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THE BRODMANN AREAS : A NEW BALLET BY NORTE MAAR

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:39:58 -0400

THE BRODMANN AREAS : A NEW BALLET BY NORTE MAAR

work by artist Eric Wolfgang Eisenhut featured on ARTSUCKS

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:08:06 -0500

work by artist Eric Wolfgang Eisenhut

featured on ARTSUCKS

work by Letha Wilson featured on ARTSUCKS

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:58:05 -0500

work by Letha Wilson

featured on ARTSUCKS

curator Hannah Daly featured on ARTSUCKS

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:53:06 -0500

curator Hannah Daly

featured on ARTSUCKS

Director Jason Andrew and artist Michelle Vaughan look up at...

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:48:06 -0500

Director Jason Andrew and artist Michelle Vaughan look up at Browne’s Badly Built Box

featured on ARTSUCKS

Artist Anthony Browne in his Badly Built Box featured...

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:22:06 -0500

Artist Anthony Browne in his Badly Built Box

featured on ARTSUCKS

Authors + Artists: busily working on beginning a snowflake for...

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 13:05:00 -0500

Authors + Artists: busily working on beginning a snowflake

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Authors + Artists: a red Christmas tree, displayed by the...

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:59:00 -0500

Authors + Artists: a red Christmas tree, displayed by the artist

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Authors + Artists: the group explores geometry through snowflake...

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:55:00 -0500

Authors + Artists: the group explores geometry through snowflake designs

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Authors + Artists: a young artist showing off his work for more...

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:50:00 -0500

Authors + Artists: a young artist showing off his work

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Authors + Artists: a unique Christmas Tree for more information,...

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:50:00 -0500

Authors + Artists: a unique Christmas Tree

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SOUND ART AT BASEL If an installation literally calls out to...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:28:00 -0500

SOUND ART AT BASEL

If an installation literally calls out to you, through including audio as an element, especially when that sound is a deep, glitchy yet guttural hum that shakes your heart, there is little one can do to ignore its allure. London and Milan’s Lisson Gallery presented a sound based installation by London and Sheffield based artist Haroon Mirza in their Basel booth. Mirza’s combines an off kilter form constructed from sound padding material with a alight singular speaker, which pulsates with the constant, low frequency sound it emits. The work reconfigures our auditory experience, engaging with the lines the delineate one sound as music, another as noise.

Kardashians and PS1

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:39:00 -0500

afternoon shore

By the time the sun began its downward descent early Saturday evening, I was on my way to attend MoMA PS1’s event honoring collaborators Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch. The event, hosted by the ever-cool DIS Magazine and held at the Mondrian, raised a glass, and another, and yet another, to the work of Fitch and Trecartin, whose solo show Any Ever ran at PS1 this past spring.

prize money

In true Trecartin style, the party itself spiralled into a indiscernable blur between reality and the warped hyper-reality that brandishes itself as reality television. DIS and PS1 funded a Kim Kardashian look alike contest, with the winner selected by Klaus Biesenbach himself.

Lauren Devine as Barbara Kruger’s Kim Kardashian

Perhaps the most notable competitor, Lauren Devine’s reinterpretation of Barbara Kruger’s cover for W Magazine featuring a near nude Kim. After a certain point, it was hard to tell where performance art ends- a pack of near imperfect Kim impostors mingled throughout the crowd, each introducing them self as the real Kim. Both myself and Norte Maar’s Jason Andrew witnessed the surreal scene, which included a hodge podge collection of the impeccably hip DIS crew.

As the sun set, and the open vodka bar continued to flow, we were all reminded exactly why PS1 was hailed Best Museum With A Party Scene this year. It became undeniably clear that we were all having a very good time.

The Art Fair, But Different

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:43:00 -0500

When one imagines an art fair, there are certain specifics that come with that conception. And it usually looks like Basel. But what if we re-imagined a fair as something entirely different? Rather than a convention sized collection of highly valued work, fairs were small, manageable, centric on emerging and alternative artists?

Yesterday’s trip to SEVEN and Fountain Art Fair proved there is a way to throw out conventions and invent anew. Held a few blocks away from each other in mainland Miami’s ever-cool Wynwood Arts District, both push the limits of what we expect a fair to be.

