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MTAA-RR:
Feb 25, 2007
The NYC fairs
posted at 19:09 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid
Before beginning this little post about my thoughts regarding the NYC art fairs, let me disclaim thusly: MTAA isn’t represented anywhere in any fair so my envy, jealously and resentments may color my reflections on the fairs.
The Armory Show (web site)
The line was too long so we skipped it, therefor, it sucked.
Scope (web site)
Bryce Wolkowitz had a well-installed booth with interesting work. For my taste, the highlight of this fair. The fact that we’re currently in a group show at the gallery isn’t coloring my impressions at all.
Otherwise, I wandered about Scope hoping desperately for something interesting to look at but generally being disappointed. PAM was in effect, but the installation was tiny compared to their heroic environment of last year and I’m afraid that the majority of fair-goers had no idea what was actually going on with it.
Pulse (web site)
If there was a fight between Pulse and Scope, Pulse would kick Scope’s ass for two reasons: better quality work overall and more interesting international galleries. The highlight for me was Brody Condon’s DefaultProperties(); at Virgil de Voldere’s booth. But I’m a sucker for Brody’s stuff.
Fountain (web site)
Fountain is tiny compared to the other fairs but FREE. There was interesting stuff going on in all the galleries represented. Glowlab is always smart and were representing some of MTAA’s friends like Marisa Olson and Lee Walton. It’s definitely worth a visit.
Overall impressions and realizations
We need to start working this blog to get press passes for these damn fairs.
There was some McCoy influence in evidence. We saw it at Fountain in a piece called “All Mel’s Kills” and at a piece at Pulse that was a sad knock-off of the McCoy’s scale-model-with-tiny-camera sculptural/media strategy.
Unless you’re being extremely clever and unique or can attain true beauty, then your abstraction is simply decoration. There isn’t much of any art that challenges anyone these days, but abstraction seems like a particularly difficult way to achieve anything more than good-looking decoration.
I didn’t realize this at the fair, but it was underscored. The fact that we make videos that make noise that you need to hear will be detrimental to our showing in fairs and group shows. They want art that is quiet, doesn’t need its own space and easy to ship. permanent link to this post
The Armory Show (web site)
The line was too long so we skipped it, therefor, it sucked.
Scope (web site)
Bryce Wolkowitz had a well-installed booth with interesting work. For my taste, the highlight of this fair. The fact that we’re currently in a group show at the gallery isn’t coloring my impressions at all.
Otherwise, I wandered about Scope hoping desperately for something interesting to look at but generally being disappointed. PAM was in effect, but the installation was tiny compared to their heroic environment of last year and I’m afraid that the majority of fair-goers had no idea what was actually going on with it.
Pulse (web site)
If there was a fight between Pulse and Scope, Pulse would kick Scope’s ass for two reasons: better quality work overall and more interesting international galleries. The highlight for me was Brody Condon’s DefaultProperties(); at Virgil de Voldere’s booth. But I’m a sucker for Brody’s stuff.
Fountain (web site)
Fountain is tiny compared to the other fairs but FREE. There was interesting stuff going on in all the galleries represented. Glowlab is always smart and were representing some of MTAA’s friends like Marisa Olson and Lee Walton. It’s definitely worth a visit.
Overall impressions and realizations
We need to start working this blog to get press passes for these damn fairs.
There was some McCoy influence in evidence. We saw it at Fountain in a piece called “All Mel’s Kills” and at a piece at Pulse that was a sad knock-off of the McCoy’s scale-model-with-tiny-camera sculptural/media strategy.
Unless you’re being extremely clever and unique or can attain true beauty, then your abstraction is simply decoration. There isn’t much of any art that challenges anyone these days, but abstraction seems like a particularly difficult way to achieve anything more than good-looking decoration.
I didn’t realize this at the fair, but it was underscored. The fact that we make videos that make noise that you need to hear will be detrimental to our showing in fairs and group shows. They want art that is quiet, doesn’t need its own space and easy to ship. permanent link to this post