Berlin gets the focus of two very different reports today. From Lindsay Pollock, we have the news that The Armory Show will feature galleries from Berlin in the March 2010 edition:

The fair has targeted key Berlin galleries, and offered them subsidized shipping rates and other inducements, confirmed fair spokesman Giovanni Garcia-Fenech. Dealers say the initiative was created to beef up a weak pool of Berlin dealers who had initially applied to the fair.

Art fair organizers face an uphill battle in convincing European exhibitors to take part in American fairs. There is skepticism that the expenses are worthwhile at a time when galleries are conserving cash, and American collectors’ appetites for contemporary art has waned.

Meanwhile, the New York Times travel blog, Globespotters, visits the gallery and shop debut of Dutch street artist, Parra:

a new pop-up shop offers “I Like the Painting but I Will Get the Tee Shirt,” with a variety of items designed by the artist.

“This kind of combination works quite well,” said Elisa Freudenreich, a gallery assistant at Pool. “Most of the people coming are interested in Parra as an artist, but then there are also all of these fashion people who wouldn’t normally be here, but they have come straight from the shop.”

No doubt Parra is a savvy entreprenuer, but that is not to say that his work is artistically minor or uninteresting. Rich with allusions to everything from Greek mythology to American television commercials of the 1950s and ’60s, the pieces also contain their own unique typology. The characters who inhabit his paintings, drawings, sculptures, skateboards, T-shirts and sneakers — and did I mention he also records post-punk electronic music under the name Parra Soundsystem? — are bird-like, animal/human hybrids brimming with deviant desires and ironic reflections.

The Armory Show Targets Berlin Dealers (Lindsay Pollock)

Parra and the Case of Art v. Commerce (Globespotters/NYTimes)