Personal Picks for Context Miami 2015 by Cindy Yeoman
In amongst the twenty art shows featured in and around Miami's art week, was the gem that is Context, a show dedicated to emerging and mid career artists. Unlike the tony Art Basel where the serious art viewer has to wade through loads of exorbitantly priced, heavily marketed investment art in order to find the gems, it was great to see a show exhibiting the work of artists steeped in core skills, something that has been somewhat absent in contemporary and modern art over the last century.
Blank Space Art put on an impressive showing of Seung Mo Park’s sculptural wire pieces. At around 9ft tall, the large scale, ethereal wire mesh portrait ‘Maya’ stole the show. The wire is cut in layers and creates a mesh that appears like a delicate fabric. Coupled with his wire thread sculptural figures, Seung Mo Park is both master sculptor and craftsman.
Katrin Gunther, represented by Berlin based Wichtendahl Galerie gave the viewer large scale, constructivist urban landscapes that can best be described as ordered chaos. Compositionally flawless, the narrative reveals itself in the disparate content of elements within the structure of the work.
Jonathan Levine Gallery exhibited the wonderful work of Brad Kunkle. He perfectly meshes a background in core skills with a conceptual approach that gives his body of work a surrealistic edge. In ‘Unseen’ he effectively uses metallic leaf without overwhelming the work; thereby giving the viewer the feeling of a living work as the light plays off the leaf.
Born in 1985, Leah Yerpe is one of a great group of younger artists emerging with solid drawing skills. She skillfully weaves this knowledge into compositions rich in form, giving the observer multiple insights into her subject’s state of mind. To say that these works are beautifully rendered is an understatement. The graphite and ink work are perfect. Leah is represented by Anna Zorina Gallery in New York.
Axis Gallery introduced the viewer to South African born photographer Graeme Williams. The theme of his work is revealed in a cohesive series’ that is best viewed as a group. The work displayed below is from his ‘ A City Refracted’ series. It speaks to a socially fractured society, where groups of people lead separate lives based on cultural, economic and ethnic identities. He is that rare breed of photographer who is able to capture the essence of his subject matter without resorting to digital manipulation.
Other notable works were the gentle innocence captured in Francois Bard’s, ‘ Far Away’; Pezhman’s ‘Seraph’ where exquisite digital photographic manipulation is combined with textural elements that make the work kinetic; and the meditative minimalism of the young Acya Koseogullari’s untitled black and white piece.
My picks for this show lean heavily toward skill based work highlighting the figure, portrait and works in black and white. This speaks to a personal yearning to see the art world move away from what I see as the intellectual con that ‘anything’ can be considered fine art.