Seasons Greetings!

Happy Holidays everyone!


Take some time to enjoy family, food, and if you can, some art!


All the Best,


Ester

Recap: Art Basel Miami

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, but in the meantime I have made the move across the ocean back to Texas. After a short reunion (and break) for the Thanksgiving holiday, it was off to Miami for the most important collection of art fairs in North America. 


There were many things going on and I took in a lot of art. So, in this post, I will just very quickly try to recap the central fair Art Basel Miami, the sister counterpart to Art Basel. 


The main event was at the convention center in South Beach. Much like those I have described for Basel, Berlin, and Turin, the fair is a winding labyrinth of white wall gallery sets. There were many images caught my attention. Too many to show in a few blogs. I also noticed, perhaps because of my personal interest in the area, that the Latin American community is showing up more and more at these fairs. Enjoy!


If you would like to know more about the events in Miami, check out my collaborative article on Berlin Art Link. Where I recently became the editor, so keep checking out the site to keep up with the emerging Berlin art scene. 

Bernd Ribbeck, Galerie Kamm, Berlin

Untitled, 2010, acrylic, pigment marker / mdf, 35 x 35 cm

Untitled, 2010, acrylic, ball point pen, pigment marker / mdf, 30 x 40 cm

Ross Bleckner, Lehmann Maupin, New York

Overexpression, 1998, oil on linen, 84 x 72 inches

Jesus Rafael Soto, Sicardi, Houston

Guitar Sonata, 1959, Acrylic on masonite with black wire, 17 1/2 x 17 3/4 inches

Ivan Navarron, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York

Reality Show (Black), 2010, LED light, aluminum, wood, mirror, one-way mirror, and electric energy, 92 x 45 x 45 inches

Anthony James, Patrick Painter Editions, Santa Monica

Birch, 2010, birch aluminium, glass, fluorescent lights

Mondongo, Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires

Lo que temes te sucederá, 2010, Stickers, plasticine, thread and wood, 256 x 334 x 11,4 cm

Styles and Movements: Naïve Art

Henri Rousseau, The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897

Oil on Canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 4'3" x 6'7" 

Horace Pippin, Interior, 1944

Séraphine de Senlis, Les Fruits, 1928

Okay, I know we have all gotten some great enjoyment from the contemporary art at the Basel, Berlin, Milan, and Torino fairs, but its time to get back to the history. So lets head back to France circa the fin-de-siecle, which means around the turn of the century, to discuss the Naïve art movement. 

Naïve art lasted from circa 1895 to 1940 and is a type of representational painting classified by the use of "childlike" images and stylistic techniques. Much like the abstract contemporary art is often assumed to be simplistic in technical ability, the style was actually quite advanced for its time. Many of the images were inspired by the primitive and exotic images that had emerged since travel to the East had proliferated. 


The representational images are also characterized by highly imaginative works, such as those seen in Henri Rousseau's (1884-1910) The Sleeping Gypsy (1897). Another well-known artists in the genre is the African American artist Horace Pippin (1888-1946) , who focused on folk-style art with figures representing content from life in the black community as seen in his image Interior (1944). Séraphine de Senlis (1864–1942), was a French painter who focused on representing religious and mystical imagery. She also painted still-life styles with a technique that rendered it more exotic than simply representational, such as in Les Fruits (1928). Among other artists that created works in this primitive style is the American Edward Hicks, and the Georgian Niko Pirosmani. 

Notes: 
(1) "naïve art." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 04 Jun. 2010 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/401931/naive-art>.
(2) Helen Gardner, Fred S. Kleiner, Christin J Mamiya, Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective ed. 12 (Florence: Wadsworth Publishing), 2006, 721.
(3) Celester-Marie Bernier, African American visual arts (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), 2008, 92. 
(4) Bernier, 103.
(5)Karl Ruhrberg, Klaus Honnef,  Manfred Schneckenburger, Ingo F. Walther, Christiane Fricke, Art of the 20th century, Part 1 (Köln: Taschen), 2000, 806. 
 For more information please refer to Wikipedia.

Events: Torino Artissima

Since surprise trips seem to be the theme for my Fall art calendar, I thought I would share some quick images from my most recent 10 hour trip to Turin, Italy. I went specifically to see (and be seen) at Artissima, the city's annual art fair.


Artissima is neither the largest nor the smallest of fairs. It is pretty mid-sized and includes a book and magazine area, a print shop, 4 different bars/cafes, a theater space called the House of Contamination, and a lecture space. This year was the fair's 15th anniversary.

I say "and be seen", because this was all courtesy of my internship at the Secretariat Schlemmer due to the fact that the fair hosted the reconstructions of Oskar Schlemmer's Bauhaus Dances, as interpreted by Debra McCall in 1984 in it's House of Contamination.

Instead of just showing close-ups of work that really struck a chord, I realized as I walked around the fair that to many people the concept of the art fair is very abstract. Therefore, this time I took some general pictures of the fair itself.

The day I went was the preview, so it was much less packed than it will be. Or at least, that is what the galleries hope. More people equals more prospective buyers.

After Basel and Berlin, I feel like I might actually be getting the hang of these fairs. However, as visually stimulating as they are, let's not forget that it is the galleries job to sell, sell, sell! Which is definitely the part I hate.

An exciting and entertaining part of these fairs is that they are the perfect opportunity for performance artists to venture out and "do their thing." In one of the pictures below you may notice a woman in a white dress. She was one such performance artist who strolled around the fair in a type of LSD induced serenity and randomly gave fair-goers amazing hugs.

