March 6–9, 2014
Public vernissage: Thursday 6–9pm
82MERCER
Between Spring and Broome Streets
New York, NY 10012
Hours: Friday–Saturday 10am–8pm,
Sunday 10am–5pm
VOLTA NY returns downtown to its SoHo sanctuary in the solo-artist fair’s seventh edition in New York. Across widened aisles and within more spacious booths in the Mercer Street loft, over 90 galleries from five continents mount a dynamic survey of emerging and innovative contemporary art positions, spotlighting artists from 30 nations.
Young talent arrives with formidable force in this year’s edition, with highlights including Paweł Śliwiński (Beers Contemporary, London), who echoes Neue Sachlichkeit/New Objectivity in his deeply psychological paintings; Hyon Gyon‘s lush, melted-fabric compositions of traditional Korean shamanistic imagery (Shin Gallery, New York), following her participation in the Tokyo Wonder Wall 10th Anniversary at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; monumental photography by Mohau Modisakeng (BRUNDYN+, Cape Town), featured in the inaugural Biennale International d’Art Contemporain, Fort-de-France (Martinique); and a site-specific installation by New York-based Armenian painter Anna Navasardian (Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich). Their presence is balanced by seasoned cultural purveyors, including Hungarian-Syrian artist Róza El-Hassan (INDA Gallery, Budapest), who represented Hungary in the 1997 Venice Biennale and enjoyed a major retrospective In-Between at Kunstmuseum Basel in 2012, in addition to her ongoing project Syrian Voices with activist Shadi Al Shhadeh; veteran color theorist Siri Berg (Hionas Gallery, New York), whose 1986 seminal show Black & White 1976–1981 at the American Swedish Historical Museum (Philadelphia) was recently restaged at the gallery; and renowned “urban archaeologist” Willie Cole (beta pictoris gallery/Maus Contemporary, Birmingham), whose emotive upcycled assemblages and steam-iron printmaking are subject of his two-year nationally touring career survey Complex Conversations: Willie Cole Sculptures and Wall Works.
Over 50 returning exhibitors reaffirm VOLTA NY as a platform for salient contemporary art voices. Notable galleries for 2014 include Kevin Kavanagh (Dublin), presenting a storytelling series by Sonia Shiel, current ISCP NY artist-in-residence and recipient of Ireland’s 2014 Arts Council Project Award; Laura Bulian Gallery (Milan), highlighting career Conceptualist Vyacheslav Akhunov, whose cultural investigations were featured in dOCUMENTA (13) and the 2013 Venice Biennale’s Central Asian Pavilion; Frederieke Taylor Gallery (New York), revealing environmental concerns of downtown stalwart Christy Rupp, whose seminal public art projects factored into the 2012 exhibition Come Closer: Art Around the Bowery, 1969–1989 at the New Museum; Galerie Heike Strelow (Frankfurt am Main), combining sociopolitical commentary and black humor via Florian Heinke, who curated System of Diplomatic Chaos at Kunstverein Wiesbaden last year; contemporary Bahamanian art hub Popopstudios (Nassau), spotlighting “everyday” assemblages and mixed-media works by founder John Cox; and CONNERSMITH. (Washington DC), featuring two new series in gouache and collage on contemporary social and racial politics by Zoë Charlton, who participated in The Bearden Project at the Studio Museum in Harlem, plus Wilmer Wilson IV‘s durational performance From My Paper Bag Colored Heart and related works in photography and sculpture.
Special programming at this year’s edition includes critically acclaimed artist-run podcast Bad At Sports (Chicago/New York), who engage in conversations with artists, critics, and curators within the dynamic installation and interview snuggle-fest Bedside Chats. Plus, Culture Shock (New York) returns with ULTRA VOLTA: The Spectrum of Ultra Violet, a curated environment unveiling the downtown art scene legend’s transmedia oeuvre, from film and music to Ultra Violet‘s memoir and recent baroque mirror works.
Solo projects from notable and emerging international artists advance VOLTA‘s original mandate for a tightly focused program that fosters a dynamic gaze into the current art climate and salient contemporary positions—regardless of the artist or gallery’s age. VOLTA NY complements the exciting program of art presented by its sister fair, The Armory Show, with shared VIP access, plus direct shuttles connecting both fairs.
A full list of artists and galleries, plus visiting hours and access information, can be found by visiting our website www.voltashow.com.
VOLTA NY gratefully acknowledges its 2014 Official Partner Hotel, Mondrian SoHo.
About VOLTA
VOLTA was founded in Basel in 2005 by dealers Kavi Gupta (Chicago), Ulrich Voges (Frankfurt) and Friedrich Loock (Berlin). The tenth edition in Basel, VOLTA10, will coincide with Basel Art Week and will be held from June 16 to 21 at Basel’s Markthalle.
