This year's megalith art fair was a mixed bag, with the A game galleries playing second fiddle work-wise to the somewhat smaller guys. The atmosphere was only slightly friendlier then last years arctic chill. Several name galleries seem to still believe that they can still throw crap on a wall (or work table) and someone will pay 100K for it.
Last year's Tool Table by Thomas Hirschhorn, aka first year art school crap.
While there were several stand out pieces of work presented, much was cliched, badly crafted, poorly thought out, and far from the quality that should be the best of the best, or at least the richest of the richest. I never even got to the bankrupt corporate collections pier, I mean, the Armory Show Modern that featured second market work.
The lounges sported actual furniture this year (last year granted visitors the opportunity to rest their butts on cardboard), however there were still not enough seats for such a large show. Three lounges minimum please. I also noticed that most galleries bothered to place nice little labels beside the works this year as well. Last year, you were lucky to get a smeared pencil scribble and maybe, a view of the underside of a gallerists nose. Perhaps the recession is getting to them eh? The atmosphere was friendlier but red dots were noticeably absent.
I got in very quickly this year, hardly a line. And, as if the lack of line wasn't enough, the armory shirt clad line handlers were very friendly and one, chatty. A nice change, good work guys.
There were some (safe) positives on display including...
Double Crosstown Superball Wall Map by Jeremy Dickenson shown by Angles Gallery
Various erased album covers by Ajit Chauhan shown by Jack Hanley Gallery
Remaking the Night Sky by Michael Schall shown by Pierogi
All in all, a risk free, somewhat interesting show with a variety of media being presented. It will be interesting to see what this years shaky economy will do to next years show.
