Art Fairs Newspaper

Art FAirs internAtionAl newspAper 2012

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ART FAIRS INTERNATIONALA BRIDGE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST ©2013 ART FAIRS INTERNATIONAL NEWSPAPER NEW YORK, Issue #18 Spring 2013 Presented by

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Featured Stories

Justin Mortimer, Resort to Nightfall, P. 2Hye Ja Moon’s Dynamic Breath, P. 3Luisa Jacobacci: New Visions, P. 5Kristians Brekte’s Dark Art, P. 6Gerald Cournoyer: Bridging the Gap, P. 7Francesco Siclari: A Natural World, P. 8Mara Algethi’s Intense Color, P. 11Erwin Wuk Supernatural Presence, P. 12

Fresh Faces Emerge at VOLTA

Show

Art Toronto’s Big Break

Art Toronto, now in its 13th year ap-pears like as a fair to watch. The fair was held at the Metro Convention Center Oct 26-29. In keeping with past fairs, the opening night preview was filled with mostly Canadian gal-leries sprinkled with a few U.K. Latin American and U.S. spaces. Yet this year, Toronto’s scene stepped up its game with FOCUS ASIA. FOCUS ASIA was curated by managing editor of Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Zheng Shengtian and independent cura-tor, Katherine Don. The two selected

14 galleries to participate culling from India, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and more. Greeting visitors at the foot of the stairs was Rirkrit Tiravanija’s Untitled 2008-2011 (the map of the land of feeling). Tiravanija, by now widely known as the forerunner of relational aesthetics, usu-ally creates ephemeral, participatory pieces with larger social and political aims. So it was surprise to see the art-ist create a monumental 84 ft long pa-per work made of single sheets of paper butted up end to end. This autobio-graphical work traces the artist’s vari-

The Armory ShowVolta NYADAA Art ShowFountain,IndependentNew City Art FairPooL Art FairSCOPE Spring Break Art Fair

VOLTA show is a platform for pre-senting the vision of contemporary art galleries whose artists represent new ideas and concepts, relevant for curators, collectors, and viewers alike. The galleries are selected by an an-nually changing Curatorial Board, a group of curators, art critics, and gal-leries. This changing Curatorial Board attempts to give each VOLTA edition a fresh feeling, and its own clear iden-tity, while also redirecting focus back on the art producers as well as the representing galleries. Conceived to bridge a gap between Basel’s preex-isting fairs, VOLTA showcases galler-ies, both new and old, that present the most exciting emerging artists.

Frieze: All Cut Up

Founded in 1984, KunstRai is the old-est contemporary art fair in the Neth-erlands. It aims to present a broad overview of recent developments in the Dutch art and design scene, as well as highlighting foreign artists. Many participants are recruited from the professional art world. A selection committee exist-ing of Piet de Jonge, former (head) conservator of the Van Abbe muse-um, Kröller Müller musem and mu-seum Boijmans van Beuningen; Pe-ter Fransman. Director Museum Het Domein in Sittard and Harry Tupan, conservator contemporary art of the Drents Museum, judges the partici-pants on quality.

KunstRai: The Dutch Tradition

Initiated in 2006, the Art Beijing has, over its seven years of development, evolved into one of China’s most in-fluential art fairs. Since 2012 when Art Beijing integrated the “Art Beijing Contemporary Art Fair” held each April and the “Art Beijing Fine Art Fair” held each September, the Art Beijing has grown significantly in scale. Since this integration of the two fairs, the Art Beijing has made a num-ber of new breakthroughs, creating a new milestone for China’s art fair, as well as ushering in a new era for Art Beijing. During this stage of swift yet sound development, Art Beijing con-tinues to shoulder new responsibilities as a key player in the development of China’s art market. Art Beijing spares no effort in driving forward the devel-opment of China’s art market and art education programs. According to data released by the Art Market Research Center (AMRC) of Central Academy of Fine Arts, the four-day 2012 Art Beijing Fair’s 20,000 sq meter exhibition area brought together 160 exhibitors and an audience of 52,000. Moreover, 90% of exhibitors recorded transactions, and the total transaction amount and pe-ripheral economic benefit approached RMB 300 million.*

Art Beijing 2013: China’s Most

Influential Fair

Lizz StringfieldMaz JacksonJulieta BarderiFederika PonnettiMaria Malo-MolinaKarni DorellAnna VanMatreMarcelo LinessFrancois GeffrayMIchel ColletKaori MiyamaCosimo Di Leo RicattoHarlan MackRaina BenoitJennifer BerklichCarrie WaldmanMaartje FolkeringaWalham StoneKate DambachKarla Vizcarra & Ernest ConcepcionHeidemarie KullAndrea MorucchioDorin BabaSamwell SmithVadana JainJuani PaulovskyNura PetrovKurt NaharS.WilsonKeith MorantMichael DoppValentina CambiasoGunilla OlenburgSaskia di BrauwPricilla de LimaDirk Jan JagerHansen Thiam SunMichael D WatsonNatalija Ribouli

Michel BeaucageFabio BiancAirco CaravanAmy Cohen BankerAnna Maria GrillBorislav VaradinovBoris TorresDavyd WhaleyDavor VukovicDimitri DrJuchinDonna ButnikEd MorrisEnzo FabbianoFabricio SuarezFélix BiblosJasnica Klara MaticJenni LombardiJean S. Godfrin Loretta HirschMae JeonMaria Eugene Z. AniarMartin R. WohlwendMary Lee LombardNacera GuerinPari RavanElizabeth ColombaElizabeth UyeharaEmily LeathermanGerry MayerGina LuciaHoracio CardozoHans TyrrestrupInger Dillian AntonsenJuan ValletJamie SunwooJohnathan LuxKamer BatiogluKen BonnerKaren BrailovskyKeita Yasukawa

[CONTINUES ON PAGE ?]

