermelon Rock to a Resin Bong, the Trippiest Works at the 2012 Independent Fair
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The Armory Show may have been boasting the week's most organic fare (in the form of its much-touted but, we must say, disappointing farm-to-table restaurant), but it's Independent that has the more organic fair. The three-year-old art event describes itself as a "temporary exhibition forum" — an informal, grassroots gathering of dealers who also happen to be in the business of selling the art on view. Gallerist Tim Blum was spotted taking a break from his booth at ADAA to scope out the fair, which fills the four floors of the light-filled former Dia Art Foundation building on 22nd Street, while collectors like Mera and Don Rubell came by early to snag the best works. 

Indeed, dealers were deep in conversation with clients most of the afternoon, making it difficult for ARTINFO to get a word in. (We'll take that as a sign that sales are going well.) In the meantime, we've gathered a selection of our favorite works at the fair — mostly smaller-scale sculptures and paintings with a bit of a humorous edge. We'll check back in soon with a full report. 

Independent is located at 548 W 22nd Street, and runs from March 8-11.

To see a selection of our favorite works at Independent, click on the slide show.


ARTINFO's 2012 Armory Show Honors: The Best, the Worst, and the Weirdest of New York's Biggest Fair

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ARTINFO's 2012 Armory Show Honors: The Best, the Worst, and the Weirdest of New York's Biggest Fair
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What to do with the experience of going to the Armory Show? There are, it seems, two ways to approach it.

One is as a quest. You gird your loins, throw yourself onto the Piers, and go hunting for some good art. This year, every effort has been made to scale back the overwhelming massiveness of New York’s signature fair — but truth be told, art fairs are by their very nature more like panning for gold than shopping at a boutique: you have to sift through a lot of dirt to get to the good stuff.

The second way to approach the event — and for those of us who are not blessed with giant amounts of disposable income, this is probably the best way — is as an excuse to gawp at the craziness of it all. The Armory Show is sort of a temporary walk-in cabinet of curiosities. No matter how the sales are (and this year, we hear they're OK), there are always a few bits of excess or whimsy that get people talking.

To honor both these experiences of the fair, ARTINFO offers our very own 2012 Armory Show Honors: the things we painstakingly discovered, the things that we’ll remember, and the things we were just mildly confused by.

Click on the slide show for our illustrated commentary on the fair.

 
by Ben Davis, Kyle Chayka,Art Fairs,Art Fairs

Slideshow: Images from Volta New York

Watch: Bob Odenkirk’s Exceptional Adult Swim Show, “Let’s Do This!”

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Watch: Bob Odenkirk’s Exceptional Adult Swim Show, “Let’s Do This!”
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We’d rather have a “Breaking Bad” spinoff named “Better Call Saul,” but Bob Odenkirk’s new Adult Swim show “Let’s Do This!” casts Walter White’s legal counsel in a nicely similar role, running a sketchy small business out of a strip mall. Drawing from his new wife’s fortune and financing provided by a Kony-like Ugandan, Cal Mackenzie-Goldberg hopes to make movies. Interestingly, where Adult Swim’s original broadcast shows now seem locked in a perpetual weird-off, “Let’s Do This!” which is web-only, skips easy absurdities in favor of a limber sitcom approach, with fine meta bits (clip from the movie “Das Hole”), a little physical comedy (blinded man kneeing a mother after sending her baby flying), and plenty of Odenkirk’s what-me-worry charisma. Watch the full first episode below, and see him make a “Harry Podder” flick with a little help from a man’s beloved Le Baron sedan.

 

Architect David Ling Designs a Big Bang at the Park Avenue Armory for SOFA's 15th Anniversary

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Architect David Ling Designs a Big Bang at the Park Avenue Armory for SOFA's 15th Anniversary
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Keeping in step with the art fair trend of architecturally upping the ante, the New York leg of the annual design expo Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair tapped David Ling, New York-based architect and one-time associate of Richard Meier, I.M. Pei, and Emilio Ambasz to bring a little spark to this year’s event. The result: a big bang-inspired installation of cube-shaped lights to hang from the ceiling of the Park Avenue Armory like a modernist take on a constellation in the night sky.

“Floating high over the exhibitions will be a huge cube of light, out of which smaller blocks of light explode, traveling to all points within the hall like newly formed stars,” Ling said in a statement. “It’s about creation, re-creation and energy... And with the fair’s universe of offerings, I think my concept is a fitting one.”

The transformation of the Armory’s historic, 19th-century drill hall into an artistic mise-en-scene celebrates the 15th anniversary of the contemporary art and design fair. In addition to Ling’s installation, fair-goers can look forward to booths from 50 different galleries, including Wexler Gallery, Galery Loupe, and Dai Ichi Arts, as well as a revamped floorplan.   

SOFA New York 2012 runs from April 20 through April 23.

