The Zoo Art Fair Awards!

by Art Fag City on October 16, 2009 · 2 comments Events

POST BY PADDY JOHNSON

The Zoo Fair Entrance, all photos AFC

“The Zoo Fair is a little like Liste,” The Armory Show’s Production Manager Michael Hall told me last night. Hall didn’t attach much judgment to the statement, but as someone who’s complained bitterly about practically requiring special health insurance to even visit Liste’s location, I can’t say I think that’s a good thing. Fairs aren’t exactly the best environment to view art in the first place, I don’t see why the wobbly floors of a warehouse would do anything but detract from the art.

In any event, as far as I’m concerned both Zoo and Liste are completely overrated fairs. Sure,  they have a few good galleries, but who wants to wade through all the shit art to get to the work that’s not? It’s simply not a good exhibition model (if it were ever one to begin with).

As per usual, I’ve compiled a few fair highlights and lowlights. Let the award ceremony begin!

BEST IN SHOW


Jack Strange, Installation view, Maribel Lopez Gallery Booth C5

It’s tempting to describe Jack Strange’s work as understated or built from the banal, but neither seems precise enough. Typically though, his work is a result of simple gestures. Amongst the strongest work, a series of hand drawn leaf drawings on printer paper hang to the right of the gallery. Various arrangements of the word “the” comprise one drawing — a visual document of all the mistypes one has likely executed. Another is made with the word “concentrate.”

On a coffee table in the center of the booth sits a light bulb, lighter, coffee mug, Kleenex box and trucker hat inscribed with the words “Memory is Hunger.” The text refers to the contemporary desire for memory, a lost phenomenon in an age in which everything can be archived. After all, memory only works because it is fallible — it’s a natural means of selection — and as Cory Arcangel once noted in 2000, “All data is created equal.”  Today the trucker hat of 2009 is just as important as it was in 2000, or in 1995, or in 1990.


Jack Strange, title unknown, 2009, pen on paper, Maribel Lopez Gallery Booth C5


Jack Strange, title unknown, 2009, mixed media, Maribel Lopez Gallery Booth C5

BEST FAIR SECTION – ZOO EDITIONS


The ICA Print booth

Those looking to find the best non-crap to crap ratio at Zoo will find it in the Editions portion of the fair. Prints and editions by artists such as Matthew Brennan, Graham Gussin, and Mark Leckey all stand out. In particular, the ICA’s print booth caught our attention, though the fair was so full yesterday, we weren’t able to get a good installation shot.  We did, however, manage to shoot a close-up of this elegant Mark Leckey below.


Mark Leckey at the ICA Booth at The Zoo Fair

AWARD FOR BEST USE OF POLICE TAPE CAMOUFLAGE IN ART


Artist unknown, spotted in the film and installation section of the Zoo Art Fair

Are severed hands best painted to match police tape as this will obscure an unseen gruesome narrative? In this case, the story involves a woven sphere just outside the frame of this shot. We’re not sure what said ball represents — perhaps the earth — but if this sculpture tells us anything, it’s that world can’t be grasped by hands camouflaged in yellow and black.

ART WORK MOST LIKELY TO RECEIVE THE NEXT NOBEL PEACE PRICE


Ichiro Endo, at Hariko Ito/Magical Art Room, Section C3

We like Barack Obama and all, but surely had the Peace Prize people known about the Magical Art Room, Ichiro Endo would have given him a run for his money. This art work seeks to bring art viewers together into a sharing world of loveliness, through a graffiti inviting banner. One viewer really took this to heart, sharing their password below with the world. Use that information wisely people!


Ichiro Endo, at Hariko Ito/Magical Art Room, Section C3

BEST/WORST ART INFLATABLE


Maciej Kurak at Lokal_30, Section C3

Jeff Koons inflatables need to step aside for 2,5 m3 of artistic atmosphere! (Whatever that means.) Watch a bag full of air inflate and deflate every few minutes with the help of some sort of air pump. Contemporary art at its most vapid.

{ 2 comments }

Maribel Lopez October 17, 2009 at 9:53 pm

Dear friends,nthank you very very much for your award! we are very proud. I just need to clarify that the artists present in our booth are:nnGabriel Acevedo Velarde (video)nLight Centre (table with objects)nRuben Grilo (drawings and confetti)nFrancesc Ruiz (wall paper)nJack Strange (drawings)nnJack Strange’s work are the text drawings “Moon, Finger, Time”; the table, with the title “Night Stand” is a work by Light Centre.nnMaribel

Maribel Lopez October 17, 2009 at 5:53 pm

Dear friends,\nthank you very very much for your award! we are very proud. I just need to clarify that the artists present in our booth are:\n\nGabriel Acevedo Velarde (video)\nLight Centre (table with objects)\nRuben Grilo (drawings and confetti)\nFrancesc Ruiz (wall paper)\nJack Strange (drawings)\n\nJack Strange’s work are the text drawings “Moon, Finger, Time”; the table, with the title “Night Stand” is a work by Light Centre.\n\nMaribel

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