Photography at the 2012 Frieze New York Art Fair, Part 2 of 3

This is Part 2 of my review of the photography at the 2012 Frieze New York Art Fair. Part 1 can be found here, along with some background information on the fair and an explanation of the format I'm using for the the booth by booth details.


Yellow Section

Metro Pictures (here): Cindy Sherman (1 set of 35, 1 diptych), Louise Lawler (2), Olaf Breuning (1)

Regen Projects (here): James Welling (3), Wolfgang Tillmans (1), Gillian Wearing (1), Walead Beshty (1 diptych), Doug Aitken (1). It was hard to miss the eye-catching blast of saturated color in these photograms by Beshty. Priced at $48000 and already sold.

Renwick Gallery (here): Talia Chetrit (8). The Renwick booth was a solo show of Chetrit's recent work, with up-close fragments of textural skin, hair and body parts. This chain and nipple image was priced at $3500.

Marcelle Alix (here): Charlotte Moth (1 set of 8, 1 )

Hollybush Gardens (here): Benoit Maire (2)

Galleria Raffaella Cortese (here): William Jones (5), Marcello Maloberti (2), Roni Horn (6), Yael Baratana (2). The floor of this booth was covered in magazine cut outs of mountain ranges, echoing Maloberti's photograph of the process.

Karma International (here): Carissa Rodriguez (3)

The Third Line (here): Youssef Nabil (2)

Gallery Hyundai (here): Seung-Taek Lee (15)

Johann König (here): Annette Kelm (2)

47 Canal (here): Michele Abeles (6). The 47 Canal booth was a solo show of Abeles' work, with densely layered still lifes/photo collages. They were priced at $3600 each and all sold.

Carlier Gebauer (here): Paul Graham (1 diptych)

Galerie Diana Stigter (here): Nathaniel Mellors (1), Amalia Pica (slide show)

Laura Bartlett Gallery (here): Cyprien Gaillard (5), John Divola (3), Becky Beasley (1 set of 3). I liked the changing definition of space in this hybrid of sculpture and photography by Beasley. It was priced at £11500.

Andrea Rosen Gallery (here): Josephine Meckseper (5), Walker Evans (3), Wolfgang Tillmans (7), Aaron Bobrow (1 diptych, 1). I found Meckseper's assemblages of commercial items, complete with fog, fluorescent lighting, and shiny mannequins and backdrops unexpected and odd. They were priced at $7000 each. And while I have seen them before, I continue to enjoy the big Tillmans abstractions of misty color. This one was priced at $78000.

A Gentil Carioca (here): Thiago Rocha Pitta (3)


Orange Section

The Modern Institute (here): Luke Fowler (2)

Galerie Gisela Capitain (here): Alina Szapocznikow (1 set of 20), Christopher Williams (1 diptych), Zoe Leonard (5), Barbara Bloom (3)

Galerie Guido W. Baudach (here): Rashid Johnson (1), Jurgen Klauke (1)

Marc Foxx (here): Luisa Lambri (3), Anne Collier (1)

Mitchell-Innes & Nash (here): Amanda Ross-Ho (1). This Ross-Ho sculptural wall arrangement follows along from similar work show at MoMA in 2010. It was priced at $40000.

Alfonso Artiaco (here): Gilbert & George (1 set of 9), Vera Lutter (1 diptych), Darren Almond (2)

Galerie Francesca Pia (here): Elad Lassry (3, 1 set of 4)

Galerie Meyer Riegger (here): Helen Mirra (3)

Corvi-Mora (here): Anne Collier (1)

Galerie Krinzinger (here): Frank Thiel (1), Valie Export (1), Gunter Brus (2), Otto Muehl (1), Oleg Kulik (2), Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy (1), Thomas Zipp (1), Rudolf Schwartzkoger (1 set of 7), Marina Abramovic (1 set of 3), Vito Acconci (1). This large peeling paint image by Thiel is a recent addition to his Stadt series; it was priced at $34000.

