BWW Reviews: Affordable Art in NYC

Justin Wheeler

The Affordable Art Fair docked inland at 18th street just west of 7th avenue on March 4 and set sail through March 7th.

The sky was blue and high above , Barry's parking angel was on his shoulder as we found a legal spot! The $25 of saved parking fare dues instantly elated us. Would the art do the same?

Art fairs come and go. Often we wonder how do the galleries afford them. The Affordable Art Fair aims to sell art for under $10,000, an affordable price. How many of you can drop 10K on a work of art and still contribute to your 401K? Hey Barry, just to be fair there was a lot of work under $2000, lots.

The show can be affordable if you are a bargain hunter and you have an eye for art. This can be challenging but to some extent this is at the heart of what all collecting is about. Get what you love and don't second guess your taste. If it doesn't increase in value you still have something you love. There was several galleries offering beautifully printed photographs from $25-$50. ?

Justin Wheeler One of Lynn's favorite was the U Gallery's Justin Wheeler's image of a simple ordinary object like a coffee mug in muted rich colors. It felt very modern. http://www.ugallery.com/

Gerrad Holtz

As the gallery has lots of art you need to have the eye of a Sunday yard sale goer to discern the bargains from the blunders. Gerrad Holtz's work caught my eye.

A handy carrying bag and off we went enthusiastic and feeling graft-free; it would take more than a carrying bag to buy us off.

Ilona Szarc

The School of Visual Arts (SVA) booth on the second floor with the 'emerging' galleries was THE spot for big bargains.

Ilona Szarc a young photographer from Poland captures preteens and teens with their dolls in behavior that is looked down on in Poland. Irony rings loud as the back story opens up Ms. Szarc's work.

Krispin Spencer

Besides reasonable priced photos, one of a kind original acrylics by Krispin Spencer, a soon to be SVA grad were there for the taking for as little as $800. Playful and beautiful forms emerge from colors running and bleeding into each other.

Mitch Pastor

Mitch Paster's color filled blurred photographs read like a Rothko oil with their floating large rectangular forms. Like so many artists, Mr. Paster is Brooklyn based. http://www.mitchpaster.com/

Young artists would welcome a call and a studio visit and the experience could be priceless for someone just beginning their collecting career.

Lee Nam Lee

Many of the galleries were from overseas while Chelsea's presence was anemic. There seemed to be an exceptional large contingency from South Korea. Barry noticed North Korea was absent, and suggests they may all be busy with military exercise. Who's the funny guy?

Lee Nam Lee's slow moving video fights the line between painting and video. Nature grows,changes and evolves and man's impact is felt; in a few short minutes you have a poetic expression of our impact upon planet Earth.

One of the more imaginative uses of materials at the Fair was that of Tony Prikryl at http://www.livaspenart.com/

Tony reworks and paints on 16mm film treating each skinny strip of film as a unique variation easily assembled into larger installations.

We particularly liked the pieces that were the least manipulated and revealed more of each frames photo. Lynn is a sprocket freak for sure. We inquired "Gee these are wonderful, does Mr. Prikryl work in a larger format?" The gallerist politely told us she will let the artist know of our comment.

XPlay from one media to the next is a common theme in the art world.

Ernesto Fernandez Zalacain

A very interesting integration of video and object was on view at London's Capital Culture Gallery in the work of Ernesto Fernandez Zalacain. http://www.capitalculture.eu/

Mr. Zalacain imbeds his video in pipes and parts that usually see water running through them. The work is arresting, just beware if you have a dog and buy his red fire hydrant. Lynn thought the

video's in the simpler rawer pipes were the most successful as they allowed the black & white ?lm footage to be the focus.

Barry Cawston

Barry Cawston was present and chatted with us about his work on view at Capital Culture.

These works portray the mass conglomerations of our civic lives in all its bright colors or steely colors specific to the various cultures Mr. Crawston captures through his lens. The work is a pleasure. Lynn mentioned several times how tired she was of grid groupings popping up in so many galleries . However, Mr. Cawston's naturally existing grid format photos were interesting and remind us how many of us live in boxes on top of boxes next to each other.

We saw common trends in the art world- maps, dots, grids and cut-outs to name a few. Some seem to be overplayed. Lynn quipped "can someone explain what is with the groups of bathers on beaches?" Why are so many artists in love with painting umbrella's; Perhaps it's the hard light. Happily everyone seems to trending away from the plethora of cute animals, the bunny craze and an infatuation with glitter. Oye the glitter of recent years...

All that glitters isn't gold. However....

Peter Kennedy

Around every corner lurked a new surprise and Peter Kennedy's dipped series of porcelain partially gold and silver glazed delicately positioned in a grid was one of our favorites.

Lynn spoke at length with Mr Kennedy while Barry complimented the ladies'dresses ,shoes whatever. After all Barry is a collector.

Hey Barry... Barry, where did you go? Oh of course those tricky life- sized barbie dolls that become topless depending on the angle you view them at..... have fun Barry, I'm moving on.

Lots of artist were present and spoke freely, one even of his hung over state of mind.

What a great day. In the end it was fun to see the wide range of work. Some work was playful and in a good way didn't take itself too seriously.

A stroll on the sunny side of the street, one of those days, sweater on sweater off to the Saigon Market on University Place near 12th Street. Now because it's Friday and 3:00pm we gave ourselves permission to drink cheap Tequila and humungous bowls of coconut chicken soup unlike grandma used to make.

We stopped at Fishes Eddy, "geez since when did their coffee mugs get so pricey"! The historical surreal mixed installation at the eye glass store we happened upon was amongst the best art we saw all day.

Along the way back to the car after numerous coffee stops, chocolate and macaroon we were perpelled into high octane discussion mode.

Another inspiring day in New York's Art world with Lynn and Barry......ART=NYC

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