Photography in the 2013 Frieze New York Art Fair, Part 5 of 5

Part 1 of this five-part Frieze report can be found here. Start there for introductory background and explanatory notes.

Galleri Nicolai Wallner (here): Joachim Koester, $8000. In a fair full of bright, shiny things, Koester's all white snowscapes stood out in quiet, nuanced, contrarian defiance.

ProjecteSD (here): Jochen Lempert, €7000. A simple, well executed exercise in dappled light, leafy shadow, and shimmering all over movement.

Altman Siegel (here): Sara VanDerBeek, $16000. While VanDerBeek's Metro Pictures show is already in my review queue, this elegant tilted sculptural interpretation isn't part of that exhibit. The skewed frame aligns with the angles of the arms and offsets the verticality of the subject.

Sprüth Magers (here): Thomas Demand, €75000. Indoor plants in fancy modern planters for a windowless office are already an odd creation, but when they are abstracted even further into cut-paper constructions by Demand, controlled nature becomes even more artificial.

Team Gallery (here): Ryan McGinley, $50000. This whole booth was filled with recent large scale McGinley nudes, with young men and women in various states of falling, lying, and running around. This nighttime mix of fire and water is certainly dramatic and full of exuberance, like some secret ritual.

Alexander Gray Associates (here): Lorraine O'Grady, $25000. Up-close hair becomes an undulating textural landscape.

Murray Guy (here): Zoe Leonard, $25000. This booth had a selection of mid-1990s animal images by Leonard, taken during a multi-year stay in Alaska. While the animals were hunted by the artist, the images have the feel of taxidermy or staged diorama, but with an edge of rawness.

White Cube (here): Jeff Wall, $450000. This was the only work by Wall I saw at Frieze, a small backyard study of poppies and scrubby greenery.

Sfeir-Semler Gallery (here): Walid Raad, $25000. Images of minimal paintings hung in white, formless, galleries, the corollary of Louise Lawler, where context tells us nothing.

Ryan McGinley, Animals @Team

JTF (just the facts): A total of 23 large scale color photographs, framed in white and unmatted, and hung in the main gallery space and the smaller back room. All of the works are c-prints, available in editions of 3, and made in 2012. Physical dimensions range from 14x9 to 72x108, with most 30x45 (or reverse). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Wild animals and nude bodies are an unlikely visual combination, and Ryan McGinley's unusual pairings of man and beast provide for some startling juxtapositions. Using exotic zoo animals and posing them with young men and women against candy-colored studio backgrounds, McGinley has made pictures that are alternately elegant and comic, but always bold and eye-catching. Bites, scrapes and even trickles of blood are evidence of the the untamed nature of this project, with feral chance clearly playing a role in the photographic outcomes.

The best of these photographs are the ones where the lyricism of the forms is dominant. Green and white parakeets fly through enveloping pastel blue, partially obscuring a model with her arms outstretched like wings. The long white feathers of an albino peacock cover a model like windswept wisps of clouds against the rose red backdrop. And the curve of a guineafowl fits perfectly into the hollow of a woman's side, its densely patterned plumage a stark contrast to her pale skin. In each, the body, the animal, and the background color come together gracefully.

Many of the rest of the images on view are more like jokes or one-liners, with varying degrees of harsh silliness. A bushy baby porcupine lies between a woman's legs, an albino skunk sniffs a bare bottom, a monkey's arms surround a man's torso, and countless animals nestle in crotches of men and women alike. There's even an homage to Avedon's Natassja Kinski and the Serpent, this time with an iguana doing the licking. But even in the funniest of these pairings, there is something frantic about the look in the eyes of some of these animals, a natural savageness that was held in check for just a moment. Put together with the vulnerability of the human nudes, every picture has an element of lively tension, just at the breaking point.

All in, the contrast of human and animal bodies and the inherent anxiety in the poses gives these pictures some odd, agitated freshness. I think the more ornamental matches will ultimately be more durable than the salty wisecracks and the sexy horsing around, so look out for the handful of images that have a more refined sense of unexpected opulence.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced by size, as follows:

• 14x9: $5500
• 13x20: $7000
• 24x16: $8000
• 30x45: $14000
• 57x38: $21000
• 48x72: $25000
• 72x108: sold out

McGinley's photographs have become more available in the secondary markets in the past few years, with prices ranging between $2000 and $33000.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Features/Reviews: NY Times T magazine (here), Wall Street Journal (here), Huffington Post (here), Hint (here)

