Go straight to the main content



murmurART

art advisory - looking for something specific or help in finding work by early career artists. contact info@murmurart.com
Review Oct 20 2008 « | »
Zoo Art Fair For yet another year, the not-for-profit Zoo Art Fair has attracted widespread praise. Sales, while prices have lowered a......

Donald Eastwood

For yet another year, the not-for-profit Zoo Art Fair has attracted widespread praise. Sales, while prices have lowered a little, have defied expectations to reflect this. "Fresh art and keen prices make Zoo a hit," headlined the Friday edition of The Art Newspaper's Frieze accompaniments, "Forget Frieze: the Zoo is where you will find the cutting edge movers and shakers of the gallery world" proclaims the Times, and Bloomberg's investor-orientated overview points out today that younger, less commodity-dependant art sold well at both Frieze and Zoo.

The atmosphere of the satellite fair is certainly better than the centre of gravity in Regent's park. The rooms at the back of the RA are far superior to a large marquis, though sadly for the fair this is the last year they will be able to use them before Haunch of Venison moves in. The art indeed responds to this venue: there is more edge and experimentation, and the tight corridors bustle like a bazaar, unlike the cubicle-like grid of the Frieze. At the entrance, camouflage-wearing 'guards' chat to each other and stonewall you if you try to communicate with them in an unannounced piece of performance that seems to mock the black jacket and walky-talky sporting equivalents of the bigger fairs.

Of course, this is a different fair to the Frieze. The Zoo is about emerging contemporary art talent. Organisations showing at the fair have to be under six years old and the fair actively pushes for non-commersial ventures, collectives and project spaces. The freshness of the art can be visibly seen in works such as the Jorge Diezma Pintura Actualidid on the cover of the above mentioned Art Newspaper - an dark, renaissance hand holding a Lehman Brothers coffee cup.

The winners of the fair's two prizes, for the most best artist on show and the best artist working on paper, were announced on Friday to be Scoli Acosta from the Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris (C17) and Clunie Reid, represented at the Fair by MOT International, London (D24). Personal favourites out for are Eri Itoi at David Risley (E37), Peter Stauss at Ritter/Zamet (D36) and the best installed space of the show at Riflemaker (E41).

The fair is at 6 Burlington Gardens, round the back of the Royal Academy of Arts, open until 5pm today. Details can be found here.

    Comments

Add Comments

  • CAPTCHA Image