scope MiamiI was dubious of Scope earlier this month but after my amazing day at AQUA – I thought – what the fuck lets give it a try. I am glad I did. It looks to be about 70 galleries – 3 from DC (Curators Office, Irvine, and Numark) In all fairness to the DC galleries I will leave them alone and focus on the things that were new to me, that I liked.
Lisa Sigal at Frederieke Taylor Gallery – to me easily the best work at SCOPE. These are collage works from her usually site specific work, however they hold the wall so well are are so well defined that it’s clear to me that they would scale with no problem. Lots of transparency, lots of clear strong soft color, I expect to see more of this in the future.
Rana Rochat at Fay Gold Gallery – really strong encaustic, really personal feeling abstractions great color and that encaustic feel – I would have paid 10 bucks just to see these today. Two or three of FGG’s artists were using wax – I’m sure this is just coincidence, however I thought it was interesting to note.
Annette Davidek at Littlejohn Contemporary these are really interesting layered oil on wood, building organic shapes but still painterly. Lots of layers build up to lots to see but the finished work is still on the thin side – I’m not a huge “thin paint” fan but this works for me. go track her down.
Other interesting work at Scope is: Carlos & Jason Sanchez (above) at Christopher Cutts Gallery, Lisa Kereszi at Yancey Richardson,
One complaint: I’ve bumped into William Betts work 3 or four times now – with the exception that is smaller in scale it continues to seem like Gene Davis’s work – If I’m missing something would someone be so kind as to fill me in? (Gene Davis below)
ABMB
Remember my complaint yesterday about how all the galleries used the same pool of artists? It sure didn’t feel that way today. Clearly things got sold and new stuff came out – it was like a brand new art mega fair. Here are my highlights:
Eric Doeringer at Flash Art – OK I bought one. A bootleg On kawara (July 1,1974) in my brief conversation with him I asked how the brush with the law last week went – he said it’s the best thing that could ever have happened. I agree in the 15 minutes I had to wait to buy my painting he sold 6 or 7 to the person before me and the gentleman after me wanted to buy 40 of them. Smart move for Flash Art for being so timely. For more info of Eric’s brush with the law follow this link
Allen Ruppersberg at Christine Burgin. Isnt this really all I need to say? No? OK, I’m a big AR fan and have been since college. He has a problem with some galleries that he doesnt really do the same thing from year to year – I have no problem with that, but I’m sure he’s harder to market that way. CB is showing drawings and sculpture and you should go see them right now.
Stuart Davis at Salander-O’Reilly. They are showing two paintings both of black lines on a cream field of a couple of his best known works. I didn’t get a chance to talk to the gallery, but I thought the date was after the paintings I knew – I should do some more sleuthing – but I probably wont. Interesting regardless.
Saw a few really good Robert Ryman’s – I was particularly interested one and just for the hell of it asked the price. “It’s a 12 x 12 paint on fiberglass of some sort and it cost $195,000 dollars” the lovely gallery assistant said. Oh yeah, thats a direct quote.
Random notes:
Bumped into and spoke with Todd Oldham – A hell of a nice guy barely begins to describe him. What an excellent human being.
Had a nice although brief conversation with Max Protech – we have two degrees of separation since we both worked with Nancy Drysdale. Short but enjoyable – it’s nice to be invited to sit and just chat – no “I’m too busy, are you buying?”
Perrier Jouet is the official champagne of ABMB it costs $12 by the glass from the cart ladies.
Hey Matthew,
Since I own a William Betts piece, I’ll chime in with an answer to your question. The thin lines of color stripes is the similarity… but everything else is much different. Without going into it too much (email me for more), the biggest thing about Betts’ work is the process. He has built a proprietary machine that paints the work for him, one line at a time. So, he makes editioned paintings, something that conceptually is pretty interesting. He lifts his colors from single pixels in digital images. He uses more than 4,000 different colors.
I find Betts work much more slick than Davis’ and the colors definitely pop in a contemporary way. Davis’ work, to me, feels stale… a product of a much different generation.
Also, not sure what size of Betts work you’ve seen, but he makes them up to 4′ x 8’… or so the last time I checked.
Needless to say, my piece is much, much smaller!
Thanks for writing about the fairs. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the DC galleries.
Ok, so I now get the whole Betts thing – and it’s interesting. Thanks for the info.
But I have to ask you about your last line, you say that Betts seems more contemporary and that the colors pop more, while Davis feels stale. None of this do I have real concerns with – I think that the color thing is application and technology versus traditional materials
I’m not sure but I think there is part of a shared dialog somewhere between this and your thoughts on “newness”
Hey Matthew,
As for the colors, I see Davis’ work and I think pastel, peace and love from the 70s. Betts’ work makes me think of technology, advertising, consumerism, etc… in other words updated for today.
As for “newness,” you’re right on. I don’t think that “newness” has to be in the final appearance of the image (stripes are old hat). Instead, it can be in the process. I think Betts’ process is new and important, and possibly opens up a whole new world for “painters.” Of course, I own his work so I must feel strongly about it!
Other stripe painters I think about a lot are Tim Bavington, Chris Gallagher (http://www.mckenziefineart.com/artists/gallagher/gallagher.html) and Miki Lee (http://www.lyonswiergallery.com/html/Frameset.html).
I think stripe painting is a good example of an area where artists can be chasing after their tails. It’s been done to death… so bring something new to the table or move on!!
I could not agree more.