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Artscope Magazine | March/April 2019

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News

Clockwise from top left: Alexandre Montoya, “The Choice,” oil on canvas, 51” x 39”, Peimbert Art; Cecile Plaisance, “Alex smoking burqa,” 2017, lenticular print, wood frame, 49” x 37”, Galerie K+Y; Bernard Rancillac, “Enfer Paradis,” acrylic on canvas, 90 ½” x 196 4/5”, Galerie Sebastien Adrien.

GUTSY, SUBTLE WORK ABOUNDED AT SCOPE: MIAMI ART WEEK 2018 PART THREE

// Art Basel Miami Beach, Artscope Online, News

by Nancy Nesvet

Miami Beach, FL - Scope, a satellite show during Miami Art Week showed brighter colors, more direct political messages, but still backgrounded the images with images of flora and fauna. Mirroring the Miami Beach vibe, gold, primary colors, flowers and greens dominated this fair, while the work clearly messaged rules were on hold, and all political bents were represented and questioned. French artist Jacques Bosser’s Argentic photograph on Cibachrome, “Wax Spirit (MOBA)” at Galerie Sebastien Adrien showed images of black Congolese President Kabila with an ivory-white woman between them in Congolese flowered dress and turban. The flower motif continues in French artist Bernard Rancillac’s “Enfer Paradis,” an acrylic on canvas shown by Galerie Sebastien Adrien. A central flower separates the worlds of fascists; Nazis, Osama bin Laden, and a church official consuming a human leg with … [Read more...] about GUTSY, SUBTLE WORK ABOUNDED AT SCOPE: MIAMI ART WEEK 2018 PART THREE

(Clockwise from top left) Keith Haring, “Amphora” (shown at Levy Gorvy); Andy Warhol, “Bald Eagle,” 1983, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 60” x 60” (shown by Edward Tyler Nahem); Oskar Schlemmer, “Sequence of Figures,” 1936-7 (shown by Galerie Thomas); Kehinde Wiley, “Portrait of Yvonne Osei,” 2018, oil on canvas, 60” x 48” (shown by SeanKellyNY).

A QUIETER CONVERSATION: ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH & MIAMI ART WEEK 2018: DAY TWO

// Art Basel Miami Beach, Artscope Online, News

by Nancy Nesvet

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2018 --- Day two at Art Basel was tame. You could sense the creativity behind the work. Less bombastic, less polarizing, more neutral in both color and subject. We have learned that there is a backlash to intense pontificating and know that a neutral stance is often required to quell the anger of a crowd or a nation. We saw nature expressed in depictions of animals, flora and fauna, of snow and grass. Tapestries and books reflected those codes. Keith Haring’s glass doors marked with a standing snake-like outline reaching python-like upwards, open mouth and tongue ready to strike. Haring’s work melded seemingly ancient patterns with eight panels of skulls, in muted blues and grays. One of his most interesting pieces was an amphora marked with symbols of technology such as telescopes, amid fish and bird drawings, held up by orange crocodiles. This sculpture, … [Read more...] about A QUIETER CONVERSATION: ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH & MIAMI ART WEEK 2018: DAY TWO

Nikolai and Simon Haas, “Ferngully,” at the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach.

ALTERNATIVE WORLDS AND ALTERNATIVE SPECIES: DAY ONE AT MIAMI ART WEEK AND ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2018

// Art Basel Miami Beach, Artscope Online, News, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

DECEMBER 4, 2018 --- The first stop on day one in Miami Beach for the art fairs and exhibitions was the Bass Museum of Art, where Los Angeles-based twins Nikolai and Simon Haas presented their installation, “Ferngully.” The environment evoking renewal and rebirth in altered physical states is inspired by the animate 1992 film, “FernGully: The Last Rainforest.” In that film, the fairy Krysta and the lumberjack Zak try to save their rainforest home from nature’s destructive forces. The beasts, Martian-like in their appearance, with antennae and eyes often on stalks, alternatively resemble worms and centipedes covered in sumptuous materials, including fur and beads. Icelandic sheepskin browns and whites, curly cow fur, brown goat fur, carved ebony and cast bronze recall prehistoric Animalia and minerals in these creatures of diverse personalities, sizes, genders and races, both human and … [Read more...] about ALTERNATIVE WORLDS AND ALTERNATIVE SPECIES: DAY ONE AT MIAMI ART WEEK AND ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2018

Jaco van Schalkwyk, “Nemora”, 2018, at the Volta Art Fair.

Day 1 Rainy Day in Basel at Volta and Liste

// Art Basel Switzerland, Artscope Online, News

by Nancy Nesvet

Rain or shine, and it did, Nancy Nesvet, intrepid Artscope writer, spent the first day in Basel before Art Basel opens at two satellite fairs, Volta and Liste. Both showed artists, and galleries reflecting subjects with the environment and social-political issues using codes to define and display nationhood. The socially concerned seemed to predominate at Liste and Volta. Another trend, at both shows, was a use of handcrafts and textiles, naturally obtained, challenging the hard-edged resin obsession of some artists. This emphasis on natural, locally-sourced materials and hand-made objects and sculpture differed from the technological at Art Basel’s installations, (where we’ll have more reports tomorrow on Artscope Online), and, more importantly, emphasized the connection between locally-sourced material and the from which it came. Local sourcing seems like a play to the definition of … [Read more...] about Day 1 Rainy Day in Basel at Volta and Liste

NYC Met New Admissions Policy

WHAT’S UP? NEW ADMISSIONS POLICY AT THE MET

// Artscope Online, News

by Nancy Nesvet

NEW YORK CITY -- On March 1, the Metropolitan Museum of Art instituted an admission fee for the first time since its April 13, 1870 founding. It was a sad day for art, art lovers and those not yet aware of how enjoyable the art experience can be. Numerous artists, including Ai Wei Wei, have vociferously objected to the new policy, but let us examine the reasons for the change, the possible financial success of the new policy, based on other museums’ experience of charging admission, the legality of the new policy and the social change the new policy might affect. The New York State Legislature amended its April 13, 1870 Act chartering the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art with the 1893 Act, Chapter 476, which required that its collections “shall be kept open and accessible to the public free of charge throughout the year.” The Met’s board has apparently defined the public as … [Read more...] about WHAT’S UP? NEW ADMISSIONS POLICY AT THE MET

THE BUSINESS OF ART: ART FREE FOR ALL

// Artscope Online, News, Theatre, Visual Arts

By Nancy Nesvet Okay, so now we acknowledge that the world of art is tied to economics. Only the Venice Biennale and other recent exhibitions after that model survive to showcase the best of new art not for sale or created with economic appreciation in mind, only the other kind. There is no shame in admitting people buy art to hang on their walls while also hoping the work goes up in value; that supports galleries who pay artists, a noble and necessary employment. The art fairs are a great venue for creating an art marketplace for collectors to buy and galleries to sell. But let’s acknowledge the distinction between and value of art fairs for fun and profit and the Biennales, Documentas and other not for sale art venues. That value was recognized until the recent economic debacle of Documenta 14 at Kassel and Athens. Not only did Documenta 14 lose millions of euros, but the loss … [Read more...] about THE BUSINESS OF ART: ART FREE FOR ALL