FIAC came to a close yesterday, finishing off a rather busy fortnight of European art-fairing. Far from suffering the onset of art-weariness, Elephant left feeling excited about a couple of—incredibly varied—new favourites from Austria, as well as Belgium and New York.
Nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna
Katharina Grosse’s Untitled (2013) received a massive amount of attention throughout the fair; vast in scale (the biggest canvas at FIAC), the acrylic and spray work consists of multiple layers—blacks, reds, greens and golds–meeting and merging with various degrees of fusion, dripping towards a bottom inch of thick, solid paint. Part of a bigger installation Wunderblock (that happened at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Texas in 2013) this is a gutsy work that both revels in and reveals the materiality of modern painting. The booth itself was designed to allow for different areas and relationships with the work in this group exhibition. Balancing the confronting scale of this work, other pieces were set behind the back wall; an intimate space that allowed for a more private contemplation of some of the sculptural works. Two Daniel Knorr works at the entrance to the booth mirrored the powerful, physical nature of Grosse’s, a pair of fierce inky cloud formations that test the limits of our material expectations. In total the gallery showed the work of an impressive sixteen artists, including Helmut Federle, Manfred Pernice and Lee Ufan.
The gallery will be showing Sonia Leimer and Alice Könitz from 3 November until 9 January 2016.
Cosima Von Bonin is always a winner in our books, and it was her Smoke (2008) that drew us into the booth. Playful-but-elegant, this oversized neon cigarette glowed seductively from the far wall of the booth, as the alluring post-dusk lights might call from the outside of a bar. Max Schaffer’s Friend (2015) played similarly with the line between artistic weight and appealing wit; an insulation board coated thickly in gloopy smears of lipstick. Also showing were; Cäcilia Brown, Kathi Hofer, Marko Lulić, Michael Riedel, Elfie Semotan, Kerstin Von Gabain and Hans Weigand.
The gallery will be exhibiting the work of Hans Weigand from 13 November until 19 December.
Showing a solo exhibit of four work by the American painter, Mathew Cerletty, Office Baroque gave a lesson in simplicity. Cerletty’s work is precise and intense, his images looking as though a smoothing wash has been applied to every surface, turning modern life into a discomfortingly pumped up collection of clean lines, vivid hues and plastic forms.
The gallery are exhibiting Anke Weyer: Two Islands Are Better Than One until 7 November, Liam Everett 1970-74 from 30 October until 5 December.
We enjoyed the details in these pieces—the happy gherkin was a team favourite—from another American-born artist, Antek Walczak. A conglomeration of commercial logos, top shelf mags, lettering from multiple alphabets and cartoonish figures, but these works also display a sense of control. Rather than simply exploding these mixed messages onto the canvas, Walczak chooses to place a couple on each work, summing up not only the confusing and sometimes overwhelming visual modern world, but creating an odd sense of order, in which mismatched forms meet in spaces that should feel sensical.
Real Fine Arts will be showing Nicolas Ceccaldi from 14 November until 20 December
