Elena Platonova is an art advisor, curator, and artist liaison in New York and London. Her Instagram handle is @ElenasArtAdventures.
Frieze Art Fair is now over. 200 galleries from 30 countries vied for collectors’ attention in an airy white tent on NYC’s Randall’s Island. With such an overwhelming multitude of artworks to take in and select from, one-person gallery booths presented a respite for an overstimulated eye.
Two separate sections of the fair—Frame and Spotlight—featured exclusively solo projects. But a number of galleries in the Main section chose to showcase a single artist’s oeuvre, an approach yielded a number of benefits. One strong voice is more likely to linger in viewers’ memories than a stream of syncopated sounds in a group presentation. In the case of well-known names, this strategy seems to increase the number of sales by allocating more wall space for crowd-pleasing inventory. A single-person booth can also be a savvy way to promote a lesser-known artist—think a mini one-man gallery exhibition with tens of thousands of visitors from around the globe passing through.
Here are five galleries that reaped the benefits of a one-person presentation:
Dieter Krieg at Galerie Klaus Gerrit Friese
German artist Dieter Krieg (1937-2005) forged a unique blend of Pop Art, German and Abstract Expressionism by rendering food, mass-produced household products and, yes, animals, using vigorous gestures with an intensity bordering on religious fervor. Well-respected in his home country both for his art and his influential teaching at the Dusseldorf Arts Academy, Krieg was featured in several important group shows abroad, but he did not receive due recognition outside of his native Germany. Krieg passed away in 2005 and Berlin dealer Klaus Gerrit Friese, who runs the artist’s estate, is intent on bringing him into the international spotlight posthumously.
John Currin at Gagosian GalleryContinue Reading