ARMORY WEEK FAIRS

ON PAGE2Participating Artists

MAY FAIRSPULSE | Frieze | NADA | Verge

Art Brussels Gets a New Face

Art Brussels has the reputation of being Europe’s leading cutting-edge contem-porary art fair. A must-see event for ev-ery art lover! This year Art Brussels has a new design and scenography, con-ceived by the young Belgian designer Tom Mares in collaboration with Walt van Beek. Mares was selected among a shortlist of several leading and upcom-ing Belgian architects and designers. Mares’ concept for Art Brussels 2013 is to create an Art City. Upon arrival at the fair, visitors will go through an airport-style check-in lobby before entering the fair. At that point, the journey in the Art City begins. Colourful ground marks, will lead people to their destination. The Cinema, The Stage, and First Call Square are landmarks visible from a dis-tance. These landmarks are subtle links helping visitors to find their way back or through an area. Visitors will expe-rience different atmospheres similar to the diversity of a city. Different places of rest, social interaction, and orientation points will be discovered.*

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FRIEZE: All Cut Up

Crowded. This is maybe the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of an art fair. For sure, that “crowded” be-came a more real, tangible sensation during Frieze London 2012, whose his-torical tent in Reagent’s Park, London, became one of many to visit this year. For the first time, the attendees had to visit another fair within the fair, located at the north of the park, called Frieze Masters, a new-born sister event which featured art made before 2000. Such a double-fairs effect seemed to produce more confusion than to effectively chal-lenge the notion of Master, as Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp, directors of the fair, intended to do. And this con-fusion came not only from the visitors, but also from dealers and collectors themselves, whose reactions to the big news of the year are quite ambivalent. Belgian collector Mimi Dusseldorf said about Frieze Masters: “It was like look-ing at museum pieces. It’s better for me here as I am looking for contemporary art. But it was worth seeing than buy-ing.” Alongside, British collector Da-vid Roberts admitted: “There are great things at Frieze Master, but I am not so sure the crossover buying concept will work. I can see that someone who buys contemporary art would buy a 1960 Yves Klein, but I am not so sure they will buy a 16th century work”. In addition, visitors had extra subsections in each fair to wrap their heads around. Frieze Master contained Spotlight, a section of solo shows of artists from the 20th century. Frieze London included Frame,

solo-artists projects at galleries under six-years old, and Focus, an export from Frieze New York’s first edition dedicated to galleries that have been around since 2001. The distinctiveness of the sections, one located at the north of the main structure and the other at the south, was also the result of a different curatorial advise- the other big news of this tenth edition. While Slotover and Sharp co-di-rected the glorious whole of the main fair, which counts 175 participating galleries, Jo Stella Sawicka had been called to or-ganize the 20 galleries at Focus and the 21 galleries at Frame separately. To tell the truth, architectural accura-cy enjoyed in New York was missed last May, where the snake-shaped tent de-signed by the Solid Objectives–Idenburg Liu (SO-IL)–ensured a proper space for so many galleries and such an atten-dance, with much more breath for the art itself. The temporary structure de-signed by architects Carmody Groarke was maybe too basic to house the im-mense new apparatus that was Frieze, this monumentality being not only in the numbers of the galleries and proj-ects, but in the artworks themselves. Most of those artworks were signed by major names including Paul McCarthy, Sarah Sze, Thomas Saraceno, Damien Hirst, Ernesto Neto, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Bruce Neumann, Anish Kapoor, Ola-fur Eliasson, Haegue Yang, Sarah Lucas, Thomas Hirschhorn, Jason Rhoades, Carsten Holler, Mario Merz, Andreas Gursky, Jean Dubuffet, Klara Kristalova, David La Chapelle and so forth. Galler-

ies reported strong sales and high lev-els of energy in the contemporary mar-ket. And with the fair doubling its size, Frieze Master has made London an in-ternational melting point for the wid-est of art audiences. Hauser and Wirth sold Paul McCarthy’s White Snow Head (2012) for $1.3 million, whereas its booth at Frieze Master was placing works on paper by Eva Hesse priced from $320,000 to $2 million. Not as expected for White Cube, the sale of Damien Hirst’s Destruction Dreams-cape (2012) sold for $500,000, while Victoria Miro had similar success with Yayoi Kusama’s Universe RYKP (2012) for the same amount. 2012 was a very good year for New York-based galler-ies such as Andrew Kreps, who sold a multi-paneled installation by Ricci Al-benda for $200,000, Lehamann Mau-pin, who sold five editions of Teresita Fernandez’s Golden (2012) for $75,000 each, and Tracey Emin’s Legs moving (2012) that sold for $120,000. This year proved staggeriWng fig-ures, especially in the time of a world-wide economic crisis—a fact similarly confusing to this year’s Frieze London itself. notice that each one is free. Yes, we said free. Sometimes a small ges-ture can also be a big one. And this is no exception. Utilizing direct action, free choice, and participation; this work offers us a sense of communal-ly shared experience. By taking a work, we engage in Lubelski’s sentiment, each one offering sense of renewal and hope. *