 

 

 

Meet Iranian Street Art Duo Icy and Sot

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Meet Iranian Street Art Duo Icy and Sot
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Street art is a growing phenomenon in cities around the world, but it still comes as a surprise to see images of Icy and Sot’s work on the streets of Tehran. The artists favor faces of children and the elderly and messages calling for peace, and in a more direct challenge to their government, they’ve even declared that “beer is not a crime.” Over email, the artists — who are not only collaborators, but also brothers — talked to ARTINFO France about youth culture, their giant Coke can, and the dangers of being a street artist in Iran.

Can you tell me about your background and how you started making street art? 

It started with our career in skateboarding, especially Sot’s, in 2005. We used to watch skate videos and play skate video games all the time, and in the videos we saw graffiti and stencil on the walls, which initially sparked our interest. We then started with small things like stickers and small amateur stencils, and posted them up on our spots and gathering places. 

You’re brothers, and you work together. Do you sometimes work separately as well?

We were and are best friends, and when we started, there were very few people (most of whom were in our circle of friends) who knew what graffiti, stencil, and the whole street culture was. Being brothers helped us a lot as we did everything together — drinking, hanging out, stenciling — and, most importantly, we just understood each other. Some of our works are done together but we have some separate works as well.

Who are some of the artists who have inspired you?  

Banksy, Dolk, Blu, M-City, and King Stencil are the artists that had an influence on our vision about street art. 

Is street art an unusual sight in Iranian cities? 

It is fully unusual for almost all the people, but as this art grows, especially in Tehran, some people are starting to notice. 

The Coke can seems like a departure for you, because it’s not a stencil but a sculpture. What inspired you to make it, and is it still on display outside Tabriz?

Yes, it is still there. We saw a tank and we decided to make an environmental piece with that. Empty Coke cans are everywhere — a giant one would emphasize that fact.

So you actually made it out of a tank?

Yes, it was a rusted old tank.

Do you have gallery representation in Tehran, and is it important to you to sell your work?

No, we don't have gallery representation in Tehran – our agent is Klerkx Art Agency in the Netherlands. Selling works is important because it helps us to stay on track and do more works by the support it provides. 

Your art has been seen not just in Tehran but in cities such as Los Angeles and Paris. Do you think that street art is a worldwide movement now, with a certain aesthetic? Where do you see street art, and your own career, going in the future? 

Street art is a movement and it is worldwide and the fact that you make art in the streets makes it so unique and pure. We are trying our best and will keep on working. We hope that we can work and exhibit all over the globe and show our works to the people and be influential. 

Are “Icy” and “Sot” pseudonyms, and are you worried about arrest or intimidation by the authorities? 

You know, pseudonyms help us to keep a low profile. Being arrested in Iran is completely different, because they charge you with crimes that you have not even committed, like Satanism or political crimes, so it is better to remain anonymous.  

Click on the slide show to see more images of Icy and Sot's work.

 


The Not-So-Subtle Racism of the New French Film "Intouchables"

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The Not-So-Subtle Racism of the New French Film "Intouchables"
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When Harvey Weinstein releases the French movie “Intouchables” (Untouchable) this May, he is probably hoping to repeat the success he had with “The Artist.” Not likely. While “The Artist” surprised moviegoers by revealing the charm and humor of silent film, “Intouchables,” directed by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, has so many predictable plot twists and stereotypes it could almost write itself.

It’s the story of Driss, a Senegalese welfare recipient (played by Omar Sy) who becomes a caregiver to Philippe, a wealthy quadriplegic (François Cluzet). Driss steals from Philippe, assaults his neighbor, and subjects his secretary to a series of juvenile come-ons. And in case there was still any doubt that Driss is from the black underclass, a song called “The Ghetto” is played over images of his face. As expected, Driss helps Philippe to loosen up: he gives him pot and forces him to meet a woman despite his insecurities about his disability. While the film, which opened Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema earlier this month, has all the hallmarks of a heartwarming buddy flick, I was surprised to see it described as a comedy. I guess it is supposed to be humorous to see a nurse wink at Driss while handing him rubber gloves so that he can void Philippe’s bowels, but it’s a cheap shot.

Even more surprising is the fact that the movie has raked in almost $240 million in France, making it the second-most profitable French film ever at the box office. Sy has been part of a successful comedy team on the cable channel Canal+ for some years now, so the French must just be in the habit of laughing at whatever he does. It’s also possible that much of the French public, unaccustomed to seeing a black man in a leading role, has fallen for the movie’s feel-good message and overlooked the two-dimensional stereotypes. Just recently, right-wing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen denounced “Intouchables” as an offensive metaphor showing France (the handicapped person) being saved by its immigrant youth (the caregiver), which led to the rather incongruous situation of Harvey Weinstein commenting on French politics and lashing out at Le Pen’s “bigoted worldview.” Since Le Pen hates the film, a lot of people will think that they should love it. But what Le Pen hates is the redemptive message of the movie’s ending. Ninety-five percent of how Driss is depicted would fit right into a screed by Le Pen’s National Front party.

