Palm Springs Art Fair at the Palm Springs Convention Center (277 N Avenida Caballeros, Palm Springs CA 92262) from Feb 14 -17.
Plus a bit about The Galen (new satellite of the Palm Springs Museum of Art) in Palm Desert and Imago Gallery
What a treat to see the new Palm Spring Art Fair now run by the Hampton Expo Group
who also show at Houston, Aspen and of course the Hamptons. They were
assisted in PS by Susan Myrland from San Diego who handled out
reach.
This
new fair in it's second year is heads above the older ones that I
visited in yesteryear. Very large booths, good lighting and a large
quantity of blue chip art makes the difference. This fair is attended by
the wealthy and art loving community of Palm Springs and benefits from a
large tourist population that is escaping colder climes.
Mel Ramos the featured artist of this year's fair gave a charming interview and mentioned that
last year's honoree was Judy Chicago, the feminist artist. Ramos is
about the furthest thing away from that with his some say,
"exploitative" views of lovely ladies. He would say these are
appropriated images and this second hand use gives him some distance from the exploitative label.
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| Mel Ramos |
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| Mel Ramos
first super hero painting, Batman. He is still painting this in a series
he calls The Lost Painting as he can't find the originals. |
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| Mel Ramos, Key Hole light boxes at Imago Gallery, Palm Desert |
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| Installation view of Mel Ramos at PS Art Fair |
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| Mel Ramos |
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| Mel Ramos inspired cookie, retitled Shattered Dreams when it failed to arrive at the fair in one piece . |
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| Jim Dine at
Jonathan Novak Gallery, NY. This and the following "Heart" Dine which
was priced at $130,000 which seems very reasonable for a master work. I
found out from the dealer it is because these are recent works straight
from the artist's studio. He has not raised his prices but you will have
to pay lots more for those from the 1960's and 70"s. Dine is still
working but for how long? |
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| Chuck Close
Tapestry at Melissa Morgan Gallery Palm Dessert. A very large impressive
work and a good reason to check out this gallery |
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| Kenneth Noland stunning bullseye from Yares Art Project , Santa Fe Mx |
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| Jeffery Laudenslager Kinitic Sculpture and Morgan Erwin paintings at Sergott Contemporary, Rancho Santa Fe. |
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| Michellle Kurtis Cole glass works at Sergott Contemporary, Rancho Santa Fe |
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| Installation view at Sergott Contemporary |
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| Morgan Ervin's Marilyn composition using JFK coins and even some of the medicine that killed the star. at Sergott Contemporary |
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| James Verbicky at Madison Gallery La Jolla |
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| Charlotte Jackson Gallery, Santa Fe |
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| Chul Hyun Ahn at C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Md |
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| Devorah Sperber, Bentley Gallery, Phoenix, Az |
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| Eric
Fostermann Eckert Gallery NY.. I include this image as my husband Darwin
commented that it reminded him of a very early Duchamp ready made photo
of clothes on a line drying in the breeze. |
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| Gregory Nowell
at Lisa Sette Gallery Scottsdale, Az. This does not look like much in
this photo but it is a image of a room and in the middle is a video and
every few minutes a man walks into the painting and changed the image in
the middle. The images then moves, like a flickering Frank Stella
changing colors |
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| Jill Levine, George Gallery Laguna Beach, CA a very complex sculptural piece with bright colors |
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| Marc Sijan Peter Marcelle Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY. Life size really compellingly ugly nude sculptures |
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| One of my favorite set of works are these by Mark Whalen Merry Karnowsky Gallery, LA These were covered in resin and super shiny surfaces |
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| Nick Georgiou, Etherton Gallery Tuscon Az, Robin Lipman is a proud new owner of one these works |
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| Peter Blake Gallery, LA |
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| Mary Giles at Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, Mo. A very complex textured work |
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| I have added
in this image of a video of small animals inside their nest surrounded
by still shoots. This piece always had a crowd looking at it. The image
was not that different than what you might find on Animal Planet, but it
seemed to please lots of folks. I think this is a good sign for what
the DNA of Creativity team, Urban Succession, will be presenting at the Oceanside Museum of Art. |
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| Amy Galpin, Amy Britt, and Alexander Jarman from the San Diego Museum of Art at the PS Fair Opening |
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| John and Mary Ann Eger, and Joyce Gattas at the PS Fair Opening |
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| A little mutton dressed as lamp at the Art Fair opening |
Helene Galen was honored as the Patron of the Year on the first night of the fair and we went to visit The Galen, which
is an adjunct building to the Palm Springs Museum of Art. Helene Galen
started the drive to have this resource in Palm Desert with a $1 million
donation. But we were very underwhelmed with the gallery. It is
small, divided into even smaller cubbies each with a patron's name (not a
bad idea) but a lowered ceiling above each with lights and vents is the
first thing you see. This is a case of too much architecture (and not
very good architecture) and too little art. For $6 million I feel they
could have made more changes to this existing building and made it
spectacular.
Half
of the space is taken up with offices and the supposed Annette Block
Education center but a Saturday afternoon in February and there was
absolutely nothing going on in rooms that looked quite sterile. Where
were the kids taking classes and getting messy and making a noise? That
is how I remember Saturday afternoon art classes.
They
could take a leaf out of the book of the Imago Gallery and paint the
whole thing dark and then great light would make it very dramatic. These
white spaces in the desert can be very glaring.
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| Helene Galen being honored as Patron of the year at the PS Art Fair |
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Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden
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Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden
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| Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden, David McGary |
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| Not the Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden, but another appropriated piece from the show Beg Barrow and Steal |
We
rounded off the visit with a trip to Imago which is a better space than
most museums. Michelle Kurtis Cole was with me and she was in seventh
heaven. Both the PS Museum and Imago show stellar glass sculpture.
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| Rachel Lee Hovnanian Installation with video at Imago |
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| Rachel Lee Hovnanian Installation with video at Imago |
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| Rachel Lee
Hovnanian Installation with video at Palm Spring Art Fair. This was a
working cafe but the windows were videos of landscapes |
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| closer view of video installation as a cafe diner |
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| Chihuily still fabulous at Imago |
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| William Morris still fabulous at Imago |
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