Every Spring, artists, galleries, critics,
collectors and curators from all over the world gather in New
York to visit and participate in the art
fairs. The ADAA Art Show, Scope, Pulse and Armory Show
were just a few of the art fairs contributing to the buzz about
town. The largest of the fairs is the Armory Show that took up two
piers at the West Side Passenger Ship Terminal. The largest
fair in its 12-year history proved to be a huge success, with
exhibitors reporting multiple sales and record-breaking crowds
filling the piers. Renewed confidence in the art market was
obvious in the many sold-out booths and the high attendance numbers:
60,000 visitors up from last year's number of 56,000.
We visited all of the fairs and saw several
artists with interesting work. Below are just a few
highlights.
James Casebere's newest photographs are of
architectural models that he builds himself. They are spiritual and
silent, devoid of any people or activity, like the aftermath of some
catastrophe. For the last thirty years, Casebere has been
devising increasingly complex set-ups in his studio. His work
is currently included in the Whitney Biennial exhibit.
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The Havana-based collective Los Carpinteros (The
Carpenters) has created some of the most important work to emerge
from Cuba in the past decade. Formed in 1991, the trio (consisting
of Marco Castillo, Dagoberto Rodríguez, and, until his departure in
June 2003, Alexandre Arrechea) adopted their name in 1994, deciding
to forgo the idea of individual authorship and refer back to an
older tradition of artisans and skilled laborers. The group merges
architecture, design, and sculpture in unexpected and often humorous
ways, as can be seen in the sculpture above.
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Brazilian artist Caetano de Almeida has been painting brightly
colored, abstract bold canvases for almost twenty years. His most
recent work, however, is derived from "pollution on canvas"
where he covers the canvas with tape and, over several months,
exposes it to the everyday street life of Sao Paulo outside his
studio. When the tape is removed, the results are remarkable in that
they are reflective of the craziness of modern life in a very
witty and profound way.
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Born in 1972 in Berlin to a German mother and an
Iranian father, Timo Nasseri originally started out as a
photographer. Most recently he has been concentrating
on studying the design of the Muqarna, an architectural
structure used as a decorative piece in traditional Persian and
Islamic buildings. When viewed from below, they tend to create an
abstract image of infinity. The motif consists of a number of basic
shapes that can be endlessly combined to create different patterns
that never repeat themselves. Nasseri's ink drawings are
mathematical and geometric calculations used to build these Muqarnas
but lie somewhere between an architectural layout and a thing
of beauty.
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Cecilia Paredes chooses natural and pure linen fabrics to
use in her photographic self-portraits. She wraps, covers, and
paints her body with the same pattern as the material to represent
herself as part of the landscape. Paredes is trying to
link her own identity with the world around her.
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Originally from Bogota, Colombia, Omar Chacon's most
recent body of work continues to be influenced by the intricate
patterns and weavings found in the traditional folk art of South
America. Omar has explored the boundaries of acrylic paint, the
basis of his drip, dot and patch paintings. A brush is never used;
instead Omar creates his complex constructions with clever
techniques, maximizing the plastic nature and vibrant colors of the
material.
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Aurora Robson has an interesting take on her mail:
she transforms it into art. She is fascinated with the malleability
of matter so she has taken an activity as mundane as opening the
mail and turned it into a pleasant experience creating new batches
of art supplies. The language, costly graphics and fancy printing
used in junk mail is her inspiration as well as her way of reducing
the waste stream into the environment. In addition to these
collages, Robson creates elaborate sculptures made from found
plastic, a series she calls Landmines.
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The process of each work by Keisuke Shirota
begins with a photograph, a random shot he has taken because of its
composition. Having no real recollection of where the photo was
taken, Shirota expands on the image, applying the actual color
photograph to a canvas and extending the imagery in black and white,
creating a unified work of art. Like memory, Shirota's paintings
fade the further they get from the photograph. Keisuke Shirota was
born in 1975 in Japan and is currently living and working in
Tokyo.
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Colin Brown was first inspired to create his
"Blackboards" after seeing New York City at night as a child from
his parent's 23rd-floor apartment window. Brown first prepares a
white undersurface on a panel, to which he then applies a
pitch-black layer, using either nickel, charcoal or carbon. Working
very precisely with a jeweler's tool, Brown then skillfully removes
a little bit of black revealing just the right amount of white to
create the illusion of light coming from city windows, street lamps,
and headlights. What appears to be a night photograph is really the
adept hand of a seasoned artist.
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Alex Guofeng Cao's most recent photographic work is a series of
pop culture icons. His main characters are easily identifiable;
however upon closer inspection, one can see that these celebrities
are composed of tiny repetitive images of another well-known icon.
The arrangment of miniature faces that form the larger portraits are
specifically paired to create a unique dialogue based on their
histories and backgrounds. As one looks closer at the small images
and the differing details in each, the viewer will find carefully
hidden codes and clues that Cao has inserted in strategic locations
as a reminder of the events and situations in which these characters
were involved in history.