If there’s any saving grace here, it’s the fine performances of the lead actors. Cluzet puts a tremendous amount of emotion into his mouth, his eyes, even his cheekbones, and vividly renders the fears and occasional pleasures of the paralyzed Philippe. Sy is equally adept at registering emotion with his face, though he is given a much less nuanced role, since his character is usually laughing and clowning around. His vulnerability comes out, though, in his painful relationship with his mother, who cleans buildings at night and has given up on the idea that Driss is ever going to make something of himself. When Sy received the César (the French equivalent of the Oscar) for best actor last month, it was the first time a black man had won the award. It’s just too bad that it had to be for this role.

 

 

 

by Kate Deimling, ARTINFO France,Performing Arts, Film,Performing Arts, Film

Rush Limbaugh Artist Cashes In on Fluke Furor, Zwirner Expands to London, and More Must-Read Art News

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Rush Limbaugh Artist Cashes In on Fluke Furor, Zwirner Expands to London, and More Must-Read Art News
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– Cashing In on Rush's Anti-Cachet: In wake of the recent uproar about Rush Limbaugh's vile comments about Sandra Fluke, the Missouri Capitol touched off a tizzy last week when it became known that it was ushering a bust of the radio host into its "Hall of Famous Missourians" (The commission was made before Limbaugh's now-infamous remarks.) Now fans or foes looking for a convenient effigy can have a Limbaugh bust of their very own, made from the same mold, for just $15,000: the work will be made in an edition of six. "After they purchase it, they can do whatever they want with it," said Paul Dorrell, the dealer who represents the commissioned artist. "They can use it as a boat anchor or target practice or display it in their home." [WaPo]

– David Zwirner Hops the Pond: The New York super-dealer continues to make moves in the global gallery arms race in a big way. Last night, word came of what many have long suspected: he will open a new gallery in London. The overseas outpost is an 18th-century Georgian townhouse in Mayfair that will open its doors in October with an exhibition of new works by Luc Tuymans. [NYTITA

– Stolen Masterpieces Recovered: A crack team of Italian art police (yes, apparently they exist) have recovered 37 paintings, including works by Peter Paul Rubens and Nicolas Poussin, more than 40 years after they were stolen from a businessman in Rome. Police were alerted to the cache's whereabouts after some of the pieces were spotted in a catalogue for an upcoming auction. Five paintings from the theft remain missing. [AdnKronos]

– Model Becomes Face of ArtLily Cole, who earned an estimated £11 million ($17.3 million) from modeling and graduated last year from Cambridge with a degree in art history, is to front Sky Arts's new six-part series "Art Matters." The program will feature artists such as Paula RegoTacita Dean, and Christo. [ArtLyst]

– Tracking Richter's Market: The Wall Street Journal's Kelly Crow charts the meteoric rise of Gerhard Richter, who last year outsold MonetGiacometti, and Rothko — combined. The artist has apparently told friends he thinks his recent auction records are "absurd." Some art market players, like Jose Mugrabi and David Namhad, seem to agree. [WSJ]

– WTC Arts Center Hires Its First Staffer: The performing arts center at the World Trade Center, which spent years in bureaucratic limbo, has hired Maggie Boepple, a former president of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, to serve as senior advisor to the arts center board. [WSJ

– VW Bugs Art Thieves: German automaker Volkswagen is putting up 75 percent of the funds for a major German-Russian research project to track down art stolen from Russia during WWII. The company will put up nearly $800,000 — though researchers will have to drive their own cars. [Bloomberg]

– Wiley Trades Big Canvases for Billboard: A scaled-up version of one of the works in Kehinde Wiley's new exhibition at the Jewish Museum is being painted on a Houston Street billboard. [TAN]

– TEFAF's Inaugural Restoration Fund Rewards Announced: Maastricht's art and antique fair has awarded the Denver Art Museum €26,000 ($34,403) for the restoration of Canaletto's "The Molo from the Bacino di S. Marco." The Rijksmuseum will also receive  €22,000 ($29,110) for the restoration of ten bronze statues from the tomb of Isabella of Bourbon, dated 1476. [AMA]

 Weird Art Yankovic: An L.A. gallery is making an unlikely icon of wacky pop satirist Weird Al. The latest exhibition in the "Is This Thing On?" series opens at L.A.'s Gallery 1988 today will include a series of nine prints, each commemorating a different Weird Al track, such as "Fat" and "Another One Rides the Bus." [HuffPo

– Van Goghbot: Scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute are showing off a new €40,000 ($52,000) robot capable of creating a recognizable portrait of a human sitter in just three minutes. The robot was originally developed to test the quality of reflective materials like safety vests, but its ability to detect subtle light reflection patterns made it uniquely suited to portraying human facial features. [Reuters]

– Gilbert and George Go Rogue: The British artist duo's new exhibition, which opens today at all three White Cube locations, features nearly 300 works all made up of billboards that the pair stole over the course of several years. "Nobody would let us have them," said George Passmore. "We decided we would have to steal them all and one by one we stole 3,712." [HuffPo]

– Sotheby's Gets Handsy: The Henry Buhl Collection, a grouping of hundreds of photographs of hands by the likes of Walker EvansLaslo Moholy-Nagy, and Robert Rauschenberg, will be auctioned off at Sotheby's in December. Perhaps the most famous image in Buhl's collection, a photograph by Alfred Stieglitz of his then-future wife Georgia O'Keefe's hands, has an estimate of $1-1.5 million. [NYT]