Ryan McGinley, Animals

Through June 2nd

Team Gallery

83 Grand Street

New York, NY 10013

Ryan McGinley, Grids @Team

JTF (just the facts): A total of 3 large scale grids of color photographs, individually framed in white and unmatted, and hung in the main gallery space. Each of the grids is made up of an array of c-prints. The largest grid includes 55 prints, each 20x20. The smaller grids include 12 prints (each 30x38) or 10 prints (each 40x40). All three grids come in an edition of 1+1AP and are dated 2012. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Ryan McGinley's rock concert photographs aren't interested in the big productions or the wild performers. Instead of pointing his camera at the action on stage or taking wide shots of the seemingly endless sea of music fans, he gets right down in the throng, singling out individual up-close faces and capturing the variety in their fresh expressions. Blown up to larger than life size and arranged in neat grids, his kids shout and swagger with fierce energy.

With sweaty shaking hair, countless tattoos and piercings, and plenty of skin, McGinley's pictures document the wide range of reactions of these fans: ecstasy, shock, wild screams, blissful fatigue, amazement, disbelief, stoned incomprehension, unadulterated joy, stupefied wonder, and maybe even momentary fear. Bathed in a rainbow of lights coming from the stage, the faces are tinted in hues from acidic yellow and throbbing red to pale blue and pastel green. When seen as grids up on the wall, they become bright kaleidoscopes of earnest, juiced-up emotion. While McGinley's subjects will likely always be knocked for being too universally pretty, these works are certainly credible as a taxonomy of unguarded expressions; they feel real and authentic, supported by the unfailing optimism of youth. There are few jaded fans here, no snarky cynics, no cold water throwers. These kids are reveling in the moment, being exposed to events that are, in one way or another, blowing their minds; boundaries are being stretched and indelible memories are being made.

Purely photographically, these grids are in many ways unremarkable; it's not even clear from the press release that McGinley made all the pictures himself. What is of more interest though is the cropping, editing, and packaging of these images that transforms the concert snaps into the refined and potent elixir of youth. In these works, McGinley has tapped into the genuine rush of excitement that comes from the collective experience of live music, and reminded us what it was like to be young and crazy and free, screaming at the top of our lungs.

Collector's POV: The three grids in this show are priced at $80000, $85000, and $95000 each, and two of the three were already sold when I visited the show. McGinley's single image photographs have become more available in the secondary markets in the past few years, with prices ranging between $2000 and $33000.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)

Ryan McGinley, Grids
Through June 2nd

Team Gallery
47 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10013

Photography at the 2012 Frieze New York Art Fair, Part 1 of 3

In a single audacious shot across the bow, Frieze New York has decisively, at least in my mind, challenged the Armory as the king of the local contemporary art fairs. There is no changing the visual overload or the wearying onslaught of "merch" inherent at such a place, but the organizers have at least made a real attempt to get the surrounding details right. The overall art-seeing experience in meaningfully better: the halls are wider and less cramped, the booths are roomier and more open, and the light is bright and airy. Even when the fair got more crowded and the sun came out to raise the temperature and cook the occupants during my visit Friday, every few yards a blast of arctic air conditioning would whoosh up from a grate under my feet for a shuddering moment of relief.

Photography-wise, the key thing to note about this fair is that there are NO photography specialist galleries included. Not one. So the available photography is broadcast throughout the fair population like tiny seeds, to be searched out and discovered amidst the rest of the contemporary art. There are also very few secondary market photographic trophies on offer (unlike the parade of Shermans in seemingly every booth at the Armory). This is first and foremost a primary market show, with galleries and dealers showing (for the most part) the work they represent.

For each gallery below (grouped by color coded section, starting near the North entrance), I've listed the photographers/artists with work on view, with the number of images on display in parentheses. In some specific cases where something caught my eye, I've added additional information, pricing (watch for different currencies), and installation shots.


Blue Section

Wilkinson Gallery (here): Anna Parkina (3), Laurie Simmons (1), Jimmy DeSana (1)

Anton Kern Gallery (here): Anne Collier (1)

Art:Concept (here): Jeremy Deller (1)

Galerija Gregor Podnar (here): Ion Grigorescu (1), B. Wurtz (1, with paired sculptural object)

Simon Lee Gallery (here): Hans-Peter Feldmann (1 set of 70). A classic of 1970s conceptual ordering, showing the entire wardrobe of a woman, from shirts on hangers to pairs of shoes. Priced at €35000.