As always, enjoy the pictures!

 

On wall: Germaine Kruip, Counter Composition II, 2007

On ground: Amaya Gonzales Reyes, Estrategias Formales, 2009

Parra & Romero, Madrid, Spain

Aida Ruilova, unknown

Kaufman Repetto, Milano, Italy

Per Barclap, Ballerina (Chatrine), 2001

Giorgio Persano, Torino, Italy

Masbedo, The Art of Happiness, 2010
Marco Noire Contemporary Art, Torino, Italy

Recap: Art Forum Berlin

Okay, you guys know the drill we these posts. Enjoy the work. It left an impression or I would not have photographed it!

Here are my picks from Art Forum Berlin!

 

Florian Slotawa, SG.06.1; SG.06.2; SG.06.3; SG.06.4, 2010

Sies + Hoke Galerie, Dusseldorf, Germany

Thomas Hirschhorn, Woodchain IV (The little Mermaid), 2004

Alfonso Artiaco, Naples, Italy

 

 

Douglas Gordon, 2010

I Am The Director Of My Own Downfall

I Am The Author Of My Own Addictions

Yvon Lambert, Paris (FR) and New York (USA)

Christian Hoischen, Rücken, 2010

Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin, Germany

 

Oliver Voss

Galerie Eva Winkeler, Frankfurt and Koln (DE)

Recap: Preview Berlin

So this is a little late coming, but as you can tell by the frequency of October posts- life has been moving at full speed ahead for me lately.

Here is a recap of the work that most shocked, pleased, or intrigued me from Preview Berlin! Enjoy!

Michal Smandek, Black Escape (2010)

Sculpture - Cement, glass

Photographic documentation, set of 6 images, 21 x 29,7 cm

Program / Foundation for Promoting Contemporary Art, Warsaw (PL)

Affiliati Peducci/Savini, Foam Spring (2010)

marble, 60 x 84 x 40 cmGalleria Rubin, Milan (IT) 

  

Affiliati Peducci/Savini, Giuliano rubber face (2010)

marble, 32 x 39 x 9 cm

Galleria Rubin, Milan (IT)

Jens Gussek, Blast (2010)

gelasenes Glas, Inkjetprint

Kunststiftung des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt, Halle (DE)

EVOL, Kreuzberg Backyard (2010)


Spray paint on cardboard, 79 x 108 cm

Wilde Gallery, Berlin (DE)

Gábor Fülöp, unknown

acb Galéria, Budapest (HU)

Gehard Demetz, Be Priest (2010)

wood, 51 x 14 x 15,5 cm

Galleria Rubin, Milan (IT)

Yukiko Terada, Ypthima motschulskyi (2007)

Dress (165 x 48 x 32 cm), thread, wire

Galerie Deschler, Berlin (DE)

Exhibition Review: Fondazione Pomodoro, Milan

View of 1st Floor of Exhibition (f.l.t.r.): 

Corrafo Bonomi Non omnis moriar (1997); Laura Renna Stormo vulgaris (2010);

Fabrizio Corneli Grande Volante VIII (2002); Gianni Dessi Confini 1 (2009)

Paolo Delle Monache Archeologia di un istante (2010)

Fabrizio Corneli Grande Volante VIII (2002)

Gehard Demetz Hitler Mao (2010)

Bertozzi & Casoni Madonna scheletrita (2008)

Loris Cecchini Wallwave Vibrations (quanta canticum) (2009)

I would have to say that this month has been a great time for me to really push myself into going to art events that have been outside my typical comfort zone. So why does the exhibition "The Italian Sculpture of the XXI Century" at the Fondazione Pomodoro fit into this?  

Simple. I am a 2-D girl. It's a sad fact, but that is the work I usually find easier to interpret and am most quickly drawn to. 


Of course, this is not true 100% of the time. There are plenty of sculptures that I have loved since my first art history courses at University of Dallas. However, I always found it easier to write about 2-D work, because in the university setting these images were better transmitted from pages of an art history book or the slide projector in class. Sculptures and installations lose most of their value in this forum. 

What was even more exciting was the rarity of attending an exhibition where I was in awe of so many diverse sculptures and installations. In fact, the entire execution of the show exceeded my expectations. The show, which officially began on the 20th of October and ends on the 20th of January, displayed the most contemporary and recent sculptures and installations by 80 Italian artists.

The Fondazione Pomodoro's architecture adds to the splendor of presenting the works in a space that truly celebrates 3-D works of art, both small and large. This interplay of scale was well balanced in the exhibition and an obvious consideration when viewing contrasting works such as Fabrizio Corneli's Grande Volante VIII (2002) and Paolo Delle Monache's Archeologia de un istante (2010). 

Political themes were also considered in works that presented tyrannical leadership by few and the corrosive pollution by many, as respectively portrayed in Gehard Demetz's Hitler Mao (2010) and Bertozzi and Casoni's Madonna Scheletrita (2008). I was particularly fond of Demetz's work, as I had met the Galerie Rubin’s owners (who loaned this work to the exhibition) in Berlin at Preview Berlin. I will talk more about this and Berlin in my upcoming Recaps. 


Madonna Scheletrita in particular allowed for some interesting conversations between me and some Sicilian friends with who had I had been accompanied to the show. It was nice discussing contemporary art with people who come from completely opposite professional spheres from me (and each other). 

Perhaps the piece that I would want to own was Loris Cecchini's Wallwave Vibrations (Quanto Canticum) (2009), because, in the plainest terms, I thought it was a really visually interesting piece. I just liked it. 


Many times, art is as easy as that.