SCOPE Special Project by Carolyn Salas and Adam Parker Smith
SCOPE New York is a far cry from SCOPE Miami just a few months ago. At opening day in Miami, Whitewall caught up with fair director Alexis Hubshman who was out of breath and fretting over booths that were still installing. The floors were bouncy, the air conditioning rumbled from overhead, and Mr. Brainwash was wreaking havoc tagging nearly every open wall. Installations and paint spilled onto the floor and into the isles.
This time around most booths opted to keep their walls white. The floor was covered in a crisp navy carpet. The vibe was definitely more subdued and so was the art. That’s not to say the work wasn’t striking, it certainly was, especially when it came to photography. Jenkins Johnson Gallery opted to focus on two photographers, Julia Fullerton-Batten and JeongMee Yoon. Fullerton-Batten’s depictions of female adolescents in curiously constructed scenes were pleasantly melancholic. While South Korean artist JeongMee Yoon’s photos of girls and boys among their blue and pink possessions directly referenced issues of materialism and cross-culturalism while adding a touch of humor we’re used to seeing from SCOPE.
There’s no depression at Mike Weiss gallery.
Galerie Andreas Binder brought large and small-scale photographs by Philipp Lanchenmann that depicted a tranquil gray sea extending into a blurry horizon. It was photography you could meditate to – an appealing proposition for anxious collectors. Similarly hypnotizing were Ann Woo’s gradient-like sunset photographs at Humble Arts Foundation.
Said a director at Jenkins Johnson of the fairs overall tone, “There has been real high quality art. It feels more polished.” Amani Olu of Humble Arts agreed, “This year it seems to be more of a focus on selling. It’s been reeled in. Everything is very edited, very curated. I don’t want to say it’s slowed down but people are cautious, people are focused.” And things were selling. According to gallerist Mike Weiss of Mike Weiss Gallery (who’s had the largest booth at SCOPE for two years running) “We’ve been very successful. We’ve sold three quarters of the works already. As I like to say, ‘There’s no depression at Mike Weiss gallery.’”
Ann Woo at Humble Arts