Friedrich Petzel Gallery (here): Robert Heinecken (9)

Team Gallery (here): Sam Samore (2), Cory Arcangel (1), Ryan McGinley (6). Death at the foot of a playground slide never looked so wacky and offbeat (Samore's 1973 image from The Suicidist, priced at $20000.) In a side room painted yellow/orange, a series of new cut photo collages by McGinley has a small solo show. The works are densely covered in his signature young men and women, Xacto knifed into a exuberant sea of tiny faces and bodies; this one was priced at $35000 and already sold.

Anthony Reynolds Gallery (here): Paul Graham (1 diptych, 3)

Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle (here): Thomas Ruff (2), Thomas Struth (2), Candida Hofer (1), Goshka Macuga (1). A all-over composition of pipes and pumps by Struth, from his recent series of scientific labs and facilities, priced at €85000.

Green Section

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (here): Uta Barth (1), Gillian Wearing (1), Phil Collins (1 set of 32). Wearing as a creepy rubber masked August Sander, priced at £35000.

Hauser & Wirth (here): Roni Horn (1), Rodney Graham (1 diptych)

Tomio Koyama Gallery (here): Mika Ninagawa (4). Ninagawa's unorthodox use of vibrant color continues to astonish. From her recent series Noir, priced at $1200.

Harris Lieberman (here): Matt Saunders (2), Lisa Oppenheim (3). The delicate lace photogram gets an update by Oppenheim, folded over again and again into a layered progression of increasing complexity. One from the recent series of five, priced at $6500.

Galleri Nicolai Wallner (here): Joachim Koester (6)

Galerie Sfeir-Semler (here): Wael Shawky (8), Akram Zaatari (1), Yto Barrada (1). A haunting set of portraits of crusader puppets by Shawky, priced at €6000 each.

The Approach (here): Lisa Oppenheim (4), John Stezaker (1 set of 3 collages, 3 collages)

Almine Rech Gallery (here): Taryn Simon (3), Curtis Mann (1). Unlike Mann's previous bleached images, in this recent work, he has scraped thin wavy lines across the surface of the emulsion in a completely abstract striped design, a bit reminiscent of Marco Breuer. Priced at $8800.

Timothy Taylor Gallery (here): Susan Hiller (1 set of 9)

Lehmann Maupin (here): Robin Rhode (1 set of 12). I'm a big fan of Rhode's set piece wall drawings. Here cartoon chairs and a curled piece of white tubing provide the raw materials for a flip book story. Priced at $70000, with a solo show at the gallery coming in 2013.

Galerie Jocelyn Wolff (here): Guillaume Leblon (1)

Broadway 1602 (here): Penny Slinger (2 collages)

Air de Paris (here): Sturtevant (5), Jospeh Grigley (3)

Altman Siegel (here): Trevor Paglen (3). A long exposure image of the striated trails of dead satellites and space junk flying across the nighttime sky. Priced at $12000.

Galerie Thaddeus Ropac (here): Robert Mapplethorpe (2), Gilbert & George (1 set of 9)

Galerie Lelong (here): Alfredo Jaar (1 set of 5, 1 set of 3), Helio Oiticica (3), Cildo Meireles (1), Ana Mendieta (2). A Mendieta mud sculpture, printed large and priced at $75000.

Taka Ishii Gallery (here): Yuki Kimura (1)

Annet Gelink Gallery (here): Wilfredo Prieto (1), Yael Bartana (1 diptych), Ryan Gander (1)

Sies+Höke (here): Kris Martin (1 set of 10), Etienne Chambaud (1 set of 3)

Andrew Kreps Gallery (here): Goshka Macuga (1), Roe Ethridge (4)

Miguel Abreu Gallery (here): Liz Deschenes (2), Eileen Quinlan (3), Pamela Rosenkranz (1)

Part 2 is here; Part 3 is here.

Auction Results: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, June 27 and 28, 2011 @Phillips London

The results for the photography buried in Phillips' Contemporary Art sales in London last week weren't hugely remarkable. The top two high priced lots (a Sherman and a Gursky) failed to sell, there was only 1 positive surprise, and the overall Buy-In Rate across the two auctions topped 30%. I suppose it is no wonder then that the Total Sale Proceeds for photography missed the low end of the estimate range by a wide margin.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 53
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £1206000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1736000
Total Lots Sold: 37
Total Lots Bought In: 16
Buy In %: 30.19%
Total Sale Proceeds: £702150

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 5
Low Sold: 5
Low Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%
Total Low Estimate: £24000
Total Low Sold: £27125

Mid Total Lots: 35
Mid Sold: 24
Mid Bought In: 11
Buy In %: 31.43%
Total Mid Estimate: £437000
Total Mid Sold: £291575

High Total Lots: 13
High Sold: 8
High Bought In: 5
Buy In %: 38.46%
Total High Estimate: £1275000
Total High Sold: £383450

The top lot by High estimate was lot 5, Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #4, 1977, at £250000-350000; it did not sell. The top photography outcome of the two sales was lot 30, Thomas Struth, Pergamon Museum IV, Berlin, 2001, at £109250. (Image at right, top, via Phillips.)

