Puppets by Wayne White at Art on Paper, which were part of the 2014 ‘FOE’ installation at York College; cardboard, wood, and acrylic paint. Joshua Liner Gallery, New York. (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)
Despite Art on Paper’s name, the work at the first-time Armory Week fair includes as many different materials as at any other fair, with art created on paper and art inspired by paper on view.
Exterior of Art on Paper at Pier 36, with a banner of a rabbit drawing by Dave Eggers at left. (click to enlarge)
The fair has a fantastic showpiece installation in the form of Wayne White’s colossal cardboard cowboys, one of which towers just inside the main entrance at Pier 36 on the East River. They were originally on view at York College of Pennsylvania last year as giant puppets. Also greeting visitors is a giant banner of a rabbit drawn by Dave Eggers on the exterior of the pier — the author is showing his illustrations with San Francisco gallery Electric Works — and an indoor installation of giant paper airplanes by Michael Scoggins, who has more oversized, elementary school-inspired notebook paperwork with New York’s Freight + Volume.
Perhaps a little ironically for a fair about art that celebrates paper, quite a few artists on view destroyed paper objects — namely books — to make their work. Most of it is well-crafted, however. Francesca Pastine’s mask made from an issue of Artforum, the X-Acto blades dangling like necklaces, is on view with San Francisco’s Eleanor Harwood Gallery, and Brian Dettmer’s tower of sliced hardcovers reveals a collage of encyclopedia images in the booth of New York’s Jayne H. Baum Gallery.
While the major art cities of the US coasts are well represented at the fair, there are also galleries from Paris, Vienna, Baltimore, Toronto, and elsewhere that don’t often show in New York present. Art on Paper was launched by Art Market Productions, which runs other fairs around the United States like Miami Project, Texas Contemporary, and Seattle Art Fair. If it sticks around for another year, it has the potential to fold some new regional flavor into the Armory Week fair frenzy.
Francesca Pastine, “ARTFORUM 53, Mgulu Rgulu, Mask Series” (2014), cut Artforum magazine, plexiglas, wood, screws strings, x-acto blades. To the left is an ink on paper work by Paul Wackers. Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco.
Michael Scoggins, “Dogfight” (2014), paper planes; presented by Freight + Volume, New York
Art by Michael Scoggins, graphite and pencil on paper; Freight + Volume, New York
Detail of Brian Dettmer’s “New Standards” (2015), hardcover books, acrylic varnish; Jayne H. Baum Gallery, New York
Nathalia Edenmont, “Growing Up” (2012), c-print mounted on glass; Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
Art by Federico Uribe made from books. Adelson Galleries, New York.
Art by Federico Uribe made from books. Adelson Galleries, New York.
Carolle Bénitah, “Le déguisement” (“The disguise”) (2009), archival pigment print with silk thread; Sous les Étoiles Gallery, New York
Melanie Pullen, “Ghosts (The Haunted Series)” (2015), ink on paper; Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco/New York
Sheridan Jones, “Coracus”; Rebecca Hossack Gallery, New York
Eva Jospin, “Untitled” (2015), cut paper; LN Gallery, Paris
Photographs by Adam Katseff; Sasha Wolf Gallery, New York
Art by Katherine Bradford; Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque
Detail of Diana Guerrero-Maciá, “Siblings of the Sun” (2015), series of 10 cut latex enamel & paper collage. Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley, California.
Fair view of Art on Paper in Pier 36, with Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco, at left, & Gallery Vitam, Miami/Paris, at right.
Art on Paper continues through March 8 at Pier 36 (299 South Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan).
