One might think that the more you know the easier it is to make a decision but I would not always agree. And I must say, picking my five favorite works of art among the current art fairs was a real challenge. My tastes are at once specific and eclectic, and I don’t think in terms of medium. There are many artists I would have liked to mention whether emerging, established or renowned such as Hans Op de Beeck (Galerie Ron Mandos), John Gerrard (Simon Preston), Marco Maggi (Hosfelt Gallery), Laurent Craste (Galerie SAS), Brigitte Waldach (M+B), Spencer Finch (Rhona Hoffman Gallery), Mark Dion (In Situ, Paris), Daniel Firman (Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin), Helena Almeida (Galería Filomena Soares), Leonardo Drew (Sikkema Jenkins and Co.), Yael Kanarek (Bitforms), Tavares Stratchan (Pierogi) or even the lamps by Katrín Sigurðardóttir and the center piece by Arman both at Artware Editions. But I had to make a choice so I did and here it is...
CEAL FLOYER, Stop Motion (2008), black and white c-prints on diasec, 39 1/4 x 27 1/4 inches each, edition 3 of 3, courtesy of 303 Gallery.
CEAL FLOYER AT 303 GALLERY, ARMORY SHOW
The image of the Pakistani-born British artist’s black and white diptych has been stuck in my mind since the day of the opening of the Armory Show. On one side of the wall, a mysterious white drop floats in the middle of the photograph. It could be a star, a stain, a cell seen through a microscope. On the other side of the wall, separated by quite some space, the white drop actually hits the wall and reveals itself as beautiful milky explosion. The transformation of these photographs into an installation suggesting speed, as well as into a subtle narrative, and the way the artist transcends an insignificant everyday detail into pure beauty has cast a spell on me.
Lang / Baumann Tubes #5, 2009, anodized aluminum, polyurethane glue, 100 x 255 cm
LANG/BAUMANN at GALERIE LOEVENBRUCK, ARMORY SHOW
Sabina Lang who was born in Bern, Switzerland and Daniel Baumann who was born in San Francisco, CA, USA have collaborated since 1990. Their fascinating aluminum anodized “Tubes” which poetically catch changes in ambient light as well as the colors of objects around them is much more than just a beautiful post-minimal object --although beauty is, in my opinion, more than ever needed in the world we live in. It reveals the interest of these two artists for the ideal union between art, architecture, design, and arts and crafts as a way to offer a different version of the world so that, by contrast, we can have an increased awareness in the vision of our world.
SOYEON CHO at SKL GALLERY, VOLTA NY
Soyeon Cho is a Korean artist to whom I gave her first exhibition in New York when she was still a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York. After seven years of evolution, some prestigious awards and exhibitions, her work keeps on moving me. She has an amazing talent to imbue mundane objects with an ultimate poetry. Soyeon Cho’s materials of predilection are plastic and light. Recently, she has been creating large organic structures using an unexpected medium: plastic forks. Associating weightlessness, transparency and inaccessibility with colored lights, she transcends the industrial commonness of plastic through the magic of her multi-cultural soul.
LAURINA PAPERINA at PERUGI ARTECONTEMPORANEA, PULSE NY
Laurina Paperina is a young Italian artist whose enthusiasm and humor are contagious and a breath of fresh air in the art world. However, her dark side, imbued with cynicism and irony, are the products of the world we live in. She was introduced to me by Isabella Bertolotti, curator at the Museum of contemporary Art in Lyon who I cannot thank enough. I included the artist’s work in one of my recent exhibitions in New York. At once funny, smart, unique and provocative, Paperina shares with the viewers the usually secret dream to kill all the other artists in the world so that she can remain the only one! In videos and drawings her work explores different ways to reach that goal while making fun of both herself and various internationally established artists! With her falsely simple style inspired by popular culture as well as comic books, she manages to capture the essence of each artist’s stylistic specificity in a way that make us question their originality and their capacity to renew themselves. Her recent installation at Pulse NY is made exclusively with Post-It notes.
MARIA JOSE ARJONA at GALERIE ANITA BECKERS, VOLTA NY
Maria Jose Arjona is a Columbian performance artist whose work I saw for the first time at Pulse Miami this past December 2009. She was first trained as a dancer and was recently invited by Marina Abramovic to be part of the "cleaning the house" workshop, serving as preparation to re-enact Abramovic's performances at the MoMA in 2010. (I could mention that Marina Abramovic also had a wonderful video at Sean Kelly at the Armory Show). Two photographic diptychs that were made after the performances that took place in Miami at Pulse are absolutely striking. The androgynous, frail body of the artist, the frighteningly meditative action, the uncompromising purity of the lines and the subtly tormenting beauty of the performance are perfectly recounted in the photographs, and convey with strength and fragility the underlying violence to which the artist refers in her work.
Above: Maria Jose Arjona, Affirmation #1, 2010, c-print on matte plexiglas (composed by 2 panels), 62 x 23 inches, courtesy of Galerie Anita Beckers.
