UNTITLED art fair opening

UNTITLED Art Fair Opening Night, Miami.

Opening :Monday, December 4th, 6 - 9.

Ocean Drive and 12th Street.

Open to the public:

Wednesday - Saturday, 11 - 7.

Sunday 11 - 6.

art-untitled.com

On Monday, December 3rd, the inaugural version of the UNTITLED art fair opened to a buzzing audience, brimming with curiosity about Miami's first beachfront art fair.  

Walking through a bright pink gate that acted as a Parthenon-like conceptual conceipt: its entire purpose as a signifier of the culture that you were about to enter, then walking a narrow gauntlet surrounded by sand into the actual structure. People arrived from light and noise: the tourist-laden 2-for-1-drinks hawking streets of Ocean Drive - to darkness, to a spotlit hot pink vinyl mini-house shape, and back to spot-lit walkway and black sky.

Right: image by Kianga Ellis.

Below: image of opening night gate by RedEye.

With gorgeous sunset views slowly fading into twilight over the ocean, and then moonlight coming through clouds and palm trees, this fair distinctively placed itself among nature, and the most uncrowded sightline of infinite sky and water. Unlike most fairs where after clogged aisles and artificial light, visitors returned to the visual overstimulation of Miami architecture and color, at UNTITLED visitors received the supine loveliness of the wide beach environment.

Inside, the fair had the same openness to natural light during the day, and even at night visitors could go on a balcony directly form the cafe to enjoy the ocean.  

Right: view from balcony outside UNTITLED cafe.

Below: Image of view from UNTITLED cafe.

All in all the opening was packed with patrons, with lines of people outside waiting to get in, and some not gaining entry due to capacity restrictions. The buzz was strong, the art-lookers serious and committed to checking out this brand-new fair, and the tall-tented open venue provided them 50 galleries and art spaces full of thoughtfully selected art. Curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud, each booth had a feeling of openness as well, showing the months of inividualized attention Chahoud gave to each gallery's program, selection and installation.  Architectural firm Keenan/Riley also deserved much credit for providing the atmosphere of freedom and time to explore and reflect.

Below: opening night madness, UNTITLED.

UNTITLED 2012 gave us a chance to see the possible future of fairs - taking its cue perhaps from this year's Frieze NYC's extreme freedom to create their own vision on Randall's Island in New York City, UNTITLED. More integrated into Miami's South Beach alternately beach-relaxed and manically touristic culture, UNTITLED aimed to both stand out as a uniquley-situated cultural beacon and slowly arise from the sand. We hope for many happy returns for future iterations of this fair.

Lisa Ross Catalog & Artist Talk

I am pleased to announce that the
Lisa Ross: After Night catalog is now available at the gallery. This has been a very exciting catalog to be able to produce, as Lisa's current series, on beds found in the desert landscape, is perfect for this format. The catalog is 22 pages, full color, $15: for inquiries please email the gallery at info@asyageisberggallery.com.

Lisa Ross will be giving an artist talk at the gallery on Saturday, November 12, at 1pm. A light brunch will be served.



The exhibition has also received press in aCurator magazine, Uprise Art, and soon in La Lettre de la Photographie. Check the NEWS section of the website for links.

"Salvajes"opening

Left: Installation; "Salvajes".

"Salvajes", an exhibition of eight artists, opened September 15. Curated by Guillermo Creus, "Salvajes" is inspired by the lyrical, political and metaphorical themes in the writing of Roberto Bolaño , conceptually aligning the Chilean writer’s characters and motifs with the works of eight contemporary Latin American artists. Drawing parallels between these artists and Bolaño’s persona as a nomadic writer, “Salvajes” intends to be Latin American in its essence, and universal in its language. The title of the exhibition, “Salvajes” (savages), refers to one of Bolaño’s most important novels, Los Detectives Salvajes, and to the stereotypical image of Latin Americans as the uncivilized.

Right: Curator Guillermo Creus in front of "Stela of the Gods of New York" by Irvin Morazan.

Alberto Borea (born in Peru) was educated at Bard and Skowhegan, and has had solo exhibitions at Galeria Isabel Hurley and the Y Gallery. He is currently in the Museo del
Barrio biennial show, The S Files. Awards and residencies include ISCP, Art Omi, a Pollock-Krasner Grant, and a Sculpture Space Residency.
Florencia Escudero (born in Argentina) has a BFA from SVA, and is currently completing her MFA at Yale University.

Left: Florencia Escudero (Left) by paintings by Ricardo Gonzalez.

