Take Me Out to the Fairground, Take Me Out to the Fair

Despite popular thought, the circus and the fairground are of British, not American, origin, and so it seemed appropriate that last week’s Frieze Art Fair, founded in London in 2003, came to town in carnival-like guise for its New York City debut.  With a bespoke tent designed by SO-IL architects of New York, colorful, gourmet food trucks, and the well heeled of NY in typical art world costume, Frieze had all the trappings of an amusement park.  Even getting to the Fair was its own sideshow.  Departing from 35th Street on the East River of Manhattan, I boarded a checkered water taxi and was ferried up river to Randall’s Island, site of Frieze 2012.   Oh, what a ride.

Adhering to my quest for outstanding works on paper, I navigated the chock-a-block booths of the big top and found some winners.
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William Cordova uses detritus and its often strange histories to compose both installations and works on paper that refer to transitions he endured as a Peruvian in various adopted homelands.  His multi-lingual references point to experiences lived, some comforting, others thorny with icons of his personal struggle.

Polish born Piotr Uklanski exhibited his work at Massimo de Carlo, a Milan gallery.  An artist that works in a variety of mediums, including video and sculpture, Uklanksi’s recent compositions of layered paper mounted on wood were almost pop in their sensational pull to come closer.  The ocular reference in the center of each work was a surprising and somewhat disturbing discovery.

Because most paper originates with wood, I will include the stunning, carved portraits of Stephan Balkenhol.  At once familiar and displaced, Balkenhol’s sculpted reliefs represent a sort of post-modern everyman, faces we can engender with our own associations.  Carved with a chisel and hammer and painted with matte, uniform colors, the narrative of these portraits is ours to own.

One of Peter Doig’s ravens from the Corbeaux series of monotypes caught my eye.  Inspired by a work of Georges Braques, Bird, Doig’s raven is determined in flight, buoyed by the pastel clouds that silhouette his primitive form.

Leaving the Fair at the end of the day, a photo of Cindy Sherman’s bid farewell.  The artist’s burlesque visage was in contrast to the countenance of spirited dealers and carnies that had come town for the Frieze Fair.  Perhaps the expression was simply a knowing nod to the coming weekend of exhibit and entertainment for an audience of art enthusiasts.  As performers know – the show must go on.