Spotlight on PULSE New York

PULSE offers both traditional or contemporary art.

William Betts, untitled, Swimming Pool, 2012, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque.

It’s finally May, and this weekend art fairs are taking over New York City! If Frieze and Pool Art Fair aren’t up your alley, check out PULSE New York 2013, which will take place from May 9 through 12, 2013, at the Metropolitan Pavilion, located on 125 West 18th Street.

PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, held each year in New York and Miami, is the leading US art fair dedicated solely to Contemporary Art. Now in its eighth year, PULSE New York will feature 60 national and international galleries exhibiting a blend of emerging and established artists working in all media, from photography, painting, and sculpture to performance, installation, and video art.

The Professor's Regret (from the Door series) by Robert A. Birmelin

Robert A. Birmelin, The Professor’s Regret (from the Door series), 2000, steven harvey fine art projects, New York, NY

The number of international galleries represented at PULSE New York continues to be an incredible draw for New Yorkers interested in Contemporary Art from other countries. Galerie Andreas Binder (Munich), Tokyo Gallery+BTAP (Tokyo/Beijing), and Galerie Stefan Röpke (Cologne/Madrid) will present group exhibitions. IMPULSE, the section of the fair dedicated to galleries presenting solo artist projects, boasts eight international galleries out of the 13 that will exhibit. camara oscura galeria de arte, located in Madrid, will present South African artist Johann Ryno de Wet’s masterful photographic series Underland. The series consists of images in small and large format, and uses the contemporary natural world to evoke a post-apocalyptic dreamscape with disturbing clarity. The title suggests what is hidden beneath the earth, and the images evoke a secret loneliness and the threat of a catastrophe, either natural or artificial.

Firework Drawing by Rosemarie Fiore

Rosemarie Fiore, Firework Drawing #74, 2011, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY

One of the US galleries complementing IMPULSE is Carroll and Sons (Boston), which will feature a smaller scale version of Ambreen Butt’s I Am My Lost Diamond, a piece that was comprised of over 20,000 casts of fingertips and toes installed on a 13 x 20 foot wall. The work was created in response to a 2010 suicide bomb in Butt’s native Pakistan. The installation will be paired with a large work on paper, In God We Trust, which utilizes shredded US dollar bills, purchased from the US Treasury, to reconstruct a dollar bill on a grand scale. In this way, she literally deconstructs our societal notions of value and draws attention to the beauty of the dollar bill as an art object. Such ideas force the question, “what does beauty cost?” Other US galleries exhibiting at PULSE include Adamson Gallery/ Adamson Editions (Washington, D.C.), Davidson Contemporary (New York), Richard Levy Gallery (Albuquerque), Mike Weiss Gallery (New York), Pan American Arts Projects (Miami), Tyler Rollins Fine Art (New York), and Von Lintel Gallery (New York).

Hill, Underland series by Johann Ryno de Wet

Johann Ryno de Wet, Hill, “Underland” series, 2011, camara oscura galeria de arte, Madrid, Spain

A highlight of PULSE New York 2013 will be the presence of three ongoing performances throughout the venue. Tim Youd will “perform” the re-typing of Henry Miller’s legendary Tropic of Capricorn on one page of paper, using the same brand of typewriter as Miller, a classic Underwood manufactured in the early 1930s. A special project from Creative Capital–Spring Flings & Pretty Things–will feature the dynamic Texas artist, Franco Mondini-Ruiz, in the unlikely role of exhibiting and selling his own works at the fair. And performance artists Liza Lozano and Tora Lopez will return to PULSE 2013 with We Couldn’t Remember What We Came To Forget. Through a combination of specific lighting, palm trees, LCD screens, and sounds of the ocean, Lozano and Lopez will create a vacation “destination” on the second floor of the fair. Visitors can interact with the artists as they spend their “vacation” lounging, taking photos and videos, and relaxing in an otherwise frenetic environment.

I-5 at Vista Point West by John Chiara

John Chiara, I-5 at Vista Point West, 2012, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY

The New York 2013 edition of PULSE PLAY, the fair’s curated video and technology series, will feature Janica Rusica’s three monitor installation, Screen Test (For A Living Sculpture ), The Labyrinth Runner by Robbie Corneliseen, which follows the rhythmic breathing of a runner, and Lars Arrhenius, who uses pictographs to create imagery in The Street.

OY/YO by Deborah Kass

Deborah Kass, OY/YO, 2011, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

Brand new to PULSE New York in 2013 is a partnership with the Hester Street Fair, an outdoor community market that is a hybrid incubator and launching pad for small businesses specializing in artisanal food. The Hester Street pop-up vendors should be a welcome treat! For more information about PULSE Contemporary Art Fairs, visit http://www.pulse-art.com.

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