Publisher Abraham Lubelski

Executive EditorRose Hobart

Editorial DeptJill SmithJordan HostonCurtis Jackson

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-Issue No. 18, Spring 2013-

ARTS

Resort, Justin Mortimer’s oeuvre of paintings for his first solo exhibition at Haunch of Venison, London, provided a painter’s view into a post-Bacon, post-moral landscape—employing an often sumptuous regard for the shad-ows; both painterly and psychological. Mortimer is a painter with a classical concern for the figure. Having begun as a portrait painter, the evolution of his work places his painting in a category where the formal concerns of capturing likeness has given way to the existen-tial focus of a 21st century painter living with the collective internet memory of Goya, Bacon, and Freud. The artist’s figures are variously placed in isolation within an environment. Conceptually, these echo the cages that Francis Bacon would often trap his human ‘meat-sacks’. But Mortimer’s forms are not turgid or animalistic, and the spaces in which his figures are placed hold a photo-realism gleaned from an original source material, but with surfaces pushed toward abstraction; blurring the definition of that environment, and thus any direct identity, or accurate moment in history. These environments are constructs by the artist, that source material—found images from the internet, text books, scans and personal photographs—are re-assembled as collage, as composites in photo-graphic form. These are disparate images reformed to create dark, sullied, and subjective painterly narratives in which his figures reside or remain, trapped in limbo. These figures are reminiscent of a Baconian interest in human physi-cality and frailty, but like the narrative of a crime scene photograph, in which the viewer must attempt to discern an event where the evidence is shrouded in the gloom of a subjective reading—or in this instance hidden behind juxta-position of grim party balloons—one must delve into the subconscious fugue state of Mortimer’s tableaux to pull to light what is submerged in darkness. To state the effect as a fugue is to reference a dreamlike quality that per-vades the images not only through the content but through the artist’s use of paint. Mortimer builds the layers of his canvas, then strips them back, reveal-ing areas and removing them, building the paint to a necrotic hue that infuses the landscape, the doors, pipes, medical apparatus, and the artist’s corralled bodies; all indicative of illness, weakness, and lending an oppressive air to fig-ures that convey prisoners of war, torture victims, victims of chemical warfare, or even masochists in their dungeons. But Mortimer’s figures are indeed victims, or in threat of victimisation. They may be victims of war, torture, politics, and varying indignities, but also through the entropy of their own bodies, or even by their own disgraceful hands. The works are a peep-hole into a world where the motifs of classi-cal figurative painting take a page from Bacon’s old book of dentistry, picked from the detritus of his studio floor. The viewer becomes a wanderer in a psychological mise en scene; turning the corner of a dank corridor and gaz-ing through glass at the moment of an immoral performance. The aforemen-tioned sumptuous regard for the shadows and swathes of black paint are al-luded to by an oblique and disturbed gaze; as the painter glances at an event while almost unable to process the sordid malaise; and in doing so shifts focus, or partly obscures ordeal and indignity—an attempt at obfuscation that heightens our concentration. This perspective he hands to the viewer with a projected sense of voyeuristic guilt.*

Justin Mortimer Resort To Nightfall



It is no question that Hye Ja Moon is not frightened by color. Her rapturous canvases are imbibed with primary yellows and blues along with kelly greens and burnt or-anges—she even includes small rainbow crescents parad-ing as flower leaves and rocket ships amidst her abstract works. Her large paintings writhe with dynamicism, usher-ing anyone who views her work to be swept up and blown away by it. Like a dancer in the midst of their final leaps and turns, the viewer’s eye darts from corner to corner, un-able to rest on any one pulsating image. Works such as Music for Yearning is reminiscent of a Hoch collage and imbued with a found-object sensibility. The canvas’s lines are interrupted by the intersection of seemingly random objects, which, though they are painted, have a pasted-and-placed quality to them giving the paint-ing a heightened frenetic energy. The spaces surrounding these collage-like objects work just as hard as the objects themselves to complete the painting. They act as small pauses, allowing the canvas to breathe in between brush strokes. Though unable to be claimed as negative space, they too are a space of action, but an action antithetical to the jirating lines present in the majority of the painting. With everything revolving around the diagonal line, it is easy to see that movement is an integral aspect of Hye Ja Moon’s painting style. I was fortunate enough to sit down with Hye Ja Moon and briefly discuss the methods and philosophies she em-ploys to create her art.

JS: How long have you been painting? And how did you arrive at painting in this unique and fascinating way? HJM: When I was in the 3rd grade, in elementary school, I won a special prize in an art contest. I have been painting ever since. The master post-impressionist, Paul Cezanne left fine blank spaces among brush strokes in his paintings. I was fascinated by them and resolutely determined to employ it as one of my abstract painting techniques. I’d like to dra-matize such unpainted spaces of the canvas and present how the spaces give off their energy efficiently. The spac-es should be both improvisatory and thoroughly planned. The improvisational nature is employed on my canvas to communicate an energy similar to that of an improvised musical riff in a performance. Musical performers breathe, but their play, secretly crosses the border between the breath and breathlessness. And the latter means that for the last fifteen years I’ve challenged myself to advance my painting techniques without pause. I feel that I have mas-tered making the unpainted spaces function as the respira-tory organ in my paintings. That is the breathing canvas.

JS: Is there a message you want to communicate to the viewer? HJM: “A part controls the whole” is my slogan while paint-ing. However small it is, the spaces adjacent to the colored parts have greater importance than they look. So, I paint all my paintings with a very fine brush (#0) to transfer the energy of the uncolored spaces. The thorough plan, free from mistakes, is prior to others. I have trained myself to leave spaces around my images by moving my body con-stantly on the canvas as musical players do when they perform on stage. We can pass our energy onto others in the process of our movements. With the finest brush (#0), I move very freely on the canvas during the whole work, and surely the viewers are able to feel the infinite youth and revitalizing energy within themselves through viewing my works. We die unless we breathe. We breathe and our breathing leads us to move and gain energy to live. The theme of my work is contemporary music containing cha-otic and harmonious stories with its rhythm. Just as a mu-sical piece does, my paintings contain breath and move-ment and surely give off energy onto passing viewers. *

Hye Ja Moon’s Dynamic Breath

By Rose Hobart

-Issue No. 18, Spring 2013-



There are pioneers and visionaries who have toed the line between painting and sculpture including Rauschenberg and Julian Schna-bel. Having had a recent group show at Broadway Gallery, NYC we might add Luisa Jacobacci to the list. Luisa Jacobacci is an artist whose work engages the viewer in wonderment at the world. She employs a childlike vision to express a range of emotions. Her ap-proach is eclectic, wild and brash. And her techniques are shocking

