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| Lincoln Tunnel from the front top row of double decker bus |
On Friday, it was the Armory marathon. I came, I entered, I left somewhat depressed and uninspired. Granted, Armory is the all safe, non threatening option of the fairs but this year it barely had a pulse. And no defibrillator art in sight. I didn't even bother with the Modern show next door. My ankles had no energy for the "stairwell of death" after wandering for over 5 hours. There were some diamonds in this pile of coal and I will be featuring them over the next week or two. I saw a few works that I wanted to feature but because some galleries were (once again) too lazy to print labels, I had no idea who created them. I hope this is the last year I have to gripe about this but hand written, scribbly, tilted names on a wall are not acceptable. I know what you are thinking. Scribbly is not a word and my use of it is not acceptable. I can assure you, scribbly is a good description. And that's not the bottle of wine I shared the previous night talking either. At this point in time, as I am re-composing this post, the only gallery I can recall having a good booth all around was Conner Contemporary (and that's not just a hometown shout out). This is becuase 1) the booth looked nice overall, work not crowded, etc. and 2) the Janet Bigg's video they were showing (Arctic Trilogy) was simply awesome. It's the only work I can vividly recall (other than Ben Edward's two paintings at Greenberg Van Doren but that is because I used to work for him and like to see what ridiculously detailed, multi-layered, colorful, humanity meets the digital ageness he's been up to). The rest of GVD's booth was simply... um, not attractive. Fashion wise, it's just so fun to sit, rest the feet, and wonder how some women walk in their stylish shoes. Notably, the no arch, block heel configurations some ladies were hobbling around in. They are one step away from a painful ER visit. Step, wobble, step, wobble.
Saturday was Pulse. Plenty of red dots, friendly gallerists, and art that made me grin and look and look twice. A tighter fair, in that many of the galleries had, as they say, their shit together. Cleanly printed labels on walls, ipads with inventory at hand (all fairs should encourage this from now on), actual smiles, and solid work (solid = good craftsmanship, curious concept, visually interesting, good use of chosen medium, properly sized and not just big for bigs sake). Sure, there were some of the cliche rick rack pieces as seen at Armory but few to be sure. A thoroughly enjoyable visit.
Price commentary: for some reason, 15K was a hot spot this year. I found several larger works that were priced at US $15,000 (a few @ Armory, most at Pulse). I thought that was quite reasonable. I know, there's a recession, blah blah blah but these were large (wall sized, 60"x72" and up), well crafted, interesting works by (mostly) known artists that clearly took time, thought, and much effort. Granted, 15K is nothing to sneeze at but for younger, less wealthy collectors, it's good news. There were works below that size ("washing machine size") under 10K, small edition (<10) works under 2K. Page size originals under 1400.00. Bronze, enameled cherries for a lousy $150 (Malia Jensen, Artware Editions). That's a nice dinner out with wine. For the cost of that dinner, you can have a cute, nice work by Ms. Jensen that will encourage conversation for the rest of your lifetime. Something like, "What the heck is this cherry doing sitting out here?" After the bubble insanity, I am happy to see some normality (ie. affordability) return to the art world.
A food comment. If you find yourself around the Flatiron district, swing by the Green Market Tavern. I ended up there twice (lunch and brunch) as it was just so good and reasonably priced.
I'll be posting my pics over the next few weeks. I hope you enjoy them.
