Rather Belated Art Fair Notes: Armory, Volta, Pool

Okay, I'm a bad blogger; I went to 3 more art fairs and didn't report until now. Truth be told, I became a little over-arted after the intensive week of art fairs and opening, but here I am with some notes!


At the Armory fair at Piers 92 and 94, there were no huge surprises, and as usual with this one I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I was at a huge mall at Bal Harbour or something, rather than seeing objects made by bohemian artistes. I did really appreciate one small piece there by the artist Patrick Jacobs of Pierogi Gallery in NYC: it appeared as a small plexi porthole, and when I peered in, there was a secret world, complete with rolling hills and glittering lakes receding off into the distance. I'm not sure if it was a hologram or what, but it really was precious, fantastical, and fun.




















Volta was enjoyable, as it provided a much needed break, as it consisted of solo projects instead of 50 artists crammed into each booth. Being the large format narcissist that I am, of course I gravitated toward the work of Heather Cantrell of John Kinkead Temporary; Heather had set up a fun studio set reminiscent of a plastic-treed jungle, and was taking large format portraits of fair-goers, patrons, and gallerists, to add to the work she had already made in LA. I appreciated the kind of non-didactic archive she was creating. Here's a picture of Heather at the fair.




















Last but certainly not least, I went to the opening of the Pool Art Fair at the Gershwin Hotel. This was a blast; Pool is comprised of artists representing themselves, and without the barrier of gallery representation, this was an anything-goes party. Each hotel room on 3 floors had been turned into a mini-gallery or installation, and there was everything from abstract paintings to crocheted pillows of scenes from S & M porn films!


I specifically was there to see my good friend and colleague Cat Del Buono. Cat is a very cool lady who is always examining the myriad facets of what it means to be a lady, or an Italian-American, or symmetrically featured---as a few of her investigations have looked at. As Cat had been in Miami for a while as part of an artist residency, she became fixated on the large fake breasts prominent on much of the population. Playing with the idea of boob job and femininity, Cat staged a performance piece with 2 other artists blowing up balloon 'breasts' and then once about a million balloons were inflated, the crowd got to help her pop them; destroy those fake boobs! Here's a picture of Cat with her performance troupe.


















And very last, here's a picture of my little sis at the Volta Fair. Thanks for humoring me, Vivi!