– impasto is heavily applied to create significant protruding textures that lend physicality to her work. Her motifs border on the surreal—featuring bold colors, fluorescent paint, funky shapes and materials. One of her most exciting works is La Raffineria e I Suoi Fumi. Here Jacobacci constructs a smoke filled cityscape of soft pinks, grays and black. The disastrous setting is contrasted by the playful use of textured, billowing clouds that veer toward abstraction. Here, she eggs the viewer to consider environmental catastrophe and whimsy in the same breath. Other works are more frontal yet more innocent. Her piece Donna di Fumo captures a smoking girl in silhouetted, textured blue lines. Her face is left near white save for the black outlines of her eyes and her bright, ruby red lips. Her expression is dazed and fanciful as she glares upward, away from the viewer, slowly puffing away at her cigarette or joint. Her hair flares up in vine-like curls against a streaky blue wash. It is a work that captures the attitude and sentiment of the sitter in an incredibly telling manner. Jacobacci’s paintings bear a relationship to hypertexture. Her innovative approach to materiality is a bold affirmation of the vis-ceral nature of experience. Philosophically, hypertexture aims to simulate the physical nature of lived existence by way of formal devices. Lee Klein states that hypertexture as a painterly con-cept is “an emergent theoretic of tactility whereby visual art of the physical realm responds to the virtual by out-morphing and or equaling the variations of digitally via texture; pigment and mediated shifts.” Jacobacci’s use of texture is tantamount to a re-envisioning of the world. This re-envisioning is analogous to the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty who famously stated that “we are nothing but a view of the world.” Other works like L’uomo che Scende le Scale are minimal in col-or yet deceivingly complex. Against a white background, Jacobacci painted an impastoed black staircase that bisects the canvas from the upper left hand corner. A man in black silhouette appears to float along the stairs. This work is highly poignant, and playful as it suggests an impossible, metaphysical event. Jacobacci states that her impasto use also serves another purpose. Luisa Jacobacci: I use a lot of impasto to give strength to my paintings, in order to remove all doubt. My art reveals one very precise and well-defined point of view: it’s my astonishment and my naivety on seeing the world in general and everyday life in par-ticular. Using a lot of impasto allows me to reach fullness. My style is childish because when I paint, I return back to see the world as if for the first time.

PG: What message do you want your work to convey?LJ: I take inspiration from everyday life and I interpret it. At the be-ginning of my artistic career, I was much more realistic. Over the years, I became a surrealist. I like to play with extreme, give shape to the paradoxes, but, above all, I love to provoke the spectator and amuse him. My art is a game, because life is a game and we should all take ourselves less seriously! Luisa Jacobacci uses formal devices such as hypertexure to create distinctions and contrast urging the viewer to examine illusion and reality. In the process her work reframes the everyday to open up new worlds and dimensions in a fascinating manner.*

Luisa Jacobacci: New Visions

Courtesy of the artist.

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Kristians Brekte’s work deals with the everlasting themes of life, death, religion, and sexuality. His subject matter is often dark, graphic, and even grotesque, as his work refuses to lie within any boundaries and hide anything. Brekte’s graphic and very free painting style may have been drawn from his previous experience as a graffiti artist. Brekte’s work is bold, experimental, and provokes powerful reactions, as viewers are transported into the surreal, dark, perverse, and imaginative world Brekte creates. Kristians Brekte was born in May of 1981 in Riga, Latvia. He graduated from the Riga Design and Art School in 2002, and went on to study at the Department of Stage Design of Latvian Academy of art. Brekte has had his work exhib-ited throughout Latvia, and he has participated in group exhibitions in Lithuania, New York, Germa-ny, Italy, France, and Czech Republic. In works such as Judgement Day, Brekte de-picts a lifeless female head, ripped from her body, dangling by her hair from the bony grasp of a skel-etal hand, one we can presume to belong to Death himself. Shaded with turquoise and rose hues, this image, while jarring, also conveys a certain soft-ness of the artist’s hand; both the bloody skull and cold skeletal hand are caressed with the soft touch of watercolors. Brekte portrays a perverted reality, one that exists in a world imbibed with explicit horror. He lets his watercolors flirt with binary relationships of gentle and violent, beauty and grotesque, and life and death. Other works like First Date, capture a nude girl with a loli pop and recently born baby. Her face is a hollowed skeleton. Her pre-pubescent body is emaciated and gangly. Her attitude is ambivalent as she dangles the baby by her fingers, gazing to-wards the viewer, replete with loli pop in the other hand. As the title implies, the child appears to be the result of a hasty, sexual encounter. Upon making the connection, our gaze is filled at once with contrasting emotions of disdain and humor. The girl is unmoved by the entire experience which captures the abounding indifference and apathy of youth today. Intrigued by Bretke’s disturbing and enthralling works, I inquired to find out more.

Jill Smith: What made you stop doing graffiti art and switch to painting on canvases? Kristians Brekte: I have always worked with both of these techniques. There have never been only graffiti artists to whom I devote all of my attention and I have never seen myself as a strictly street artist. I guess I was more interested in stencils while I was still studying at the art academy, be-cause I was trying to explore the range with which I could reach with the words that I wanted to spread with my art. Painting has been a major part of my life since I was little, I have always enjoyed the process; experimenting with materials and themes. For me there is no dividing line between graffiti and painting, I often still use stencils in my canvases.

JS: Where do you draw inspiration from? KB: Inspiration, in my opinion, is something very similar to thinking: you suck up all the useful infor-mation all around you and absorb it. Nature—and people as a major part of it—the whole process of human life is very inspirational. We’re getting closer to our death from the very moment we ex-perience birth. I’m not the kind of artist that uses meditation, dreams or some kind of esoteric experiences or just lets my art be deco-rative. The reality is important and surprisingly it seems to be more horrifying than any of us could ever imagine. And I think that art is supposed to cause emotions whether it’s good or bad, to change something, to make people think and may-be learn some lesson.*

