Art Fair Illusions

Art Fair Illusions Bae Joonsung, The Costume of Painter

Annie Nelson looks back on her visit to Art14 and worries about the conversion of contemporary art into a commercial commodity.

The art fair has become the place to show. With commercial galleries popping up around the globe, the number of art fairs has also rocketed. Although a costly investment for any gallery, art fairs provide the opportunity to be 'discovered' by collectors and possibly offer up a more open playing field than out in the 'real' world. You might expect that the market would have reached its limit by now, but there was little sign of this at Art14. This international art fair, now in its second year, showcased over 180 galleries from over 40 countries, and even with the spacious high roof of Olympia Grand and the large walkways, it was still bustling with people.  

The mix of work at Art14 was very eclectic, lying somewhere between the established commercial fairs such as London Art Fair and more cutting-edge contemporary fairs such as Frieze. More commercial work sat side by side with a less object-based approach, such as David Sherry's performance at Patricia Fleming Projects stand. Amongst the established commercial galleries it was refreshing to see dedicated performance spaces, and although there was a jumbled feeling, the 'Emerge' section was the heart of the art fair, in contrast to London Art Fair, where you find the most exciting and cutting-edge work tucked away upstairs in the ‘Projects’. 

In recent years the contemporary art scene has fully embraced video art, with the Turner Prize awarded to both Elizabeth Price in 2012 and Laure Prouvost last year for video installations/works. The increased popularity of video and interactive works in general was obvious at Art14, as it has been at other art fairs recently. Yet I found the translation of this into a consumable commercial commodity unnerving. I was troubled by the vulgar attempts to offer buyers a compromise between contemporary and traditional. Is the strong presence of holographic work a desperate attempt to coax buyers with a cheap gimmick that offers some element of movement? Does presenting video works boxed into wooden frames create a viable commercial product? By crudely combining traditional painting techniques with interactive elements, holographics and lights, it seemed that dealers were trying to give the buyer contemporary art they might feel comfortable with, rather than challenge or change their expectations. 

Chris Levine, Shes's Light (Laser 3), 2013 Recycle, Omg They Killed Kenny

Work by Chris Levine, (left)  Recycle, OMG They Killed Kenny (right)

There were some gems to be found though, such as Kenji Sugiyama (Institute of Intimate Museums) at Standing Pine Gallery from Japan, whose work is playful and well executed. Sugiyama's works drew me in to impeccably detailed miniature museums and compelled me to reflect on ideas about spectatorship and the nature of observation. Russian art duo Recycle presented 'Omg They Killed Kenny', a shrine to contemporary televisual culture that also drew parallels between religion and social media. The installation presented South Park stained glass windows with a huge Facebook logo towering above and a faux stone 'engraved' with the words '10 Commandments, updating in progress', a thought-provoking and conscious juxtaposition of classical and contemporary, with an overriding sense of irony.

Kenji Sugiyama, The Third Eye Kenji Sugiyama Amir Hossein Bayani, "Victims of Kahrizak", 2014

Work by Kenju Sugiyama (left and center)  Amir Hossein Bayani (right)

Like a Sunday morning visit to a car boot sale, I came away with some great finds and sore feet, but only after trawling through a selection of outdated and cheaply made gimmicks. I was left feeling concerned about what appeared to be a compromise on the artist’s part to create work that played to the desires of buyers formed by a fast-paced consumer society. A large selection of the work seemed to me cold and heartless, rather than offering clever or satirical questions, observations or alternatives. Artists will always struggle to survive. But must we make such compromises in order to succeed? 


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Contributed by Annie Nelson, 11 March 2014