Art Spiel Picks: Manhattan Art Fair Week

HIGHLIGHTS

Image courtesy of Michele Jaslow/Radar Curatorial

An energetic jaunt through the various art fairs over the past week revealed curious findings and trends: Relational aesthetics, atmospheric landscapes, the human psyche, and acts of care are on view in the forms of plants, animals, & organisms. Rendered in splashy colors, text-based media and kitschy coolness, the various moods are quirky and earnestly expressed through painting, sculpture/ceramics, textiles and installations. Here is a roundup of some booths that hit the mark and kept it refreshing.

Spring/Break Art Show

Michele Jaslow: Michael Handley

@radarcurator @mchlhndl @springbreakartshow

Michele Jaslow presented an exciting body of work by Michael Handley. Inspired by a Lyndon Johnson speech, the notion of cloud seeding serves as a muse for work that investigates ideas of environmental control. Air conditioning insulation becomes a material of choice as it takes on a wispy effect that playfully references clouds; while umbrellas lay open and dripping with a gorgeous patina that glistens in the light. Sculptural trees referred to as the Breeze Series are metallic and ever-changing, coated with layers of ecological resin. This work conjures imagery reminiscent of weather vanes and conversations carried through the air by high-powered winds. Rooted on bases composed of soundproofing materials; their shiny coating is a result of a laborious process involving the continuous layering of silver oxide (also used for daguerreotype photography).

Torn velvet works elegantly to frame the urban landscape just beyond the window, creating an alternate lens on how one frames notions of landscape, weather, and airspace. Constantly changing, this riveting work speaks about the land and environmental issues, manifest destiny, and colonization. Much like our current reality, each moment becomes a significant realization of just how in flux everything within our grasp actually is. Its poetics speak clearly and continue to unveil new meaning the longer one inhabits the space. It’s an opportunity to appreciate the work evolving alongside us in real time.

Eri King

@eriking

Vegas, baby! A deliciously trippy sonic experience to pique your senses and dazzle you with its intoxicating imagery and magical realism. The fabulous installation conjures the memory of cigarette smoke billowing across the casino floor amidst the seductive ambient sounds of slots and coins clamoring in the background. The hand-paintedness of the space is stunning, vivid, and electrifying. The visuals present an exhilarating experience that is not to be missed.

Daniel Morowitz + Nicole Basilone

@nicole_basilone @dm61889

Florals climb a trestle planted in the center of an office space. Nothing feels more liberating than witnessing nature reclaim corporate space, if even briefly. These beautiful paintings of botanics sprawl like newborn vines ready to take over the world. Their presence is welcome and grounding amidst the sights and sounds throughout the floor.

Slow Factory

@theslowfactory

Amidst the bustle and capital that comes with art fairs, it was such a highlight to see the grounding presentation by Slow Factory. Keeping it real with facts, ethics, and journalistic integrity, this was much needed for those committed to collective liberation. Through an installation laying out the intersections of social justice through elements of environmentalism, fast fashion, and colonization, the content and placement of the booth in proximity to the rest of the fair is key (a high-traffic thoroughfare). This location helps bring crowds through that may otherwise look away, hopefully drawing them into the space to learn more and get involved. Bravo to Slow Factory and to Spring/Break for holding space to address the numerous crises happening globally. May those who purchase art from these fairs also contribute, engage with, and recognize the importance of this work. I hope this continues to be a consistent presence in future iterations, as it raises the bar and sets it apart from other fairs.

Future Art Fair

Mia Hause, Margaret Ayres, Rebecca Bird: Tomato Mouse

@tomato.mouse @futurefairs @birdbirdbirdbirdbird @turpentinequeen @miahaws

Acts of care for the future, for our loved ones, for our environments. Children, kittens, companions, and sources of security in frightening times. These beautiful and heartfelt paintings create ripples of comfort that help patch the emotional holes in society that are eroding at a rapid pace.

