Sensory Overload at the Art Fair

Buenos Aires is, according to more than a few articles in the New York Times, home to a "buzzing art scene" that is drawing the attention of the international art community. After attending arteBA this weekend, the annual contemporary art fair, I can agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment. I haven't been as dutiful of an art seeker as I usually am in New York, but going to fair I felt like I got a good feeling for what the art scene is like down here. The fair had more than seventy-five exhibitors, the majority of whom were Argentine art galleries, but other South American countries were represented as well. All the big players were there (Ruth Benzacar, Braga Menendez Arte Contemporáneo, and Appetite were the three I had heard of previously) but there was also a section called Barrio Joven where smaller, less established galleries were showing lots of young artists' work. While the bigger galleries favored clean white walls to display one or two works by a select few artists, the Barrio Joven galleries (as you can see in the above picture) absolutely covered their walls with as much art as possible, even letting it spill onto the floor and into the space usually reserved for walking around. The booths themselves had more personality as well: in one faux grass covered the concrete and in another sitting pillows were surrounded by potted plants and an old coat hanger. I was glad to see that it wasn't only the established art community that was being represented, but they were making room for the younger generation as well. 

The fair itself might be considered part of the younger generation in the larger scheme of the world art community, but I was very impressed by what I saw, and at times couldn't help but feel that I had somehow wandered into The Armory Show, "The International Fair of New Art", that happens every year in New York. Whether or not this is a good thing, as I know many people who bemoan the commercialized and overpriced art market of today, I'm not sure. I do know that like all good art shows, I saw pieces I loved immediately, some that disturbed me, ones I did not understand, or didn't like. There were lots of paintings, a good number of drawings, not as many sculptures and few pieces of video art. It is interesting to really get a feel of what is "in" in the art market just by walking around for a couple hours. After all, everything at the fair was also for sale and the galleries are motivated to actually sell what they hang on their walls. After too much thinking about these sorts of things, I just tried to enjoy the art. Below I've included some pictures of some of the art that most interested me as I walked around. I hope you like it too!