3 artists to watch during Armory week
It’s a big week for art in NYC with the Armory Show and Independent Art Fair. Here are 3 artists to seek out when cruising the aisles.
Ned Vena
This New-York based artist might be one of the most exciting (and ambitious) rising abstract painters of his generation.
Born in 1982, Vena was running a business of vinyl signs when he decided to repurpose images made by clients in G-shaped canvasses. (‘Painting without borders’, 2014) For the new piece that will be displayed at The Armory he uses the vinyl masking techniques of some of his earlier pieces, but in this case he pours Garvey ink over the mask. During the pour, two canvases are stretched on top of each other, then are re-stretched separately, resulting in two different works made through a kind of rudimentary printing process.
Real Fine Arts, booth at Independent Art Fair, 548 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
Buy on ArtList: Ned Vena, Unique Artwork, 2011 — Listing price: $27,000
Leo Gabin
Fascinated by para-social interaction and user-generated media, all of Leo Gabin’s videos call into question the concept of ownership.
After having worked with Harmony Korine on the conception on his film ‘Spring Breakers’ the Belgium collective delivers its own visual interpretation of Harmony Korine’s experimental book ‘A Crack-up at the Race Riots’ (1998), in view now in a theater they built at Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York. With this longer video they go further in their Appropriation Art approach.
« We take things. It’s not our thing, but we make it our own through that process. »
explained the trio of artists that sourced all the footage from YouTube. This week, 2 of their paintings and twenty of their totem sculptures made out of pictures, plastic bottles and other objects that were in his studio will also be displayed at the Independent Art Fair.
Elizabeth Dee, booth at Independent Art Fair 548 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
Also showing different work by Leo Gabin at Elizabeth Dee Gallery until March 28.
Buy on ArtList: Leo Gabin, Very Large Painting, 2011 — Listing price: $22,000
Sam Moyer
Sam Moyer’s work is all about simple (and funny) illusions.
In her piece ‘More Weight’ (2014) some fabric is ironed and dyed in a way that make it look like a large wooden board and the title is a reference to the Salem Witch Trials, where a man was placed (and killed) under a wooden platform loaded with heavy stones in order to make him talk… The only answer he ever gave before dying was « More weight. »
When Moyer does not play with canvasses to give life to bi-dimensional sculptures, the 32-year-old artist borrows images or materials from everyday life that she turns into abstraction. For example, her ‘Worry Rug’ series (2009) was made with Ikea rugs she dyed and picked appart.
This week at the Armory Show, Rachel Uffner Gallery will display two large glassworks that the young Chicago born artist has recently created.
Rachel Uffner Gallery, booth at the Armory Show, Pier 94, Twelfth avenue at 55th St, New York City.
