March 27th – March 30th, 2008
VOLTA—the cutting-edge art fair that debuted in Basel —brings 53 international artists and 52 galleries to New York during The Armory Week for its inaugural solo invitational exhibition, VOLTA NY, held at an extraordinary location off 5th Avenue, immediately opposite the Empire State Building.
Continuing the original VOLTA mandate to create a tightly-focused, curated event that is a place for discovery and a showcase for current art production, VOLTA NY introduces a new format that features exclusively solo projects of notable international artists, conceived to complement the exciting program of art presented by The Armory Show and available in New York during Armory Week, March 2008.
A platform for challenging, often complimentary, sometimes competing ideas about contemporary art, VOLTA NY is an exhibition contained within the format of an art fair and aims to promote a deep exploration of its selected artists—who, in turn, are some of the world’s most innovative exponents of new trends in art. Organized as a curated exhibition under the title The Eye of the Beholder by the Directorial Team of art critics/curators Amanda Coulson (Executive Director) and Christian Viveros-Fauné (Curatorial Advisor), the show considers, among other themes, beauty and its opposite—that is, the twin polarities presented by criticality and aesthetics in contemporary art.
Embodied in the works of its participating artists—exponents as varied as video artist Peter Sarkisian and painter Ena Swansea and conceptualists William Pope.L and Vienna’s International Festival— VOLTA NY charts some of the most compelling directions in contemporary art today.
Highlights of VOLTA NY include a solo exhibition of the photographs of 2008 Whitney Biennial artist Melanie Schiff; a debut installation by kinetic sculptor David Ellis and his parallel live-in project at Chelsea’s Theory Store (38 Gansevoort Street); the first U.S. exhibition of the highly political work of Venice Biennale veteran and Kwangju Biennial Prize Winner Jota Castro; the inaugural U.S. exhibitions of the works of Czech sculptor Kristof Kintera, Mexican artist Jose Dávila and Japanese sculptor Takaaki Izumi; the New York debut of Romanian painter Serban Savu; a solo exhibition of new photographs by American artist Tracey Baran; an exhibition of the post-Katrina images of New Orleans by American Clay Ketter (in advance of his 2009 solo at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet); a solo exhibition of large-scale drawings by British artist Adam Dant; as well as a lobby mural and limited edition works by German painter Florian Merkel. With site specific pieces (such as Swiss artist Nils Nova’s wallpaper room installation) and ambitious large-scale projects (like avant-garde composer Theodor Koehler’s live hourly orchestral performances that are part of Frankfurt-based, American artist Adrian Williams’ media performances), VOLTA NY will provide visitors with unusual, unexpected and innovative projects rarely seen in an art fair format.
The full list of VOLTA NY Artists and Exhibitors follows below:
Tracey Baran | Arratia, Beer | Berlin
Saul Becker | Sunday L.E.S. | New York
Jesse Bercowetz | Galerie Michael Janssen | Cologne/Berlin
Ronald de Bloeme Hamish Morrison Galerie | Berlin
Ian Burns | Spencer Brownstone Gallery | New York
Jota Castro | Elaine Levy Project | Brussels
Adam Dant | HALES Gallery | London
Jose Dávila | Travesía Cuatro | Madrid
Tyler Drosdeck | NEWMAN POPIASHVILI | New York
David Ellis | ROEBLING HALL | New York
David Ersser | SEVENTEEN | London
Peter Funch | V1 GALLERY | Copenhagen
Jacin Giordano| Galerie Baumet Sultana | Paris
Kevin Francis Gray | Goff + Rosenthal | New York/Berlin
International Festival | FRUIT & FLOWER DELI | New York
Takaaki Izumi | TARO NASU | Tokyo
Itamar Jobani | NOGA Gallery | Tel-Aviv
Clay Ketter | Bartha Contemporary | London
Khalif Kelly | Thierry Goldberg Projects | New York
Kristof Kintera | Jiri Svestka Gallery | Prague
Martin Klimas | COSAR HTM | Düsseldorf
Aishleen Lester | Riflemaker | London
Renée Levi | EVERGREENE | Geneva
Micah Lexier | Birch Libralato | Toronto
Jarbas Lopes | A GENTIL CARIOCA | Rio de Janeiro
Domingos Loureiro | Paulo Amaro | Lisbon
Rosaline Luduvico | Zink Galerie | Munich/Berlin/NY
Dietmar Lutz | ARQUEBUSE | Geneva
Corinne Marchetti | Galerie Laurent Godin | Paris
Cathy de Monchaux | FRED LTD. | London/Leipzig
Nils Nova | Kenworthy-Ball | Zurich
Niamh O’Malley | Green on Red Gallery | Dublin
Anna Oppermann | art agents gallery | Hamburg
Adriaan van der Ploeg | HAAS & FISCHER | Zurich
William Pope.L | Kenny Schachter/ROVE Projects | London
Julius Popp | Dogenhaus | Leipzig
Ricardo Rendón | Galería Enrique Guerrero | Mexico City
Werner Reiterer | Galerie Loevenbruck | Paris
Gideon Rubin | ROKEBY | London
Serban Savu | KONTAINER | Los Angeles
Pietro Sanguineti | Nusser & Baumgart Contemporary | Munich
Peter Sarkisian | I-20 | New York
Melanie Schiff | Kavi Gupta | Chicago/Leipzig
Michael Simpson | David Risley Gallery | London
Suzannah Sinclair | Samson Projects | Boston
Ken Solomon | Josée Bienvenu | New York
Johannes Spehr | Thomas Rehbein Galerie | Cologne
Ena Swansea | André Schlechtriem | New York
Gavin Tremlett | Wohnmaschine | Berlin
Sage Vaughn | galerie bertrand & gruner | Geneva
Muir Vidler | Kenny Schachter/ROVE Projects | London
Herbert Volkmann | Laden fuer Nichts | Leipzig
Adrian Williams | VOGES + PARTNER | Frankfurt
Aside from convenient public access by subway or taxi, visitors can reach VOLTA NY’s prime location just off 5th Avenue with shared shuttles directly between The Armory Show on Pier 94 and the VOLTA NY site opposite The Empire State Building on 34th street.
VOLTA was founded in 2005 by dealers Kavi Gupta (Chicago), Ulrich Voges (Frankfurt) and Friedrich Loock (Berlin). VOLTA4 will be held in Basel from June 2nd-June7th, 2008, at Ultra Brag, while VOLTA NY premieres in 2008 from March 27th-March 30th.
NY Fair Location and Office: 7 W.34th Street, New York, NY 10001, USA
Tel: +1.646.641.8732
VOLTA Production Office (Switzerland): Südquaistrasse, 55 CH- 4019, Basel
Tel.: +41.61.322.1270
Fax: +41.61.322.1269
Contact:
General Information:
Office
info@voltashow.com
Press Information:
European Media Contacts
Amanda Coulson – Executive Director
amanda@voltashow.com
Tel: + 49.69.9511.9622
Creixell Espilla-Gilart – Project Manager
espilla@voltashow.com
Tel: + 49.30.2243.7387
US Media Contact
Christian Viveros-Fauné – Curatorial Advisor
cvf@voltashow.com
Tel: + 1.646.641.8732
