A Cheat Sheet for Art Fair Coverage

Over the past week, we’ve brought you an enormous volume of art fair coverage. Art fair week may be over, but just in case you missed any of the events, we have your answer here: a Hyperallergic art fair cheat-sheet, with links to all of our separate articles plus a few from other blogs.

Armory

• In our initial photo essay, I covered booth highlights and picks on the contemporary art side of the Armory. Hrag followed up with his selections from the fair in a second photo essay.
• Hrag also covered the modern section of the Armory, picking out highlights from among the older, statelier works.
• In a video interview, Hrag spoke with Rhizome director Lauren Cornell about the Rhizome booth’s choice to show animated GIFs and websites as saleable works of art. A debate over the history of the sale of animated GIFs ensued.
• The worst Ai Weiwei sculpture ever was on display at this year’s Armory fair. My thoughts sparked a comment thread conflicting over the piece’s quality.
• WNYC’s Carolina Miranda has a slideshow and blurb about the Armory fair, as well as several others.

ADAA Art Show

• Hyperallergic writer Lynn Maliszewski asks if the ADAA’s show isn’t actually a cover for an elderly swingers club. Though the fair was fairly staid, composed of too many “modern masterpieces,” there were still a few highlights.

Pulse

• I picked out a few trends at Pulse 2011, including a move towards emotive, figurative painting, and chose highlights like STPI’s knockout solo booth by Trenton Doyle Hancock.
• Along with writer Rachel Wetzler, we recorded a short podcast about our feelings on the Pulse fair, from its new space to the dominance of figurative painting, plus some high- and lowlights.
• Over at Art Fag City, Paddy Johnson picked out the color pink as a major theme of the Pulse fair, and notices that by cutting the number of exhibitors, the fair has improved quality.

Scope

• Stephen Truax noticed that rising Brooklyn art neighborhood Bushwick contributed majorly to Scope’s impact, including significant contributions from Andrew Ohanesian.

Independent

• I called the Independent a fair for the international hipster set, but that didn’t stop me from appreciating the art on display more than any other fair. Check out this photo essay, with bonus commentary!
• Artinfo also picked up on the fair’s beautiful space and the community of galleries, while remaining generally positive about the art on view. Sales seemed to be going well at this indie fair, too.

Dependent

• Hrag has this shorter post on the Dependent art fair, a fair more notable for its representation of a certain subset of the art scene than for the art on view, or the ease of actually viewing it.

Fountain

• Hyperallergic contributor Jorge Martin picks up on the density of street art on view at Fountain, with a selection of photos by Hrag. This is the only fair in which Sarah Palin is represented!

Volta

• So many fairs! Stephen Truax covered Volta for us, commenting on this civilized affair with a detailed artist-by-artist analysis of the works on display.

Moving Image

• My photos and impressions of the video pieces included in the inaugural Moving Image fair are collected here. This fair was a real breath of fresh air for how much longer it was possible to spend time with the art.
• Photographer Sean Capone, via Art Fag City, also has some more highlights from the fair, with better stills of the videos than I managed to capture.