New Year, New art:SAGE Resolutions

Happy New Year! 


I know, I know, it's a little delayed. However, there is good reason for that. Why, you may ask? Well, this year started out with a bang for me.


For starters, I became the editor and remained a contributing writer for Berlin Art Link. If you haven't taken the time to look into Berlin Art Link then you are missing out on having the facts on the Berlin art scene at your fingertips. If you want to find out more about what Berlin Art Link is, I will have an interview posted later this month.


In other great news, I was hired for a temporary position at the Nasher Sculpture Center. The Nasher is one of my favorite museums in Dallas both because of it's amazing collection and because of the wonderful architecture of the building and sculpture garden. The building and garden were designed by Renzo Piano and Peter Walker, respectively. Renzo Piano also happened to design the Fondation Beyeler in Basel.


I am also settling into living in the United States again after being away for nearly three years. It is kind of exciting "discovering" Dallas again. So much has changed, especially in the arts. So I plan to focus the month of February on the renovation of the arts district and the proliferation of the art scene in Dallas.


Be on the lookout for these and all other posts in the future!

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

Hot Hot Hot: 1980s and Basquiat!

Andy Warhol, "Enzo Cucchi (turquoise)" (1982)

Francesco Clemente,  "Red, White, Black" (1998)

"Story of My Country II" (1990)

Jean-Michel Basquiat, "The Dutch Settlers" (1982)

The 1980s are Hot Hot Hot right now. We've seen it in the fashion, music, and unfortunately, hair trends. It was only a matter of time before the surge of popular was noticed in the visual arts. 

However, I wasn't sure whether to post my opinions on the spike in interest in 1980s art that I noticed in Basel in an earlier post. I thought one month devoted to Art Basel was quite enough. But, when I read the latest article about a previously unseen video of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), which also remarked on the exhibition of his work at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, I knew I couldn't keep this to myself.

Not only am I am interested in the art from the 1980s, but I am also drawn to this decade for some very silly personal reasons. Who doesn't love the Brat Pack and Nintendo? Aside with this cult interest in the decade, I am also drawn to this decade because I have been researching it, and in particular the Neo-Expressionists, for more than 2 years now. Neo-Expressionism was a style that burst onto the art scene in the late 1970s-early 1980s. It called for a return to painting and figuration after a nearly two-decade focus on conceptual works and abstraction. 

The images I have included above were all taken while I roamed the hallways at Art Basel; these are just those in the Galerie Bruno Bischofberger area. Of the artists in the images, Francesco Clemente and Basquiat are more of a focus than Warhol, whose art fits more in the Pop Art movement of the 1960s than the paintings of the 1980s.

Clemente is a particularly important part of my thesis, as are Rainer Fetting, Eric Fischl, Ida Applebroog, and Robert Colescott. But enough about my research, lets get back to some current articles and events that highlight these 1980s artists.

While I was at Art Basel, I had the unique opportunity to meet Francesco Clemente at a private dinner for the artist and attend a public interview between the artist and a staff member at the Fondation Beyeler. More than just an interview, it was an open conversation between the two. I must say I was highly impressed by the moderators very loose flow of a conversation that succinctly covered ¨the voyage¨ Clemente's art has taken since the 1970s. They were also able to pull it back to Basquiat, whose work is currently on exhibition at the Beyeler. The exhibition space is incredible. For you Dallas-based readers, the architecture is similar to the Nasher, since the architect was none other than Renzo Piano. Much like the Nasher, the work is highlighted by the blank canvas of the space it sits in. I have to say that I personally prefer the Nasher Sculpture Center's layout, but that may have to do with the amount of Texas sunshine that pours into the glass walls on two sides of the building.

Anyway, back to the 1980s. For those of you budding collectors out there, this would be my little tidbit: keep on the lookout for this art. Non-collectors, students, et al, don't worry. By what I saw at Art Basel and what keeps on popping up in art blogs, magazines and newspapers, I am sure that some 1980s art is headed to a museum or gallery near you, if it isn't there already!

Want to know more about this decade, and in particular Basquiat? Check out the Houston Press' article on their Art Attack blog.

