THEATER LIFE’S ARTMKT RECAP – Janet Lehr
Dateline: December 1, 2014
UNTITLED: A SPECTACULAR FAIR KICKS-OFF FOR MIAMI BASEL WEEK 2014
Art Basel Miami Beach is a one happy, giant, Art Fair. Like a beautiful flower, it opens in stages. Commanding first position is UNTITLED. Omar Lopez Chahoud and his curatorial team, first to open the week of cumulative splendors and, excesses, they have again set a very high bar for the competition.
UNTITLED is exciting – from its striking first opening view
Are we not all too familiar with parallel isles? UNTITLED is fresh in its design. Enter, and you are immediately struck by a mélange of wonderful, yet disjunctive pathways. The grand wedge shaped entry is a bold architectural statement. You pause to digest the vast space, choose what immediately catches your eye, and you are swept along a spacious diagonal path of galleries. You’ll miss nothing, have no fear, though there are 110+ galleries and 13 projects,
I quickly checked the floor plan and found my favorite exhibitor from 2013
Mammoth ‘slabs’ are stacked and chaotically atilt. THREE WALLS PROJECT’s are rehabilitating Michigan thru art, project by project bringing attention to Michigan art project to art project, thru the study of Cultural Landscape. Their projects project the energy and vitality of a reborn spirit of revival.
Sotheby’s Institute of Art, with schools in NY, Los Angeles, London, and most recently, Hong Kong, instructs tomorrows art professionals – Gifted students combined to create an art performance that matches cultural awareness and art.
Who can deny the immediate attraction of the image by this Chilean artist? Beyond the initial pleasure in the image is the process which decidedly enhanced the experience for me. The distressed surface of the initial transfer played beauty and ‘grit’ well, and captivated this viewer.
Call these forms what you will – Whale-Sparrow, Yellow-bellied Peeper, White-bellied Black-backed Kuala, they held their space on a giant wall with their compelling presence.
Ronchini Gallery showed a very interesting ‘eye’ for construction – The sculpture is ordered and, secure – as are the wall works. The wall works however employ a string technique that is new to me, grand, and quite elegant, a cross between ‘abstraction’ and ‘design’.
The juxtaposition of form, color and tint struck a chord with me; the architectural cum art wall was fairly common in the 1950’s and 60’s when free-standing walls were more common. Louise Nevelson piled box upon box, patterned forms one upon the other and Tino Nivola was creating architectural dividing walls. Seeing this construction, is quite wonderful.
The several artist’s whose works are shown, are each exploring process in original ways. Possibly the most audacious work is that of the Cuban-Canadian creator of ‘sound’ machines; sounds of Wagner, Handel…couched in the pendant works hung behind Max Estrella’s head.
Last because my battery faileth
were the mirrored walls of Phillip K Smith III. My first thought was, Larry Bell. But no, these walls had a very
different quality.
UNTITLED is not to be missed.
Janet Lehr: THEATERARTS Art correspondent
JanetLehr@JanetLehrInc.com
