30
DATEBOOK: AMERICAS
FROM LEFT: TOBY SMITH; VAN DOREN WAXTER; JONATHAN SCHIPPER AND PIEROGI, BROOKLYNFor its 16th International Biennial of Photography and Mixed
Media Art, running March 12 to April 24, Houston’s Fotofest goes
democratic. In addition to having artists recommended by the
usual galleries, curators, and scholars, the organization has offered
a public submission process, allowing unknown artists to vie for
spots in the show. Opening its pool to the masses revealed, among
others, British artist Mandy Barker, whose “Soup” series, stylized
images of plastic garbage found in oceans across the globe, is
the perfect fit for the event’s 2016 theme, “Changing Circumstances:
Looking at the Future of the Planet.” “She’s been a really exciting
discovery for us,” says executive director Steven Evans. “The work is
formally sophisticated, the viewpoint is unique, and
the method of raising awareness of this issue is fresh
and creative.” In addition to Barker, the event features
works by Edward Burtynsky, whose photographs
of industrial waste offer a cold angle on the landscape
tradition, and Amy Balkin’s The Atmosphere: A
Guide, a grid of images printed up as a few thousand
posters that are free to visitors. —DEBORAH WILKHOUSTONspeculation over who would
replace Noah Horowitz as
director of the Armory Show
ended last December when writer
and editor Benjamin Genocchio
was named to the position, which
includes oversight of the Volta
show in New York and Basel. The
22-year-old fair has suffered blows
from strong rivals, particularly
Frieze New York, in recent years,
and many are keen to see the
reinvention in store. Deborah Wilk
spoke to Genocchio, a former
editor in chief of this magazine,
about his plan to restore the
dominance of the show and give
New York the best art fair
“in the country, if not the world.”What skills does someone long
focused on art editorial
programs bring to the fair front?
I’ve spent the past several years
practicing business at a high level,
and relationship building. Call
it inluence management: trying
to inluence people to see a vision,
to get the money for it, ind
the people to make it happen,
then execute. I have a Ph.D. in art
history, and I also know how
to read a balance sheet. This is a
chance to take my ambition,
competitiveness, and entrepre-
neurial nature and apply it to
a huge New York institution that
is already very successful, but
that could do with a new agenda.Which is?
We can update the busi-
ness model by enhancing
sponsor partnerships.
We can give the infra-
structure, image, and
visitor experience a face-
lift. This should be the best
art fair in the world, and
at the moment, it isn’t.Art fairs were originally
created to get collectors
and curators to investigate
communities where serious
art was happening even though
they weren’t art capitals.
And then they created a schedule
of pilgrimage. But now people
are tiring of that circuit, and
the trend is moving toward
galleries serving multiple local
and regional constituencies.Understanding the
changing art fair
landscape, as
it’s become more
localized, offers a blueprint for
how the Armory Show can be
reimagined. The show is there to
serve its local constituents.Where does that leave the fair?
The original Armory Show was
begun by artists. I’d like to
ind a way to reconnect with
New York’s artists.Influence Management
POPULIST PICTURES
A Second Look
E
xclusive representative of the Hedda Sterne estate since mid
2015, Van Doren Waxter presents a solo show of works from
Sterne’s “Machines” series March 10 through April 29. “Her last
gallery exhibition in New York was in 2004, and her most recent
retrospective was in 2006 at the Krannert Art Museum at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In most people’s frame of reference these
shows are distant memories, so effectively we have had to start from
scratch,” says Dorsey Waxter, explaining why the gallery is exhibiting early
works, including Instrument, 1949–50, above. —SRART+AUCTION MARCH 2016 (^) | BLOUINARTINFO.COM
Toby Smith’s
Illegal Sapphire
Mining, Ilakaka,
Madagascar,
2013, part of
the “Changing
Circumstances”
exhibition at
Houston’s Silos
at Sawyer Yards.
Slow Motion Car
Crash, 2012, by
Brooklyn-based
Jonathan Schipper.
NEW YORK
NEW YORK