6/16/08
As an art fiend, I couldn’t turn down an invite to this year’s Affordable Art Fair. Meandering the countless cornered-off cubes of the galleries displaying their art, I mainly stopped at what caught my eye (most often figurative, portraits, photography, and colors that popped). Price-tags range from $100 – $10,000 at the fair, which is seemingly cheap but can add up quickly. To narrow down this year’s Affordable Art Fair (AAF) NYC to a couple handfuls of artists, almost puts me in a meltdown. After careful deliberation, however, I have managed to pick some favorites. Here are nine artists and their artwork that left the biggest impression on me among the sixty-plus galleries from around the world.

#1

“Helen”
David Gista
The Cynthia Corbett Gallery
Wimbledon, United Kingdom

Gista’s work is a mélange of burnt paper and watercolor that creates a blurry distortion, a combination I found inventive.
#2

“Frida y la vida”
Corinne Dalle Ore
Envie d’Art Gallery
Paris, France

Dalle Ore’s work combines a little françoise with the iconic Frida Kahlo. I’m passionate about both, so the piece was quite memorable.
#3

“Kingi”
Patricia Steur
Amstel Gallery
Dronton, The Netherlands

Steur cites that tattoos are a major concentration in her work, and her photograph of a man’s facial tattoos juxtaposed against the civilized setting and his attire was truly jarring.
#4

“Anna May Wong”
Christian Develter
La Lanta Fine Art
Bangkok, Thailand

This piece is part of Develter’s series on Chinese divas, with bold colors that evoke Andy Warhol’s Pop Art masterpieces.
#5

“Portrait No.1,” “Portrait No.2,” and “Portrait No. 3”
Le Thong
Hanoi Studio Gallery
Hanoi, Vietnam

This triptych had a palpable softness in style yet edginess in color. I loved how the three hung against the wall. Their large scale would complement any industrial loft.
#6

“Dior”
Biliana Velkova
Jeffrey Boone Gallery
Vancouver, Canada

Velkova calls her work in this series, “original knockoffs,” as she traces fashion magazine pages and then uses watercolor as the main medium. I enjoyed the graphic quality they evoked.
#7

“ Hair 4” & “Hair 15”
John Ryan Solis
Visual Arts Gallery/SVA
New York, New York

Solis’ stunning graphite series captures various hairstyles in heightened detail. These drawings were by far the most affordable in the whole fair, and I could envision taking an armful of his work and making one large collective statement.
#8

“ Au coeur du sujet”
Massimo Guerra
Joyce Yahouda Gallery
Montréal, Canada

Another large-scale piece that would hang well on a typical loft-size wall. Guerra’s surreal tonalities appealed to me greatly and as a result stood out from the rest of the fair’s artists.
#9

“FK13” & “C1”
Jordan Eagles
Krause Gallery
Atlanta, GA

Last but not least, I have to plug the only Atlanta gallery to hold space at the fair. But even more important and looking past my biases, Eagles’ artwork seemed to hold a much higher potential (because it’s provocative for sure) than anything else I saw. Eagles’ unique series manipulates preserved blood (obtained from old slaughter houses) on UV resin and Plexiglas and is genius in its own alluring gruesomeness.

Posted by Kyra Shapurji