NADA NY provided a great presentation this year, with sun beaming down on the laid back and airy Pier 36. The layout of the fair was flawless, easy to navigate and each booth had great space. There was just enough galleries to enjoy the show without the dreaded “fair fatigue”. The organizers really hit the nail on the head regarding space with this years installation in NYC, and some of the galleries really came to play ball with high class presentations.
Patricia Low Contemporary of Gstaad had an outstanding presentation at NADA NY this year. A.R. Penck formed contextual basis for the show, while Jannis Varelas and Sebastain Hammwöhner responded to his work flawlessly in this beautiful presentation. Curator for Patricia Low Gallery, Max Henry commented on the links between the artists in the show:
“Through pictographic symbols the artists communicate a fundamental aspect of the human endeavor.
The link to the primitive past in the Modern technological age of the military industrial complex (Penck);The body and the transcultural aspects of gender, clothing, and accessories as talisman/accoutrements (Varelas); And the recycling of images (virtual, printed etc.) from immaterial forms into tactile anthropological representations (Hammwöhner).”
After speaking with Henry, it was clear to see his depth of knowledge for each artist and his reasoning behind the collection for NADA NY. Sophisticated in presentation, I forgot I was at an art fair while sitting in this booth speaking with the gallerist and curator
Canadian Shawn Kuruneru had work on show at Ribordy Contemporary. Reverting to drawing at its basics, Kuruneru uses pen, ink and acrylic to explore mark making by filling the page with dots. Uncertainty and chance play a key role in Kuruneru’s minimalist practice. His work is concerned with the idea of origins. The artist sees instinct as intrinsic to the drawing process.
Volker Hueller’s large mixed-media canvases explore an abstracted sense of portraiture at one of my favourite New York galleries, Eleven Rivington. Channeling early 20th century modernism, Hueller’s ‘Picassoesque’ dark works charm the viewer through mystery. Nana Asfour of Time Out New York comments on the black paintings in the series: “Those canvases were created during a residency in Washington, Connecticut, and the rolling hills of Litchfield County left their stamp, quite literally. Bugs, sticks and other random objects imbedded into the compositions attest to the verdant surroundings.”
