Vanessa Albury is a visual artist based in Brooklyn and the co-creator of The Sun That Never Sets, a nomadic video art pop-up. Here she picks her top selection from Untitled, Miami Beach, 2015.
Since the art fair began in 2012, Untitled Miami has remained consistent, once again offering a selection of high quality artworks with nary a nod of pretentiousness. Spatially, the aisles are open and bright, if a little winding. One side of the expansive tent, the beach-side wall, faced the ever-captivating Atlantic ocean. Art Untitled combines noteworthy artworks and an ever-expanding roster of international galleries, on the beach not far from Art Basel. It was an ideal spot to breathe in the salty air, offering a moment of a respite from this year’s record-breaking count of twenty art fairs in Miami for 2015.
MKG127 (Toronto, Ontario) “For the Time Being” (booth title) for Adam David Brown’s works
“Moon Light” (foreground), 2015 and One Time or Another, 2014, Photograph by Vanessa Albury, Untitled Miami, 2015
Adam David Brown, showing with
MKG127, presented a sculpture that could also have doubled as the best night-light
ever.
Site:Lab (Grand Rapids, USA) with Julie Schenkelberg
Lumerian Shift, 2015, Found objects, Photograph by Vanessa Albury, Installation at Untitled Miami, 2015
Julie Schenkelberg’s work towered over the more collectible, home-scaled and two-dimensional works popular in most booths, making it delightfully hard to miss. Her voluminous installation was formed by found objects from abandoned buildings in Michigan with
Site:Lab, one of the exciting non-profit and artist-run projects regularly featured at Untitled. Site:Lab’s presentations are consistently refreshing, but sadly such large-scaled works are very rare in market-driven fairs. Schenkelberg is also represented by
Asya Geisberg Gallery in New York who were part of Untitled Miami as well.
Bravin Lee Programs (New York, USA) Amy Wilson, We Felt This, 2015, Lace, Photograph by Vanessa Albury, Installation view Untitled Miami, 2015
Amy Wilson’s digitally stitched lace was easy to miss among the sheer volume of artworks in an art fair setting. It measures about the size of a dinner plate. Wilson combines traditional stitches with figures floating in space and text. In an endearing way it says “That which moves, that which drifts. That which cuts. That which just fades away. We felt this.” This piece is a great example of how artists are transforming age-old mediums, like ceramics and needlepoint, with digital and three-dimensional printing while continuing to create moving work with an artist’s touch.
Bravin Lee Projects
Prosjektrom Normanns (Stravanger, Norway) Ane Graff, Lars Morell, Elin Melberg, Kristin Velle-George, Margrethe Aanestad and Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova curated by Ian Cofre. Installation view at Untitled Miami, image credit Elin Melberg
Prosjektrom Normanns is an artist-run project out of Stravanger, Norway. They just received the first Office of Contemporary Art grant for commercially driven exhibitions to attend Miami Art Week along with Locus exhibiting at X Contemporary. A piece titled, “Snug” by Ane Graff caught my attention first, floating and translucent on a copper pipe. Ian Cofre thoughtfully curated the booth, playing with shapes, shadows and the frame in the pieces culled from artists who have shown in their Stavanger, NO art space and an intervention by Miami artist Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova.
Halsey McKay Gallery (East Hampton, USA)
Lauren Luloff, “Dark Begonia” (background), 2015 and Coby Bird “Chair”, 2015. Photograph by Vanessa Albury, Installation view Untitled Miami, 2015
“Dark Begonia” is from Lauren Luloff’s most recent body of work, consisting of patched block prints of plants, figures and urns on draped bed sheets and sheer fabrics floating in space or on a frame. Her paintings feel both physical and ephemeral, similar to the content they depict.
Halsey McKay Gallery
ADA Gallery (Richmond, USA) Ryan Browning’s installation of small-scale oil paintings on copper, 2015, image credit ADA Gallery, Installation view Untitled Miami, 2015
Ryan Browning’s small-scale works humorously toy with the ennui of quotidian life today, referencing Jan Brueghel and 16
th century Dutch still-life painting, combined with animated reference and inspirational posters most likely found in office spaces.
ADA Gallery
Galería Nora Fisch (Buenos Aires, Argentina) with Rosana Schoijett, Collage #86, 2015, Collage, pages from found books, Installation view Untitled Miami, Image credit Galería Nora Fisch
Rosana Schoijett’s collages from vintage book illustrations and photographs are encased in dark-stained, hinged frames, inviting the viewer to open and close them like a Japanese folding book or a Renaissance folding triptych painting.
Galería Nora Fisch
Ochi Projects (Los Angeles, USA) with Brian Wills,”Untitled (Hovering Thread, Individual Works)”, 2015, Rayon Thread and Walnut, Photograph by Vanessa Albury, Installation view Untitled Miami, 2015
Brian Wills’ thread works subtly vibrate in person. These small-scale fiber works reference the Light and Space artists and Minimalism, recalling James Turrell, Mark Rothko and Fred Sandback.
Ochi Projects
Galería Marso (Mexico City, Mexico) with Sarah Schoenfeld Seeing, Hearing Or Feeling Things That Are Not There (Shaman Coat), 2015, Spaceship of 2001: Space Odyssey laser printed on fur Image credit Marso Gallery, Installation view Untitled Miami, 2015
Galería Marso featured German artist, Sarah Schoenfeld and her artworks exploring links between vision and the mind in perception. On display was a laser-printed cowhide of a final scene from
2001 a Space Odyssey presented as a shaman’s cloak, along with images of brain-altering drugs made by placing a drop of water mixed with Adderall, speed and other chemicals directly onto photographic negatives.
Galería Marso
Arróniz Arte Contemporaneo (Mexico D.F., Mexico), Ishmael Randall-Weeks (foreground), “Untitled”, 2010,Carved magazines, desk, lamp and mixed media installation & Moris, Horizonte Roto II, 2015, Five cut and sewn found paintings, Photograph by Vanessa Albury, Installation view Untitled Miami, 2015
According to his gallerist from
Arróniz Arte Contemporaneo, artist Israel Meza Moren who goes by the name Moris,
believes that there are three chances to “get something right.” These painting fragments entered the world as craft, practice paintings, then ended up at flea markets. This new context gave Moris the chance to give them a third life as united skies, floating fittingly over Ishmael Randall-Weeks’ vintage geography magazine mountain range.
Parisian Laundry (Montréal, Canada) with Celia Perrin Sidarous
Photographs from left to right, top to bottom, Coral and Sea Glass, 2015, Marble Egg, Seashell and Images, 2015 and The Waves, 2015, Inkjet on matte paper, Installation view at Untitled Miami, image credit Parisian Laundry (Toronto, Canada)
Artist Celia Perrin Sidarious constructed images and still-life photographs play with texture and depth with coral and sea glass, very appropriate for the Miami Beach location.
Parisian Laundry
Central Galeria de Arte (São Paulo, Brazil) with Nino Cais
Flags, 2013, Fabric, wood, ceramic knobs and metal cups,Warfare, 2014, Book pages and jewels, Photograph by Vanessa Albury, Installation view Untitled Miami, 2015
Nino Cais collects materials from craft store fabrics to second-hand store books. On view at Untitled were flags he made for his
proposed nation of crafty collectors and bedazzled vintage images of warfare peppered with humor and delicacy from a book he bought last year while attending Art Basel in Miami.
Central Galeria de Arte