Kristians Brekte’s Dark ArtBy Jill Smith




For Gerald Cournoyer, painting is a medi-tative process and a way of reflection on his culture, as he tells the stories of many lives through his works. Cournoyer ex-plores patterns, illusions, realism and ab-straction all within a single painting – the results are original, unique paintings with a voice. As an artist, Cournoyer strives to bridge the gap between traditional La-kota art and contemporary art. Gerald Cournoyer was born in 1966 in Wagner, South Dakota. After serving 4 years in the United States Marine Corps, Cournoyer decided to study art, and he has received degrees from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a Bach-elor of Fine Arts from the University of South Dakota, and a Master of Art at University of South Dakota. Gerald is currently working towards his Master of Fine Art in Painting at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Cournoyer’s works have evolved greatly over time, as his style now is mostly abstract, as he incorporates the use of geometric beadwork and quillwork forms. Color is very impor-tant and personal to Cournoyer, as he sees the use of color in his paintings as analogous to the traditional spiritu-ality of family history. Cournoyer uses his large non--figurative expanses of color and form as an opportunity for the viewer to explore the depth and stimulation of color. Recently, Courn-oyer has been experimenting with a technique involving glass, which crea-tures texture in his work, while it still maintains a reflective surface. This technique allows Cournoyer to create depth and three-dimensional imagery within his work. Cournoyer’s work was recently included in Broadway Gal-lery’s Global Art Project, a show that pays tribute to the format of a salon hanging and focuses on the signifi-cance of exhibiting a variety of works in a pluralistic art world. One of his most impressive works on view was A Closer Look at Gall. Made of a grid-like series of ellipses, rectangles and squares this work is intense. The shapes form to make up the face of a bearded man captured in deep blue with hints of reds and greens. It is a bold work of rich nuance. The man’s face is frontal, stern, visceral and bold. One could say that Cournoyer is an artist who paints the way he wants to paint it. Each work is a copy of the original in his mind; a

combination of emotion, realism, and abstraction. And in this work, there is a recognizable element, de-contextual-ized, and integrated into a new, graphi-cal environment, entirely based on the artist’s impression and preference. Another equally intense work is Badlands Beauty at Evening. Here Cournoyer mixes disparate imagery with ease. Set against a deepened blue background at bright, golden butterfly soars in the upper corner. Butterflies are symbolic of innocence, purity and freedom. Below this ma-jestic sight is a fence and street of hot red, green and black. This geometric partition is decidedly graphic and bold. It stands out as a unique separating device between the upper and lower halves of the canvas. This keeps the viewer in and out at the same time.

I recently caught up with Gerald to find out more about his work.

Rose Hobart: Do you ever find your-self wanting to expand your subject matter?Gerald Cournoyer: Yes, I often experi-ment with a larger color palette and expansive shapes trying to create works of pure symbolism.

RH: How long have you been painting? GC: 20 years.

RH: Do you have a favorite piece or series?GC: I find an appreciation and a con-nection with the Raven Series of paintings. Within Lakota spirituality and philosophy the raven represents a messenger foretelling what is to come, possibly bringing news from ancestors of the past. The raven is held within high regard, therefore my portrayal of the raven within a series is a way of honoring my culture and ancestors for providing this talent.

Judging from his recent track record, Cournoyer is an artist at the height to his career. He is a seminal paint-ings explore the interaction between opposites. Made visible when he investigates the connection between reality and illusion, silence and noise, curves and straight lines. These are the qualities of true experi-mental artists. *

Gerald Cournoyer: Bridging The GapBy Rose Hobart


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When we think about the modern landscape we envision cities, suburban towns and natural settings all mixing into one. It’s hard to imagine this not being the case. Just some 150 years ago as the Industrial Revolution altered the tradi-tions of rural life; the old hierarchy of subjects for painting crumbled. Before, painters were typically restricted to didactic painting - heroic, mythological and religious scenes. There was occasional room for domestic scenes, vanity paintings, and still life’s, yet these were consid-ered lesser arts. Soon all of this would change. By the mid 1800’s throughout Europe and North America landscape painting, plein air painting and personal imagery gained a new supremacy. Barbizon painters such as Théodore Rousseau and Charles Daubigny became less concerned with idealized, classical landscapes and focused more on painting out-of-doors directly from nature. Scenes of everyday life, scenes of emo-tional expression and interiors suddenly became important. By the late 19th century the birth of photography and abstraction would alter the way painters paint forever. Over the course of the 19th century there were remarkable change in attitudes discover-able in all the arts, especially literature, painting and architecture. It culminated in Romanticism. Combining historical painting traditions with this new attitude, the movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emo-tions as excitement, horror and terror, and awe. The artist Francesco Siclari continues these tradi-tions—plein air painting, still life and the nude—creating motifs of powerful sentiment using bold imagery in a unique, original style. Siclari’s technique is ingenious. He takes ev-eryday subjects and transforms them into thin glazes of translucent, shimmering color to evoke moments of sublimity. Siclari has been painting and exhibiting internationally since the 1960s. His work covers a vast range to include—fig-

ures, flowers, landscapes, cities, nudes, boats, portraits and even small-scale sculpture. Many of his works beg the viewer to re-envision the world as though never seen before. His work Positano is a tour de force. Positano is a village and commune on the Amalfi Coast in Campania, Italy. The main part of the city sits in an enclave in the hills leading down to the coast. Here Siclari manages to move the viewer deeper into the city, almost telescoping, using soft blues, creamy tans and olive green. There is a misty, atmospheric quality present in this work that is intriguing. Siclari also captures works of quiet mystery. His piece Quiete ai Murazzi depicts a docked canoe on a bed of grass overlooking a river. Using soft blues, dark forest greens and deep browns this work is a meditation on nature. In kind, works like La poesia del silenzio are other-worldly, mystifying and peaceful as he introduc-es a boat brushed on a quiet shore setting in the middle of the late afternoon. The piece, like the title, is silent. Other works by Siclari are masterful in their use of perspective. Canal Grande -Venezia takes the view of a Gondolier about to set sail. From his view, we see the deep, murky blue waters in front, and the cities’ horizon line in the distance. Siclari often paints in thin veils of glazed oil paint to create lighting techniques that are mesmer-izing. Here he employs a geometric border that lightens as it moves toward the center, allowing for a contemplative moment of extraordinary emotional import. An older work in Siclari’s repertoire entitled Nudo Nel Blu pictures a woman, sprawled on the bed, grasping pillows to screen her body. The setting is a bluish-pink background hatched in geometric patterns. The subject’s eyes peer longingly away from the viewer at the floor. Her gaze only meets the ground. It is a melancholic depiction, full of pathos and loss. In an effort to know more about his work, I recently inter-viewed Francesco.

