Modern Art Obsession

Summer Break ! MAO is Taking Some Time Off ... Be Back in Sept.

Summer Break ! MAO is Taking Some Time Off ...Be Back in Sept.

OK.. so it's summer.. and MAO is taking a badly needed vacation.

  We'll be back in September.. with more snarky thoughts on the NYC ART world.. and plenty of great images to explore..

So.. Enjoy!

(Photo #1, by

Steve Ryf Wake (2010)
Digital chromogenic print
13 x 19"
Signed, titled and dated on verso
Edition of 10
$350.00)

This photo is courtesy of the Bonni Benrubi Gallery... Summer Place Show.. it's one gallery well worth checking out.

 

Art Miami 2009.. VIP Opening Night! A Nice Big Crowd...

Art Miami.. VIP Opening Night! A Nice Big Crowd...

So.. MAO and the MAO-ettes were doing the elite Miami Art Basel circuit party thing last night.

Last night was the posh VIP opening of 2 of the long time fairs.. Art Miami, and Design Miami.

We went to both of course.

Both were buzzing.. with people... lots of people!

So we guess the nights were successful for the art dealers....we shall see how today's main fair opening goes!

As for the Art Miami Fair.. we have to say.. we were all a bit disappointed by the galleries at this fair.

We herd one person say.. There's Lot's of "Decorative Work" being shown here at Art Miami.  FYI.. that's Art Snob code for terrible mall art!  But we did notice several dealers were showing only older not so interesting secondary work.

For us the standout booths of the fair were the Stux Gallery booth.. and the Amador Gallery booth. Congrats!

Both took a chance brought some new contemporary work by New Artists we hadn't seen before.. 

From the Amador Gallery...

Robert Voit (these are a series of photographs of Cell Tower that are made to look like "Natural Trees")

Photo #1 By Robert Voit.

HALFWAY GARDENS, MIDRAND SOUTH AFRICA   2006

24" X 20" Edition of   4

60" x 50" Edition of   6

Type C Print

These images were all very cool.. a little Ed Ruscha.. and a little Karl Blossfeldt.. but updated for the year 2009.

From the Stux Gallery..

We liked the new works by Don Porcella, and photos from Rudd Van Empel..

Here's one example of Don's work.. (Not in the Miami booth)

..but our pics of his work didn't come out well enough to post..

He made scuplture out of pipe cleaners..

But you will get the idea..

Photo #2,

work by Don Porcella, "Dealer, 2006", Pipe cleaners, 10 x 7 x 1.5 inches

It looked like works were selling.. we saw red dots!!

Which might be a good sign for what's to come the rest of the week!

Anyway..MAO has to get ready for the Big ABMB opening!!

So catch you later....coming to you from Miami SoBe.

Photos from Venice..and the Biennale..

Some Photos from Venice..and the Biennale.. YES.. as most readers correctly guessed.. MAO and the Quizling went to Venice Italy for a quick summer vacation!

VeniceBiennale entrance by John Baldessari.

So not only was Venice amazing to see.. but we got to see the 53rd Biennale!! 

There was almost too much art to even blog about.. but here are some of the high points from one day's art walk in Venice.

Photo #1 - Actually this is the Entrance to the "Making Worlds" show curated by Daniel Birnbaum at the Giardini.

The following photos (Taken by MAO)

are all works presented at this one exhibition hall at the Giardini which was about half of the curated "Non-National Pavilion" show.

Photo #2 - Tomas Saraceno

Galaxy Forming along Filaments, like Droplets along the Strands of a Spider's. It filled the entire room probably roughly..a  30 feet by 30 feet cube installation.

Photo #3 Wolfgang Tillmans, An entire room of his photos. Wolfgang, was one of the only photographers to be included into this years Biennale.

Photo #4 work by Richard Wentworth.

A new artist to MAO, Richard had 2 sculptural  installations where he's separated familiar objects from their normal surroundings and placed then into new constellations. Quite whimsical!

This work was titled.. False Ceiling.

Photo #5 Spencer Finch.

This was one of 3 works Spencer Finch had included into the Biennale.

I think this one work attempts to recreates candle light as observed by Spencer.

Photo #6 Rachel Khedoori

This Sculpture recreates a labyrinthine cave tunnel system...in miniature plaster. We think this work was just titled "Cave" but not 100% sure.

Photo #7 work by Simon Starling

A film and sculpture.. titled.. Wilhem Noack oHG. This photo MAo took was just a picture of the "projector" which was showing a film about a company of metal fabricators in Germany.