NADA ART FAIR MIAMI 2009: INTERVIEWS BY INDIRA CESARINE
NADA or New Art Dealers Alliance Art Fair is a not-for-profit collective of professionals working with contemporary art. Founded in 2002, NADA strives to create an open flow of information support and collaboration within the art world and believes it can change the adversarial approach to exhibiting and selling art by fostering constructive dialogue between all the points in the art industry. Boasting a group of members ranging from galleries to individuals (gallery directors, curators, and art professionals), NADA brings varied ideas and perspectives offered by the diverse network of members and essentially creates a resource from which people can contribute to and take as much information from. The annual art fair is held in Miami in December and is free and open to the public.
XXXX Magazine’s Creative Director, Indira Cesarine, presents exclusive interviews with some of the up and coming artists and gallerists at the NADA fair in December 2009, such as David Hendren, who featured his first solo exhibition presented by KIM LIGHT/LIGHTBOX from Los Angeles. “Yours Automatic” is an installation of abstract, wall-hanging sculptures that irrationally orders space into fragmented, expanding compartments, defined by luminous strokes of fluorescent lighting. The modular building system is designed not to develop rationally-planned, functional objects but to expose potential connections to other parts.
Risa Needleman of the Invisible Exports Gallery located in the lower east side of New York gave us a look at the gallery’s solo exhibition of maximalist artist Paul Gabrielli. Similar to the style of the Dada artists, Gabrielli combines both ready made pieces and found objects that he alters to create unique sculpture pieces that are transformed into comprehensive systems. By playing on the juxtaposition of objects you would never normally find placed together, Gabrielli wants us to take a second look and see if maybe they even hold a second identity.
Rupert Pfab of Galerie Rupert Pfab was kind enough to give us a bit of insight about the featured drawings from artist Sandra Vasquez de la Horra. Originally from Chile, Sandra finds much of her inspirations from her complex childhood experiences with latin american catholicism and the fairy tales and fables of South American Indians. She presents a wonderland of strange beings and creatures in dark yet humorous portrayals. Preferring to work with aged and antique papers; Vasquez completes each of her drawings with a signature dip in wax, acting as a type of sealant for each piece. You can view this up and coming artists drawings at the Galerie Rupert Pfab in Dusselldorf, Germany.
Scott Zieher of ZieherSmith gallery based out of New York showed us the work of Parisian artist Stephane Calais. Titled “Pleiades”, the artist created eighteen pulsing silkscreen portraits of “Famous” men that existed in a time range of three centuries. His use of layering the silk screens portrays these men in an almost illegible manner, so your not quite sure if it’s a tribute or if it’s a type of mockery of their identity and power.
Stephan Stoyanov of the Stephan Stoyanov Gallery in the lower east side of New York gave us insight into the newest work by well known artist Ellen Harvey “The Room of Sublime Wallpaper”. Her innovative installation work featured a room wallpapered in newspaper containing a salon-style hanging of glowing landscape paintings that give the impression that they are moving as the viewer approaches them. Only upon entering the room was it apparent that the paintings were actually angled mirrors reflecting hidden painted walls within the room thus shattering the illusion. The installation piece is part of a larger series titled “The museum of Failure” and is comprised of several rooms available for viewing at the Stephan Stoyanov Gallery.
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INTERVIEWS by INDIRA CESARINE
VIDEO EDIT by JOHN PAUL ZUVIATE
TEXT by KATIE THURBER