John Stoney’s Corner Piece #2, 2011 for Pierogi

Rather than breaking down exhibitors into compartmentalized, potentially disjointed booths, SEVEN presents works from seven participating galleries salon-style, seamlessly curated throughout the several rooms and outdoor area of the raw space. Where Basel and NADA may be centered around putting forth distinct, individual gallery identities, SEVEN leaves personality at the door for the sake of a cohesive viewing experience.

Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung’s Fat Free Nirvana for Postmasters

What happens when a video is screened outdoors, alongside sculptural works? Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung’s endlessly witty Fat Free Nirvana, 2011 presented by New York’s Postmasters featured a Buddha with a unquenchable appetite. The work was nestled in an fence surrounded alcove in the the outdoor area of the space. This curatorial decision - to take an alternative space and let the voice of the works sing louder than the galleries showing them - creates an dynamic viewing experience.

Andrea Stansilav for Tinca Art

As I predicted, Fountain was the embodiment of bad ass. The open bar and live musical performances certainly helped, but the real renegade quality of the fair comes from the Fountain’s insistance of a different kind of art fair. Alternative spaces, many specializing in street art, as well as a selection of self-representing artists presented groupings of works in loosely organized booths.

Like SEVEN, the size and scope of the fair moved beyond the overwhelming scale of the bigger fairs and opted for an intimate collection of works actually thematically related. Because of this decision, the Fountain experience couldn’t be any farther from the manic, anxiety inducing pandemonium of fighting one’s way through Basel.

STEP INTO MY PIECE When a work of art requires you to step into...

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:12:00 -0500

STEP INTO MY PIECE

When a work of art requires you to step into a small room, alone, and close the door behind you, it becomes quite clear the artist has a particular experiential moment in mind. Bushwick-based artist Andrew Erdos presented his glass, mirror, and video installation The Texture of a Ghost with Claire Oliver Gallery at Art Miami. The artist was present at the fair, encouraging viewers to carefully step into the space he constructed, conscious of the potentially dangerous jutting glass forms that filled the mirror covered walls. The act of looking at Erdos’ engaging work quickly becomes a meta-experience: one’s own form is written into the piece, as looped video of a scenic sunset bounces around the multitude of reflective surfaces. Forget site-specific: Texture constructed a whole new world that requires our intimate and solitary participation.

Notes on NADA

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 01:14:00 -0500

Feeling moved by moving sculpture seemed to be the theme of the day. About forty minutes into my first walk through of NADA, a kinetic light based work stopped me in my tracks. New York-based Ian Burns‘ Progression builds on a wooden structure formed from a times lighting system and magnifying glasses. For a moment, all the lights go dim. Then, slowly, each bulb lights in succession, spelling out text on the opposing wall.

Ian Burns’ Progression for Mother’s Tankstation

A part of the booth of Dublin’s Mother’s Tankstation, the durational three-dimensional work created a kind of ephemeral monument. Watching the lights change, waiting for their hidden message to reveal itself.

Paddle 8 and Phaidon present: the NADA study lounge

Beyond Burn’s piece, NADA seemed to be calling my name. Perhaps it was the open bar presented by fair sponsor Grolsch, or the collaboration between NADA and online collection platform Paddle 8 that clearly called attention to digital innovation, if questionable in outcome. I’m sure the presence of many familiar faces didn’t hurt either, Klaus Von Nichtssagend, Nicelle Beauchene, Nicole Klagsbrun, and Regina Rex among them.

two works by Ruby Sky Stiler for Nicelle Beauchene

ART THAT MOVES If I walked away from Pulse with any one lesson,...

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:08:00 -0500

ART THAT MOVES

If I walked away from Pulse with any one lesson, it’d have to be: sculptures that move are kind of amazing. When I came across this work created by Swiss artist Zimoun, exhibited by New York’s Bitforms Gallery, the power of movement struck me. When a sculpture moves, it enters into a dialogue carried on primarily by other art forms: the dancer’s plies, the actor’s gesture, the performance artists’ durational narrative. Zimoun’s new work uses basic materials- cardboard, metal, motors- that, through process, transform into an intricate, dynamic work.

Domes and Edibles

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:43:00 -0500

morning view

The view of morning Miami alone is enough to wipe away yesterday’s residual fatigue.