– Museum Gets Into the Hotel Business: The Indianapolis Museum of Art has formed a partnership with the real estate developer Buckingham Companies. The museum has commissioned art for the public spaces of Buckingham's newest hotel (from the likes of Jaume Plensa, Alyson Shotz, and Jorge Pardo) in exchange for a curatorial fee of $350,000. [NYT]

ALSO ON ARTINFO:

ARTINFO's 2012 Armory Show Honors: The Best, the Worst, and the Weirdest of New York's Biggest Fair

Moving Image, New York's Video Fair, Returns With Bigger, Better Screens (and More Nudity)

From Booths and Aisles to Temporary Cities: The Evolving Architecture of Art Fairs

Street Style: See Artists' Sartorial Selections at the Armory Show VIP Vernissage

From a Watermelon Rock to a Resin Bong, the Trippiest Works at the 2012 Independent Fair

Hoberman on “John Carter,” Cowboy and Indians on Mars

Slideshow: SCOPE New York 2012

From Hair-Based Performance Art to a Miniature Gowanus, 13 Highlights of Volta New York

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From Hair-Based Performance Art to a Miniature Gowanus, 13 Highlights of Volta New York
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Art fairs: Heart 'em or hate 'em, you’ll probably like Volta. Convivially located a stone’s throw from the Empire State building on the eleventh floor at 7 West 34th Street, the invitational solo project show, now in its eighth edition, has earned a reputation as the most accessible and pleasant stop on New York’s Armory Week fair circuit.

Volta may be the viewer’s art fair, but dealers seemed to be having a good time too. Jimi Dams, director of New York’s Envoy Enterprises, quoted Flaubert in his appraisal of the ubiquitous multi-artist booths at other fairs: “too much of a good thing... is a bad thing.” At Volta, however, “every gallery has only one artist, so as a viewer you get a sense of the artist’s vision.”

Although no collectors were available for comment, ARTINFO did overhear one buyer lament, “my eight-year old has expensive tastes, it’s draining my art budget.” Costly foie gras-devouring fifth graders aside, Volta’s VIP preview saw plenty of prime collector action. The overall mood was bustling and positive. Most gallerists reported “major interest” within the first two hours; and Copenhagen’s Larmgalleri had sold out all but one monumental painting by Biennale alum Nicola Samori.

Save for Sanja Ivekovic, who currently has a solo show at MoMA, there were few truly familiar names attached to the 80 galleries that have booths here. After all, Volta is a go-to fair for discovering emerging talent, not for gobbling up known quantities. Despite a few inevitable schlocky moments (paintings of dollar signs, mopy emo girls, and hyperbolically endowed cattle) and some so-so finish-fetish throwbacks, Volta’s lineup was full of happy surprises. Portraiture emerged as a discernable trend. At Volta — as at fashion week — “the Lady” is back (see Francesco Merletti’s eccentric grand-dames or Timotheus Tomickek’s pseudo-baroque allegorical photo portraits). Alas, the Lady makes her entrance only to be put into post-Cindy Sherman quotation marks by Oreet Ashery, Christa Joo, and Zackary Drucker, who navigate the terrain of sexuality, identity, and advertising with aplomb.

From portraits to performance, here are our favorite works of VOLTA 2012:

1) "Voted," Wilmer Wilson IV, Conner Contemporary Art, Washington D.C.

For her maiden voyage to Volta NY, D.C. gallerist Leigh Conner was excited to bring performance art. Unlike other fairs, “Volta is the right platform for endurance performance,” she says, “because people are actually contemplating the work.” Throughout the day, Wilmer Wilson painstakingly covered his body in “I Voted” stickers, commenting on the lack of representative government in his hometown of Washington D.C. Though he was mute, his actions spoke louder than words.

2) "American Flags," Erika Keck, Envoy Enterprises, New York

Keck’s tattered and frayed canvases were some of the most exciting abstract work at Volta this year. I see faint echoes of Jasper John’s "Flag" somewhere in this hot mess.

3) "Two Sugars Would be Great (not exactly Bar Italia but will do)," Lisa Lounila, Kalmama & Pippo Gallery, Helsinki

This year, Volta and the Armory alike (both owned by Merchandise Mart) put the spotlight on galleries hailing from the Nordic countries. Gallerist Pilvi Kalhama said the attention paid to Nordic galleries “made it an easier decision to come here.” We’re glad she did. Otherwise we wouldn’t have seen Finish artist Lisa Lounila’s delightfully low-key palladium sculptures cast from mundane objects. (We also love her oh-so-mundane title.)

