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! Markthalle's cupola dome frames VOLTA10's decade edition in Basel ! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT Brian Fee [email protected] VOLTA10 Basel June 16-21, 2014 BASEL, JUNE 23, 2014: VOLTA10 set the gold standard in the 2014 Basel art week, formulating an ideal ratio of emerging and established artistic talent and presenting the 70- gallery array within a renowned local landmark. Markthalle's central location created a noticeable bump in visitor numbers, as guests passed under the soaring cupola dome, engaging with the art on view and discovering compelling – and covetable – creative output beyond the usual art-world trends. "The three rules of a successful business have always been: location, location, location... and this year proved it for us," said VOLTA Artistic Director Amanda Coulson. "With the confirmation of the return to Markthalle, coinciding with our tenth year, we secured the return of key anchor galleries, and with such a strong foundation, we were able to construct a better fair, one that was easy to reach and therefore a must-see for most of the major collectors at Art Basel Week." Private collectors and public institutions alike were attracted to VOLTA10's plethora of cogent projects. Patrick Mikhail Gallery (Ottawa) took a bold move by enveloping their booth in the immersive mixed-media project Animate Grounds by young Brooklyn- and Quebec-based artist Amy Schissel, a year's worth of output distilled into a wildly abstract wall work, plus related abstract paintings and digital media. Beyond sales of the more portable works, the gallery generated green-lights toward two major commissions, one for the Warsaw branch of a Washington architecture firm, and the other to a Toronto bank, for a combined total of over $130,000. "This wouldn't have happened at home," commented Mikhail. "And here, it happens like this." He snapped his fingers. "Our experience here has a yearlong affect for us back in Canada. It's epic." Ron Mandos (of his namesake Amsterdam gallery) noted major interest in Peter Feiler, moving eight of the young Berlin-based artist's meticulous and macabre works on paper to collectors from New York and Germany, as well as attraction from a Dutch museum in Feiler's pièce de résistance, the 4.6 x 3 meter mural Omnes Redeunt ad Origines. Whatiftheworld (Cape Town) practically sold out their solo project of young South African artist Athi-Patra Ruga's latest output, moving four of his archival inkjet prints (three small-scale and one extra-large), plus two of his monumental and vibrantly colorful figurative tapestries, for approximately 50,000 EUR total. As well, gallery director Ashleigh Mclean clocked major museum exhibition interest for Ruga, including a private New York foundation, as well as an Israeli collector pursuing Ruga's largest work to date, a 5-meter-square tapestry still in progress in the artist's studio. Ashleigh Mclean, director of Whatiftheworld (Cape Town) engages a client in front of Athi-Patra Ruga's monumental tapestry The Versatile Queen and Autocrat of all Azania Coherent booth concepts and curation indicative of gallery platforms reflected both rewarding discoveries and sustained sales throughout the week. "We have a well-defined program, a relationship between society and art," said Miguel Angel Sánchez, director of adn galería (Barcelona). "So in that sense it's a peculiar program, but in the end it helps us differentiate from the rest." The gallery sold multiple works in various mediums from exhibiting artists Carlos Aires, Marcos Ávila Forero, Adrian Melis, and Eugenio Merino to an international audience, with much of that going to new clients. Meanwhile, Laura Bulian Gallery's (Milan) focus on Eurasian artists, particularly the dual-generational dialogue between Vyacheslav Akhunov's '70s era Socialist criticism and Alimjan Jorobaev's post-Soviet photography. "It's a different narration of the same story," commented Bulian, "and people immediately recognized this." The gallery sold three of Akhunov's deconstructed propagandist works on paper to a Spanish collector residing in Moscow and another to a collector from Chicago, plus the gallery noted interest on both artists from new clients of Swiss and American foundations. Galerie Mario Mazzoli's (Berlin) booth attracted crowds to Kristoffer Myskja's intricate machine sculptures since opening day, and owner Mazzoli noted the many new contacts who came through the fair: "We do something very different and not everyone gets that. But the ones who do, they get hooked on us." "At the beginning we were aware visitors were maybe not familiar with Ukrainian artists," commented Kateryna Filyuk of Dymchuk Gallery (Kiev). "So our first thing was to make them visible and familiar to people versus simply selling works. First we educate." Her three-artist presentation of Arsen Savadov, Vasiliy Tsagolov, and Igor Gusev – all sociopolitical modernist mainstays in Ukraine whom participated in Contemporary Ukrainian Artists at Saatchi London last autumn – encouraged dialogue from fair visitors throughout the week. "I'm absolutely satisfied with the fair," Filyuk added, noting the international scope at VOLTA: "Here, I can see what's going on in the world." Dymchuk's presence as one of Basel's only post-Soviet galleries emphasized this distinction. Both TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY's (Osaka) ambitious booth project – Tomohiro Kato's true-to-scale, all-steel Japanese tea-room TETTEI – and the tea ceremonies held within the Taro Okamoto award-winning installation throughout the first half of the fair, incurred many great reactions from inquisitive visitors and institutional figures alike. Along with selling several steel and spraypaint paintings, the gallery plans to stage Kato's tea-room in London next Spring. Speaking of their solo focus on Frohawk Two Feathers' vintaged figurative works on paper from his ongoing Frenglish series on colonialism and conflict, Kelly Freeman of Morgan Lehman Gallery (New York) noted "our project is 'different', and we know that." Considering the gallery's weeklong sales, she elaborated, VOLTA's platform helped the gallery in closing deals with noncommittal New York clientele: "They were like, 'oh you're bringing Frohawk to Basel?' and they closed the deal." The gallery directed new clients to their artist's activities as well, which Freeman enthused about: "a lot of our goals had to do with relationships, and new opportunities for Frohawk in Europe. So we've crossed off most of our goals in terms of marketing." She added, "we loved it! We're coming back!" Tomohiro Kato (left, showing with TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY, Osaka) and officiant Momoko Tsujimoto lead a traditional Japanese tea ceremony within Kato's steel tea-room installation TETTEI Markthalle itself – its city-centre status and iconic domed cupola – activated projects and generated much attention as backdrop to the 70 international exhibitors on view. From opening day, Stijn Ank's site-specific sculpture 08.2014, a plaster-cast monolith in craggy white presented by Michael Janssen (Berlin/Singapore), caught both the days' cyclical sunlight through the Markthalle skylight and attraction from many fair visitors, complementing the gallery's sublime and minimalist 2D works by Monique van Genderen and Jeremy Sharma. Jesper Elg, director of veteran VOLTA exhibitor V1 Gallery (Copenhagen), also sensed the magic of the new location, which will house the fair for at least the next few years. "The location is fantastic! With all the natural light, it couldn't be more ideal." Elg noted clients purchased from multiple artists, with Geoff McFetridge selling particularly briskly, and a dozen ceramic sculptures by Rose Eken heading to different clients, along with Troels Carlsen's entire elaborate works on paper series of art-historic women to the 21c Museum. "We've had such a positive response," added Elg. "For collectors seeing our different gallery artists in this context" -- under the gallery's ensemble concept "Gimme Death" by Trash Talk -- "generates attention to each of them." He noted much institutional interest in young Swedish artist Sara-Vide Ericsson, as well toward her debut solo gallery show after the summer holiday. Longtime and first-time galleries alike enthused about the return to Markthalle. David Risley (of his eponymous Copenhagen gallery) has participated in the fair since its inception, and his point-of-view on the week carried a profound wisdom: "Almost everything is better," he said, "the galleries overall, the venue, and the location." He sold well, from a booth of new works featuring both 2002 Turner Prize winner Keith Tyson (subject of an autumn exhibition at the gallery) to young Philadelphia-based artist Alex Da Corte. New to the VOLTA fold, Honor Fraser (of her namesake Los Angeles space) agreed: "People look forward to coming to this space because of its space." Her booth presentation, centered around a dynamic suite of new assemblages by Brenna Youngblood, received consistent traffic throughout the week with sales to match. "The community aspect is notable," Fraser added, "and this VOLTA community is very strong." Cumulative sales greeted galleries as the week concluded. SLAG Gallery (Brooklyn) sold all three of Romanian artist Dan Voinea's large-scale sumptuous oil paintings by midweek (plus another fresh from the studio and available as image only), plus two of Brooklynite Tim Kent's abstracted architecture paintings and a realist work by Hannah Cole for approximately 50,000 EUR in total sales. Miriam Jesske of VOLTA co-founder Loock Galerie (Berlin) noted huge interest in Jonathan VanDyke's composed overdyed canvas patchworks, as well as pigment print documentation of his intense paint-related performances -- all of which sold to an international clientele. Jesske added that collectors were all mistaking Natalia Stachon's photorealist drawings for actual black-and-white photographs, though that did not stymie them from purchasing Stachon's entire output from her series Study for History of Aberrations.