Artissima is a fun fair—young, energetic and innovatively curated. Wandering around, many of the pieces that caught our eye had a decidedly childish tone to them, including glowing (light) obscenities and columns of bubbles.
Galleria Enrico Astuni, Bologna
David Medalla’s multiple ‘Cloud Canons’ create a lively scene at Enrico Astuni, a mix of clear plexiglass forms on small wooden bases shooting an explosive amount of foam from below. One creates a big bubbly pool which spills over to the floor, another squeezes its bubbles satisfyingly through a squared, hollowed rectangular tube, while the silliest of the three expels a proudly towering tube of phallic foam upwards, sadly losing its oomph at a certain length and flopping off to the side.
Chert Lüdde, Berlin
Chert Luedde, a relatively new space in Berlin, have Kasia Fudakowski as a key feature of the booth, Are You Eating Well forming something beautifully ethereal from an unexpected source—prawn shells. Far from the grease laden broken skins you might find scattered about the plate after a gluttonous seafood feast, these large plexiglass works, hung from the ceiling by fine silver wires, are delicate and fragile, the light from above throwing wave-like shadows onto the surrounding walls.
Eva Meyer, Paris
Eva Meyer have a playful booth, the works of Goiffon & Beaute, Nicolas Boulard and Piotr Kowalski communicating well together, with numerous plays on perspective—some more literal than others—various degrees of surface transparency and a bold use of colour.
The Gallery Apart, Rome
A series of four digitally manipulated photographic works at Rome’s The Gallery Apart by Luana Perilli got our attention—not merely because of the presence of an elephant’s trunk in one work—with hands, big googly eyes fashioned from plastic spoons and green comedy sunglasses creating whimsical figures, that sit in front of vibrant rainbow backgrounds.
Alberto Peola, Turin
Martin Creed’s juvenile Work No.281 Shit, 2002 is the most enjoyable of the many, many predictable neons to grace the fair, employing the brilliant simplicity of the overused medium to induce a giggle, and quite possibly a groan also. The gallery are also showing works by Fatma Bucak and Victoria Stoian.
SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch
A similarly simple use of written abuse is present also at South Africa’s SMAC, the monochrome works of Ed Young employing single phrases, that are witty, one a little mean. ‘It’s fun without you’ is a favourite, the Mean Girls-style comment glaring in upper case, black on white, from a clean white wall. The colourful and diverse booth also contains work by Cyrus Kabiru, Georgina Gratrix, Frances Goodman and Willem Boshoff.
‘Artissima’ runs from 4-6 November. artissima.it