4) "Wo ist Schneewittchen?,” Carl Emmanuel Wolff, Schuebbe Projects, Dusseldorf

Carl Emmanuel Woff usually places his sculptures in obscure wooded areas in rural Germany, but they looked pretty great at Volta. "Wo ist Schneewittchen?,” incorporating a phalanx of formidable, faceless figures made from firecrackers — evokes Niki de Saint Phalle’s “Bride” statues, but he seems to have another woman in mind. The title translates to “Where is Snow White?” Maybe he’s got the fairytale fever…

5) Christa Joo Hyun D’Angelo, Galerie Suvi Lehtinen, Berlin

Christa Joo Hyun D’Angelo’s frenetic collage wallpaper of supermodels and kitty cats critques commodity fetishism by mimicking the brainwashing strategies of advertising. It must be working, because I want it…

6) Zackary Drucker, Luis de Jesus, Los Angeles

Installed next door to Sanja Ivekovic, Los Angeles artist Zackary Drucker’s LED light box portraits of transfemale nudes pack serious punch. While they initially recall the oversexed fetishism of Helmut Newton, Drucker’s portraits relay a gender queer stance on sexuality and identity. The booth — which was augmented with intimate recordings of pillow talk — was one of the most provocative in the fair.

7) Mindaugas Lukošaitis, Galerija Vartai, Vilnius

Drawings of any kind were a rare sight in this year’s Volta Fair. Lithuanian draughtsman Mindaugas Lukošaitis’s quirky little figurative drawings were charmers. 

8) Asgar/Gabriel,” Brotkunsthalle, Vienna 

According to artist/critic Marc Quinn, "Asgar/Gabriel are the Poussin of the rave generation." I would have said the Delacroix for the mescaline and Smirnoff Ice generation, but whatever. Their hyper-kitsch orgiastic paintings have irresistible “so bad its good” clusterfuck appeal.

9) “Hairoism," Oreet Ashery, Pristine Galerie, Monterrey

This bizarre photograph is a document of an interactive live performance where artist Oreet Ashery used hair donated by audience members to impersonate public figures including Moshe Dayan, Abu Marzook, Avigdor Lieberman, Yasser Arafat, and Ringo Starr. The photos show the last stage of the performance, where she is fully covered in patchy grafts of other people's hair and looks so weird she no longer resembles anyone.

10) "Window with a View of Gowanus Heights," Patrick Jacobs, The Pool NYC, New York

Easy to miss, but hard to forget, Patrick Jacob’s diminutive trompe l’oeil dioramas are hidden gems in Volta’s crown. Viewed through circular glass lenses, Jacob’s interiors of Brooklyn railroad apartments create a striking illusion of a seemingly infinite regress within a tiny space (if only I had that effect in my apartment!).

11) "Ball and Chain," James Clar, Blythe Projects, Los Angeles 

The title might suggest “the ol’ ball and chain,” but James Clar’s futuristic light sculpture is anything but. This incandescent sphere of white and purple lights stood out in a show largely dominated by painting. Clar holds a patent (and has two pending) for technologies he developed while creating this unusual work, which looks like something out of "Minority Report."

12) "Terms of Endearment," Trevor Guthrie, Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich

Best. Bathroom. Art. Ever.

13) "The Right One (the Pearls of the Revolution)," Sanja Ivekovic, Espaivisor, Visor Gallery, Valencia 

Juxtapositions of Yugoslav partisans and pearl-toting fashion models aren't exactly your standard ‘fair art’ cuisine. But that’s why we love Croatian artist Sanja Ivekovic, whose current solo show at MoMA will likely make her an art star. Modest-sounding dealer Mira Bernabea said he expects to sell at least two of her works by the end of the week. Agitprop never looked this good!

To see images of all the art highlighted in this article, click on the slide show.

by Chloe Wyma,Art Fairs,Art Fairs

Scope 2012 Tones It Down With Reverent Riffs on Art History's Elders

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Scope 2012 Tones It Down With Reverent Riffs on Art History's Elders
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Scope New York has been host to some shenanigans in years past. A large part of ARTINFO’s coverage of 2011’s fair focussed on "Come on Guy,” an installation by Richie Budd and Will Robison for which a small group of fraternity brothers were encased in a glass box and made to drink several cases of beer. On a week that saw about a dozen art fairs in New York compete with one another for the public’s attention, the crazy stunt was almost forgivable. After all, you can’t expect to make news if you’re too reverent. 

It’s interesting, then, that reverence should be the defining feature of this year’s fair. Current Scope director Mollie White professes to dislike the word “edgy.” At C. Grimaldis Gallery's booth, artist Chul Hyun Ahn discussed his sculptures made from fluorescent light fixtures (including “Void,” 2011), describing Dan Flavin as a “mentor.” Gregory Scott, represented by Waterhouse & Dodd, paid homage to 1960s Pop art by installing a two-channel video in a Lichtenstein-style Benday dot painting. References to modernism are a recurring theme at Scope this year.

For the installation "Burn Before Reading," it was reverence for the art book that motivated Lilah Freedland to exhibit small zines and hand-painted works made by her artist friends. Freedland may have been nodding to Rikrit Tiravanija when she invited friends from the ProFailure Press, who provided a small picnic table, coffee, and donuts to the fair’s visitors — an effective strategy, by all accounts.

