Installation shot of 2-UP's room. Adam Shecter's poster from January 2011 accompanied by one canvas of Colleen Asper's diptych Counter Composition M (2011).
The Dependent Art Fair hosted 16 curatorial outlets between the 12th and 14th floors of the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Chelsea. Although there were no shortages of hotel/apartment fairs during New York Arts Week, The Dependent represented a counteractive, gritty intensity in comparison to the rest. Commingling enthusiasts melded with art mavens looking to socialize rather than purchase. Claustrophobia combined with latent leisure summoned the best and worst of a themed frat party.
Each gallery or curatorial collective was allowed one room and just about complete freedom. Video art prevailed, allowing curators to utilize the HD televisions in the rooms seamlessly and milk the single hour of prep-time to the utmost. Despite such cramped conditions, the more successful entries played upon the space actively. 2-UP, a collaborative poster collective, made thoughtful work especially for the exhibition. Benjamin Kress’s encased, bronze head engaged the viewer with a clouded mention of breath, while Zerek Kempf's mesmerizing Weight of Fall (Waltz) (2010), a projection on a hotel pillow, challenged the boundaries of the viewing experience. Cleopatra’s, the curatorial four-some from Brooklyn, had a similar enthusiasm for the room’s potential but created something uniquely ambient. Replete with a lavatory of loquacious flowers and a mystic patchwork of wrinkle-less, psychedelic swatches, the room launched the viewer out of the Sheraton while bringing to mind some of the details we all despise about skeevy lodging, like smelly bathrooms and questionable bedcovers.
The green fair had quite a few juvenile entries among interspersed sagacity. Dispatch Gallery’s overextended, red-light-special room and Reference Gallery’s propaganda siphon were fun for the fancy-free crowd, but weren’t particularly stimulating. Quinn Taylor's disguise-sculpture at CANADA, on the other hand, was a stellar curatorial choice; like Alice in the rabbit’s home, it shrank the viewer amid the congestion. Jonathan Torres’ two frightening, mixed-media gnomes inhabiting the bathroom at Paradise battled the context of the bathroom as sanctum and mythical residence. The evening was transitory, summed up in the empty PBR cans and faint aroma of body odor. The arrogance of an auspicious show rang without the succeeding quality of work. The fervor of activity combined with, optimally, a more legitimate space for the participants to respire, ingrains high-hopes for this show and its participants next year.
Zerek Kempf's Weight of Fall (Waltz) 2010.
Juan Torres' mixed media sculptures from Paradise.
Installation at CANADA.
All photos by Lynn Maliszewksi.