LISTE’s 12 Best Buys under $5,000

Zoë Paul, Speach Figures X, 2015

$4,500
The Breeder Gallery, Booth 0/8/1

This Royal College of Art graduate, who lives and works in Athens, has embellished a vintage fridge grill with wood and string to create a deconstructed avatar. Known principally for her sculpture, Paul draws on a range of influences, including Neoclassical art and the murals of ancient civilizations.

Aneta Grzeszykowska, “Selfie” series, 2014

$4,500
Raster, Booth 0/10/1

Grzeszykowska’s artwork deconstructs photography and its relationship to the self, using it to play out various artistic exercises. In this series of editions, she veers toward the grotesque, employing pigskin to model parts of her own body. The skin is in the process of decomposition, so it had to be photographed before it yellowed.

Benoît Maire, Cloud Painting, 2014

€4,000
Croy Nielsen, Booth 3/7/2

Frenchman Maire is known for developing work with other artists, philosophers, and even fictional characters, employing theory as an art form in itself. Arguably, there is no more straightforward figuration of the cerebral than these cloud images, a long-term theme employed in his practice.

Dani Gal, Untitled (Reality Estates: Fake Properties, Lifta), 2015

$4,500
Freymond-Guth, Booth 0/4/1

This Israeli artist, who lives and works in Berlin, here presents a blend of documentary work and archival material, focusing on the former Palestinian village of Lifta, whose population was driven out during the Arab-Jewish hostilities after the World War II. In doing so, the artist hopes to challenge preconceived motives and political interests.

Martin Kohout, Skinsmooth, Average Eyes, Yellow Shades, 2015

$2,800
Exile, Booth 0/8/3

In this archival inkjet print, Berlin-based Kohout has photographed discarded waste found during a walk in the Grunewald forest, continuing his interest in the accoutrements of industry and their relationship to productivity. Some of his best-known work, previously exhibited at Basel, includes Watching Martin Kohout (2010), a video recording of the artist every time he watches YouTube.

Jorge de León, Cristales, 2015

$1,300
Proyectos Ultravioleta, Booth 2/6/2

This young Guatemalan artist uses painting, drawing, and performance to investigate violence in urban areas. A former gang member, de León has created paint-on-sheet-metal pieces resembling bullet holes that morph into more elusive, organic forms.

Isidora Krstic, The Consequence of Decisions, 2012

$3,500

U10 Art Space, Booth 2/2/3 

This Belgrade exhibition space presents Serbian artist Krstic, whose work blends the cultures of art and science. Employing random painting and drafting techniques, she seeks to emulate the graphic aesthetic of a computerized drawing.

Nicola Gobbetto, Phantom Manor, 2004

$1,500
Galleria Fonti, Booth 2/2/1

This lambda print continues the Italian artist’s superimposition of glaring amendments to conventional landscapes, by erasing the identity of a series of royal castles from unknown locales. The bleached silhouettes represent the fantasy of unbuilt, imagined edifices at the end of a hero’s journey.

Sam Pulitzer, Untitled, 2013

$3,500

House of Gaga, Booth 3/1/1

This psychedelic colored pencil-on-paper work adapts the New York artist recent practice dwelling on the Carpenter Gothic architectural style. Here, he has tailored his efforts to what the gallery terms as “Europeans’ more authentically Gothic artisan heritages,” appropriate enough for a Swiss art fair. With its sepulchral imagery, the small piece resonates with the influence of Gothic literature.

Eugen Rosca, Purified to the Point of Sterility, 2014

$4,270
Plan B, Booth 0/9/3

Here this young Romanian painter, who lives and works in Cluj,  draws on expressionist influences, including Otto Dix, to blend the modern with the medieval. Exhibited as part of a triptych, this painting on wood juxtaposes surreal, poetical elements to create a “patchwork of overlapping components” according to the gallery.

Milena Bonilla, Noises (Eindhoven), 2010

$4,500

Mor Charpentier, Booth 2/5/1

Ideal for those who survey the art fair crowd as much as they do the work, these ink-on-paper works by the Colombian artist follow the gazes of pedestrians (and animals) in parks, airports, malls, and streets in various cities; the line follows the motion of the bystanders’ attention.

Travess Smalley, Vector Drawings With Spray Paint, 2015

$2,200

Galerie Andreas Huber, Booth 3/4/2