Bridge Art Fair After Party at glass
Armory week - Manhattan hosted the Armory Show and 10 "satellite" fairs this year, plus special events, galas, evening attractions like the Dark fair, Saturday Night in Williamsburg, and a full-to-capacity evening in Chelsea that, between the opening of Bridge, a hige DiVA part at White Box, and late vernissages all over 26th Street, could have been dubed the "Art County Fair," have finally left us rubbing our feet and eyes in wonderment and exhaustion.
While between us we at least got a quick look at everything, and both of us saw most of the offerings at the fairs, at least, there was no general impression to be had except that (a) there's nothing that one should skip, even if your friends tell you not to bother, because we saw several unique and marvelous objects at each destination, and met soem great people, too; and in consequence (b) less crush and more time to get around town would be welcome changes next time around.
In spite of the sensory overload that artist Claire Lieberman dubbed "Fair Glare" at the Armory preview, we have decided that we love art fairs. For us, there is nothing like the electricity of walking the aisles at the pier, schmoozing and connecting, reconnecting, in the midst of all that art power and potential. But that is not the only, even the main reason, to get up and out there when the fairs come to town. We spent half of our viewing time getting visiting the dealers at 2 smaller hotel fairs - Red Dot and Art Now, not by intention but because, from opening day, we found ourselves captivated by the works on view and the remarkable dealers who had brought them.
Some of them were old friends we don't catch up with enough - ar Art Now, we spent some time with Miharu and John own and operate Artspace Company Y http://www.artspacegallery.com/ ...
SEIJU TODA HEIAN © - artspace y gallery
at 135 W. 29th Street, a location that may be off the beaten track but worth the trip.
Also at Art Now, we discovered a room hung salon style by Pierre Menard Gallery of Cambridge http://www.pierremenardgallery.com/,...
Installation at Pierre Menard Gallery
MA, with an impressive and ecletic array of works that included visual art by such literary luminaries as Tennessee Williams, ee cummings, William S. Burroughs, Henry Miller and Frederico Garcia-Lorca; very early and rare works of Gerhard Richter and Ray Johnson; contemporary luminaries such as Nancy Spero, Carolee Schneemann and Dove Bradshaw; and the new to us paintingd of Jim Peters and scupture by Hiroyuki Hamada. Fascinating to view the selection and learn about the artists and the history from visiting dealer John Wronoski of Lame Duck Books.
Moving to the Red Dot reception that same evening, we encoutered the well-crafted selections of Brick Walk and Harvey http://www.brickwalkfineart.com/bwh.html...
Gandy Brodie (1925-1975) , Brick Walk and Harvey
which features 20th Century artists and, in particular, those who studied wit Hans Hoffman. We wanted to see much more, but it was a week when everything happened at once, and Bridge - an art fair in NY for the first time - was on the other side of town, so we joined the throngs in Chelsea on the street, in the galleries, in the Tunnel - where we stopped long enough to meet a few dealers and request images for you, our readers - and finally at Glass for Bridge's incredibly civilized and enjoyable after-party.
Saturday was given to covering Pool, LA Art, & Pulse, but we saved Sunday to return to the hotels. At Red Dot, we caught up with local favorites Nancy Hoffman http://www.nancyhoffmangallery.com/...
Howard Buchwald © Nancy Hoffman Gallery
and Adam Baumgold http://www.adambaumgoldgallery.com/ ,...
GENEVIÈVE CASTRÉE © - Adam Baumgold Gallery
whose offerings we enjoyed seeing in this intimate environment with so many other curious viewers, and discovered the one-of-a kind prints of Laura Blacona brought to New York from San Francisco by Buenas Artes http://www.buenasartes.com/ ...
Laura Blacona - courtesy of Buenas Artes
At Art Now, photographs fine and famous caught our attention via Sag Harbor's Tulla Booth Gallery http://www.tullaboothgallery.com/ ,...
Eric Meola © Tulla Booth Gallery
we encountered fine figurative paintings of artists new to us via Latvia's Gallery "Bastejs," http://www.bastejs.lv/en/brike/default.htm...
art by Jane Brika - Gallery "Bastejs,"
met Brooklyn artist Raffaele D'Onofrio, and shared urban art, absinthe, and great conversation with the staff of LA's Ghetto Gloss gallery http://www.ghettogloss.com/ and artist Yarrow Earth Hock.
Ghetto Gloss gallery
But it's always the people that make your day. At the installation of Aron Packer Gallery http://packergallery.com/index.php , we were greeted with the words "Our gallery is in Chicago, it's much bigger than this." Guess they didn't realize that their spacious accommodations at Hotel 30/30 were at least as large as many emerging galleries here.
In New York, there is no small art, only small spaces.
all rights reserved by Resolve40 © 2008