Basel Recap: Satellite Fairs- Volta

Take the experience I had at Liste and consider its opposite: that’s what Volta turned out to be. Engaging, lively, and friendly. Perhaps because it is located in a difficult part of the city to reach, it was great to feel like my presence was welcome. And of course, the art also impressed.

The intersection between historical subject matter and contemporary issues seemed to prevail at the fair.  As seen in Nandipha Mntambo’s hanging relief sculpture as well as in Alexander Tinei’s painting which intersected well with the scientific in Herwig Weiser’s Death before Disko and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s The Company of Colours. Also the edition artist of the fair was Troels Carlsen. His work was set apart from the other galleries and artists and given its own wall, much like at Robert Montgomery’s installation piece at the entrance of the Scope fair.

Death before Disko was particularly spellbinding. As I stood in front of the noisy and bright glass container, I realized that within the central area the very cold hardware was moving. The liquid was pulsating and it became very alive in my mind. When intersected with the electric sounds from below the contraption and warmth emitting from the sides, it felt like I was in the midst of a Frankenstein experiment. This very technological work was coming to life before my eyes.

After a few minutes I broke free from my trance and asked the gallerist some questions. She explained that the black ‘goo,’ for lack of a better term, dimples and spins due to a dual magnet pull. The gallery describes that the piece is meant to “return to the foundations of hardware” to “show how our relationship towards technology is more often emotional than rational.” Considering my initial reaction, I think the piece is rather successful. 

Herwig Weiser, Death before Disko, 2006

speaker, plexiglas,motor, magnetic liquide, light-emitting diode, pc

Galerie Colletpark, Paris

Nandipha Mntambo, Title and Date Unknown, cowhide, resin

Brodie/Stevenson, Johannesburg

Troels Carlsen, View of Several Works at Volta 

Alexander Tinei, Haircut, 2010

120 x 100 cm, Oil on Canvas

Erika Deák Gallery, Budapest

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, The Company of Colours, 2009,

Shadow Box 9, Edition 1 of 6, 1AP

High resolution interactive display with built-in computerized surveillance system

bitforms gallery, New York

Basel Recap: Satellite Fairs- Liste

Of all the art events during the Art Basel week, I was least impressed by the Liste art fair. Whether this is due to listening to the opinions of others prior to experiencing it, a particularly bad run-in with a gallery there, or the fact that I had all of 25 minutes to walk through the four-story labyrinth, I am not sure. All I can say is that I did not enjoy my time there. Unlike the Volta and Scope fairs that are still rather young and in the process of establishing themselves, but not as recognized as Art Basel, Liste celebrated its 15th anniversary and boasts that it is the fair for the young galleries and hip artists.

However, it would not be fair to say that none of it roused my interest. I was impressed by the limits that some of the galleries pushed in their spaces. Some of the galleries such as Harris Lieberman (New York), Kaskadenkondensator (Basel), Wilfried Lentz (Rotterdam) embraced and worked with the industrial design of the abandoned factory. This was not something I saw with regularity at Art Basel, Scope, or Volta.

Unfortunately, I do not have as many options for photographs as with the other fairs. This is mostly due to my lack of time, as I have mentioned. But also, I did not get the sensation that the galleries present were interested in answering questions or ‘dealing’ with a non-collector, non-curator graduate student who dabbles in blogging about art (read: non-journalist). So enjoy the limited images I have, form your own opinions, and if you have more questions take a look at Liste.

The following are some images I took of art spaces that were intriguing:

Oscar Tuazon, Title and Date Unknown

Gallery Unknown*

*Sorry Guys, I usually better at giving credit where credit is due, but I was in a rush to get back to work!

Basel Recap: Satellite Fairs- Scope

Along with Art Basel, which I will continue recapping throughout the month of July, there were plenty of satellite fairs in Basel. Of them, I attended Scope, Volta, and Liste. Here are a selection of images from Scope, the satellite fair I first attended. 

All in all I was really impressed by Scope. Unlike Art Basel, whose 40 year anniversary boasts a beautifully designed and enormous layout, Scope was a bare essentials kind of fair. Nonetheless, the younger art and galleries presented did not fail to make their mark in the space provided. I think what really struck me as a common theme in this fair was the intersections made between East and West, high and low, historical and mythical, etc. 

