A fun-spirited and witty commentary on collecting stood out at Context and Art Miami last week, presented by galleries and specially curated projects.
Anna Kustera Gallery, NY gave a solo booth toARTPAK, an elaborate hoax commentary on the shopping experience of the fair. Artist Donald McCaw and his girlfriend never broke character as they perform as a business duo who have figured out a lucrative art scheme–having factory workers produce a series of color matched painting sets, responding to design consultants market research (the artist in drag), ready to hang and packaged in a Warhol Brillo-inspired box.
Anna Kustera Gallery, NY gave a solo booth to ARTPAK
At Beatriz Esguerra Arte, Bogota, Elsa Zambrano’s reproduced art history (Ai Weiwei, Man Ray, etc.) with wall-mounted boxes filled with postcards and gift store objects, commenting on collecting and providing a mechanism to possess unattainable masterpieces by making them ordinary pieces of mass consumption.
The collaborative Böhler & Orendt’s ongoing performance, presented by Galerie Anita Beckers in the Hot Spots section curated by LaRete Art Projects, portrayed a fictitious secret society–evidenced by the three hooded artists who practice their devotion to the idea of exponential increase by non-stop production of colorful idols.
collaborative Böhler & Orendt’s ongoing performance, presented by Galerie Anita Beckers in the Hot Spots curated section
And Emeka Ogboh’s abridged sound piece Oshodi Stock Exchange captured the sounds of hawkers selling their wares in a hustling and bustling Lagos bus station, paralleling the unique internal dynamics of street and art markets. Ogboh’s work was presented in the new Sound Positions Pavilion at Context, curated by Julian Navarro, featuring 12 individual sound stations in a circular format, with works by artists from the U.S., Norway, Nigeria, Uruguay and more. Richard Garet, Steve Roden, Kristin Oppenheim, and more, explored the spatial and emotional nature of sound and provided much needed moments of Zen to recharge from art fair fatigue.