Francesco Siclari: A Natural World

Jill Smith: How do you see your paintings? Are they a reflection of your life?Francesco Siclari: Since I have always tried to be myself, experiencing emotions intensely, trying to bring them on the canvas, I think my paintings are a reflection of my soul.

JS: What is the message you want your work to convey?FS: The primary emotion I try to convey in a work, in front of the canvas, in the studio or “en plein air” is the same emotion I feel upon an imminent meeting with a beloved woman. I try to get deep inside the painting to encapsulate that emotion I felt when contemplating a landscape, to filter the light on a still life, in capturing the intensity of a glimpse of a woman’s face. I tell myself that I succeeded if a completed work, manages to convey to the viewer the same emotions I felt when executing it.

JS: What upcoming projects, atrtwork and exhibits can we look for in the future?FS: I will be in Las Vegas in May for the presentation of the seventh volume of the “International Con-temporary Art Masters” where I am featured on two pages. I will also have a work exhibited at the museum. I will also be giving talks for two solo exhibitions in Rome and Berlin*

Siclari’s technique is ingenious. He takes everyday subjects and transforms them into thin glazes of translucent, shimmering color

to evoke moments of sublimity.

By Jill Smith

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Mara Algehti is an amazing artist at the height of her career. She is foremost a painter of color, light and mood. She was born in 1944 in Allgäu, Algehti eventually attended the College of Fine Arts at the Stone space for painting and photography. Her interests developed and matured into figurative watercolor paintings and drawings along the lines of the Impressionists and Expressionists, followed by the Fauves. Yet it is her most recent works done in acrylic, which embody her true talent and voice. Her mature abstract works capture the elemental inten-sity of nature – its temperature, atmosphere and power. Algehti has been exhibiting regularly since 1997 including venues at Old Forge, Uettligen near Bern Gallery Näijerehuus in Hersiwil b. Kriegstetten Art Expo Bern, Samba Congress in Lausanne, and Art Forum International Meisterschwanden. Her work was most recently on exhibit in November 2012 at Broad-way Gallery NYC. Sommerglut is one of her most impressive works. It burns with the intensity of the sun. In the center lies a beaming reful-

Mara Algehti’s Intense ColorBy Paul Gost

gence that is reminiscent of Turner. Towards the peripher-ies the deep oranges and umber browns create an intense visual affect; as quick, hatched lines create faint, rocky crag formations. Other works like Wie eine Silberbarke embody the dense, dark palette of George Bellows. Mara’s piece sets the viewer in a moonlit landscape filled with deep blues, greens and flecks of orange. The mood is intense. The atmosphere is heavy. And the piece packs and emotional punch. Her capacity to convey deeply felt resonances is her claim to fame. So I had to catch up with Mara to find out more about her work.

Paul Gost: How long have you been painting and did you always know you would be an artist?Mara Algehti: Around 3 years old, I scratched figures with a hairpin in the freshly painted walls of my nursery. They were in the style of Egyptian frescoes—the heads, I de-picted in profile. Soon I got paper and crayons to spare the walls in the future. Initially, I only drew people, then later the animals and flowers found there way in. Later in Berlin, I loved going to school because I was keenly interested in reading and writing. But drawing and painting were my favorite subjects. In my spare time, I made many sketches and small paintings, which usually expressed my longing for the mountains, where I spent the first 6 years of my childhood. My interests were wide-ranging, I found little pleasure in literature and literary experiments; secretly I always knew that I wanted to be a painter. Although this desire for

my parents still considered irresponsible, they allowed me to study painting and photography at the College of Fine Arts in Berlin until marraige. But the painting was victori-ous. Even though I was an avid photographer, painting was always paramount.

Paul Gost: Tell us about your recent works. How did they come about? And what are you working on next?Mara Algehti: My most recent paintings, are above all, about nature and its changing moods. On my walks I see the light and change the colors in the landscape, which is reflected beautifully in the different seasons. Therefore, I have captured in my latest works, the cycle of the seasons. Before I venture on the canvas, a few hours of meditation are (over several days) behind me, in which I completely engage in the mood I want to convey to the viewer. Very often I also want stormy moments, as is seen for example in the painting “Northern Lights”. I cannot plan my images, they only emerge as a pulse only during the work. Some-times I like to hear music during the painting, but it must be in the background – sanfte, melodiöse Klassik (Grieg, Chopin) oder Meditationsmusik und Gesänge der Wale und Delphine oder Klänge und Stimmen aus dem Regen-wald (rainforest). But often I prefer stillness. My goal is to paint what you cannot see and therefore cannot actually paint. I want to capture what everything, every phenomenon gives off in the world. I want the spirit, the lights behind the forms and to cause the heart to de-light. In my next work, I want to present the different hu-man temperaments in great, natural forms. I’m already on a quest to advance my color and movement forward; the rise in the meditation of my heart.*



The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) is holding is their show, one of the world’s most important annual pho-tography events, on April 4-7, at the Park Avenue Armory. THe AIPAD Photography Show New York is the longest running and the foremost ex-hibition of fine art photography. The show will commence with an opening night gala on April 3rd to benefit in-Motion, which provides legal services to low-income women. Since it’s founding in 1979, AIPAD represents more than 120 of the world’s leading galleries in fine art photography. At the show this year, the 33rd edition of the show, more than 70 photography galleries from around the world will showcase a wide range of works including con-temporary, modern, and 19th century photography, in addition to photo-based art video, and new media.