89.19% of the lots that sold had proceeds above or in the estimate range, but there was only one surprise in these sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 263, Ryan McGinley, BMX, New York, 2001, at £22500 (image at right, bottom, via Phillips)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Auction Results: Under the Influence, March 8, 2011 @Phillips

The proceeds for the photography in Phillips' Under the Influence sale last week exceeded expectations, covering the high estimate with room to spare. With some help from Barbara Kruger and a low Buy-In rate (under 15%), it was a solid result all around.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 55
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $375000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $532500
Total Lots Sold: 47
Total Lots Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 14.55%
Total Sale Proceeds: $654750

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 40
Low Sold: 33
Low Bought In: 7
Buy In %: 17.50%
Total Low Estimate: $215500
Total Low Sold: $238500

Mid Total Lots: 15
Mid Sold: 14
Mid Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 6.67%
Total Mid Estimate: $317000
Total Mid Sold: $416250

High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: NA
High Bought In: NA
Buy In %: NA
Total High Estimate: $0
Total High Sold: NA

The top lot by High estimate was lot 143, Vik Muniz, After Mark Rothko (from Pictures of Colors), 2001, at $30000-40000; it sold for $68500. The top outcome of the sale was lot 89, Barbara Kruger, Ohne Titel - Lust, 2001, at $92500.

82.98% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 6 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 77, Ryan McGinley, Dash Bombing, New York, 2000, at $20000 (image at right, top, via Phillips)

Lot 84, Katy Grannan, Untitled (from Poughukeepsie Journal), 1999, at $10000

Lot 85, Katy Grannan, Untitled (from Poughkeepsie Journal), 1999, at $11250 (image at right, bottom, via Phillips)

Lot 89, Barbara Kruger, Ohne Titel - Lust, 2001, at $92500

Lot 102, Dionisio Gonzalez, Heliopolis IV, 2006, at $8125

Lot 185, Zhang Huan, Meat and Text (from 1/2 Series), 1998, at $20000 (image at right, middle, via Phillips)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

.

Phillips De Pury & Company
450 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10022

and

450 West 15th Street

New York, NY 10011

Ryan McGinley, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere @Team

JTF (just the facts): A total of 74 black and white photographs, framed in black and matted, and hung in the main gallery and smaller back room spaces. All of these prints are gelatin silver prints, taken in 2010, roughly 18x12 or reverse, and printed in editions of 3. There are also 4 large scale c-prints on display, framed in white with no mat. These works are roughly 110x72 or reverse, also in editions of 3. An exhibition catalogue of the black and white portraits has been published by Dashwood Books (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Ryan McGinley's new black and white portraits feel like an overt challenge to those who have dismissed his work as an overrated, overhyped group of flash-in-the-pan snapshot pictures of naked young people. He has taken a calculated and some might say dangerous risk here, and attempted to match the masters of the medium with his own take on the pared down studio nude. Many have tried and failed to find a personal and original view point in this subject, and I have to admit that I like the confidence it shows that he was willing to step into the breach and really test himself, rather than just churn out more work that has already proven attractive to many.
.
So what does a Ryan McGinley studio nude look like? For one thing, the frenetic energy and motion of his larger work is generally absent, as his models pose with shy, androgynous awkwardness against the uniform grey background - there are more quiet personal moments here, rather than zany antics and exuberant laughter. Second, his nudes are not particularly explicit or erotic; they trend more toward classic forms and fragmented body parts, with a large helping of faces to keep the pictures grounded in the specifics of single individuals. While a few too many of these images wander a bit too far into the well worn paths of the beautiful people who inhabit Abercrombie and Fitch ads (a little too perfect and retouched), in general, I came away impressed with McGinely's ability to find tenderness and intimacy, to capture a genuine kaleidoscope of youthful emotions and moods.
.
Those who visit this exhibit with a pre-disposition to take McGinley down a few notches will likely have a "been there, done that" reaction to these portraits. Fair enough. But I would submit that while these pictures do not have the same throw down as similar works by Mapplethorpe or Opie, they do attempt to get inside a particular subgroup of culture (the 18-28 year old) and see some of its unexpected and fragile beauty. Thin bodies, tattoos, messy hair, gap teeth, they all come together in joy and uncertainty, but with a vitality that is palpable. Edit out the bottom third of these works and the phrase "classic McGinley nude" might start to mean something quite distinctive.

