With the closing of all the major fairs on Sunday, and our little Salon on Monday, art week came to an end. I have yet to write about anything I saw during the week but I did get some well needed venting out of the way. That's always a plus, from my side anyway. I still have some posts started that I want to finish and hopefully I'll get to them over the next few days.One thing I was excited about was the number of women artists having prominent places this year shows and not just at the Salon. The number of solo shows by women hopefully is a trend that will lead to women artists finally catching up with the men in the art market. When I first moved here I was amazed at the number of buyers, men and women alike, who would say point blank that they wouldn't buy a work by a women. At that point Ash normally took over the discussion. I'm seeing less of that now and actually more interest in female artists. Gwenolee Zürcher, who thought up and organized the Salon, said she did so because in her opinion there are too many good artists who don't get enough the attention they deserve simply because they are women. This is one of the topics I want to get back to.
This was the third Art Week since I moved to the Village. The first I barely noticed at all but I had just moved and was busy getting myself settled into my new world. Last year I was more into it all and even though I had been at the Armory Show before it still felt a bit new. I felt more like I was a part of something rather than just a visitor. This year's edition at times felt more like work than play, it was hectic, I was busy, but it was still totally fun. It's something that shouldn't be missed if you love art and happen to be in the city.
One thing I have learned over the years is I'm no big fan of neon in art, maybe I should say neon as art. I still have nightmares about last year's glowing neon fence by Ivan Navarro. This year it seemed every gallery at the Armory Show had a neon sign glowing and humming somewhere in their booth like some kind of psychedelic humming birds from a Tim Burton movie gone terribly wrong. I've never been to Vegas so it all just reminded me of a bad night on the Wildwood boardwalk. Maybe that's been my problem with the neon all along.
And one final thing, iPad art. If Rick Santorum isn't enough of a sign of the coming apocalypse iPad art surely is.
