Friday, March 11, 2005
Scope: It Doesn't Suck!
The quickest, most cursory run through of Scope as it opened today showed it to be the strongest offering that the fair's organizers have yet put together.
While it's official policy at From the Floor never to say anything nice about the west coast (especially LA...), I do have to admit that I was impressed by what dealers from the other coast had brought with them. LA's Acuna-Hansen, for one, had an especially large amount of quality work to offer.
In addition to everything one might expect to see from a pack of gallerists showing work by mostly emerging artists (read: small, obsessively detailed, figurative works on paper), there were several other trends on display:
While it's official policy at From the Floor never to say anything nice about the west coast (especially LA...), I do have to admit that I was impressed by what dealers from the other coast had brought with them. LA's Acuna-Hansen, for one, had an especially large amount of quality work to offer.
In addition to everything one might expect to see from a pack of gallerists showing work by mostly emerging artists (read: small, obsessively detailed, figurative works on paper), there were several other trends on display:
- Bedspread art is big this season (for obvious reasons at Scope), while textiles in general make a strong appearance.
- Cut up currency (dollars and pesos) shows up in more places than you would imagine.
- How many artists today are finding inspiration in shopping carts? More than you would guess.
- Diasec has now officially moved down-market. Face-mounted photographs are no longer solely the purview of Germans working in large format at five and six figure price points.
In general, there's much more painting on display this year (and, commensurately, less video and installation) than at past Scope fairs. I'm not sure how I feel about that (and the whole return to painting, in general), but on the whole this year's Scope doesn't disappoint like it has in the past.