Collector's POV: The black and white portraits in this show are priced at $5000 each; the larger c-prints are $25000 each. A few examples of McGinley's work have recently started to become available in the secondary markets; prices have ranged between $2000 and $23000.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Interviews: Dossier (here), NY Times T Magazine (here)
• Features: ArtInfo (here)

Ryan McGinley, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Through April 17th

Team Gallery
83 Grand Street
New York, NY 10013

Ryan McGinley and Aaron Siskind

While I realize many of you read the New York Times as regularly as we do, the Ryan McGinley photo essay in the past weekend's New York Times Magazine (here) seems worthy of a short discussion. For those of you who haven't seen the pictures, there are eleven color images of Winter Olympic athletes, outfitted in designer clothing (lots of wispy strips of fabric) and soaring through the air (as required by their various sports) against soft, pastel skies.

For photography collectors, these works will be immediately reminiscent of Aaron Siskind's Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation from the 1950s. McGinley has however traded Siskind's pared down, abstracted black and white silhouettes for unabashedly dreamy and romantic views. He has also expanded the scope of the pictures to include more sky, making the often graceful flying look even more precarious and unlikely. While not every picture in this series works for me, if these commissioned images are ever turned into artworks, I hope they are printed at monumental scale to cover a whole wall, the contrast between small figure and huge ground amplifying the peaceful bliss of floating.

Ryan McGinley @Alison Jacques

NOTE: This review has been contributed by a collector correspondent in London. While the format is the same as our usual New York reviews, the content and rating in this case were provided by a more local collector. Background on the collector correspondent program can be found here.

JTF (just the facts): A total of 24 c-prints, framed in white, were hung in the entrance area, the two main exhibition rooms on the ground floor and also the viewing rooms upstairs in the gallery. The prints range in size from approximately 11x14 all the way up to 72x110, and were shot over 2008-2009. (Installation shots at right, via Alison Jacques Gallery.)

Comments/Context: Ryan McGinley opened his first exhibition in the UK last Thursday, 10th September, at Alison Jacques Gallery in London with a show of prints from his new body of work entitled Moonmilk. The images have been created after McGinley took a small group of young men and women into caves across America, and with the use of coloured lighting, created a series of psychedelic underground landscapes.

The exhibition itself was intelligently hung and a number of the images were particularly strong, with my favourite being Sean (Inside Heart), Grace & Tracy (Goliath) and Wes (Falling). The latter image was particularly powerful and was used for the cover of the limited edition book entitled Moonmilk, published by Morel (here) to coincide with the London opening. I think in overall terms this latest body of work is a positive evolution for McGinley, who of course was thrust into the limelight when he was chosen to exhibit his work in the First Exposure Series at the Whitney back in 2003 at the tender age of 24. Perhaps the most significant departure from earlier work such as The Kids are Alright and I Know Where the Summer Goes is that the models themselves are predominantly not the focus of the images, but rather are used to provide context for the ethereal landscapes that exist in underground caves. Indeed in some of the most powerful images, the human form is very tiny or one can only see a head or an upper torso in the rock formations.

The event was very well attended with an expected mix of people from both the art and fashion world and has been widely covered in the British press, which has helped draw significant attendance in the days following the opening.

Collector's POV: Price wise, framed prints are refreshingly good value, as they mostly range between £6000 to £10000, depending on size and are limited to editions of just 3 + 2 APs. Although McGinley's early work drew comparisons with Nan Goldin, Larry Clark and Wolfgang Tillmans and he has even been compared to Robert Mapplethorpe, I think he has earned his own space and his work sits well with my own collection.

Ryan McGinley is also represented in New York by Team Gallery (here) and his prints have entered the secondary markets recently, with a handful of lots coming up for sale since 2006. Prices have ranged from $2000 to $23000, largely based on size.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist website (here)
• Guardian review (here)

Ryan McGinley
Through October 8th

Alison Jacques Gallery
16-18 Berners Street
London W1T 3LN