In its September issue, Art+Auction compiled a list of the 25 most collectible midcareer artists working today. This month, ARTINFO will publish one installment from the feature per day. Click here to read Art+Auction editor-in-chief Eric Bryant’s introduction to the list. To see all the installments published so far, click here.
Marianne Vitale | b. 1973 | United States
“Like Arte Povera, it’s never only conceptual and it’s never only about the material. It’s about the material having a certain history,” says Nicole Hackert of Berlin’s Contemporary Fine Arts (CFA) in describing the practice of Vitale, who works across media and genres, creating sculptures, works on canvas, and performances.
While Vitale’s large-scale pieces appear to reference artists like Gordon Matta-Clark and Mark di Suvero, artist and curator Rachel Foullon says that she “is not directly addressing art history as much as she’s addressing her own life-span and perceptions of a postindustrial detritus. It’s an investigation into the materials that are left around to rot and a repurposing of them,” adds Foullon, who included Vitale’s work in the inaugural exhibition this past summer at the Other Room, Jasper Johns’s new space in downtown Manhattan.
Vitale, who was included in the 2010 Whitney Biennial, has received commissions from Frieze and Performa. In June CFA brought her work to Art Basel, where she saw brisk sales despite still being relatively unknown in Europe. Paralleling her range in styles and sizes, the prices for Vitale’s works also vary—small masks can be acquired for as little as $6,000, while sculptures from her “Worthy” series can reach $45,000. An exhibition of her work opens at Venus Over Los Angeles in January 2016.
