My Highlights from PULSE Miami Beach 2014
Visiting an artist’s studio and spending time in a solo show at a gallery are my two favorite ways to collect art. I think that may be called “old school” these days, but these art viewing experiences give me a full picture of an artist’s work and intention. With little time to visit all of the galleries and studios I’d like, I fully appreciate art fairs and the internet for providing an opportunity to see many artists in one place at one time. I use art fairs and the internet to discover new artists and to catch up with artists I have collected in the past. This selection represents this; I have included some artists I am just now discovering and some artists who have been on my radar and I’m anxious to collect or re-collect. This selection also reflects my broad personal collecting interests in both media and meaning. Enjoy! My Selection:
Bovey Lee, Grounded, 2014, at Rena Bransten Gallery
Bovey Lee draws with a knife. In this work, she exquisitely explores the tension between man and nature—how our actions affect nature and how nature, in turn, affects us.
Tom Fruin, FLAG: FARRAGUT HOUSES, 2013, at Paul Loya Gallery
I am a big fan of Tom Fruin’s large outdoor sculptures. He uses found plexiglass and steel to create “stained-glass” structures. I get to see his Watertower sculpture every time I cross the Manhattan Bridge. These smaller indoor sculptures using found drug bags are a way for me to bring what I love about his public works closer to home.
Mia Rosenthal, After Hubble Telescope: Ultra Deep Field, 2014, at Gallery Joe
Genuine, obsessive, beautifully executed mark-making. The great unknown captured in the taken for granted; dark matter in pen and ink.
Naomi Reis, Borrowed Landscape (Tropics of Africa, Asia and the Amazon via Brooklyn II), 2014, at Mixed Greens
What appears to be a view into a tropical rainforest is actually a staged, cropped-in view of botanical conservatories in Brooklyn. Naomi Reis’s work pokes at our assumptions of real and fake, natural and manufactured, native and foreign.
Ken Matsubara, Paper in the Wind, 2014, at MA2Gallery
I love finding video work that can be shown in personal space as well as gallery space. Ken Matsubara’s work captures my interest with its everyday object quality and then hooks me with the dreamlike and nostalgia-evoking videos.
Erwin Olaf, Keyhole Series, 2011, at Galerie Wagner + Partner
I love the painterly precision in Erwin Olaf’s work. I am transported out of the present and into the worlds he creates, often making me feel like I am going back in time.
Susie Ganch, Pile: Starbucks on Robinson, April–December 2012, 2013-2014, at Sienna Patti Contemporary
Nine months of discarded Starbucks trash repurposed as art. An ugly reminder beautifully executed.
Faig Ahmed, Restraint, 2013, at Beers Contemporary
Faig Ahmed challenges my assumptions of culture and craft by disassembling traditional Azerbaijani rugs and then reconstructing them in a contemporary composition using the original material.
