I went to Art Paris today.
It was weird.
I don't know what I was expecting. I guess maybe something like a biennial. Instead, I got a giant commercial free for all in the general area of art or at least things that somebody somewhere made for some non-utilitarian reason. I know that this sounds harsh but seriously, the busiest booth was a "gallery" that sells large prints of stills from classic films!
The second busiest booth was a company that rents fine art in the form of abstract paintings tomatch any decor. Really.
Poor Tony Ousler's piece, Ghost Cloud, looked terrible if you noticed it at all. It was hung in broad daylight under a skylight- sabotage!
The entry fee was 15 € unless you are an artist (and can prove it - whatever that means) or if you reserved a space in advance and brought a print out of your receipt. I saw a man try to show his receipt on an iphone- no-go monsieur. He didn't get the discount rate of 10 €. Still a bit pricey in my opinion.
The first things that caught my eye were these stained glass windows.
The entry fee was 15 € unless you are an artist (and can prove it - whatever that means) or if you reserved a space in advance and brought a print out of your receipt. I saw a man try to show his receipt on an iphone- no-go monsieur. He didn't get the discount rate of 10 €. Still a bit pricey in my opinion.
The first things that caught my eye were these stained glass windows.
Paris is a city of stained glass windows and I thought it was kind of ballsy to show stained glass in Paris. They were big and clunky in comparison to the richly detailed windows of the cathedrals but I liked the cocky subject matter. The artist is Phillipe Perrin, he likes guns.
But there is more- this really strange thing happened. I asked the gallerist some general fluff question about the artist (just as an excuse for my lingering and in response to her staring) and she said, "Well, why don't you ask him yourself," and pointed to the stylish, long-haired, 40 something man in a red kafia and sunglasses seated at the desk. He stood up and kissed my hand. "Uhmmm... I like your work." Ok, it was definitely time to go. But later when I looked him up on line, I realized that the guy who introduced himself as Philipe Perrin was not him at all. The guy at the show was about 15 years younger, taller and just simply not him. Weird. Do French galleries have hottie fake artist stand-ins on staff to help sell art? Astounding.
Sandra Vasquez de la Horra won the Guerlain Foundation prize for drawing. These are charcoal on manila paper- that stuff you got for class in kindergarten.
Sandra Vasquez de la Horra won the Guerlain Foundation prize for drawing. These are charcoal on manila paper- that stuff you got for class in kindergarten.
There was a lot of stuff I just didn't understand. It was mind boggling and after hours of wandering around the show I started scolding the world.
Stop using sex!
You are kidding- right?
Stop being angry!
You made this because you hate me- don't lie!
Stop it! just stop it!
But I didn't hate everything...
And this- it looked like art to me. There wasn't a gallery card but I was pretty sure. I looked it up on line later and it is an untitled piece by Michael DeLucia, RISD, BFA, 2001! Excellent.
Li Wei This- I really identified with this.
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