Whitewall daily

Canan Şenol, Expulsion of Eve and Havva from Heaven, 2008, mixed media on special paper, 70 x 100 cm, courtesy of Abdi İpekci Cad., Istanbul.

SCOPE is in its ninth year in New York this week and when we spoke to its director, Alexis Hubshman, just days before the opening he seemed pretty chill. "My heart is pretty close to somebody who is healthy," he said. The fair, in its second year at Lincoln Center, is open from March 3-7.

WW: What are some of the program highlights this year at SCOPE New York?

ALEXIS HUBSHMAN: We have a killer film program - every curator has a different day. Everything from Diane Pernet and “A Shaded View of Fashion” to Columbia Film grad students. This year 20 different countries in four continents are represented. We’re feeling like this super international fair, showing a bunch of new galleries that haven’t been seen before, and that’s sort of our moniker – risk taking.

WW: When we spoke to you in Miami in December you commented that the art should overall was more uplifiting, more visionary, more a look at the future. How about in New York this year? What's the tone?

AH: We’re in a consumer economy that thrives on a confidence. That’s what gets people out buying and I think the galleries are understanding that dark, hollow, no gravity art isn’t necessarily what we need. The great thing about art is that it’s not just a trophy it’s another answer to science or religion. The first piece you’ll see when you come in is this incredible wood carved pinball machine that’s got a bit of gravity to it. The artists are taking more stock in the idea that if you’re not making as many sales you may as well be spending more time in the studio and soul searching a bit more.

The galleries are now not feeling like they need to put 20 different types of art on the wall in the hope that someone will buy something. They are really making statements. This is something that I hope will be clear with the fair this year that people are making statements – that they have something to tell the curator, the collector, and certainly the critic. It takes confidence to show one or two artists.

WW: You’ve said that when you buy work at SCOPE you immediately become a patron of the arts, you see it as a treasure hunt. Is that something you have to remind people of?

AH: We make a point of not calling our VIPs “VIPs,” they are “patrons.” Forget that the price point may be less. The real point is that these collectors get a one on one relationship with the artist at the beginning of their career.

WW: There is already SCOPE New York, Basel, Hamptons, London, and Miami. Are you looking at expanding to any other locations?

AH: Abu Dhabi is really interesting to me but what came out in Miami was Latin America. We did a bit of a Latin American focus there and I’m very interested in looking at Panama to do a fair with galleries from North and South America. There’s a sophisticated collectorship that exists in Latin America more so than in China or Dubai or elsewhere. And certainly there economy is doing quite well. The hope is to host a fair in Panama City in 2011.