Sharon Zoldan, the founder of international art consultancy firm SZ Advisory, says she tends to source previews well in advance of the fairs to study up and tailor highlights for her clients.
For Zoldan last week in Miami, that meant focusing on three fairs: Art Basel in Miami Beach, UNTITLED, and NADA. “As it becomes more competitive to buy at the emerging price-point, my advice is to go with your gut,” she told Whitewall recently. “It also helps to go with an advisor who has the relationships in place to get you the best and the brightest work by leading emerging artists.”
Jana Schroder, Spontacts GO 9, 2017, courtesy of the artist and Nino Mier.
These are Zoldan’s picks for artists to watch from 2019’s Miami fairs.
Elaine Cameron-Weir presented by JTT at Art Basel in Miami Beach
This young Canadian artist based out of New York beautifully aestheticizes the mundane. Materials like brass, neon, leather, aluminum, and marble cater to a dystopian, futuristic, and simultaneously medieval influence; it’s a mesmerizing hybrid that veers on the edge of fetish.
Jordan Nassar, Jaffa Gate, 2019, courtesy of the artist and Anat Ebgi.
Jana Schröder presented by Nino Mier at UNTITLED
Schröder was the only female student in respected abstract painter Albert Oehlen’s final MFA class. There’s definite lineage in the gesture, and yet her paintings somehow have a more feminine feel. Her brushwork is lyrical with notes of Twombly in the action and movement. “My favorite body of work is her Spontacts series, where she uses the last remnants of carbon-copy pencil in the world,” Zoldan said. The medium has a very violet hue, which naturally fades to gray over time through exposure to sunlight. Zoldan also recently commissioned the artist to do a large-scale mural in the home of a client in Los Angeles. Zoldan affirms that the artist has both the appropriate pedigree and a unique voice that distinguishes her from contemporaries.
Sanam Khatibi presented by Rodolphe Janssen at Art Basel in Miami Beach
This self-taught, Belgian artist has been garnering attention with her large-scale, lush landscape paintings and tapestries. The mythical landscapes hark back to art history, replete with naked nymphs and bacchanal scenes of debauchery, slaughter, and murder. What grounds the work is the mystique, through disjointed narratives, or lack thereof.
Sanam Khatibi, I dreamed I stabbed you in the eye, 2019, courtesy of the artist and Rodolphe Janssen.
Rannva Kunoy presented by Nathalie Karg at UNTITLED
This London-based artist has been on Zoldan’s radar for about a year now. The paintings appear to possess a translucent, eerie quality—an iridescence that make the viewer contemplate material and process. She applies nearly 20 layers of crystal pigment-paint that shift in color. How she creates this exact effect eludes us.
Martín Soto Climent presented by Michael Benevento at NADA and Proyectos Monclova at Art Basel in Miami Beach
Based in Mexico, the artist works on an intimate scale, while pushing material in ways that are sexy and visceral. “I particularly love his web-like pieces that use hosiery to produce surreal sculptures, evocative of the body,” Zoldan said. They are interwoven between complicated layers of handmade wooden frames. The result is provocative and poetic.
Martin Soto Climent, Gossip (16), 2019, courtesy of the artist and Michael Benevento.
Jordan Nassar presented by Anat Ebgi at Art Basel in Miami Beach
While living and working in New York, much of Nassar’s work is rooted in his Palestinian upbringing. Through his process, Nassar employs the traditional embroidery techniques of his heritage to create vibrant contemporary compositions. Palestinian craftswomen produce the patterns with orthodox symbols and motifs, which are then enhanced by the artist with additions of landscape, infusing the works with an innately political focus. His complex pieces are both abstract and representational, while touching on ideas around history and community.