Mattia Biagi’s work deals with the intersection of faith and war. The mixed media sculptures, like Heaven and Hell, are meant to show the absurdity that drives parents to send their children to fight in wars, while they in turn sit at home and pray for their offspring's survival. In this piece the artist pushes this interplay further by mixing a classical sculpture with a black-tarred weapon. This same type of intersection continues in Kris Kuksi’s assemblages. The artist takes low (mass commodity) objects and forms them into history-laden surrealist sculptures, as seen in Colonel Wilhelm Von Howitzerhead. 

I wish I could continue talking about all the pieces I love, but I hear my thesis calling. Instead I will just add their images and stress how much I enjoyed Scope's galleries and artists, as well as the fair's no-frill, no-confusion environment. 

Photograph of the Fair Area, Kaserne, Basel

Mattia Biagi, Heaven and Hell

Year Unknown, Multimedia Sculpture

Holster Projects, London 

Kris Kuksi, Colonel Wilhelm Von Howitzerhead

2010, Mixed media assemblage, 32 x 30 x 12 in.

Joshua Liner Gallery, New York

Michal Macku, Glass Gellage III

Year Unknown, Glass, 

PaciArte Contemporary, Brescia

Scope Installation Artist 

Robert Montgomery 

THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE BECOME GHOSTS INSIDE OF YOU

 AND LIKE THIS YOU KEEP THEM ALIVE

 2009, Painted wood, LED lights and recycled sunlight

Courtesy of Analix Forever

Recap Basel: Public Art

Public art is FANTASTIC!

Okay, I know, I will elaborate on this opinion. Let’s get past the bureaucratic concerns about public art, public opinion, and what artists are allowed to do with tax payers money. It would take too long to discuss this and take time away from enjoying the public art at Art Basel/ Art Public and from Art Parcours. Both of these public art events are connected with Art Basel, but they are very different in their concepts. 

In front of the entrance to Art Basel and scattered throughout the giant pavilion at the Messeplatz were selected Art Public installations and happenings. It was nice to know that those who couldn’t afford the hefty price tag that came with the Art Basel entrance card, could still eat lunch next to Thomas Houseago’s Giant Giant and enjoy the random sounds escaping from Alberto Tadiello’s LK100A. 
Although I missed most of the happenings, I was pleasantly surprised by certain installations that I did not truly notice until the last few days, such as Eric Hatten’s Déplacement/version 2010 (aka a streetlamp). It caught me by surprise, and it was fun to see other spectators sitting or leaning against it- not noticing that all the while they were interacting with art.

Art Parcours was a scavenger hunt around the old center of the city set at nighttime. On this particular night it was cold and rainy. Not fun. But the scavenger-hunt for art was very fun. Although I had a pretty awful sore throat and was not dressed to ‘muddle through puddles,’ I sucked it up for the art.* And it was worth it. I bought a set of costume jewelry from Martha Rosler at her Fair Trade Garage Sale, I succeeded at achieving equilibrium with two other ‘viewers’ on Damien Ortega’s New Balance, and I enjoyed the sights and sounds of the eight other pieces (events). The two pieces which I thought were the most visually striking were Daniel Buren’s Colors on the Rhine and Angela Bulloch’s Night Sky: Mercury and Venus.

Ai WeiWei, Field, 2010

Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, Luzern

Thomas Houseago, Giant Giant, 2010

Xavier Hufkens, Bruxelles

Alberto Tadiello's LK100A, 2010

 T293, Naples

Damien Ortega, New Balance, 2010

City Hall, Court Yard

Angela Bulloch, Night Sky: Mercury and Venus, 2010

Münster Cathedral

Daniel Buren, Colors on the Rhine, work in situ 2010. 

Old University

Quick Note: All daytime pictures are Art Public events, while nighttime shots are Art Parcours.

*I was lucky enough to have been invited to a VIP Reception at the Kunstmuseum. Great food and a great collection, but my attire was not meant to go from parading around the halls of a vast museum to wadding through the cobbled paths of the city.