the emperor is dressed in all kinds of goofy things
Unlike everything at Frieze, this email is not sponsored by P*rr**r
Art fairs are back after a deeply destabilizing year for galleries. At Frieze, the vulnerability of the art market was on view. For those not familiar, an art fair is an arrangement of tens to hundreds of commercial art galleries which assemble in a convention center-type space, to show what their artists have been making most recently. Many gallerists have a strong distaste for art fairs as they’re commercial, fast-paced, and, frankly, exhausting. That said, they are a great venue to see a lot of contemporary art. As the COVID pandemic continues, the economy of art has yet to find its sea legs.
Art fairs are a hub for the exchange of access, assets, and information. A marketplace for the exchange of social capital as well. Similar to auctions, fairs are an institution which greases the rails of exchange. The top fairs can cost galleries as much as a few million dollars inclusive of booth costs, staffing, hosting private client events, and shipping. The art fair has diluted the social and cultural fervor of spectacle in art, giving rise to the media as an increasingly global, highly liquid industry.
I remember attending the Armory show in New York for the first time (2017), seeing what didn’t sell at Miami Basel recycled months later. At Frieze a friend said of some galleries, “it’s been a year and (looking to their left and right) this is what they bring?” Today, the purpose of showing the latest and greatest of art has refreshed meaning. It’s among the first in-person art fairs since COVID, and most galleries brought the usual suspects in tow. That said, Frieze was notably devoid of NFTs.
Below I’ve included a few of my favorites. Let me know what you think.
Yours,
Gabe
For those that missed it: May 2021 note
Julian Charriere is interested in the sciences of the natural world and the discourse surrounding climate change, incorporating them in his sculpture and photography. The photograph I thought was an excellent attempt to document something so old in a new light.
Gallery: Sean Kelly
You may know that I’m deeply interested in conceptual art that systematizes, and Sarah Morris does an exceptional job of this. Many of her compositions originate from architecture and major political arrangements (for example, the Olympic Games). She draws connections between architectural canons though, in this painting, she paints a spider web. Her work straddles the natural and artificial.
Gallery: White Cube
It’s unimaginably difficult to push the boundaries of painting, but Alex Jackson continuously finds ways to. Jackson has been creating a distinct language and history through the medium, where he’s invented a new world and characters in his deconstructive approach to ontology and perception. He uses a laborious masking technique in these most recent works, continuing to advance and challenge this vocabulary.
Gallery: Jenkins Johnson Gallery
Matthew Day Jackson showed a materially sophisticated work at the fair this year, containing lead, formica, wood, plastic, needlepoint, paint, and epoxy. Jackson is interested in the post-WWII political and philosophical change in the United States. Replicating the image of Rip Van Winkle, a 19th century Dutch-American colonizer, Jackson engages a contentious and en vogue topic of the history of colonialism in American consciousness. It’s deeply ironic: imagine all Van Winkle would be met with had he just now woken up, sleeping through the COVID pandemic. As the US’s legitimacy is challenged, it makes sense to critique the voices that legitimized the nation-state’s aesthetic canon.
Gallery: GRIMM
It goes without saying that Cindy Sherman is one of the greatest photographers of our time, and she continues to make madly compelling work. Untitled is simply an awesome photograph to see in person: you approach her, note the elegant attire, and soon recognize that her gaze shoots to the sky behind you. She is out of of time and space, difficult to place, combining archetypes of identity and aesthetics.
Gallery: Hauser & Wirth
Meriem Bennani has long been one of my favorite artists. This wall sculpture is an interesting scale for her to be working on, given that much of her work takes place in room-sized installations. Her earlier work deals more directly with personal narrative, while here she’s taking on the flow of information, culture, and aesthetics in digital space, playing with temporality. A really cool form and presentation too.
Gallery: François Ghebaly
Dana Schutz is an obvious choice, and Zwirner’s presentation did her paintings justice despite the fair setting. They’re intense and of the moment, seizing the past year affectively and aesthetically. In my opinion, there is no better setting for these paintings to debut. Zwirner capitalized on art fairs’ transience in this presentation—thoughtfully done. I’d imagine we’ll have the chance to see them in a museum setting sooner or later anyways.
Gallery: David Zwirner
***BEST OF SHOW***
that fucking dog!!