Art Fairs | Frieze at Randall's Island

My six kilometer walk, from the Upper West Side to the Frieze tent

Yesterday the third New York edition of the art fair Frieze opened in its usual —yet unusual in the art fair geography—New York City location: Randall's Island, in the East River. The container of the artwork is visually quite compelling: a snake-shaped bright white tent is an elegant, yet not-competing wrapping for the multitude of different scale and media sculptures, drawings, paintings, and most of all, installations.

   "Arte Povera" can seem an oxymoron for a commercial fair, but is perhaps one of the largest presence in the Frieze. The repertoire ranges from  cardboard sculptures to trash outdoor installation and newspaper pages elegantly presented in series. The dot paintings series by Jonathan Horowitz, presented by the New York gallery Gavin Browse Enterprise is another example of gimmicky yet visually powerful artwork.

GBE stand and the $20 dot canvases

Kader Attia "Twalaaf Halaam"been cans installation at Lehman Maupin stand

Giuseppe Penone, Marian Goodman Gallery

Allyson Viera compressed plastic

Antonio Dias, Galeria Nara Roesler from São Paulo

More traditional formal exploratiosn from Sean Kelly Gallery

Hauser & Wirth

T. J. Wilcox "In the Air" from Gladstone Gallery

Conceptual explorations from the Wilkinson Gallery

Jenny Holzer at Sprüth Magers

 Sound art has a presence, even if weakly curated.

Participatory art is very presence, from the most common mirrored sculptures to more innovative forms, such as the "flux labyrinth".

P.P.P,O. stand

Richard Tuttle from Pace Gallery stand

Fairs | The Armory Show: Finding Continuity? Perhaps...

Making my way to Pier 94, along the slushy or snow covered pathways of the Hudson waterfront

The 2015 Armory Show appears to offer a more insightful presentation of "art for sale" —which has been historically often overpowered by gimmicky and glitzy exhibits. While walking throughout the "Modern" section in Pier 92 you can find a formal and logical continuity between modern pioneers of non-representational art and the current examples of the "Contemporary" in Pier 94. Optical and kinetic works from Zero, formal minimalism of Sol LeWitt or the sensual geometries of Yuko Nasaka,  seems to find contemporary expressions in Daniel Buren or the many other contemporary artists exploring the intersections between digital fabrications and sculpture making. And Michelangelo Pistoletto's mirrored based work allure to ourselves' images preceding of several decades the "selfies". A few images narrate this Armory 2015 first impressions.

Michelangelo Pistoletto from Repetto Gallery (Londo)

Pier Paolo Calzolari "Senza Titolo" (1943) from Galleria D'Arte Maggiore (Bologna)

Dieter Roth featured at Zucker Art Books

Alexander Calder "The Sphere and the Spirals no. 17" Crane and Kalman Gallery (London)

Daniel Buren (above) and Ivan Navarro from Galerie Daniel Templon (Paris)

Yuko Nasaka featured by Whitestone Gallery (Tokyo)

Heinz Mack Spiral from Beck & Eggeling (Dusseldorf)

Special Project at the Armory Show- Modern: Carlo Massoud "Arab Dolls"

Of particular relevance is the presence of conceptual art in the elegant minimal exhibition of 

• mfc-michèle didier featuring On Kawara and Muntadas.

Pauline Laumond in front of On Kawara "I Got Up",  mfc-michèle didier (Paris)

The 2015 focus also is more connected with the current socio-historical living. For the sixth  year the Armory Show presents a curated section in Pier 94 emphasizing the commercial galleries art of a selected geographic region. This year chosen region is Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean (Acronym MENAM) curated by Omar Kholeif from Whitechapel Gallery in London, in collaboration with Lead Cultural Partner, Edge of Arabia and Education Partner, Art Jameel. Galleries are included together with not-for-profit institutions and site-specific projects.

Armory Focus: MENAM

Art Fairs | New York, Pulse Preview

I asked David to take a few pics from the Pulse preview, just to get again into the "art and culture" landscape, before this blog becomes a palm tree portraiture. The photos show the usual NY art fair commercial mishmash, some more interesting than the typical gimmicks found in commercial art, yet good energy and...

New York, New York I miss you so much!