The line between collegial homage and mere name dropping is a fine one, and of course there were some at Scope who missed the mark. At the Global Art Group booth, Alex Guofeng Cao has created bust-length images made up of grids of tiny, squared-off images from mid-century pop culture. Some might read these as tributes to Andy Warhol, but many more may see them as unimaginative dorm room art. Meanwhile, Galerie E.G.P. is exhibiting scribbled sharpie pen drawings accompanied by gothy concrete poetry made by Oliver Bragg, an artist who, one guesses, wants to be just like David Shrigley when he grows up. Maybe he will be. 

By far the fair’s strongest suit is photography. Among Scope's highlights on this front is the work of Raif Kaspers, represented by Turin’s Gagliardi Art System, who shows unique bravado in his heavily manipulated wall-sized pictures of families at an enormous Japanese wave pool. Also of note is the gallery Emanuel Fremin, which is exhibiting images of abandoned churches and concert halls in Detroit taken by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. The abandoned grandeur of Detroit is not a fresh subject, but the fact that this kind of urban landscape photography has already been done doesn’t seem to matter. Most viewers didn’t even ask where the photographs were taken. They just stood there, mesmerized.

by Reid Singer,Art Fairs,Art Fairs

Independent Fair Opens With Smaller Works and a Fruitful Flurry of Sales

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Independent Fair Opens With Smaller Works and a Fruitful Flurry of Sales
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Talk to almost anyone at Independent, Armory Week’s three-year-old alternative art fair, and they will tell you three things. They love the natural light, they love the open floorplan, and they love the atmosphere. The first two certainly help facilitate the latter, and all three, it seemed, helped facilitate brisk sales on opening day. The event, which politely describes itself as a “temporary exhibition forum” rather than a fair, opened at the former Dia Art Foundation building in Chelsea on Thursday with 42 participants, a new design, and a handful of notable guests, including former first daughter Chelsea Clinton and actor James Franco.

Like the Armory Show, Independent boasted a new layout this year. Designed by Christian Wassmann, all the elements of the floorplan are based on an angle of 29 degrees, which orients the visitor to true north and south rather than the city grid. The design kept visitors circulating throughout the boothless fair, and may have even encouraged some unlikely sales. “I think it’s democratic, in a way,” said Spruth Magers’s Andreas Gegner of Independent’s design. “So many collectors come in and dart into the booths they know. But here, you can’t tell what work belongs to what gallery.”

“There’s something about being here,” said Wilfried Lentz, of the eponymous Rotterdam gallery. “There’s not all this pressure you get at other fairs.” The art on view — or some of it, anyway — seemed to reflect this sense of playfulness, though many works were on a smaller, more commercial scale than in years past. At Lentz’s booth, a series of surreal photographs of carrots floating in a white frame for $7,500 by D.C.-based artist Michael Portnoy turned interactive: viewers were invited to press a button on the frame and listen to the artist recite a long-winded, semi-comprehensible joke. Waiting for the punchline that never comes, one recalls the phrase, “All carrot and no stick.”

Still, the carrot came for many dealers in the form of strong sales. In the fair's first hour Modern Institute of Glasgow sold at least three of Nicolas Party’s jolly rock sculptures, which are painted to look like pieces of fruit, for $1,500 to $3,000 a pop, depending on the size. (By mid-afternoon, it seemed as if the only Party piece that hadn’t been scooped up was a rock that was painted to look like a slab of raw meat. Perhaps Independent caters to vegetarian collectors.)

The Lower East Side gallery Untitled sold well over a dozen works on carbon paper by 73-year-old artist Joshua Neustein. The works, delicate brown and black cut-paper arrangements, were made between 1974 and 2011 and cost $4,150 each. Across the way, London gallery Stuart Shave/Modern Art was displaying work by one of the younger artists at the fair, 26-year-old Colombia-born painter Oscar Murillo. Almost all of the works had sold by late afternoon, including stacks of three canvases propped against the wall and decorated with debris. (One had the word “Yoga” scrawled in big letters across the front.) The groupings were sold as a set for £12,000 ($18,800) each. Merillo, who is just out of art school, is currently doing a residency at New York’s Hunter College Studios.

Other successes included International Art Objects Galleries (formerly known as China Art Objects), of Los Angeles, which created a kind of funhouse environment with a hanging, multicolored mirror piece (available for $80,000) and spray-painted fake plants by Pae White on the windowsill. The gallery sold at least four works by California artist J.P. Munro, whose complex paintings and drawings look like a cross between Hieronymus Bosch and a battle scene in a video game. One large oil-on-linen painting, which took three years to make, sold for $45,000, while drawings sold for $4,500 each.

An exception to the playful tone was McCaffrey Fine Art, the Upper East Side gallery that specializes in Japanese art. Its muted but stunning presentation of postwar artist Jiro Takamatsu juxtaposed works on paper that he had delicately torn up and then repasted onto the page with a concrete sculpture that he whacked until the concrete began to crack. They share a surface texture — cracked and fractured — as well as a monochrome, minimalist elegance. By the end of the first day, almost all the works on paper had sold at prices ranging from $15,000 to $30,000. 

