Jéfe aka Johnny Chiba first-person experiential of the great art fair
that is ART BASEL, and select satellite art fairs
Art on river
bank on way to Miami convention center
...could it be Banksy?
bank..see?
Watercolorist Charles Burchfield (1893-1967), is best known for his fantastic depictions of nature via transcendental mystic landscapes. Probing the mysteries of nature in an attempt to reveal his inner emotions, Burchfield stated, "An artist must paint not what he sees in nature, but what is there. To do so he must invent symbols, which, if properly used, make his work seem even more real than what is in front of him." Wow. |
Bronxite Whitfield
Lovell's art focuses on the lives of black Americans |
both artists beautifully represented by NYC's
Sue Williams' biomorphic shapes
resemble intestines, arteries, and gonads,
all rendered in bright cartoon colors; sexual and domestic abuse presented
in unprecedented ways, grotesque and shocking, x-rated, but overall amusing
The Chilean artist's
name translates to "of the devoid one;" perhaps her surrealistic,
pencil drawings are devoid of sweetness and light,
though her artwork may be dark and bleak, a sense of humor pervades the sexual,
political and death portrayed therein,
Sandra Vásquez celebrates whilst depicting the horrors (de la Horror?)
she sees in her art.
JULIETA ARANDA
I saw this interesting piece by
Mexico/NY artist Julieta Aranda,
presented by SITAC
(Int'l Symposium on Contemporary Art Theory),
entitled Theory and Practice of Catastrophe. Muy extraño!
Barry McGee rose out of
the graffiti boom, art movement in the San Francisco Bay Area during the
early nineties. He describes his colorful pessimistic work as "urban
ills, overstimulations, frustrations,
addictions & trying to maintain a level head under the constant bombardment
of advertising".
McGee's paintings often combine central figures dominating abstracted backgrounds
of drips, patterns and
color fields, except when he's painting portraits of street characters, like
his wall of beards seen here
the excellent Ratio 3
booth was rad-io
LOUISE BOURGEOIS / Tracey Emin
The female and male
bodies continually referenced and remade in Louis Bourgeois'
artwork are charged with sexuality, innocence and the interplay between the
two.
I had no idea Louise Bourgeois had such a plethora of penile work, until I
saw
the picture below of Louise and her giant brass vibrator... RIP LB!
I've seen Eric Doeringer
for years, at art fairs, in Chelsea, on the street,
basically anywhere art is to be found. Eric copies classic and current artists
to the "t",
to the point where I referred to his sighting as "hey, it's fake artist!"
However, as time
passes, I realize the ability to paint exactly like someone else is a skill
unto itself.
His new show is called "I like the Art World & The Art World Likes
Me"
- Paint on, fake artist!
speaking of Kehinde
Wiley...ain't nothing like the real thing, baby
Two artists who
paint black subjects quite well, with fine use of colorous imaginatory
well-repped by
Culver City CA
and more Kehinde
I enjoyed this larger than life, under the lights
piece by Mr. Wiley,
the fingers seemingly comb the gallery attendant's hair...sweet!
NYC
Considerably gay, this particular artwork by Richard Hawkins
(not Richie Hawtins), featured a handsome asian fellow that
somehow struck a gay art chord in me, kinda like the gay fixation
of Judah Friedlander from 30 Rock...color me gay!
NYC
c/o
Poligrafa
Obra Gráfica
Barcelona
also representing
Cuba's Enrique Martínez
Celaya art spans a broad spectrum of media and disciplines,
he has a Ph.D. in Quantum Electronics, and is the author of Guide, The Blog:
Bad Time for Poetry and
Poems for the Bed. Martínez Celaya’s studio and imprint, Whale
& Star, functions as a contemplative and
educational environment, concerned with the role art has in life, spirit and
community.
I enjoyed his display of paintings from Poligrafa Obra Gráfica, intriguing
and well-mounted
The boy on crutches in his painting came to pseudo-life via
a secondary sculptural discipline and primo gallery space:
JULIE
MEHRETU |
RICHARD
SERRA |
incredible mixed media
on mylar, Moscow's Dasha Shishkin is a master of color and
context, with a dazzling array of bizarre abstractions and perverse interactions
also representing the remarkable claymation goddess
A main impetus for coming
to art fairs with Zach Feuer Gallery is to see the latest claymation videos
from the magnificent Nathalie Djurberg. Although it is still
impossible for anyone other than fair-
goers, ZF gallery-seers, or buyers of her limited-edition work to actually
view her videos, I appreciated
taking a few stills from above video, which told a story of a girl's bird
that gets playfully devoured by pet cats.
