artblog goes to documenta, miami basel, carnegie international, and the usual new york suspects.
We know we missed some of the Armory — for starters, we never made it to Pier 92, the Modern section. And while it seems like we saw tons of art we fear we missed some at Pier 94 where the Armory Contemporary was. Carrumba.
Julia Fullerton-Batten, Hallway, 2008, c-type, 40 x 54 at Jenkins Johnson Gallery
We ran into a lot of folks at the art fairs last week. Some we knew, others were artists and gallerists we were meeting for the first time. Either way, the art fairs are chat fests with conversations about art, sales and the exhilaration of being at the fair. Talk is the glue that holds the memory of the fair together this year. Other years it was the art. Here’s a brief report from Pulse, Volta and the Armory.
Daniel Firman, Grey Matters at Galerie Emanuel Perotin at the Armory.
Now in its 75th go-round, The Whitney Biennial is still the big kahuna, the show every American artist wants to be in and every art lover wants to see. This year the career-boosting show includes no Philadelphia artist. We had representation in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 — so much for that trend. Instead, the curators went to Chicago, Oregon, Los Angeles and, of course, New York for the 55 artists, more than half of them women (a first) and many of them under the national radar.
One of the 28 women featured in this year's biennial, Aki Sasamoto, performed at the press preview. Strange Attractors, 2010. mixed media, dimensions variable, collection of the artist
Quiet, a little sad, introspective, and not a lot of beauty. Those are how I’d sum up this year’s Whitney Biennial, now celebrating its 75th edition. After the ebullient excess of 2008, in which more than 80 artists exploded beyond the bounds of the museum, taking up residence in the nearby armory, and pock marking Central Park, a mere 55 artists certainly reflects a societal time of retrenchment and self-reassessment.
It’s as if America is no longer the youthful shiny penny it used to be. Well, that would be right. It’s not. And this is the Whitney Biennial that reflects the new world order.
Stephanie Sinclair, Self-Immolation in Afghanistan: A Cry for Help, 2005 Digital print, dimensions variable Collection of the artist; courtesy VII, New York
Shepard Fairey, who rose to fame and made his mark with his wildly successful and now controversial Obama campaign poster, has left his mark here in Venice as well. During the June international art orgy known as the Venice Biennale, Fairey was brought to a tiny bar in the San Polo quarter near the Rialto Bridge by two Biennale hostesses, according to Guiliano, the bartender at Boteri Cafe.
Shepard Fairey goes up against a Keith Haring knock-off in the Boteri Cafe, Venice, Italy.
The best video ever that we saw in Miami was not at the fairs but at the Margulies Collection.
Isaac Julien’s 3-channel projection Western Union: Small Boats, 2007, is a poetical/political piece with watery realms of extreme sensuality and earthly realms both sensual and haunting. Julien works with dancers and here, he’s poised sinuous bodies in and around boats, sea cliffs and a baroque colonial mansion in North Africa. Without the use of a clear narrative thread you are immersed in a realm of suggestion.
Isaac Julien, surreal landscape in North Africa
This was the fifth time I’d gone to ABMB (Art Basel Miami Beach) and the multi-ring circus that includes the peripheral art fairs, local museums, collectors who run private museum spaces, temporary public projects and various lectures, performances, film showings and parties. I decided to take it easy and be guided by the interests of several friends who were also in Miami for the events, spending two days with tv news producer, Jake Haselkorn, who’s spent the past 20 years covering Asia and my good friend, Berta Sichel, Director of the Film Department at the Reina Sophia Museum, Madrid, as well as meeting up with Artblog’s Roberta and Libby for a day. The following are random snapshots rather than any attempt at a synthesis.
at the Cisneros Foundation brunch
Words poured out of gallery director Catharine Clark when we asked her about Sandow Birk and his American Qur’an drawings (on view at Pulse). She told us that before the show at her eponymous gallery, there was a lot of internet buzz calling the work anti-Islam, even though the accusers hadn’t seen it. So on opening night, Clark for the first time ever had security on hand. Once people set their eyes on the work, however, they were no longer offended. It’s neither pro-West nor pro-Islam. The imagery is juxtaposed to a Sura in the Koran that is called Smoke, a response to 9/11.
Sandow Birk, American Qur'an, detail. Note the vernacular imagery with the ornate script, in English,
Stand by for a petite post of gossip. We ran into some Philadelphia people (or people with Philly connections) at the fairs, in the airport and on the street. Here’s a list.
Henry Bermudez with his new Batman in Latin American works at Red Dot
As you know, the art fairs are overwhelming. We saw six fairs and two collections plus some stuff sprinkled around Miami. Here’s what wowed us. We’re starting with sculpture and 2D favorites. Next post we’ll do some videos. We went down to the fairs looking for trends but couldn’t find them since there are so many being worked on all at once–the economy, politics, love, death, hate, women, survival, ecology and just having fun. Things seemed to be selling well from what we could tell. People were happy but a little lost in all the aisles of art. One trend we saw was a lot of iPhone camera action.
Geza Szollosi's friendly taxidermy cow head at Mauger
