As the fog rolls in and out of the San Francisco Bay, so has FOG DESIGN + ART at the Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion. The art fair featured 43 galleries meticulously organized into individual showrooms. Placement was thoughtful and intentional. The entrance was $25 ($20 online) filtering public access and view. A portion of the Preview Gala supported SFMOMA while promoting sales and exposure.
Highlights included Vija Celmins’ hand-constructed Globe made of photo polymer on Echizen Washi Shikibu Gampi paper courtesy of Matthew Marks gallery. Celmins: “There aren’t really rules for painting, but there’s certain facts and fictions about painting. Part of what I do is document another surface and sort of translate it. They’re like translations, and then part of it is fiction, which is invention.”
Untitled (Can Sculpture) by Paul Lee combines a magnifying glass, light bulbs, tennis ball, spray paint, ink, string, wire, gel medium, printed image, sock, and coal into an intriguing piece of art. While David Gill’s gallery displayed a futuristic home setting with selections from Zaha Hadid, Michele Oka Doner, and Barnaby Barford. This is where my mind wants to live.
Joanna’s Manousis’ Indra’s Web mesmerized and dazzled thanks to Wexler Gallery. She is an international artist who has worked in the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States. According to the Corning Museum of Glass: “Manousis’ work captures and animates transitional moments, revealing a world in which objects, being, and places are interconnected and in flux. She uses glass to induce reflection—both physically and metaphorically.” Amazing!
Ratio 3 was masterfully curated with strong minimalist works that proved that less is more. Love, love, and loved their artworks. Noam Rappaport was predominately featured with masterful placement and conceptual rigor. His shapes make no sense but do.
I respect the time, effort, planning, and execution into a quality art fair. It’s a physical and financial commitment to ship, transport, and display artworks. When placement appears elegant, simple, and with ease: it undoubtedly was difficult to achieve.
Thank you.
The links:
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/vija-celmins
http://blog.art21.org/2013/03/27/100-artists-vija-celmins/#.VpqO53iC5j0
http://www.cmog.org/bio/joanna-manousis
http://seattle.winstonwachter.com
http://www.davidgillgallery.com
http://www.joannamanousis.com/news
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