There are a dozen art fairs taking place throughout the city this weekend, and examiner is here to give you the scoop on each and every one of them! Whether you have the opportunity to visit one, all, or none of them, this is where you can find the highlights from each. The most scandalous, the most beautiful, the most colorful, and the most thought-provoking artworks have all been captured for you here.
This second installment introduces you to VOLTA NY, one of the most anticipated art fairs every year. The show was created in Basel in 2005 and moved over to the Big Appel three years later. It is noted as “an invitational show of emerging solo artists’ projects.” In previous years, the fair has been held in a midtown location, directly across the street from the Empire State Building. This year, VOLTA has appropriated a new space at 82 Mercer, right in the heart of Lower Manhattan. There are 95 international galleries that are presenting works on the two-floor space. Some are works that may unnerve you and some may leave you awestruck. The talent displayed under one roof is immense here.
Another great aspect of VOLTA is their create-your-own catalog – collect gallery and artist info sheets from each booth that you love and end up with your own curated binder of art pieces! For visitors interested in attending the Armory Show, VOLTA also offers a free shuttle between fairs. If you’re looking for a reasonable art fair both in size and price, stop by 82 Mercer. No matter your taste in art, VOLTA has something for you.
Here’s what to look out for when you’re there:
• Chiho Akama (Dillon Gallery): Gateau Au Chocolat for Adults, 2009. It’s been said that women are addicted to chocolate and shoes, among other things. Akama has taken those addictions and combined them into one delectable work of art. You’ve never seen anything like this before – Akama makes her creations in “the traditional shoe-making process … and are therefore functional and can be worn, although that is not her intention.” Each shoe looks like a different dessert – chocolate cake, lemon pie – or other popular image, like lilies.
• Timothy Bergstrom (Halsey McKay Gallery): Glound 9, 2012. This is a piece that doesn’t instantly attract the viewer, but once it is noticed, it’s almost hypnotic in nature. Each work is a different color, composed of glue, acrylic, wire, and pigment on canvas. The works are quite intricate, and almost look like craters or waves in the way the wires lift and drop, lines of paint emanating from the center of the canvas in an even pattern. These are works you can actually hang in your living room!
• Brian Dettmer (Kinz + Tillou Fine Art): Tower 1 (Britannica), 2012 and Do it Complete Yourself Man, 2010. These are probably the coolest works of art in the entire fair – and most-likely, the most time-consuming for the artist to create. Each of Dettmer’s works are made from vintage books, which he cuts and transforms into “intricate and innovative sculptures,” different scenes, images and writings from within the books themselves left behind to create a 3D “reading” of the book used. Larger towers are $42,000 while the smaller works are $4800.
• Elsabetta Di Maggio (Laura Bulian Gallery, Milan): Untitled, 2007 and Lotus, 2012. It is Di Maggio’s precision with her scalpel – almost medical in nature – that makes her works so captivating. Spanning the length of the booth, her Untitled consists of white tissue paper with hand-cut naturalistic, floral-looking images on them. In her Lotus, Di Maggio used her scalpel on an actual dried lotus leaf, leaving behind a scientific image that looks much like a botanical autopsy.
• Balazs Kicsiny (Inda Gallery, Budapest): Killing Time, 2012. This work is instantly noticeable, placed in the back of the second floor. With life-size mannequins covered head-to-toe in black and white checkerboard cloth, this installation is unsettling, to say the least. One mannequin stands at the ready to throw a knife at his counterpart, who spins on a wheel in front of him. A second pair of mannequins face each other across from a table, a butcher knife in each hand.
• Mark Jenkins (Now Contemporary Art, Miami): This booth almost certainly has the weirdest works of art. Jenkins specializes in human figured installations like the pieces on display here. In the corner of the booth is an oversized teddy bear seemingly hugging a very-real-looking young blond girl. In the center of the booth is a hairy creation, arms supposedly sliced off and left on the ground. It’s difficult to walk by this booth without staring, or jumping at the unexpectedness of it all.
• Long-Bin Chen (Frederieke Taylor Gallery): Chen is another book artist who transforms novels into artistic creations. His sculptures are actually busts of famous individuals in history – the front of the busts are created from the pages of the books he chooses, and the backs of the sculptures show the bindings of each book. Truly inventive pieces, they also give the avid reader and book-lover pause when wondering just how valuable and re-readable these works would have been before being cut up.
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