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I
started my journey at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis where Jeffrey
Uslip is heading up the programming. It was bucketing it down but we still felt
the warmth of the St. Louis people. Kelley Walker had excelled himself and
managed to create the perfect shows with ‘Schema’ and ‘Direct Drive.’
Kelley Walker’s ‘manipulated’ MacBook Pro.
I loved the Aquafresh CD-ROM.
Then it was a quick Southwest flight to Vegas accompanied by a superb Elvis Presley steward. He was such a pro and kept the whole cabin entertained.
I managed to hang some of our works in Las vegas and be wonderfully united with this old Gavin Turk.
Roy Zab. had curated a number of neons to perfection for the Life is Beautiful Festival including this Dan Attoe and an installation by Nick Darmstaedter.
From Las Vegas I travelled to Chicago, there was so much to see. With our wonderful hosts, the Fields we headed to Kavi Gupta gallery to visit the McArthur Binion exhibition ‘Seasons.’
Then we headed to Kavi’s other space in Chicago’s equivalent of the Meatpacking District opposite Soho House and saw the wonderful Roger Brown and Andy Warhol exhibition. Roger’s paintings are so exciting and fresh using many different poignant references from the ‘70s and ‘80s. Roger sadly passed away in 1997 and Kavi had used the items from his home to create magnificent installations. This painting is so spiritual and meaningful.
The EXPO Chicago art fair was a big success and I found myself being drawn much more to older artists’ work than I usually would. It also felt like the younger artists were becoming quite overpriced, in some cases they were averaging over three times the amount they, very recently, used to be and no one was even blinking. So when you come across masters whose works are not too much more, you start to think twice. A very strange disparity.
The icing on the cake were these amazing Anthony Caro ‘Arena Piece’s’ from 1995, which he had created on his visit to Italy after being inspired by Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel. Whilst I loved them I stuck to my principles of collecting emerging artists.
Kusuma shoes, one of the best works of hers I had seen at Robert Miller Gallery.
Then one of the best works at the fair were these wonderful his and hers dressing gowns by Jim Dine ‘The Two Winton Robes’ 1984.
Frank Stella’s ‘Sinjerli III’ from 1967 at Paul Kasmin Gallery was lovely with its muted colours. It was one of eight in the series.
Paul Kasmin also had the most incredible Iván Navarro ‘Boom’ on show.
Then I saw a few younger artists. Kendell Carter ‘Ottomans’ at Monique Meloche Gallery.
In the VIP lounge Daata Editions launched new videos by Larry Achiampong, Casey Jane Ellison, Rashaad Newsome, Tameka Norris, Saya Woolfalk, Jake Chapman, Graham Dolphin and Joachim Koester and Stefan A Pederson. It was a wonderful experience.
Omar Kholeif’s talk on the future of Digital Art was a highlight and it was a joy to share a panel with collector Carl Thoma and curator Christiane Paul and discuss Collecting in the Age of Futurity. It was such a relief be able to share my real thoughts.
Omar’s MCA Chicago has some superb work by Kerry James Marshall.
Then I had just enough time to visit Beth DeWoody’s collection titled ‘Wholeville’ at the Peninsular Hotel. This ‘Snowman’ 2009 is by Tony Tasset.