Last night’s opening of Aqua Art Miami is still fresh on my mind. The fair, housed in the Aqua Hotel on the ubiquitous Collins Avenue, presents an alternate take on what a fair can be. Where Basel is massive and overwhelming, Aqua is intimate and tightly scaled. Converting a hotel room into a gallery space is open opportunity, one that can go in several directions. The deconstructed familiarity and domesticity of a living-qua-art space provides an altogether different viewing context, similar to the framing of an apartment show, like Norte Maar’s own exhibition space.

Eileen Braziel Fine Arts at Aqua Art Miami

Eileen Braziel Fine Arts, based in Santa Fe, cleared suite 103 to house several spatially interesting works. Projections shoot across the room, landing on a glass blocks, keeping watch right inside the room’s from window. Mechanical sculpture works hang from the ceiling, interrupting viewers’ interaction with the space. Outside the suite, in the hotel’s courtyard, a Fuller-esque geo-dome structure created by Will Wilson, lights up the foliage that surrounds it. For last night’s packed opening event, the dome acted as an intervention- when opening attendees tried to quickly move through too the complimentary drink line, they couldn’t help but confront the Wilson’s wooden dome.

Will Wilson’s dome

While I didn’t make it to the first edition of Jennifer Rubell’s annual interactive and food-based pre-fair breakfast, work center around cuisine found its way into the afternoon’s diet. Pulse Art Fair’s Impulse project, a special section featuring solo project booths featuring recent works by emerging artists, included an installation by collaborative duo artist Paramodel presented by Tokyo and Kyoto based Mori Yu Gallery.

Paramodel’s platter of mixed media sushi sculptures, combining children’s’ toys trucks with imitations of edible elements, made me laugh, initially. After the fact, Paramodel’s witty engagement with consumption made me think.

Norman Mooney’sWall Flower No.1, 2010 for Causey Contemporary

Other fair highlights includes fellow Brooklyn-based gallery Causey Contemporary’s showcase of Norman Mooney’s brightly colored aluminum ray sculptures, Jim Campbell’s Exploded View for San Francisco and New York’s Hosfelt Gallery, and literally electric light works by James Clar Los Angeles-based Blythe Projects.

James Clar’s Boom, 2011 for Blythe Projects

Temporary electrical failure aside, Pulse worked well through an amalgamation of international exhibitors showcasing delicious work that, frankly, got me going more than anything inside the convention center.

Pulse gumballs

A Basel Beginning

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:33:07 -0500

the view before entering the fair

Basel is big. Very big. And after a mere hour and half taking an exploratory first wander through the convention center, it feels like just the very beginning. Once the doors officially opened to the 10th anniversary edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, crowds of well dressed collectors and frantically picture snapping press flooded the massive, though carefully compartmentalized space.

this year’s catalog

I found myself consistently most attracted to the Art Kabinett projects, a section of the fair featuring thirty curated spaces within several booths. It is within the Kabinett context- usually one artist, a site specific work- that the artwork transcends the temporary walls that surround it. No longer are you simply walking through a booth- you have arrived at an artists’ idea.

Ai Wei Wei’s Tree, 2009-10 + Rocks, 2009

The Kabinett projects don’t carry the heavy monumentality an expensive Calder and evade the cliche of a highly circulated, oft replicated Robert Indiana. Instead, the makeshift rooms enable a work to grow into itself. Beijing and Lucerne based Galerie Urs Meile presented a large scale tree-like work by controversial activist artist Ai Wei Wei. Berlin’s Galerie Barbara Thumm filled a small space with an archive like installation by Anna Oppermann. Based in Madrid, Galería Helga de Alvear presents a replica of a “gay sauna” by duo Elmgreen & Dragset, recently celebrated with a retrospective as part of Performa 11.

Anna Oppermann’s Anna Oppermann 1965-75

The viewing experience of becoming absorbed into these works forces an awareness of space, its limits and potential, makes me look forward to things to come. What does it mean to hold a fair in a hotel, like Ink or Aqua, which opens later tonight? In a park, like Basel’s inaugural edition of outdoor sculpture show Art Public or the Pop Up Piano project?

The rest of the week will bring alternative fairs and other projects that engage with similar questions about space and context.

Follow Norte Maar’s tumblr for daily updates from Miami...

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:58:00 -0500

Follow Norte Maar’s tumblr for daily updates from Miami Art Week from our project assistant Hannah Daly. Daly will feature cutting edge interdisciplinary projects, innovative collaborations, and unique exhibitions, from within the convention center and beyond.