volta

I was very lucky to meet my friend Max at art basel. his father runs a gallery in düsseldorf which was also represented at art basel and since max is always helping his father out on the artfairs it was not that impossible to meet him there (please don't ask me why I didn't just call him. That's exactly what he asked me the moment we met...). Max invited Kate and me to come to the Volta art fair with him, since he had planned to meet some gallery friends from london there to have dinner with them afterwards.

I really enjoyed the Volta show. It was the last day and we were kind of late (everybody was already starting to pack their things). We sat outside drank good beer and had a nice talk. There we also met the guys from [im]perfect articles. I'll write more about their t-shirt project later...

"VOLTAshow01 —founded by Kavi Gupta (Kavi Gupta, Chicago), Friedrich Loock (Wohnmaschine, Berlin), Ulrich Voges (Voges + Partner, Frankfurt) and Amanda Coulson—premiered in 2005, parallel to Art Basel and attracted over 10,000 visitors. Conceived as a small but precious gem, the booths were all the same size, diminishing the sense of competition, while interchange and intersection were encouraged between exhibitors in order to create a relaxed atmosphere that was more boutique than shopping mall.

In 2006 VOLTAshow02 presented an expanded format in a new, bigger location in the Basel harbor. While allowing for almost double the number of exhibiting international galleries, a project section dedicated to emerging artist solo presentations, specialized publications and a riverside café, the fair still maintained its charming, intimate atmosphere —a lustrous pearl in the rough shell of the industrial setting. On opening day The Art Newspaper declared "VOLTA gets Even Better!"

VOLTAshow03 plans to consolidate its success in the industrial Ultra Brag location and introduces a new model so as to maintain the focus on content. Continuing the original idea of presenting a boutique event that is more exhibition than trade fair, VOLTAshow03 has formed a Curatorial Board to advise in the selection process. [...] (website)

After Volta Kate, Max and I and David, Charlie, Poppy and another artist whos name I somehow don't remeber from david risley gallery drove back to the city to have dinner at an albanian restaurant which was quite good. And after that Kate and I rode our bikes to the infamous art club at the kunsthalle, where we met amer from vienna who was very nive talking to...

hang's art

Today Kate and I (well I seem to do a lot of things with kate lately ♥) went to the Kunst- akademie in Karlsruhe to meet Hang (the one who sew my dress to impress! She used to study fashion design) at her atelier.

Hang has an exhibition in about three weeks and slowly gets really excited about it. So we helped her to get some inspiration on how to arrange her stuff. She lended two major display tables from the landesmuseum to exhibit her art on. She draws lines on tranparent paper and tryes to form scultures out of them. Basicly she's trying to draw threedimensional. It's really amazing and my pictures don't do her work justice!

If you're around you should definitely visit the Kunstakademie's Rundgang 12th - 15th of July (or be there for the opening on wednesday 11th, 7 pm, so will I, since I'll be leaving to Berlin Fashion Week the day after) to see what Kate and I advised Hang to do. WE ARE GENIUS' ♥

art basel 05 ::: the girls

play was so kind to put some photos of some nice people from art basel on her blog. These are the ones I like the most. Actually I've also seen some of them in person. But - as usual - I was too shy to ask if I could take their photos.

The first girl works at mary mary gallery (what a cool name!). I've seen her at the Liste. I can remeber her Diesel high waisted skinny jeans. They looked better on her than in the commercials!

I've spotted the last femme at art basel with her girlfriend a couple of times and really liked her styling... Actually I got filmed. If you see me somewhere please tell me.

Credit: playlust.net

art basel 04 ::: art unlimited

I pretty much enjoyed Art Unlimited although we were kind of late and just had an hour left to look at everything (which was kind of sad, since there'd been a lot of nice video installations which we couldn't see). Art Unlimited is the place fot the art and not so much for the selling, so it felt kind of relaxing (although we didn't intend to buy anything anyway) ;-)

The «Art Unlimited» exhibition features some 70 artists from 28 countries presenting exciting art projects as can be seen at no other art fair in the world. The line-up of exhibiting artists at this prestigious exhibition of contemporary art reads like a Who’s Who of the cutting-edge international art scene. Many of the pieces on show have been created especially for «Art Unlimited». [...] (pressrelease).

Roberto Cavalli for H&M

I'm not so much a fan of designers collaborating with H&M. To be honest I don't own a single item... Well maybe this time I will? Need an idea on what his designs are like? Please check his aw 07/08 collection.

art basel 03 ::: katharina

I was really happy to meet a lot of people I knew. Katharina is currently working at meyer-riegger gallery in Karlsruhe (I've posted about them a couple of months ago here) and used to study with me at the hfg (well I'm currently graduating...).

Katharina has a really great style and I was always pleased to see what she'd pulled together. High fashion inspired styles - some H&M combined with lesser known designs always resulted in something great. Well art basel is not just about art it's also about style and expressing oneselves. Sometimes I really love the art world.

art basel 02 ::: deitch projects

The first floor was much better than the ground floor. I really enjoyed Jeffrey Deitch's gallery. It's pure rock'n'roll! At art basel he showed works by assume vivid astro focus, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Os Gemeos, Keith Haring, Chris Johanson, Brad Kahlhamer, Barry McGee, Steve Powers, Clare Rojas, Raqib Shaw, Swoon, Nari Ward and Kehinde Wiley.

His booth was huge and had two floors. It was really great - a mixture of fun, depth, party, whatever.
Did you know that he's also representing Fischerspooner??? Well I knew that they did this performance at art basel miami beach in 2002, but...!? How actually does an art gallery represent musicians, well thats what they basically are! That's so great! Jeffrey Deitch must be crazy!

Check out the "galleries" website. I still don't know if I like it or not - it's just so...

Kehinde Wiley | booth view | Barry McGee, Installation view, Meatmarket, 2004