One dreary Sunday morning, after filling my stomach with a typical (aka deliciously chewy) NYC bagel, ("as big as your head"), I walked around a corner only to be greeted by this.
Installation by Maya Hayuk, sharp cornered color goodness.
Welcome to SCOPE 2009 where the art (interesting) and the atmosphere (surprisingly lively for morning-ish) made me forget that I was in a large tent. After purchasing our tickets, we received a complimentary catalog. Take that other fairs. Now I have this handy dandy little book that I will reference for some time to come. Score one for SCOPE.
First booth, first "like" with this oil by Paco Pomet exhibited by My Name's Lolita Art.
Next up, some small oil paintings by Nathan Ritterpusch and Sight Specific, a somewhat large oil painting from Jean-Pierre Roy exhibited by RARE.
I really enjoyed this photograph by Anna Krachey, exhibited by Okay Mountain. It presents a snippet of a child's, cartoon styled playmat with the image of a sterilized, perfect landscape. Make sure the kids know what pretty is so they can recognize (what society considers) ugly when they grow up.
Speaking of photography, a big thump on the head to Hous Projects, where one gallerist was handling prints like they were dollar store place mats. She was showing a viewer some prints from a portfolio and paging through them in a way that ensured 1) fingerprints, 2) smudges, and 3) creases in the prints. Bad, bad.
I'm a fan of everyday objects being remade, recreated. They don't always elevate themselves to art but they are, most of the time, interesting and clever. I liked this ceramic sculpture by Ma Jun exhibited by the Kramph Gallery. Modern electronics become delicate, hand made objects, very nice.
Once again, I enjoyed myself and thankfully, had enough energy and feeling in my feet left to walk myself to a yummy Cuban restaurant. I like going to Armory because it's the grand dame but the smaller fairs are just so much more fun and reasonable on the pocketbook and the tootsies. I even bought a piece, which I cannot mention, because it's someones bday present. I'll post on that later.
I'll be posting about several artists in the next few months as seen at the fairs. I saw a lot of work I liked, ie. I thought it was successful in some way or unique (so hard to do these days). There was a lot of slack jawed, cliche oriented stuff I didn't like. Unless there's a specific reason to do so, I don't bring them up.
Thanks NYC for a great trip. I'll be back.
