Modern show kicks off art fair season
65 galleries exhibiting through Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary’s second edition will be bigger and better. So said organizer Nick Korniloff, whose company’s stable includes Art Miami and Art Miami Context.
The fair, which ushers in the Palm Beach art fair season, runs through Monday in a temporary pavilion at South Dixie Highway and Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach.
Attendance at the fair’s debut last January totaled 17,500. Sales were “very good,” Korniloff said. “Considering that the fair has grown in size and quality.”
This year, 65 galleries will exhibit in the 65,000-squarefoot pavilio n — up from 47 last year. The fair is o nedayl onger, taking in the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Most of last year’s galleries have returned. Newc o mers include Galeria RGR+ ART from Mexico City, Galerie Raphael from Frankfurt and Galerie Terminus from Munich.
Nearly all the exhibitors also show at Art Miami or Art Miami Context during Art Basel in Miami Beach fair week, but that’s not a problem because there’s little overlap in attendance and the dealers show different material, Korniloff said.
The success of the company’s Miami fairs in December, which moved to a new waterfront location, stoked interest in the Palm Beach fair.
Wilhelm Grusdat, of Galerie Terminus, was thrilled with his Miami sales.
“We did $4 million in sales in the first hour,” he said. “The next day we did $3 million and met a new client.”
Grusdat, who’s been in the art business for 30 years, built his inventory by forging friendships with artists such as John Chamberlain, Frank Stella, Roy
Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg.
Like other exhibitors, he participates in art fairs to meet new clients and come face-to-face with existing customers.
Many galleries see art fairs as a complement to their growing online trade. Grusdat doesn’t. “At the level we work on, which is in the millions, this is a very personal business,” he said.
Returning exhibitor Catherine Edelman Gallery had “a fantastic fair” last year, director Juli Lowe said. The Chicago-based photography dealer’s booth will focus on artists new to the gallery and fresh work by artists it has represented before.
Its selection will include works by Ysabel LeMay, whose imaginary landscapes are constructed by digitally layering imagery, a process she learned as a painter. The dealer also will show “Time,” a video by Gregory Scott in which “paintings” inspired by Old Master works come to life in a gallery.
Dan Benchetrit, director of Opera Gallery’s Miami outpost, said that although the quality of last year’s fair was “very good,” his sales weren’t.
This year he’s taking a bigger space and “bringing a lot of contemporary art, but not too expensive things,” he said. Among his choices: a bronze “Reina Mariana,” Manolo Valdes’ nod to Diego Velazquez’s 1656 painting “Las Meninas;” and an allblue, 3-D-looking painting by Pino Manos.
Returning exhibitor Brian Balfour-Oatts of Archeus/ Post Modern also has tweaked his selection. He will feature lower-priced and more colorful works, which he observed sold better at last year’s fair. Artists will include David Hockney, Damien Hirst, George Condo and Julie Mehrutu.
Balfour-Oatts subscribes to the maxim that it takes about three years for a new fair to build a following. Years ago, the Palm Beach fairs were top-flight, he said. “I think this fair is taking the first steps to bring that back,” he said.
Other fair highlights include:
Celebrating Boaz Vaadia (1951-2017) Sponder Gallery’s satellite exhibition at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach
Several events featuring former Metallica bass guitarist Jason Newsted, including RAWK, 55 Bellechasse’s show of his art at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in Lake Worth, and a concert Friday by Newsted’s The Chophouse Band at the Cultural Council.
A reception Saturday at which the fair will honor retiring Cultural Council head Rena Blades with its Professional Achievement in the Arts Award.