I heard a story that Frieze Director Amanda Sharp found Randall’s Island on Google Earth – the perfect location to introduce New York to the art wonderland she created with Matthew Slotover almost a decade ago in London. It was a clever move to have visitors leave the main island by ferry or school buses to reach the airy white snake lying by the river (actually a tent, designed by SO-IL, Brooklyn, for the occasion). Both clients and exhibitors seemed refreshed by the mini-adventure and in the right mood for business. And business is good, especially for local emerging galleries who see the additional costs that come with being present in a major art fair drop dramatically, while their contacts with potential buyers and curators increase. For Gabrielle Giattino, owner and director of Bureau, less economic pressure means more agency over the work she chooses to present,“With having the fair in our home city, we can show exactly what we want at this point, without worrying about shipping costs.” Hence the massive sculpture by American artist Justin Matherly displayed in her booth. The work, cast in concrete, involves both the building up and the “unearthing” of material. It carries a sense of deep melancholy, and the uncanny beauty of something missing or lost.
For Mathew Higgs, director of White Columns, participating in the fair is about the possibility of proposing something different to a larger international audience. The mythical, downtown, non-profit art space decided to work with members of Creative Growth, an art center in California providing professional studios to adult artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities. “We are not a commercial gallery and don’t have to look after the career of our artists. We made a conscious choice to signal the fact that there are other contexts for art by showing the work of artists who entertain a different relationship to art-making. It allows another set of ideas in the narrative of the fair.” Read More