Ricardo Gonzalez was born in Mexico City and completed his MFA at New York University, with exhibitions at Apexart, Kathleen Cullen, and LaMama Gallery.
Claudia Joskowicz was born in Bolivia and has an MFA from NYU. She has had solo exhibitions at Thierry Goldberg, Museo Nacional de Arte in La Paz, Bolivia, and Momenta. She has received an AIM residency, LMCC residency, a Fullbright Scholarship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has been included in group shows at LMAK Projects, the Sao Paolo Biennial, the Sharjah Biennial, the 10th Havana Biennial, and Socrates Sculpture Park.

Right: Asya Geisberg, Guillermo Creus, and Claudia Joscowicz, by photo of Alberto Borea.

Irvin Morazan was born in El Salvador. He has a BFA from SVA, and is completing his MFA at Hunter College. He is included in the current Museo del Barrio show “The S Files”. He will be performing September 30th for Salvajes, and will be included in Performa 11 with a performance on November 2nd.
Meyer Vaisman is an influential artist of the 1980-90s New York art scenes, and together with Ashley Bickerton, Jeff Koons, and Peter Halley known as the ‘Fantastic Four’. Born in 1960 in Venezuela to Romanian-Ukranian Jewish parents, he brings a cross-generational aspect to this exhibition, as a pioneer Latin-American artist that reached the New York art establishment “from inside”. He has exhibited at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, Leo Castelli, Jablonka Gallery, and Patrick Painter among others.
Manuela Viera-Gallo (born in Rome, grew up in Chile) received her BFA and MFA from
the Universidad Catolica in Chile. She had a solo exhibition at the Y Gallery in 2011 and is widely exhibited in New York, South America, and Europe.
Carlos Vela-Prado (born in Guatemala) is currently completing his MFA at Yale University.

For images from the exhibition, go to asyageisberggallery.com.

"Things Fall Apart" opens Thursday July 7 at SVA

"Things Fall Apart"

July 5 - August 13, 2011
Reception: Thursday, July 7, 6 - 8pm

School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents "Things Fall Apart," an exhibition of work by students and recent graduates of the MFA Fine Arts Department and curated by Asya Geisberg.

The exhibition's title reflects the mood of the world at large, as during the past few years economic and political tumult has produced financial 'corrections,' regional upheavals, and overturned assumptions of fealty among allies and enmity among foes. Decades of inertia have abruptly turned into revolutionary fervor in the Middle East, while at home political sureties have crumbled - the words 'gay marriage' have swung the polls in opposite directions. With no culmination in sight, this constant sense of repositioned status quo, of definitions and boundaries blown up, is reflected in art being produced today."

In "Things Fall Apart," artists refuse to take easy categorizations or art-historical imperatives for granted. Andrew Brischler (current student, MFA Fine Arts Department) upends the essence of painting, Betty Hart (MFA 2011 Fine Arts) acts as a modern alchemist with photography, and Jenny Santos (current student, MFA Fine Arts Department) disrupts perceptions of stability and solidity with seemingly simple gestures. Theresa Friess (MFA 2011 Fine Arts) mixes ethereal materiality with functional paradoxes, while Kim Smith's (current student, MFA Fine Arts Department) surfaces spark a confusion of additive and reductive marks.

Sharona Eliassaf's (MFA 2011 Fine Arts) media-influenced conflations and Joey Varas's (MFA 2011 Fine Arts) deconstructed war mementos decontextualize recognizable elements of our current state of "always-plugged-in" and "always-at-war." Katie Cercone (MFA 2011 Fine Arts) takes sensory overstimulation into the performative realm, enveloping her actions and videos in equally cacophonic environments. Julie Schenkelberg's (MFA 2011 Fine Arts) sculpture absorbs knowledge into a symbolic dead-end.

Emily Weiner's (MFA 2011 Fine Arts) symmetrical paintings start with the broken tradition of exalted nature, while mocking the impossibility of reaching the Ideal. Gudmundur Thoroddsen (MFA 2011 Fine Arts) dissolves dichotomies of the sacred and the profane, leaving the Ideal behind altogether. Angela Branco (MFA 2011 Fine Arts) reenacts what some might consider the essence of destructive and ritualistic power. Miyeon Lee (MFA 2011 Fine Arts), seemingly wishing for things to be back together, tries to show us a world of cosmic infinity, pinning the unknowable within the picture plane.

----Asya Geisberg

Visual Arts Gallery: 601 West 26th street, 15th floor

Monday through Saturday, 10am - 5pm

NYT review of "Hearts of Oak"

One simply cannot describe the feeling of going out in the cold morning, picking up a New York Times in one's sweatpants, throwing it on the kitchen counter, tearing a section rapidly in search of the page where one's name is found, not once, not twice, but...you get it. I know the review is of the Annie Attridge exhibition, which in addition to the reviews she received in the L magazine and Artlog she richly deserves. But, the ego is a sensitive creature, and when its fur is gently petted by the silken palm of "All the News that's Fit to Print", a gentle purr occurs.

