Day Two

I’m still experiencing some technical difficulties for wi-fi transmission here, but that aside, things are looking up, way up from yesterday. First, I would like to thank the gallerists who have been so kind to offer me passes for special events, parties and previews. There are some wonderful people among us back in the Pacific Northwest. My home had a minor flood due to the recent storms, and hopefully it will be under control before I return. I’m going to try and be slightly briefer in this report as I need to get to sleep. So here goes for Wednesday.

I started the proceedings at the Ink Fair held at the Suites of Dorchester. There were mostly galleries from California, New York and London with a few others thrown in for good measure. A gorgeous Chuck Close photogravure from Tampa’s Graphic Studio at the U of S. Florida. A beautiful large-scale self-portrait. I enjoyed speaking to the folks who were representing the space as they led on that Close finds himself somewhat uncomfortable being in the same room as one of these larger than life beauties. I can see why. Spot on, ‘Monumental Prints’ by Ellsworth Kelly were the absolute standout from Susan Sheehan Gallery, 1988’s Yellow Curve was scintillatingly beaming. I’ve got my eye on a new Ross Bleckner from Berkeley’s Paulson Press, certainly worth every cent. And the Mary Ryan Gallery from Miami were giving out colorful, and useful bags emblazoned with a Donald Sultan flower image (I picked lime green of course). Much of the rest of this fair had many works you’ve most probably seen in print houses for years like Warhol cats, Lichtenstein’s and several galleries with similar artists of yore. But if you know prints, and like small editions there are some nice books. I spied a particularly nice Kiki Smith.

Next was the Flow Fair, which is really nice this year, and PDX Contemporary’s room is spectacular. She truly represents, and the Megan Murphy print on acetate or tissue is just breathtaking. Top pieces by Storm Tharp, Ellen George, a brand-new short stack Marie Watt sits in the center and others reflected the natural and fabricated light in the room so nicely. I spent more time with the gallerists here; they seemed amenable and interested in people walking into their space. My favorite piece in the festival came from Donna Seager Gallery out of San Rafael, CA and it was the graphite and resin work of Freddy Chandra. All about reflection, and consumption of light. Just perfect. I also liked seeing work by a Miami artist named Carol K. Brown, some multiple figure pieces called ‘Pedestrians’ which were showing both at San Diego’s Loft 238 and Nohra Haime Gallery out of NYC (who were also showing stunning large works by Zang Xiaotao/Hugo Tillman). The final stand out for me was the pigment/acrylic polymer work at D.E.N. Contemporary by Teo Gonzalez. Cellular, spatial, multiple. Put my head right.

I’m going to save commentary on both Aqua and Basel until further inspection, and time to think. It was rally nice to see Matthew Picton and have some words with him before going into the night. He is represented by three galleries in this year’s festival, and was sporting a wonderful red tint in his mane. I saw his work at Toomey Tourell out of the Bay Area, who also have a nice Joe Thurston as well. But, more later as this is certainly more than your average overload of art viewing, dealing, etc. (and it’s only Wednesday)! The attendance at Art Basel’s Vernissage was tremendously impressive. The beautiful people came out in droves. The international turnout, incredible. You could hear wafting foreign accents, everywhere in German, Italian, French, Portugese, and many unidentiyable dialects.The galleries representing, a grande selection of the world’s finest. The aire in the place smelled like money, the attitude was thicker than cold butter. Women wore sparkly dresses and heels, many men were suited to the nines. It was an evening of class, some understated, some not as such. I ran into some familiar faces like Seattle’s Susan Robb who looked to be having a great time, and the folks from Pulliam Deffenbaugh, James Harris, Robert Yoder and Elizabeth Leach with whom I had a few words about the evening. I’m looking forward to her spot over the bay to the Wynwood District on Thursday.

But tonight it was all about galleries from Tokyo, Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, Madrid, New York, Paris, Berlin, Glasgow, you name it – they were all there and though I was there for about 90 minutes, I only scratched the surface. So I will have to return. Two separate galleries, both from Mexico had really strong work, fresh, unexpected, one was Kurimanzutto and the other, well, I’ll have to go back for more….After the event, it was funny to watch as guards were adamant that all people leave through a single exit which was quite small for the vast crowd. Crowd control and theft protection/inspection. I heard one very well dressed lady say something about ‘how would I possibly fit a painting in this tiny purse’. Oh, and Paul McCarthy’s new large chocolate santas are at two galleries at this fair, I “think” they are $100 but I could be wrong. They are real milk chocolate and if you look close it seems Santa may be holding a sex toy. Infinite references I’m not going to debate here.

It was nice to see Andrew Kreps and Deitch Projects.The three real standout shops were White Cube (amazing few pieces by Damien Hirst), Peres Projetcs and Galerie Nicola von Senger with a piece that was the merge between the real world and animated. A mechanized claw at work on raw concrete. Scary, banal, live. And a piece by Jeppe Hein shown by NY’s 303 Gallery, who I thought had an amazing booth. An amazing huge set of Roni Horn here, a series of wonderful Richard Tuttles there. There were two pieces that seemed to attract most people, and I apologize for not being a totally spot on roaming reporter. But one was an elongated room filled with dozens of above head lagrge lighting bulb units, all on, and with beaded cords from below which you walk through and could turn on/off. They tickled as you walked into the space. Also, another gallery had a huge concave mirror piece made up on small hexagognal shaped mirror tiles. I realized that people love looking at themselves, and interacting in this type of transient event. There was also this one gallery that transformed itself into something of a mini-mart shop, with a register and plenty of foods, from Scandanavia I believe. There were so many sights in so little time, much outlandish, some beyond the stylish everyday. But all designed to impress every standard. It looked as though everyone gave it their best shot, and then some. No expense spared, no corner cut. This is a fair to be dealt with.

It was all about Iggy Pop & the Stooges late night right on the beach and I slowly strolled up, after paying homage to Versace’s lovely old villa mansion on Ocean Drive, where I got to see Jaume Plensa’s incredible ‘Nomade’ along the beach, presented in part by Chicago’s Richard Gray Gallery and Galerie Lelong in Paris. An open alphabet that you can walk into, and nighttime viewing made for a dramatic sight. I spied Bruce Guenther and his partner along the boardwalk upon my approach to the show. The rest of the night ROCKED on the beach, the crowd rushed the stage and Iggy let them on (about 50 of them), and he sang “I Want A Dog” and other classics with punch, fervor and volume. Pop, in his ’60 + sinewy’ state moved like a sidewinder in shoulder length hair and scowl intact. Water flew from the stage and the audience as the group swayed back and forth. It was interesting to see this intersection of finely coutured, bespectacled art aficionados mixed with a whole mess of misfits, well, there was a partial blend, but I certainly haven’t seen that many pairs of fin Italian loafers, and on the beach no less, at a rock show, ever. But I didn’t stay for the entire thing; the crowd was surely very dense. I was wearing my gray and pink guns and guitars t-shirt which seemed to fit right in. People donned bunny and nun and superhero costumes about, the salty smell of the ocean. Ahhhhhh. Pumped + (for now) Plunk!

And for some visual highlights that caught my eye….For some reason I am attracted to text-based work more than I would have thought….

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