From cats to snakes, I somehow missed the video the stills below were taken
from....
I might as well be dead already... shame on me, shame on Zach, shame on Nathalie...not-a-lie!
Pakistan's Alyssa Pheobus
creates interesting imagery,
using graphite on homemade cotton rag paper
one of the world's great
architects/artists, Zaha Hadid designed the
booth for Buchmann Galerie, and represented her artwork as
well.
any question of architecture being art stops at Ms. Hadid
Gloriously opulent, intricate
in detail, rich colour, and jewel-like surfaces, Raqib Shaw
creates an eco-
system inhabited by figures such as phallus-headed birds, bug-eyed butterfly
catchers, reptilian warriors
or monkeys holding parasols, anthropomorphic in their gestures and regalia.
Shaws's use of enamel
and metallic industrial paints are manipulated to the desired effect with
a porcupine quill,
meticulously enhances numerous details within the paintings, such as coral,
feathers or flowers.
London
Israel's Yael
Bartana's "Entartete Kunst Lebt" (Degenerate Arts Lives)
alludes to the War Cripples
painting by German Expressionist Otto Dix, known for his grotesqueries. The
painting was featured at the
First Dada Exhibition in Berlin in 1920, and in the late 30's in a traveling
exhibition organized by the Nazis
under the title "Entartete Kunst" (Degenerate Art).
As most Israelis and Israeli artists, Yael Bartana is proud
and resourceful, creating a strong presence, as in the above
pieces ("Build, Rebuild, Resist"), animated by Johnny Chiba
Favorite Gallery Award
goes to
From the bold presentation of MARK
GROTJAHN's art high above
eye level, to the
presentation of appropriation artist GLENN
BROWN, München's Sabine Knust Galerie
plethora of phenomenal artists was unsurpassed at Basel, in my humble opinion
other magnificent artists repped by Sabine Knust:
Born in Deutschbaselitz
(hence his nom de plume) Georg Baselitz works in traditional media
- painting, drawing, printmaking, and wood sculpture, confronting the visceral
realities of
history and the human and cultural tragedies of a world in turmoil with a
cast of tragic anti-heroes.
including the inverted figures of his "upside-down paintings" making
a Hitlerian salute
and
Jonathan Meese mines the
themes that he has been obsessed with since the inception of his career.
An unrelenting sense of history, with a particular eye towards the more notorious
or tragic figures,
Meese has been developing his own pop-cultural, historical, mythological,
and very personal lineage.
and
Thomas Zipp’s previous
work consists of paintings, drawings, and sculpture, the drawings
here are an appropriation of styles and ideas, mutated for contemporary experimentation.
Zipp creates a parallel world envisioning a precarious future-fiction based
on revisionist past,
abstract drawings suggest scientific inventions that are equally playful and
sinister.
Munich
MICHAEL
FLIRI
Man transformation into beast
Milan
Argentina's Pablo Bronstein approaches architecture as a means
to engage with power: of history,
monuments, and the built environment. His acutely drafted drawings adopt the
styles of various architects
and movements, his elaborate designs explore both the functionality of civic
space, as well as the
inherent values associated with the styles of different times. Though architectural
fashion mirrors social values,
it also represents the will or vision of the architects and commissioners
who impose their ideas on the public -
with the intent that their work will last for generations. Bronstein’s
drawings critically examine this subjectivity.
Josh Brand's unique c-prints are generally untitled and
indescribably indeciferable.This piece grabbed my attention
and would not let go with it's dark forboding nature
Amazing detail, amazing art; Dean
Byington’s paintings appear to be abstract
textured colour fields, but closer inspection reveals intricate flora, fauna
and figures.
His pictures combine collage, printing, painting and drawing, the detailed
and intense
handiwork demands intimate viewing into the painstakingly constructed imagery
NYC
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PRESS Art Basel 2010 satellite fair reviews
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