Last month I made the journey to NYC to check out the Armory Show and all of the concurrent art shows, in addition to the big museum shows. While there I visited the Independent, the Korean Art Show, Volta, Scope, Verge, Dutch Art Now and Pulse.
My favorite South African artist William Kentridge was in town to kick off his retrospective at the MOMA – NYC and the opera "The Nose" at the Met Opera house. Yes, I did score one ticket at the last minute to catch the opening night performance. Kentridge is a rock-star, and if you have never heard of him. . . start googling. You can find him at the Marian Goodman Gallery in South Africa and New York. He has been making stop-frame animation films from charcoal drawings and torn pieces of paper for decades (see YouTube), not to mention working with performance, puppetry, found objects and kinetic mediums; along with the traditional stuff we like to hang on our walls.
Yeah, it has taken me weeks to recover, but all in all it was an amazing experience.
The Armory Show was gargantuan and a bit up-tight, but all the art world stars were present and accounted for. I even had a 'close encounter' spotting both Chuck Close and Glenn Close in the same day. Does anyone know if they are related?
One of my favorite shows was the Korean Art Fair. Innovative, good looking, with a very high level of craftsmanship. . . and a sense of humor. Check out some of my pics.
These little gems are made with led lights and each book is made of plexiglass and lights. They are detachable (battery life about 3 hours) and you can even change the color to match your mood! Don't get too excited, each one will set you back at least $3000
Who doesn't love photorealistic painting? This oil on canvas was about 24"x60" nothing small here. . .
That's right, things are not always what they seem. We love this!
This black and white digital photograph (on left) was at least 5' x 7' and amazingly painted with tiny figures. See the detail image (right). There are the over 1000 dancers painted on the photo.
That's all for today. Stay tuned for more images from the art fair bonanza.
peace, Joanna