School of Visual SVACE: Rachel Gisela Cohen, Nivia Hernandez and Stephanie McGovern

@svanyc @rachelcohenstudio @nivia.her @stephanie.mcgovern.studio

Rachel Gisela Cohen, Images courtesy of the writer

Beautiful sculptures invoking found objects and fibers lend a delicate and genteel quality to the intensity of the art fair experience. A welcome stop to admire the handwork and little details in each of the works was a nice inner conversation about abundance, readymade, and how the artists each reflect on these ideas with distinct choices all their own.

Raina Lee, LaiSun Keane Gallery

@laisun_keane

Postcard-sized ceramic tiles by artist Raina Lee are absolutely engaging, and the details are charming. These vignettes of Spain are a welcome snapshots of idyllic moments of daily life.

Trotter&Sholer

@jaspal_birdi_ @trotterandsholer

This oil paint and photo-transfer composition lives upon an emergency blanket. The gold-leafedness of the work evokes memories of maps and atlases, imagining a vast flock of birds heading south for winter; the eyes of youth imagining a wide world through early encounters with geography. Its charm lends warmth to the interior that parallels that of what the emergency blankets do to the exterior of the body.

Independent Art Fair

@williampopel1 @miandn

Anytime POPE L. is in the room, it’s always a win. This survey of works spanning drawing, painting, assemblage, sculpture and video is no exception and a high point in the fair.

POPE. L, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Image courtesy of the writer

@sameenaghastudio @indigoplusmadder @praise.shadows.art @jean.shin @dukerileystudio @hannahtraoregallery @turiyadkins

Sameen Agha, Indigo + Madder. Image courtesy of the writer

A stunning presentation of work by Sameen Agha and Indigo + Madder that explores the domestic, the gendered, and the transformative experiences of exercising exploration through materiality around these parameters. Marble, oil, and pencil playfully move through the space in free form ideations that are fluid in arrangement.

Praise Shadows: Duke Riley and Jean Shin. Image courtesy of the writer

Praise Shadows, featuring Duke Riley and Jean Shin, focuses on creative reuse and humankind’s relationship to mass-produced objects. Shin’s trophy monuments and Riley’s ocean-dredged and patterned plastic sculptures both pay tribute to the notions of discovery, quest, and success within civilizations and societies. The contrasting materials present an exciting duality between the varied aesthetics, and bring forth important conversations about the state of humankind today, and where we reside within it.

Turiya Adkins, Hannah Traore. Image courtesy of the writer

Hannah Traore presents work by Turiya Adkins, which explores the histories of the Great Migration, the Tuskegee Airmen and the March Against Fear. Thought-provoking, meditative and deep, this presentation imagines the past while thinking of the future. Material exploration transcends painting, drawing and sculpture, with elements of photographic imagery, collage, and more. The concept of “framing” is reimagined as memory, storytelling and physical embodiment of the two that provides a formidable experience in which to unpack the work.

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About the writer: Yasmeen Abdallah is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, curator and educator examining history, contemporary culture, materiality, reuse, memory, and space. She has been a visiting and teaching artist at institutions including New Museum; Pratt Institute; Sarah Lawrence College; Residency Unlimited; BRIC; Kean University; Parsons; Columbia University; Children’s Museum of NYC; El Barrio Artspace; Fairleigh Dickinson; and University of Massachusetts. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology (focus in Historical Archaeology) and in Studio Art with honors, with a Minor in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies from University of Massachusetts; and received an MFA in Fine Arts, with distinction, from Pratt Institute. Exhibitions include Art in Odd Places; the Boiler; Bronx Art Space; Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center; Cornell University; Ed Varie; Elizabeth ok Foundation; NARS Foundation; Open Source; Pratt Institute; PS122 Gallery; Spring Break Art Show; University of Massachusetts; and Westbeth. Publications include Anthropology of Consciousness; Ante Art; Art Observed; Bust Magazine; Emergency Index; Hyperallergic; Papergirl Brooklyn; Free City Radio; Radio Alhara; Tussle Magazine; the Urban Activist; and Transborder Art. Her work is in public, private, and traveling collections in the U.S. and abroad. @86cherrycherry