AIPAD Photography Hits NYC

MADRIDFOTO will held its fifth edition from May, 23th to 26th, 2013, at Matadero Madrid. The fair will count with around 50 galleries, of which the 30 % will be national ones. We will have the presence of galleries of in-ternational renown, with visibil-ity and path, emblematic galler-ies, settled in the panorama of both historical and contempo-rary photography. In this edition

MADRIDFOTO

ous life journeys pictured in ink-jet prints, offset lithography and silk screens. FOCUS ASIA was both a success critically and fi-nancially. Jennie Biltek of Art Toron-to stated “we were particularly excited this year about Focus Asia. We had a great response from galleries who specialize in contemporary Asian. Collec-tors and visitors to the fair have also told us how excited they were about seeing work from this part of the world. Gallery Sumukha from India sold work to the Royal Ontario Museum, while MA2 gallery from Japan sold virtually all of the work by Ken Matsubara.” The rest of the fair staged several galleries that appeared local, provincial and tame. Scat-

tered about were some nice gems that made it all worth it. Portugal’s Cordeiros Galeria featured a large Julian Schna-bel entitled Calo (1988) among other Neo-Expressionist selec-tions. Moore Gallery LTD had its eye on the playful abstrac-tion of Michael Adamson. His straight from the tube aesthetic created for some delightful pat-terns. And Angelll Gallery fea-tured their pride and joy, Kim Dorland. Dorland’s romantic meets grotesque work does not disappoint. His painting has be-come all too familiar now, yet feels entirely at home in Cana-da’s landscape, with groups of artists whose work centers on youth culture and hallucinatory landscapes. The most signifi-cant pieces were at ESP gallery,

who had a thoughtful and seri-ous display of abstraction. Erin Stump the gallery manager is young, ambitious and has her pulse on a NY aesthetic. During my stay in Canada, I had the pleasure to meet with people from The Drake and Gladstone Hotels. These two art hotels reside on Queen St with nearby galleries, coffee shops and cultural curiosities. The Drakes’ luxury meets cool aesthetics was punctuated by the carefully curated selection of work by Mia Nielsen, includ-ing a Maya Hayuk LED paint-ing installation across from the rooftop bar and an Evan Penny at the top of the lounge stairs. Down the block is The Glad-stone. The Gladstone’s art col-lection focuses a bit more on

the unique, funky and local. Yet they have the advantage of each floor having a gallery with paintings carefully hung on the surrounding walls. Mia Nielsen on The Drake comments “the collection is grounded in contemporary Ca-nadian art with works by Ken Lum, Evan Penny and Bruce LaBruce. As a hotel we wel-come guests from around the world, so it’s important to cre-ate an international context for the collection with works by American and international artists including Maya Hayuk, Icelandic Love Corporation and Aakash Nihalani.” In its 13th year, Art Toron-to, and the city in general too, seem to be announcing itself as an art capital to watch for.

Art Toronto’s Big Break[CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ]

we will highlight the particularly important prtesence of Ameri-can galleries. The content of the fair pro-posals will be subject to un-dergo a selection Committee, composed by four international personalities from the world of photography: a Commissioner, a Museum director, a Gallery Di-rector, a collector, and the artis-tic director of MADRIDFOTO.

Now in it’s 6th Edition, Art Austria continues to focus exclusively on Austrian art. Held at the Leopold Museum, Art Austria has gotten very positive responses and glowing approvals from exhibitors, the press, and art lovers who have visited the show. While always reinforcing their unique image of showcasing only Austrian art-works, the show both highlights renowned, no-table Austrian artists, as well as up and coming artists. The Fair will showcase highlights of Aus-trian art from the 19th Century to the present. While Art Austria is still a fairly new fair, it has grown in size and popularity since it’s begin-nings, and hopes to continue this growth. Art Austria believes that this 6th Edition will be a truly special event based on the quality of art of-fered as well as the beautiful and dignified exhi-bition rooms of the Leopold Museum.

ART AUSTRIA: 6th EditionApril 11 - 14, 2013

Art Cologne is an exhibition for the propose of disseminating and selling internationally rec-ognized works of Modern Art. Art Cologne has played a decisive role in the development of the international art market and has had a formative influence on later art-market developments. As the largest German art fair, Art Cologne will again offer visitors a broad overview of 20th and 21st century art. The high-profile gallery list includes a strong turnout of well-known inter-national exhibitors as well as up and coming art-ists. With the art fair now running from Friday to Monday, closer to the Gallery Weekend in Berlin, collectors who have traveled a long way will be able to visit both sites. Art Cologne hopes to draw even more visitors to both cities, furthering the German art market of Cologne and Berlin even more into the focus of international art lovers.

ART COLOGNE: For International

Art LoversApril 19 - 22, 2013

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Some paintings require us to investigate their conceptual properties and political content, and others still their sheer, emotional power. Erwin Wuk asks us to consider the latter. Erwin Wuk describes his artwork as, “a service to the supernatural presence and as an offer-ing of insight, healing and joy to other human beings.” This theme of the supernatural is apparent in Wuk’s oil on canvas works, as the colors of his piece seamlessly melt into each other, creating vivid movement and energy. Wuk’s paintings are exciting, abstract, and give off literally, an out of this world cosmic effect. Wuk’s work is typically created with acrylic on cardboard, and also on canvas giv-ing the work a palpable texture, evoking an atmospheric quality. Erwin Wuk is seminal artist at the height of his career. He was born in Austria, and went on to graduate from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. Wuk still lives and works in Vien-na, however he has exhibited one man and group shows in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and the United States. In his color field painting titled “Divine Light,” Wuk uses bright colors that blend into each other across the canvas. This work re-sembles the setting sun, with bright purples, yellows, and oranges streaking throughout the evening sky. This work uses repetitive structures, eliminating identifiable imagery to promote abstraction. Through his refulgent use of color, Wuk draws on strong references to nature, as the bright hues travel across the canvas. These colors mix together to form an area of overlapping shades as more colors are introduced. There is vibrant energy in these overlapped areas, where the brightness meets to create spaces of darkness. Much as the day’s sky takes its turn into the night. Wuk states that he painted this work last summer. “It shows in a very intensive way my adoration of light. This is a light of being and awareness. This light is completely convinced of itself; beyond reason, intellect and doubt. This timeless,vibrant light emantes from the source - THE ONE - which is beyond all appearances, the limitless Infinite,the sublime divine.´” Wuk’s work places him as a direct descendant of this Color Field painting, as he innovates its techniques for the 21st century. Color Field painting came into prominence in the 1960s with art-ists like Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Helen Frankenthaler creating some of the most moving images of the time. This style of painting has its roots in the 19th century philosophy of the sublime. Edmund Burke referred to the sublime as a terror of unimaginable proportions. He considered “terror as producing an unnatural ten-sion and certain violent emotions of the nerves; it easily follows, from what we have just said, that whatever is fitted to produce such a tension must be productive of a passion similar to ter-ror, and consequently must be a source of the sublime, though it should have no idea of danger connected with it.” Wuk’s creates work that is has an otherworldly beauty, conjuring the majestic, and unearthly. This is an individual journey; the spectator is enter-ing the world of the sublime. In Wuk’s work titled “When NO-thing Becomes SOME-thing,” he presents land and sky. The blue sky is intersected by earthy hues of land, creating a spiritual collection of color. These shallow intersections of color organically stretch across the entire canvas, highlighting the contrast of light and dark that forms in nature. This work highlights color field paintings’ tendency to suggest fig-ure and ground are one, and that the field of the picture is infinite. There is no form to stand out against a background – these realms are all connected. As these colors create masses of land and sky, a texture is introduced to add a distinctive quality to the work. The sky is smooth, while the land is rough and tangible, creating a sense of physicality to the work. As the color is strewn across the canvas, the darkest area is also the heaviest, where the most ten-sion collects. Wuk’s work was recently included in Broadway Gallery’s latest exhibit, a project that pays tribute to the format of a salon hanging and focuses on the significance of exhibiting a variety of works in a pluralistic art world. Wuk’s work stood out to me as transcendent – at first his pieces look light and airy, but also carry a rough texture and sublime weight. *

