Armory 2010 Preview

Armory 2010 preview (Wednesday March 3).  I get a press pass of course for blog coverage.

So artists complaining about art fairs is like talking about the weather.  Miserable setting to actually look at art.  Well yeah, but THE place to look at a LOT of art.  

What follows is a repository of some of the work that I responded to, just to keep a positive outlook on the art market system.  We are the party of the Big Tent, guys! Big Tent!

I'm gonna save some secrets for those of you who actually read this whole entry, like which work is my favorite, and how many neon pieces there were . . . 

Allan McCollum

Bernard Frize.  Alexis called me over and made me look at this one.  I gotta admit it's pretty nice.  The camera is not out of focus.  The painting is done with airbrush-sprayed paint, so it's all fuzzy.  When you get close, your eye struggles to find a point to focus on, but cannot. 

Alexis Semtner and Jared Lindsay Clark in front of the Bernard Frize painting- see how she's holding her coat? the coat check was like a mile away.  I took all of these with an overcoat in one hand 

Alon Levin

I spoke with the nice gallerist (from Seattle) about this artist, and he gave me a book by the artist.  It's hardcover so it seems impressive, and I read it all the way home on the train. It was the artist's writing about a whole host of things from the impossible arches on Euro Bank notes, monumental buildings that were never finished, and "a two-dimensional world where Men are represented as polygons whose social status is determined by their number of sides."

-There was an image of a Ceal Floyer piece here, but I deleted it; because it wasn't that interesting.  And I love her work, but then not every one is a home run grand slam, now is it?


Jonathon Monk.  

The message seems best suited for the Art Fair walls.  (this is neon piece number one... collect them all!  Neon is also the perfect media for the dulled, glazed over gaze of a poor soul who's seen a thousand pieces of art in an afternoon and is just searching for the door to go have a drink somewhere)

Philip Lorca DiCorcia.  The detail in this photo is barely caught by my flimsy iPhone.  I'm happy it did this well, but I went for a close up . . . 

nope still not getting it all. but the lighting is just right.  this picture seems to fall from the heavens composed.   (okay I'm a bit melodramatic)

Kota Ezawa  - Staircase "From a series of ink drawings based on the "Odessa steps" sequence from Sergei Eistenstein's The Battleship Potemkin."  (According to the Murray Guy Gallery website).  I love these, probably because they are ink on paper, and not strained at all... this was one of many in a grid . . .

As I backed up and took a photo, I got so excited i accidentally threw my iphone into the wall, it barely missed hitting the frame of one of these.  Somehow I didn't get embarrassed as a I smiled meekly at the gallerist.

Werner Reiterer,   okay now my eyes are starting to glaze over.  is this good, or not?  

Mickalene Thomas, fair warning she's a good acquaintance of mine, but let me rave anyway:

I must say that this particular display of her work is better than I have ever seen.  Yeah it was a small room, and these paintings were pretty large.  They just jumped off of the those temporary flimsy walls and grabbed your jugular.

Mickalene Thomas sculpture

Still Mickalene Thomas. Still fantastic.

Bert Rodriguez, riffing on Bruce Nauman, for our Neon piece number 2.  just for kicks, I'm gonna put the original one by Nauman down below:

now, here comes one of the surprises, i mean i walked in on this not expecting anything, and then whammo, i got closer, and i think it may have taken my breath away.  the picture doesn't seem to do it justice, or maybe that's the thing, it surprises you only when you get really close, and look at the materials.  Ladies and Gentlemen, Jacin Giordano:

so those are just basically carefully (but not too carefully) cut splinters of wood.  some hardwood probably.  and on the ends, 

rhinestones.  or some glittery thing.  I just loved the combo of completely ordinary scrap wood and the delicate articulation of these stones.  they are put on very carefully, geometrically. 

 

Joachim Schonfeldt, this is a detail of his piece , 4 animals. the most telegenic part worth photoing. I think

that's a turkey getting squished on the bottom.

Kudzanai Chiurai,  the background Toile made me think I was looking at a Kehinde Wiley. and oh was I wrong

Tony Matelli, the articulation of skin and figure made me think it was Duane Hanson, but I must have been sleepwalking.  

David Kramer.  So when I see a whole wall of these, I feel a little manipulated.  but on their own some of them are just sweet.  the drawing is nice, and the irony is not overdone.

(in case you can't see, it shows a guy and girl sipping wine in front of a burning log fire, and says at the bottom ". . . I'm still working on my social skills.")

Gheorghe Ilea.  I thought this tryptich was a gem.  Titled "Winter Coats and Rugs,"  it shows genuine paintings of the textures of those things.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins, by my blog's count, now on view in 4 independent places in New York.  Like I said, I'm converted.

