Dropped by The Artist Project art fair last night and have to say there wasn't a lot that impressed me. Before I went, I thought "Why is there a fair here at the same time as the Armory Show? All the serious collectors will be in NYC." But as it turns out, there is not a lot of work here for serious collectors. The appeal is to art newbies who want to walk around looking at art with a glass of wine in hand--an experience I'm personally not against. But I would be concerned that new collectors, or simply the curious, going to this event would miss the best that's going on in the Toronto artists community.
Also, though I heard opening night (Thurs) was packed, last night was pretty slow. So I wonder how much the artists are getting back for their booth investment.
Still, I feel obliged to offer a few highlights to check out if you are going. (A few of these arecrossovers from organizer MMPI's One of a Kind Show, which I would say is a better deal for browsers, actually (better craft angle)). Anyway, here's the booths I recommend:
- Wendy Walgate's crazy ceramics, as always
- Catherine Telford-Keogh's neon textiles--an agglomerated version of which were a highlight of a recent show at the Ontario Crafts Council Gallery
- Aleks Bartosik's Dumas-esque portraits -- still needs to develop skill, but appealing at this stage.
- Ilyana Martinez's cute watercolours were OK
- Kelly Grace hits a nostalgic nerve for my generation in illustrating old toys -- Woodsies! Yay!
- Peter Mitchell's works are more illustrative in nature, but made me crack a smile
- The AWOL Gallery booth had some better stuff
- The Sketch booth was exuberant and appreciated
- Selena Wong had a lot of attention for her Royal Art Lodgesque drawings of animal creatures
- Bogdan Luca has some nice loose paintings styles going on, also will wait to see how this develops
- Min Hyung had lots of critical acclaim for her premiere show at Angell in January; here she's showing in the emerging artists section
- Heidi Leverty does digital photo parints of multiple "junk" objects that reminded me of Chris Jordan's work
- Parts Gallery co-owner Ric Santon has a booth here; but I was sad to see none of his stormtrooper portraits, little paintings I always enjoy.
There are some other kind of works I haven't seen before, like Nina Sampaleanu's wax works, which are pretty neat technically. Overall, though, I really wouldn't recommend it--even though I know the artists must have worked really hard to get ready.
Image of Wendy Walgate's ceramic work from her website
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