Xavier Hufkens (here): Robert Mapplethorpe (4)

Galerie Praz-Delavallade (here): Amalia Saban (1)

Kerlin Gallery (here): Willie Doherty (2)

Richard Telles (here): Dan Finsel (1 diptych), Josephine Pryde (1)

Vermelho (here): Claudia Andujar (3), Rosangela Renno (1), Odires Mlaszho (2 collages)

Sean Kelly Gallery (here): Frank Thiel (1), Alec Soth (2), James Casebere (1), Robert Mapplethorpe (2), Iran do Espirito Santo (1), Yves Klein (1)
Galerie Chantal Crousel (here): Wolfgang Tillmans (2), Jean-Luc Moulene (3)

Salon 94 (here): Liz Cohen (1 set of 150, 1 diptych), David Benjamin Sherry (7), Carlo Mollino (39 Polaroids), Lorna Simpson (19 collages). While still life images of tools have been done before many times, I liked both the choice of smaller individual scale and the wall-filling volume of this typology; it was priced at $72000.

Sommer Contemporary Art (here): Yael Bartana (3), Gregor Hildebrandt (3)

Experimenter (here): Bani Abidi (1 installation). While the content and message of this piece were of less interest to me, I was intrigued by the agglomeration of photographic layers, of the pictures of pictures (in various sizes) then stacked and placed in spatial relationship to each other in a single collection.

Cheim & Read (here): William Eggleston (2), Jack Pierson (1)

Part 3 is here.

Talia Chetrit, Reading @Renwick

JTF (just the facts): A total of 20 black and white and color images, framed in thin black/white frames with no mats, and hung in the main gallery space and back office. All of the works were made in 2008 or 2009. There are 7 c-prints (all 20x16, in editions of 4+1), 1 inkjet print (20x16, in an edition of 4+1), and 12 gelatin silver prints (5 prints at 14x11, 3 prints at 20x16, and 4 photograms at 14x11, editions are either 4+1 or 3+1, depending on whether unique process steps are being used). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Talia Chetrit's first solo show places her firmly in the process camp of contemporary photography, exploring the boundaries and meanings of the medium via experiments with light and color. I first came across her work in the After Color show at Bose Pacia last summer (review here); she had contributed some camera-less Photoshop gradients that were crisp exercises in monochrome abstraction. In this exhibit of new work, she covers a much broader array of techniques and approaches to studio-based picture making.

Several of the images on view are formal still lifes that have a vaguely Bauhaus feel to them; the wavy glass vase set against a graph paper grid seems straight out of the 1920s. Other pictures have a Surreal touch, merging playfulness and mystery - a plaster cast of a face, a fist and glove, and a photogram of a hand covered by undulating lines all have avant-garde sensibilities. Still others bear resemblance to traditional art school assignments (the abstract cut paper sculpture and the darkroom strobe lights in primary colors against black velvet), where the effects of light are tested and analyzed. Optical distortions, graphical elements, color patterns, chemical aberrations, they're all here.

Overall, what is on display is an eclectic group of experiments; having seen the output of these methods, I can now easily imagine Chetrit working in her studio, taking chances and trying out different things, some working, some not, moving from tangent to tangent, trying to grab hold of the elusive edges of the creative process. I was left feeling that this is an artist who is actively and aggressively searching, looking for new ways into a medium that is in the midst of wholesale transformation. I'd be willing to bet that the best of the ideas that emerge out of this creative stew will form the basis of a tighter body of process-based work going forward.

Collector's POV: The images in the show are priced as follows: the small prints are $1600, the large prints are $2000, the photograms in the back are $1800, and the images that include a unique process step are $2300. Chetrit's work has not yet entered the secondary markets, so gallery retail is really the only option for interested collectors at this point.

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

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Interview: Too Much Chocolate (here)
• Feature: We Can't Paint (here)

Talia Chetrit, Reading
Through October 17th

Renwick Gallery
45 Renwick Street
New York, NY 10013