The Fountain Art Fair
debuted at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lex and 25th, moving from the
tugboat off 12th Ave of previous years. More than most of the other
fairs, Fountain has an edge, a vivaciousness of art-making that some of
the others lack. Here you'll see artists working at their booth, several
street artists working on a giant piece, and live music. There are
established galleries as well as individual artists doing the DIY thang,
and what lacks in skill is usually made up with enthusiasm.
Evo Love
returned with a large, well designed booth featuring her outsider-ish
assemblages. Some have a theme, like tributes to fallen hip hop stars,
and others seem like simply a mash-up of materials. The thematic pieces
work better, giving some more flesh to the pieces than just visual fun.
Several
galleries from Korea were present, with a wide array of work from
traditional still life to anime (which has a growing presence throughout
all the fairs).
Inyoung Seoung had intricate pen on canvas drawings of delicate anemone-like shapes. Across from them was
5Pointz Art Space with several pencil drawings by
Soojin Kim that from a distance looked like abstract shapes.
Closer inspection netted a fun surprise as these were actually whole
and broken Oreo cookies, tightly rendered and well-executed.
In an earlier post I wrote about
Dacia Gallery, a new space in the LES. There was work by
Leah Yerpe who
usually does large (as in room length) realistic drawings of people
floating, tumbling together in pencil and/or charcoal on white paper.
Think Robert Longo on steroids. In their booth they had one of these
pieces, appr 7-9' in length and pictured here. Just the execution of
something that size, in charcoal, on white paper, in realism - quite a
feat in itself, and these transcend mere deft handling of a material.
Munch Gallery,
one of a number in a growing gallery presence in the LES (245 Broome
St) had a group exhibit including these two, "If You Check Me, I Check
You, Boy" and "If You Check Me, I Check You, Girl."
Both are 51x47" in acrylic, by Finnish artist
Rauha Makila.
They have the appearance of an ad, separating the two figures and
deleting all info except most of each figure with thick strokes of
white. The thick white, almost like house paint, is an interesting
contrast to her washy rendering of the figures.
The
Mighty Tanaka Gallery from Brooklyn was in full effect with a large 2-3 booth group show, a long way from when we first met in a
small
hotel room art fair (Red Dot?) years ago. Featuring over 3 dozen
artists, their exhibit was a solid array of street, graffiti, pop
surreal, and work inspired by those styles. "Baltimore Sunset" by
Adam Void
was created as a result of his doing graffiti in an over-pass or
industrial space that was inhabited by bats overhead, and upon looking
down he found a rubber bat toy and that synchronicity resulted in this
piece. Too often found object work is cluttered or slapped together, but
there's a strong graphic simplicity here that is very appealing.
This is a good example of the best reasons to go to art fairs, which is
the ability to chat with the artist or the folks who curate. We've all
gone to galleries, seen work and thought, "WTF?? Why are they showing
this?!" A painter friend, Jim Kendall, gave me this advice many years
ago which has proved fruitful time and again. In that situation, simply
ask, "What is it about this artist's work that excited you and made you
want to exhibit it?" More often than not, I walked away enlightened (not
necessarily excited, but enlightened) and with an improved appreciation
of a style or genre of art, an understanding of the work or an
interesting story.
In the tradition of a gallery owner helping support a young artist they believe in,
Marianne Nems (Gallery) has done this with street artist
Ugly Kid Gumo.
She showed me several of his graffiti based works and looking at them
chronologically, one can see a progression in his skill and composition.
Too often street artists tend to over-do an image that is their calling
card, sometimes sticking it in a piece simply to have it there rather
than it having any relevance. It's a way of establishing their
individuality on the street, but it's not necessary in gallery work as
much and hopefully with time and guidance they become more judicious
with it. Gumo mixes pop culture images like Batman with rendering of
people, shapes and color quite successfully.
Kudos to
Johnny Leo and the entire
Fountain crew on a great debut at the new location!
(click on art to view a larger image of it)
