At Metro Curates Fair, Ceramic Poodles, Secret Society Chairs, and Everything in Between
For its fourth year, the annual, moderately sized Metro Show, now rechristened Metro Curates, opened Wednesday with an eclectic mix of folk and vernacular art, contemporary fare, indigenous artifacts, textiles, and a wealth of Americana.
For its fourth year, the annual, moderately sized Metro Show, now rechristened Metro Curates, opened Wednesday with an eclectic mix of folk and vernacular art, contemporary fare, indigenous artifacts, textiles, and a wealth of Americana.
Housed in the Metropolitan Pavilion, this year’s edition feels a little heavier on the curios than last year, with carousel horses, toy banks shaped like dogs, giant hand-painted signs for palm readers, and even an assembly of 1930s broom whisks. Compared to other New York art fairs, its open-armed acceptance of the full breadth of visual expression is refreshing.
In one booth Manhattan’s Gail Martin Gallery hosts a beautiful woven Peruvian tunic from 1100–1400 CE, while nearby glistening teeth are hideously stabbing out of the cheek of a contemporary resin sculpture by Colin Christian being shown by Brooklyn’s Stephen Romano Gallery. In between are highlights like Stephanie Wilde’s The Golden Bee project with Tanner Hill Gallery from Chattanooga, Tennessee, celebrating the disappearing Western Honeybee in gold leaf-accented drawings she’s been creating since 2008. There’s also an impressive wunderkammer set up by New York’s American Primitive Gallery, where an Independent Order of Odd Fellows secret society chair sits on one side of a wall, and on the other hangs a massive plaster relief of the 1938 Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling boxing match salvaged from a Denver gymnasium. Chicago’s Douglas Dawson Gallery brought delicate Dodon art from Mali, Mindy Solomon Gallery of Miami has some hefty, doe-eyed poodles sculpted by the late Kirk Mangus, and the booth of New York’s Forum Gallery is dominated by a colossal 1997 Faith Ringgold quilt in which the American flag is painted with dripping blood.
Below are more standouts from the crop of curious artifacts at this year’s Metro Curates fair.
Metro Curates continues at the Metropolitan Pavilion (125 West 18th Street, Chelsea) through January 25.
