BIENNALES & FESTIVALS — MARS 2009Report from Armory Week — New York
by Cheong Kwon, March the 9th, 2009

Although the press and VIP preview at Scope was sparsely attended, the work was reasonably priced and there was a range of excellent choices for young collectors. At Wilde Gallery, Berlin artist Evols’ architectural renderings on cardboard were surprisingly sophisticated and made this viewer reminisce for that city made for artists. Karim Hamid’s Baconesque portraits and collages at dFaulken were notable, and his portrait of Chuck Close was exacting in abstracted likeness. Yigal Ozeri at Mike Weiss Gallery garnered much attention with his highly skillful photorealistic portraits of nude women. Young Viennese artist Tanja Boukal’s sienna toned photographs of deteriorating landscapes transfered onto metal enamel panels (reminiscent of castoff vintage refrigerator doors) at Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels were not heavy on the wallet at $950.

Adler at Volta showed landscapes and animal portraits by Gordon Cheung on newsprint stock reports. Christian Schoeler’s paintings at Schuebbe projects were nearly sold out, showing a determined market despite slagging sales in the higher market at the Armory.

In the evening, the not for profit X initiative in Chelsea opened with much fanfare and a modestly impressive three floor retrospective of Derek Jarman’s rare super 8 films flanked by Dan Flavin’s light installations.

As for the Armory Fair, the VIP room was designed by Tucker Robbins, whose elegant elan transformed a low ceilinged platform into a solid respite away from the fair with Nakashima like benches and tables punctuted with petrified wood stools. This year, numerous dealers at the Armory were commited to presenting engaging work, although, at times, choosing artists whose too-tailored elicitation of response to the economic crisis was irritating.

The artist duo Kulkoz had works who frame within a frame within a frame at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin glimmered unassumingly. Stockholm Gallery Milliken had a touching and apt sculptural wall piece by Monica Bonvicini, of the word love, written in trailing script with chain link. At White Cube, a black heart formed by a human figure from obsessive bead artist extrodinaire Liza Lou, was a pleasure to behold. Alexandar Mir’s playful documentation of a performance of a large infltable plane crashing into the courtyard of the Palais de Tokyo was a fun juxtaposition of the historic with plastic. Another notable artist whose subject matter turned to transport was Tacita Dean at Frith Street Gallery, with her Duchampian gesture of a found deteriorating vintage postcard depicting a helicopter landing. Vik Muniz’s large scale portrait of Medusa « Medusa After Carrvagio », constructed of cast off and recycled junk was an admirable artistic feat with which to be reckoned.

However, the most noteworthy piece was not at the Armory fair, but at Deitch Studios in Long Island City where Vanessa Beecroft’s VB64 performance/sculpture was her first pubic piece since 2000. Nude women of all colors, painted white, lay draped on, or next to, sculptures on the concrete floor or on pedistals in the shape of an elogated rectangle. The site was engaging and the atmosphere could be likened to witnessing a charged zoo exhibition of exotic endangered species.