“I have no complaints about this fair,” said dealer Jack Hanley, who sold at least 10 intricate portrait drawings by New Hampshire-based Aris Moore for $1,100 a pop. Indeed, the only complaint anyone seemed to harbor was that there now seemed to be too many good fairs and too little time and money to participate in them. The majority of the dealers at Independent have signed on to do another New York fair in May (either Frieze or NADA). “I’m hoping that by the time it comes along I’ve forgotten about this one,” said Hanley, when asked about the fast-approaching Frieze. Meanwhile, some dealers, like Spruth Magers and David Kordansky Gallery, are already doing two fairs concurrently, exhibiting at both Independent and the Armory Show this week. “It’s a great way to show our young artists and our more established artists at the same time,” said Gegner.

Spruth Magers, which sold a brand new textile collage by Sterling Ruby for $155,000, had perhaps the most striking booth. It invited artist Thea Djordjaze to create an installation on the spot without any idea what she would create. Throughout the last several days, Djordjaze added small, minimalist objects and constructions to the booth, which was anchored by a large, light blue carpet that covered both the wall and floor. “At first, she said she liked the carpet so much she wanted to leave it on its own,” said Gegner, smiling. “And we said, ‘Oh yes, that looks nice, but maybe you could add something else?’”

Perhaps the most bizarre display was that of London’s Hotel, which presented a group of three white massage chairs affixed with large paintings bearing a mute symbol, by the artist Alistair Frost. “We thought, let’s just take the wrongest thing you can show at an art fair — a white massage table,” said Darren Flook, who co-founded the fair with New York’s Elizabeth Dee. (In fact, they weren’t so wrong — by late afternoon one had sold for $18,000.) Asked how the fair has changed in the last three years, Flook said, “I think the first time around we put the whole thing together in four months. Now, people know their jobs.”

“Every year, I’ve said, never again,” he said. This year, he’ll be doing Frieze New York before he has to decide whether to revive Independent — which was originally intended as a one-off — for a fourth edition. How has the profusion of fairs affected him? “This has become a job,” he said. “I used to think I was a curator. Now I know I’m not.” 

by Julia Halperin,Art Fairs,Art Fairs

Collect 'Em All: Grey Area Launches a Swank New SoHo Showroom With a Line of Artist-Designed VIP Badges

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Collect 'Em All: Grey Area Launches a Swank New SoHo Showroom With a Line of Artist-Designed VIP Badges
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NEW YORK — Online art/design hybrid Grey Area opened its new showroom in SoHo last night, giving New Yorkers a physical space to fondle (or just take an up-close look at) the artist-designed jewelry, objects, clothing, and furniture that until now they had only been able to browse on the Internet.

In addition to what we’ve already been ogling on the site — like the Art Production Fund's Works on Whatever artist towels, which include beach-ready versions of works by Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, and Barbara Kruger (although at $95 a pop, you may want to keep them off the sand) — Grey Area introduced its 50-piece collection of Artist “VIP” (that’s “Very Important Piece”) badges, hanging from grey lanyards in the showroom. They’re not passes to any particular even in an actual place, but serve as a reminder of “why we are here in the first place, the art,” according to co-founder Manish Vora. The likes of Dustin Yellin, Jose Parla, and Orly Genger contributed tongue-in-cheek work, like Yellin's collage on real-life currency. Kathy Rudin's piece paid homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, while Elisabeth Koch's made nods to Chairman Mao, and John Gordon Gauld's was particularly cheeky. ARTINFO was given the choice between two very self-aware pieces, the first being Hank Willis Thomas's enthusiastic yet spare "I AM. AMEN." badge. Instead we walked away with the one by Tim Biskup, which, on a colorfully geometric background, very dryly proclaims, "IT'S ME." It was irrepressibly cheerful.

Other objects worth the trip to see in person include Ryan Humphrey’s trompe-l’oeil, stackable steel ghetto blasters; the terminally shredded "Best Friends" skateboard by Carlton DeWoody; and the white-lacquered shelves that look like they were broken off a block of Styrofoam, designed by Snarkitecture, our favorite local duo of irreverent designers.

Grey Area SoHo is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10-6. To see a selection of these Very Important Pieces, as well as the interior of the showroon, click on the slide show


Art Fair Week in Pictures: See Photos From Every New York Fair

VIDEO: Theaster Gates on Inserting an Inner-City Schoolroom Into the Armory Show's "Magical" Atmosphere

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VIDEO: Theaster Gates on Inserting an Inner-City Schoolroom Into the Armory Show's "Magical" Atmosphere

"Artists should never be at an art fair," legendary painter Chuck Close told ARTINFO earlier this week as the 2012 Armory Show opened. Theaster Gates disagrees. "Fairs are about money because that's what we make fairs about," he says. A rising star, Gates is known for works that spin jagged aesthetic poetry out of community-based organizing, particularly with reference to African-American history. As the official artist of the show, Gates created a sold-out edition of "Civil Rights Throw Rugs," but also assembled together a deliberately incongruous discussion lounge, made out of furniture salvaged from a school on Chicago's South Side and installed just outside of the stand of his dealer Kavi Gupta.

