Art-fair fatigue 4: Paris Internationale and Asia Now

Posted

Paris Internationale and Asia Now were two of the main 'side-shows' during FIAC week.

Crèvecoeur at Paris Internationale

In my post about the FIAC, I suggested Paris Internationale was roughly 'the FIAC's Liste', and in the one about Basel, that at Liste, 'less fancy galleries can show edgier (and cheaper) work in grungier surroundings.' Paris Internationale was at its grungiest when, a few years ago, it took place in a disused garage and all the works ended up covered in dust. This year, the location was anything but grungy: an empty mansion of vast, labyrinthine apartments ('block of flats' would be too lowly a term) on the avenue Victor Hugo, in in the 16th arrondissement.

Two exhibits in particular stood out, to me: Crèvecoeur's spacious installation, including painted walls, of works by Ad Minoliti and Naoki Sutter-Shudo, whose little sculptures had already tempted me at the Ménilmontant gallery; and Delgosha, from Tehran, who'd gone out on a limb to show what in Europe might be called 'outsider' art, works by Hayedeh Ayazi, a self-taught artist in her 60s whose paintings (as I also said about Kévin Bray's) get better and better - and bigger, too.

I was also quite interested in pictures by Kinke Kool shown by Lucas Hirsch, in one of the first rooms I visited.

Asia Now is an event I'd never heard of, let alone been to before, but this year it included a 'Tehran Now' platform that attracted a number of Tehran galleries, so along I went. The name of the show is misleading, as what you see isn't really a panorama of the best art in Asia today, but in some cases what you might call second- or even third-tier work.

It was nice, however, to see things by familiar Iranian artists, such as a new flocked relief by Mamali Shafahi, at Plus Two, also, in a 'busy' presentation, showing Nima Zare Nahandi and Amir Kamand, and some nice pieces from Fereydoun Ave's personal collection, not for sale; and two floors up, seductive works by Mimi Amini at Etemad - big paintings on the backs of canvases and their stretchers, but also smaller pieces on paper, perhaps better still. There were also more paintings (after those on Dastan's booth at the FIAC) by Hoda Kashiha at Nathalie Obadia. The same gallery had some work by Shahpour Pouyan that would go well with my little 'sub-collection', around the theme of Indo-Persian painting, at home.















This is a link to a review, in French, of Paris Internationale.

And this is a link to an Artsy article about Asia Now.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paris tips: visiting

Posted
Image
  Note : this post and the April 28 one, about eating out, were written for American friends visiting Paris, one of them for the first time, who wanted a few tips from a local. They were staying in a hotel just off République... ***** I guess you'll have your own guide book to help you plan your visit. But whichever one (or more) it is, I thought you might find the Michelin Green Guide 's tourist map of Paris (below) helpful, as it makes it easy to locate the main sights. I think you'll find if you click on the map, it will blow up to a more legible size. The inset box at top left explains Michelin's ratings system, similar to its approach to restaurant ratings. With a decent guide book, you won't need much help from me, but I just wanted to add one or two items that visitors might miss, plus an idea for a north-south walk (or south-north, as you wish) that makes a change from the usual main east-west (or west-east!) drag. Also, finally, one neglected but unique mus...
Read more

Paris tips: eating out

Posted
Image
Note : this post and the April 30 one, about things to see, were written for American friends visiting Paris, one of them for the first time, who wanted a few tips from a local. They were staying in a hotel just off République... ***** THREE STRONG RECOMMENDATIONS These are the three places I'd most strongly recommend during your visit, as I think they offer a nice variety of quality Parisian eating experiences. 1. Dinner at Le Train Bleu When the underlying idea was to recommend places off the tourist track, it might seem odd to start with Le Train Bleu, at the Gare de Lyon. But this is surely one of the most extraordinary restaurant spaces in the world. You can only experience it in Paris, of course, and I usually take any first-time visitor there for dinner. It's Lyon-influenced brasserie food at more-than-brasserie prices, but they have simple set-price menus at 55 and 74 euros, and anyway, as usual, the final bill depends above all on what you drink. It's worth it (and...
Read more

Anna Uddenberg: an interesting new development

Posted
Image
Anna Uddenberg is a Swedish artist whose work has, I think, something quite original, distinctive and perceptive to say about the image of women in certain, specific currents of consumer culture that might otherwise be overlooked. I hadn't seen much of her recently, but she now has an exhibition, at her Berlin Gallery, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler (or K-T Z), of totally new works focusing, this time, not on women but on men. The resulting woodcarvings are an interesting and quite surprising development, and add to what seems to be almost a 'fashion' for reliefs in art at the moment. This is the link to the new exhibition, 'Big Baby' , at K-T Z. This is the link to a video about the new work, on Vimeo , but the video is also on the gallery website. This is the direct link to the page about Anna Uddenberg on the gallery site. The following are some photos of Anna Uddenberg's new and previous work, 'borrowed' from K-T Z.
Read more