Held from October 21 to 24, 2010, the fifth edition of SHOW OFF once again set up its two tents on the Port des Champs-E lysées alongside the FIAC. This edition of the Solo Show Art Fair saw the return of the international scene, with 40% of galleries from Belgium, Benin, Cyprus, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK, and artists from all over the world. Thousands of visitors, collectors, professionals, artists, journalists and art lovers visited the stands of the thirty galleries participating in SHOW OFF and SHOW OFF LAB’.
SHOW OFF is a fair created by the Oliver Houg and Vanessa Quang galleries for gallerists, enabling them to materialize their commitment to artists by offering them greater visibility. Forms and media as varied as painting, video, sculpture, publishing, photography and installations were presented in a unique, artist-friendly format. This year, galleries were invited to present the works of a single artist on 18 m2 Medium stands and 24 m2 Big stands. An Emergence Solo Show section was also created, reserved for emerging galleries less than three years old.
The Shepard, 2008 (détail) Tirage C-print encadré, 95 x 77 cm Courtesy de l’artiste et Flatland Gallery
The monographic exhibitions gave visitors the freedom to take their time to get to know and understand the artist’s work better, and thus better appreciate the manifest commitment of the galleries. The clarity of the fair was also appreciated by collectors, who made numerous purchases at SHOW OFF.
Little Savages, 2007 (détail) Renard empaillé, insectes, racines 80 x 80 x 50 cm Courtesy de l’artiste et de Danielle Arnaud
London gallery Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art has sold the four installations – staging of animals and plants – by artist Tessa Farmer exhibited for the first time in Paris. Her work involves highly detailed stagings of plants, roots, bones, insects and animals engaged in fierce combat in an art between preservation and perversion.
Vincent Bizien, Ne vois-tu rien venir?, 2010, Aquarelle et encre de Chine sur papier, 140 x 200 cm. Courtesy de l'artiste et Ladiray Gallery
Emerging gallery Jérôme Ladiray, which has just opened a London space specializing in modern and contemporary drawing, has sold 18 drawings by French artist Vincent Bizien, a major figure in French contemporary drawing and heir to Expressionist energy, which he blends with a taste for the fabulous and enchanting.
Immortal 12, 2010 (détail) Tirage Cibachrome 100 x 120 cm Courtesy de l’artiste et Acte2galerie
Acte2galerie, which needs no introduction, presented numerous photographs by Vee Speers, an Australian-born photographer based in Paris, from the Immortal series, in which she immortalizes a youth of pure, timeless beauty. The gallery also offered photographs from Michael Dweck’s Mermaids series, for which it organized a booksigning and a performance by Nathalie White at the fair’s public opening. Acte2 sold six photos and two sculptures.
Deer trophy 4, 2010 - Liste de stock, encre et peinture acrylique en gel et vaporisée sur la toile, 70 x 100 cm Courtesy de l’artiste et Room London
The young Room London gallery also sold numerous works on wood and paintings by Chinese artist Gordon Cheung, who uses multimedia techniques to express the virtual reality and reality of a globalized world alternating between illusion and disillusion.
Medhi George Lalou Sans titre, bas, 2009 Tirage C-print, 100 x 100 cm Courtesy de l’artiste et Galerie Dix9
More than thirty works by Medhi Georges Lalou have been sold by the Parisian gallery Dix9. With his dual Franco-Moroccan background, the artist happily crosses the boundaries of our multicultural societies. In his performances and installations, he often questions the aesthetics associated with Islam and opens up to more general issues such as identity.
H. Craig Hanna Ruthy in Orange, 2010 Encre et acrylique sous Perspex 53 x 53 cm sans cadre Courtesy de l’artiste et Laurence Esnol Gallery
The Laurence Esnol and Flatland galleries sold, respectively, works by New York painter H. Craig Hanna, who contrasts or brings together pure painting and close-up description of the figure, and works by Dutch photographer Jaap Scheeren, who mixes humor and seriousness in his playful and slightly irreverent shots. The Flatland Gallery also featured photographs by the renowned and gifted Erwin Olaf.
Pascal Bernier’s work, one of eight large-scale installations exhibited at SHOW OFF LAB’, has also been acquired by a collector.
Homme accroupi, 2010 Fil de fer et nylon 160 x 120 x 90 cm Courtesy de l’artiste et Hania Bailly Contemporary
The installations by twins Alexandre and John Gailla at Hania Bailly Contemporary are disturbingly beautiful, placing the human figure at the center of a creative process that examines questions of identity in dreamlike form. Through the ingenious manipulation of materials and textures, and the arrangement of nylon threads on a red wire skeleton, they play with appearances and give their sculptures a lively, almost organic appearance.
Marie-Madeleine 3 Série Protectors Tirage Lambda sous diasec 120x120 cm Courtesy de l’artiste et Galerie Bailly Contemporain
Sabine Pigalle’s photographic series Protectors, presented by Galerie Bailly Contemporain, deals with the persistence of myths and the cohabitation of the profane world in the representation of the sacred. The series freely and arbitrarily illustrates certain heroes, divinities and saints of yesteryear, in the form of archetypal portraits tinged with a disquieting strangeness. The figures of the patron saints of the trade appear bare like marble statues, but in no way frozen.
Last but not least, Galerie Vanessa Quang presents an installation by Chilean artist Voluspa Jarpa, based on a proposal by Albertine de Galbert. The artist is interested in the traces left by trauma in society, in history, in the public or private sphere. Traces emerge from the negation of trauma, symptoms that need to be deciphered, a parallel language that speaks of pain or frustrated desire, through the unconscious.
SHOW OFF confirms its convivial character with SHOW OFF LAB’ and a program of events and performances such as the one by Nathalie White for Michael Dweck on the Galerie Acte2 stand, or the concert by psycho-rock band King Tongue on Friday, October 22, 2010. Atelier Van Lieshout’s Darwin project, presented at SHOW OFF LAB’ by Natalie Kovacs, aroused the curiosity and interest of visitors, illustrating a difficult social context.
The 6th edition of SHOW OFF will take place from October 20 to 23, 2011 at the Port des Champs Elysées – Pont Alexandre III
www.showoffparis.fr
Marie-Odile Radom
Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)