Yesterday, he graciously agreed to speak on camera about his inspirations for the project, and how he hoped to use the fair as an "accomplice" in his larger artistic mission:

 

by Tom Chen,Videos,Videos

Slideshow: 8 Collectable Artworks From This Week's NYC Art Fairs

Clip Art: Inventive Videos From Björk, Big K.R.I.T., Christian Mistress and More

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Clip Art: Inventive Videos From Björk, Big K.R.I.T., Christian Mistress and More
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It’s only getting easier and cheaper to make a music video these days — and all the more important, as artists compete to be heard, largely without the benefit of big pushes from major labels. For those reasons, the music video has undergone something of a mini-renaissance. Every week ARTINFO video editor Tom Chen, photo editor Micah Schmidt, and performing arts editor Nick Catucci will choose five of the most visually engaging music clips from the previous few days, presenting highlights from each in a video supercut.

This week:

In the video for “Hold On,” the French video-art collective known as AB/CD/CD pair each element of a song by Factory Floor with a  rythmically-matched micro-drama.

Big K.R.I.T.’s “Boobie Miles” observes athletes at work, adding another somehow poignant layer to the rapper’s many, many sports metaphors.
Related: The Week's Five Best Albums, From Big K.R.I.T. to Todd Snider

According to director Drew Barry, the animation in Björk’s “Hollow” is “constructed from molecular models of DNA and proteins derived from various forms of scientific data such as x-ray crystallography.”

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah dress up the bizarre stills in “Hysterical” with fast-moving gobs and streaks of paint.

On “Pentagram and Crucifix,” Christian Mistress nicely freshen and aestheticize metal clichés, from the titular cross to a guitar solo ripped from a Flying V.

Previously: Gorillaz, Sophia Knapp, Ssion, Grimes, and Alex Winston

The Expert Eye: 8 Collectible Artworks From This Week's NYC Art Fairs

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The Expert Eye: 8 Collectible Artworks From This Week's NYC Art Fairs
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Matthew Drutt is executive director of Blouin Cultural Advisory Group, a consulting firm that guides private clients and institutions building discerning collections of fine art and organizing exhibitions of distinction. Here he offers his top eight picks from this week's art fairs in New York. 

Click on the slide show to see images of the works he highlights below.

ADAA

James Bishop’s enigmatic paintings and drawings are at once abstract and imagistic, marked by a poetic or delicate reduction of form. Lawrence Markey Gallery has several outstanding and rare examples of his drawings priced at $20,000 each, subject to availability.

LA-based painter Dave Muller turns the traditional genres of still life and landscape on their heels with works that are informed by his other practice as a musician. His mural for Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex., is one of the standout works on public display. Anthony Meier Fine Arts has devoted its entire stand to a new group of works on paper, which range in price from $15,000 - $45,000.

Armory

A founding member of Gran Fury, Donald Moffat is one of the finest artists of his generation, whose works I din to be undervalued considering his stature in the field. His recent solo exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston put to rest any doubt about the significance of his contributions. His new works, part sculpture/part painting, can be seen both at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea and at her stand here, with prices for a work like this beginning at $75,000.

I first saw Jorinde Voigt’s intricate and lyrical drawings based on algorithmic systems at a solo show at the Von der Heydt Museum in Germany last year. Now you can see them for yourself at Martin Klosterfelde’s stand as well as in the artist’s U.S. debut at David Nolan Gallery in Chelsea. They are $20,000 for larger works and $4,000 for the smaller drawings.

Independent

Tanja Roscic is a young Croatian-Albanian artist who lives and works in Zagreb and Zurich, whose previous works have explored surreal realms of feminine isolation and dislocation. The works presented at Freymond-Guth’s stand evoke strategies of Modernist artists like Hannah Hoech and Kurt Schwitters, with abstract collages that are constructed, painterly, dark, and beautiful, starting at 3500 CHF.

Also at Freymond-Guth are the lush abstract wax paintings of Italian artist Loredana Sperini. They need to be seen in better light than the fair provides, but at 4200 CHF for one of these beautiful works, you can well afford to take one home and see for yourself.

Joshua Neustein has a long and active career going back to the late 1960s, but the installation of his signature collage/constructed works made from carbon paper will be a revelation to many. They are Beusyian, Arte Povera, and Minimalism wrapped into one, and they are extremely affordable at $4,150 each. 

Volta

Christian Patterson once worked as an assistant to photographer William Eggleston, and his earlier works make that relationship quite evident. The material presented at Robert Morat Galerie’s stand is an installation of photographs and documents that explores the actual story behind the murderous crime spree of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend in the 1950s, later fictionalized and celebrated in a film by Terrence Malick in 1973. The artist retraced the path of the young couple across Nebraska, photographing their crime sites, some of which amazingly still bear traces of their grisly former history. His shotgun drawings (made with a .410 shotgun) start at $2,000, while the photographs in editions of seven are $3,000. There is also a publication that accompanies the project.

by Matthew Drutt,Art Fairs,Art Fairs
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