Dominic McGill, Same gallery as above.  Derek Eller Gallery, that is.  I ask the woman there was this artist at the last PS1 Greater New York show (5 years ago)?  She says to me, "that's a good memory."  I say, it was the best piece in the show.  So I was happy to see his work again, and she told me Dominic will have a show coming up at Derek Eller, that he's working 'real hard on'.  It will have a sequel to the crazy-ass-indictment-of-the-2000's drawing that he showed at Greater New York.  Something to do with uniting Islamic and Western cultures with graffiti.  Can't wait.  

Iris Schomaker.  Some rich dude was like, I'll buy them all, especially the big ones!

Tomasz Kowalski  (He's the Polish Dana Schutz, but so much more than that...)

The gallerist was way excited about talking to anyone who was interested.  Seems he's the only person in the world showing this young man, who is practically a Genius.  I loved this painting above.  And there's a lot of detail you can't see, ghosts who are barely visible in white outline. The details are great, like the fact that the hands and feet are facing down while the face on the operating table is looking up

I really admired this piece next to that painting, and then found out that it was also Thomasz Kowalski.  Must take note to be this brave in making different things..  It's a bow and arrow that are holding each other up by a tiny amount of friction.
and again, Mr. Kowalski.  nice detail

sorry it's blurry, but check out that legging!

Wei Dong, mmm, I would say, this is not my thing.  The painting is really labourious and doesn't give me much bang for the buck.   

Anthony James, okay the mirrored box thing has Got To Go.  End this trend NOW!  Josiah McElheny (Mr. Sublime), did it right the first time.  everything else has been just poor imitation.  Except of course, Beth Campbell, but her work is something different altogether.

Amy Bennett,  Second work I nominate for best of the night.  These oil paintings are just slick as sh**.  Damn, they bring up emotions in me.  This was a Santa Monica gallery, and these two bearded west coasters were looking at this with me.  One said, "yeah I dig these." 

At first your mind thinks Are they photo? But quickly cuts that from the list.  Then it asks "Are they models?," as if somehow refuting the just-gained knowledge that they can't be 'real' because they can't be photos.  The way they're painted really captures the volume of the scenes.  It turns out she uses model train sets to actually build these scenarios, which she then paints from observation onto a really smooth board, and covers them with a glossy finish.  Oh, and the brushstrokes are lovely.
Amy Bennett, again.
And again.  Reminds me a little of Hilary Harkness, whose work I also loved on first encounter, but then later got bored with.  Will that happen again with Amy?
Devin Troy Strother, painted paper cut, and collaged.  Same gallery.  the work is called: "The Block is Hot" 

Hah!

Edward del Rosiario.  nice detail
Sorry I missed this artist's name.  the image is made from 'hand -colored paper', which sounds ambiguous . . .
but up close you see it has been cut with a tiny knife and somehow puzzled together.
Su Mei Tse.  She came to VCU and I did a studio visit with her.   She was nice and sweet and Neon piece number #3!

Matthew Day Jackson .  It's a cockpit view.  The sun is vinyl, the interior is a relief of painted wood.

David Reed,  these are preparatory notes to his paintings.  There were quite a few pages, detailing experiments of where colors would go.  I've heard his work described as cinematic.   This looked like a script of the painting.

  

Joseph Kosuth.  neon #4 of the night  

E.V . Day,  Mummified Barbie.  Sorry the head's cut out of the picture.  Still I like this work.  I showed her stuff to my classes in Richmond.  Now she lives next door to me.  Gotta love New York.  

Neon again.  this one I didn't get the name.  And officially it's neon and spraypaint.  The black line is a "l" that turns 'Poetical' into "Poletical" (which I almost confused for Polemical)

Mona Hatoum "Worry Beads"  somehow I can't stop from moving the camera.  

Jennifer Steinkamp, this is her first foray into video on monitors. Usually she makes projections.  This one is of the four seasons.  Artificial leaves and trees kind of slowly perambulate through the screen, entering from and exiting all sides.  The colors reflect the changing of the seasons.  One viewer next to me commented on similarites  it had with Louis Comfort Tiffany, who did his own glass work based on the seasons.  I thought it was a smart comparison.  

Marc Quinn.  

Statues are usually more solid.  I ended up keeping this blurry photo because of the irony of a gold statue walking.  Simple pleasures.

Jake and Dinos Chapman - small ink drawing.  Done in the style of, say, Durer.

Christian Jankowski, The Hunt.

Video work wasn't all that visible.  Here there is a piece, but it is old, established, well known.  (The artist attacks his food with a bow and arrow in the grocery store).  I also saw a brand new Adrian Piper piece, and a few others.  Painting will always reign supreme at art fairs

Fernando Mastrangelo - LaSalvaMara (smile now, cry later) Cremated Human Ash, 84" x 49"

Really, it's all human ash?  Where do the remains come from? Leftovers or urns that weren't picked up at the crematorium?  I've heard that a lot of remains are just left there.    

So that's it, starting with urns, ending with ashes.  The Armory 2010.  I didn't catch all of it, but you get the idea.  Thanks for viewing.  If you have any thoughts or suggestions, let me know.  In a day or two I will have the Scope art fair images up, and a day or two after that Pulse.  Cheers.