Thursday, January 29, 2015

Interesting Artists and Galleries at (E)merge Art Fair

It's been over three months since the (E)merge Art Fair here in DC, but I feel obliged to mention some interesting artists and galleries I encountered there - prior to launching this blog.

It was great to discover some first-rate Caribbean talent! Arc Magazine and NLS Art Initiative (both of Kingston) presented a group of Caribbean artists. Their real stand-out was Oneika Russell,  a young Jamaican artist who has spent a considerable amount of time in Japan. Her series of portraits of a black woman, usually largely hidden,  had great raw power and a wonderful sense of color! To view go to   http://www.oneikarussell.net/p/portfolio.html

Local DC Artist Nicole Salimbene represented herself with a very powerful installation - the most impressive I've anywhere here in DC in a long time!  I invite you to explore it on her site at: http://www.nicolesalimbene.com/autobiography-of-consumption-5-scrolls.html

I'm big fan of local DC Artist Fawna Xiao - I think she has a big future ahead of her. (full disclosure: I own her work). No gimmickry or latching on to the latest trends here: Just a gifted young artist following her own path, creating powerful, archetypal work.  http://fawnaxiao.com/

The most impressive gallery I encountered at the fair was probably Salar Art Gallery of La Paz. Given the current situation in Bolivia, they've chosen the all-art-fair route. They represent a very-high quality stable of international artists and photographers with innovative, unusual work. At (E)merge, they showed but one artist, Sonia Falcone, a Bolivian living in Hong Kong (!). I invite you to look at her dazzling output here, http://www.salart.org/hd/falcone.php , and to explore the work of their other artists as well.

So those were my highlights of (E)merge 2014 - I look forward to next year's edition.

My Web site: www.marcelgrichter.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/mgfr2005

No comments:

Post a Comment