In other words, yay!

Check out the Roberta Smith review below:


----------------------

February 3, 2011

ANNIE ATTRIDGE: ‘Hearts of Oak’

By ROBERTA SMITH

Asya Geisberg Gallery

537B West 23rd Street

Chelsea

Through Feb. 12

The British artist Annie Attridge shows a lot of awkward promise in her New York gallery debut. She works small and mainly in glazed porcelain, pushing traditionally demure tabletop figurines into compromising, often ribald positions while downsizing the heroic conventions of royal portraiture. The rearing horse is a favorite device, except that the rider tends to be a nude woman, a voluptuous breast or a pair of female buttocks swathed in frills, rather than a king.

There is not a man in sight here, only women offering up their bodies — or parts of them — in various ways. This can include being bound, possibly bleeding, to a truncated tree in the manner of Goya’s “Disasters of War” etchings.

Ms. Attridge’s slurred forms are more immediately indebted to the British sculptor Rebecca Warren, who also works with clay, and the Swedish claymation genius Nathalie Djurberg. At this point their very different skills in combining abstract and narrative force exceed hers.

Nonetheless, Ms. Attridge has a sure way with materials and a perverse sense of form that extends into small charcoal drawings and also bronze sculpture, especially the gleaming variation on a cathedral termite mound that culminates in three breasts.

Most of all there is the sexual and sexualized defiance of her vision. She has women on the brain in ways that would probably be frowned upon these days were she not a woman herself. As it is, Ms. Attridge is extending a tradition of small lascivious sculpture that reaches back to ancient times.

Art LA Contemporary

My first art fair as a participant brought about a few lessons on what to do, and what not to do. These lessons can be applied to anyone, whether hosting a party, or running a gallery, or doing any kind of dealing with the public.

1. Do not have a trash can. This might seem counter-intuitive, as you would think trash should be kept away from the clean and elegant environment you no doubt wish to preserve. I bought a lovely minimal perfect-sized white trash can to sit daintily (and discreetly) under my desk. However, as the VVIP opening went into the VIP opening and then to the general opening, I found that the more "V"s were in front of the "IP"s, the more crudely did people think it permissible to throw coffee cups (with coffee) glasses (with bright red-colored alcohol) and food into my lovely unsoiled can, which by the way was inches away from my legs, so it felt particularly invasive and insulting. Some people spied the can from the hall and threw it from afar. I kid not.

Left: stuff...

2. The less stuff the better. I love information, and like to provide it so that people don't have to ask but can look for themselves. Not so at an art fair. Less is more I realized. Put everything in one notebook, and then sit back and relax. Or rather...

3. Sitting is the devil. My back each morning was more and more agonized- perhaps it was all the LA driving, but most likely it was the awful chairs that I sat in for hours. By day 3 I realized that the intermittent shuffling and fake IPhone-scrolling of the dealer opposite me was actually a back-saving strategy. While constantly standing and pacing outside the perimeter of his booth, he somehow managed to not look like a caffeinated tchotchke-seller at the suk, but a chillaxed dude, who just happened to be the dude you would contact at the booth.

Right: Angelina Gualdoni corner of booth, with uncomfy devil chair.

4. People expect Art 101 and want to "chat". I had a woman come back twice to have me explain "how long should I hold onto an artwork before I sell it?" Another man asked me about how value is defined in art and wanted a full debate. A grumpy old man attacked with "Is this the state of the art world today? If so, then my four-year-old could do a lot better." I was expected to debate the meaning of art, explain the point of art fairs, defend the ethics of dealers, and nutshell the art-as-investment theory, all on a busy Saturday. I have encountered this in triplicate at the gallery of course, but having 100 square feet makes one feel beleaguered. Hence, the beauty of the dealer pacing outside the booth.

5. Save the best outfit for de-installation. I had brought a variety of comfortable and unremarkable outfits to wear, which all proved wrong as the temperature at the unheated airplane hangar plummeted at about 3pm each day, so that some dealers were seen wearing furs and scarves (and coats!) all day. By de-install, I had switched into jeans, while a prominent French dealer was seen attacking a 6 foot crate with a massive screw-gun while in a tight dress and 4-inch stilettos (so very French). As half the lights in the booths were off, another dealer, with long hair and a tall lanky build, stood still holding a large framed piece. A spotlight shined on his immaculate fuschia suede shoe, making it leap from the quiet darkness: one of the more aestheticized moments of the entire fair.

Overall, a great experience!

Newsweek in print

Newsweek article by Sameer Reddy out in print!

"Hot New York art galleries" p.49 - 51.

AGG mentioned on p.51, with two photos of paintings by gallery artists Angelina Gualdoni ["Fragment"] and Melanie Daniel ["Peacock"] on p.50.