The New York Art Fairs: Far As the Eye Can See
The Armory Show NYC, Pulse, Scope, Volta NY, Red Dot, Bridge, New York Art, Dark Fair
By: Charles Giuliano - Apr 05, 2008
Last weekend the art world gathered in New York City for a glut of contemporary art fairs from the mega Amory Show, at Pier 94, and the just slightly more compact, Pulse, at Pier 40. This year's version of Scope was under a large tent at Lincoln Center and, scattered about town, primarily in hotels, were several other events of varying degrees of scale and interest. Two new elements this year were the first appearance of Volta NY: The Eye of the Holder, at 7 West 34th Street, and arguably the most original event, the Dark Fair (no electricity) at the Swiss Institute in Soho.
We were on our feet and flat out some ten hours a day, with the New Museum and Chelsea on Thursday, then the art fairs on Friday and Saturday. But on Sunday, instead of resting, it was uptown to scramble along Museum Mile for a second look at the Whitney Biennial as well as the Guggenheim and the Met for Jasper Johns and Courbet. On Monday we tapered off at MoMA.
Taking in such a glut of visual information is daunting particularly when friends press for details. Accordingly, we are dividing coverage between a couple of albums, basically snap shots of the art fairs, and reviews of several exhibitions. This first part of the coverage primarily concentrates on the Armory Show with just a bit of Volta which took most of Friday (also Red Dot and New York Art).
The Armory Show primarily focused on the major international dealers. There were the usual suspects and the work was mostly mainstream and high end. After taking in such a sprawling display it was quite delightful to down throttle into the far more orderly and richly satisfying Volta which was dedicated to displays of single artists. It was rather like visiting a number of Chelsea galleries but all on one floor. And the selection of work was of great interest and quality. There we found the peripatetic Boston dealer, Camillo Alvarez of Samson Projects, manning a booth displaying work by Susannah Sinclair, who graces the cover of the most recent issue of New American Paintings. He clicked off a list of several art fairs he will be participating in this month from Chicago to Mexico. As he put it you have to follow the money.
While exploring Volta it happened to be Happy Hour when we visited a conceptual art bar. It was a "work" or installation in which several jaunty individuals poured really terrible cocktail concoctions and engaged in charming small talk. One of those in charge handed me a card that contained no information while explaining that the group does not maintain a website, does not e mail, and exists as a comment on whimsy. The charming Dutch girl seemed a bit looped since they had been tending the bar and mixing it up with visitors since noon. I had a couple of pops and hung out which goes to show that folks will consume just about any alcohol that they don't have to pay for. The vendor selling flutes of champagne was not doing much business with this avant-garde and cheerful competition.
The good news is that consuming art in this manner proves to be great on the aerobics. I was crashing at night but found that, as the days progressed, stamina generally improved and the throbbing leg muscles tightened up. But on the down side was the challenging of digesting all that high caloric eye candy. To say nothing of the terrible free cocktails. But, heck, anything for art.