Posted on

Art Marathon: The Armory Show 2012, part 1

With the stars and stripes sailing in the wind against the cloudless sky, a proud and powerful symbol high atop the venue for one of the largest art fairs in the world, the 14th edition of Armory Show is showing no fear from its looming competitor, as the first New York showcase of British fair mongers Frieze are threatening to impose their dominance in May. This year the Armory fair revived its old image when totally redesigning their long time venues Pier 92 & 94 and decreased their number of exhibitors (228 instead of 274 in 2011) that include Focus: Nordic bringing in a touch of Scandinavia. Armory 2012 has reported a huge turn up of visitors (more than 60,000) and many galleries had impressive sales results. Same as usual then? NY contributor Sebastian Kaempf visited the fair to bring M-KOS readers a visual sampler of the action on site.


German artist Michael Reidel’s solo presentation at David Zwirner’s booth. All his work was sold out within 30 minutes of VIP preview.
 
 

Cindy Sherman’s 1978 Untitles film Still with the reflection of Jenny Holzer’s work at Sprüth Mager. Sherman’s work was sold for undisclosed price = a lot of money.
 
 

Jota Castro “Buscando Americas” at Gonzalez y Gonzalez, Santiago.
Continue reading “Art Marathon: The Armory Show 2012, part 1”

Posted on

A Bourgeoning Affair in Toronto


Gregory Scott “Dialogue” (2011) archival digial print, oil on panel & HD video. at Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago.

Toronto International Art Fair‘s 12th edition took place between October 28-31 2011, in the city’s main Convention Centre, officially ranking as one of the biggest events on Canadian cultural calendars.

Within the context of Canada’s limited art market, TIAF proposed a commendable program of exhibiting galleries, ensuring an unhurried but confident progress from the figures of previous years. A total of 109 commercial galleries took part in 2011, 72 of which Canadian, perhaps enough to look into this event as a cross-section of the nation’s recent artistic activities. The remaining fair booths represented cities such as New York, London, Berlin and Dublin, adding a welcomed international flavour to the overall show. At the closing of the fair last weekend, it’s estimated the paid attendance has risen to above 18,000, with art sales at around CAN$20 million.
Continue reading “A Bourgeoning Affair in Toronto”

Posted on

Interview: Karl England & Ben Street, the duo behind Sluice art fair


Karl England (left) and Ben Street (right) in front of a painting by Chris Baker presented by George + Jorgen at Sluice. Photo: M-KOS

Sluice Art Fair is a new initiative organized jointly by artist Karl England and Ben Street, curator and art historian. Inaugurated this year in London and launched on the same week as Frieze, M-KOS interviewed England and Street about their project, proposed as an alternative to the alternative art fair.

M-KOS [MK]: How did Sluice come about originally?

Ben Street [BS]: Karl and I met through Twitter. Social networking has been very useful for us. We started just having conversations about art and networking people. Then, last year I was curating an exhibition for an old chapel in the cemetery of North West London. I looked at Karl’s recent work online, I liked it so much I went strait to his studio and decided to put his work in my show. We stayed in touch. Then much later Karl contacted me and said there was a space he was able to use where he had already shown before, and asked me if I was interested in collaborating on something with him during Frieze. The space is only 15 minutes away from the art fair, where so many people come to see art.

Karl England [KE]: Also, we had this space in Mayfair for only three days, that was perfect timing for an art fair but it’s too short for organizing an exhibition.

MK: How did you decide to name it Sluice?

BS: Sluice is a reference to an underground river, called the Tyburn, that runs beneath both Sluice and – coincidentally – Frieze.
Continue reading “Interview: Karl England & Ben Street, the duo behind Sluice art fair”

Posted on

Toronto International Art Fair 2011


Installation view including works by Derek Sullivan and Luis Jacob from the special onsite projects “Everything Must Go” at last year’s Toronto International Art Fair 2010. Image via BlogTO.