Erwin Wuk: Supernatural PresenceBy Jill Smith



Images courtesy of the artist.

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GLOBAL PROJECTS

BROADWAY GALLERY | BROADWAYGALLERYNYC.COM

A R T I S T S A T H O M E A N D A B R O A D

Andros EfstathiouAnnette HaeberlingBierte HeeDominique NormandEliora BousquetGiorgio Russo Leonard Bata MusickiLipkin AnatoliManuella Muerner MarioniMarcel Bastiaansmaria eugenia macvicar Mark MoffettMartina ReinhartNatasha KadhijaPaco Navarro Mendez Phaedra RichterPriscilla Norris Remo KeistRikke KiilSally AurischTurid Øveraas Joseph ZicchinellaCandace HartmanJan MaliepaardDenise HunterPeter Koschak Rafael KolinskiMarida Maccari Roelof RossouwRyuhei MatsuoNykolai AleksanderBernadette KirsteinVaggelis TheodoridisVincent Edmond LouisVincent Messelier

Ellen Juell Ahemed Farid Afrodite PapadouliLee ClaremontAlina DitotChristina FufezanMonika KiviniemiKarrisa OlsenNick DaunysJohn BattagliaVikram PathakStephane LejeuneMilagros MelendezAnne Darby ParkerKonnie LaumerFrancesco SiclariShelley HallLarisa GolubevaBlandine de la Motte Margaretha GubernaleOla ÖhlinJean Luc MaugerJack GrunskyInger Dillan AntonsenMarissa CalbetEdith Lietar Rob CampbellBruno Maximus Elinor FletcherLucienne GuertnerVishal MisraAud-Irene AndersenGisela IskingLuise DavisMaria Jaakkola

Tom Erik AndersenAlessandro di ColaHasan ThaqiBritt Bernard Allan FriisSusanne DemåneSuzanne SÜ FortinBarbara PissotDiana ChelaruPeter BorotinskijAna Teresa ToledoAmelia Midori MillerCristina ArnedoGiorgio Gost Carmen Rantzuch-DollWaltraud Kunz Malini ParkerJohn ChristieKristians BrekteJoy Moore Peggy ZehringRaymond Quenneville Nathalie Chiasson Gabriele SpringerGerald Cournoyer Christine McDonaldErwin WukDouglas LyellCarolyn HeerMasakazu Tatebayashi Susan KarkoutlyJeff HoareBenno SökelandClaudia UnterleitnerMara Algethi

Hye Ja MoonLuisa JacobacciDirk BeckedorfAnne Lise KaabyInge MairHailaryJoëlle Kem LikaAlessandro TogninUlli ObrechtSean ConlonAtle Berner AndersenMaria Elvira BriatoreAlika KumarAntonio RussoFrances Sniffen Anna Lukasik-FischJesus CabanasGabriela CulicDorel TopanFrancesco Siclari

Globalization creates unexpected relationships and contrasts in contemporary art. This series focuses on the significance of exhibiting a variety of works in a pluralistic art world. Inspired by salon-style hanging, most commonly attributed to the Salon de Paris held during the 18th and 19th centuries; Broadway Gallery NYC continues this legacy with a contemporary and fresh outlook. Following a trend of previous exhibitions at Broadway Gallery NYC, this show pays tribute to the format of a salon hanging. It is a tradition that awakens contemporary culture to a dynamic collective consciousness.

A few notable themes in this exhibit that cross cultures are romanticism, spiri-tuality, and humanity. Part of an ongoing series, Artists at Home and Abroad reaches out to the diverse community of New York. In addition to the exhibition on display at Broadway Gallery NYC, are several concurrent In-ternet projects, and a print catalog. Furthermore, this exhibit offers writers and viewers an exciting opportunity to submit essays and comments on the nature and significance of biennials, fairs and public exposure for new and emerging artists.

This exhibit uses the space as another medium altogether; incorporating the maximum floor-to-ceiling gallery space activates the wall with art works in various media by artists, each of whom offer a unique perspective to the show. These artists have transformed the gallery walls into a compendium of generational takes on figuration, portraiture, and abstraction.

Visitors will be surprised to see the stunning results. The speed of interactions via new media allows for global artistic conversations previously unheard be-fore. In an attempt to integrate the numerous artistic languages, this exhibit was installed in a unique format. Two long parallel walls have been carefully installed to create dialogue in the spatial order. Artists at Home and Abroad allows the viewer access to some of the past and current pivotal artistic ideas while introducing newer talent, to generate fresh creative energy through un-expected juxtapositions.

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