The 12th edition of Toronto International Art Fair (TIAF) kicks off on 28 October, showcasing over 100 galleries across Canada, USA, Mexico and Europe. Compared to the rising scale of mega fairs like Art Basel and Armory, TIAF weighs into a somewhat modest division, even frugal in terms of the international hype generated. Mind you, an effort was made to spark up some glamour last year, in laying out their red carpet entrance. Seriously though, TIAF has slowly but surely grown in reputation over the last few years, firstly for the quality of the works on offer. Various new programs are being designed this year to survey contemporary Canadian art, including a talk with Denise Markonish, curator of the much anticipated exhibition “Oh, Canada” at MASS MoCA in May 2012. Other activities include theme-based guided tours such as Quebec galleries, photography galleries, and so on. Furthermore, the audience can explore onsite projects such as “The Art Game” by Toronto based artist Kent Monkman, a performative event “Collage Party” by Winnipeg based Paul Butler and many more.
Continue reading “Toronto International Art Fair 2011”

Posted on

Art Marathon: Frieze Week pt4 – Sunday

Sunday Art Fair

Sometimes not knowing what to expect out of a certain experience will heighten our level of satisfaction more so than anything predictable. The Sunday Art Fair was one such experience, held at Ambica P3, a massive 14,000 square foot open space just a stone’s throw from Frieze. Three galleries jointly organised Sunday Art Fair: Croy Nielsen (Berlin), Limoncello (London) and Tulips & Roses (Brussels). It launched last year in the guise of replacement for the sadly missed Zoo Art Fair, both being, incidentally, sponsored by the Zabludowicz Collection. Refreshingly, a total of 20 international galleries each presented one or two artists and separated their own area simply by marking white lines on the floor, to give visitors a wonderful sense of openness and freedom to move around and enjoy the venue’s architecture. For this reason and because of the high quality of the work presented, Sunday Art Fair demonstrated a strong challenge to Frieze’s hegemony of London art fairs this year.

Christian Jankowski at Proyectos Monclova (Mexico City)


Messages in a bottle – “Review” (2011)
Continue reading “Art Marathon: Frieze Week pt4 – Sunday”

Posted on

Frieze frenzy


image via TNT magazine

London’s own Frieze Week kicks off this Thursday, spiraling up in places where the city has barely recovered from economic woe. The festive extravaganza totals five contemporary art fairs (Frieze, Sunday, Sluice, Moving Image and Multiplied) setting up camp simultaneously in different borrows, bubbling up an art furor on par with Armory week in New York. (There are also other alternative fairs such as PAD and Moniker). Joining the Frieze frenzy, White Cube is opening its brand new space on 12 October in Bermondsey, and by the same occasion, snatching the title of London’s largest commercial gallery space. Many art institutions are also adding their own event in the mix: Serpentine gallery will organize a two-day “Garden Marathon” event curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Tate Modern just opened Gerhard Richter’s retrospective and newly commissioned work by Tacita Dean for the Turbine Hall, and a host of other galleries are opening their new shows during the same calendar period. We should expect a great many pop-up shows, talks, and other events yet to be confirmed. In all likelihood, London’s entire art scene, big and small, is taking part and throwing in the best they’ve got. As a measuring stick, Hiscox insurers estimated that the total value of Frieze’s art on show will amount to USD$350 million. A much smaller figure compared to Art Basel’s USD$1.6 billion, Frieze is however a place where dealers, collectors, curators, artists and the curious look out for the sharpest “cutting edge” in art. M-KOS will be on location at Frieze, reporting all the details.

Frieze Art Fair
at Regent’s Park,
13 – 16 October 2011
Over 170 galleries will be exhibited at the Frieze this year. In the Frame section, 25 galleries will present solo artists. Sculpture park located in the beautiful English garden will display outdoor sculptures by 12 artists curated by David Thorpe. Frieze Projects commissioned eight artists this year including Pierre Huygue, Christian Jankowski, Laura Prouvost. Plus, films, music, talks and much more.
Continue reading “Frieze frenzy”

Posted on

PINTA: the Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art Fair

The 2nd Edition of PINTA London
At Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London
6–9 June 2011
www.pintaart.com

Rivane Neuenschwander “Prosopopeia” (2010) Courtesy of Stephen Friedman Gallery/Tanya Bonakdar
Gallery/Galeria Fortes Vilaca. Photo by Helene Toresdotter. via PINTA

While it might be overshadowed by all the hype of The 54th Venice Biennale, The 2nd edition of PINTA London – Latin American Art Fair, kicks off at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London on Monday 6th June. PINTA originally started in New York in 2007 then expanded to London last year, showcasing 60 galleries from Latin America, USA and Europe. But the London debut had a rather shaky start. Galleries including Haunch of Venison and White Cube decided not to renew their presence for this year, although good numbers of new galleries are making their debut this year and showing a strong portfolio, most based in Brazil and Spain. Continue reading “PINTA: the Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art Fair”