Art 14. A photo report

Jealous Gallery

Art14 is “London’s global art fair.” It took place a couple of weekends ago and it is my favourite art fair in London. Not that i’m a big fan of fairs but, you know, “In the country of the blind,” blablabla. Art14 changes its name every year. Last year was its first edition and it was called, you guessed it, Art13. If i had to compare it to Frieze i’d say that catering is far better at Art14 (which for me means “WOW! there’s a juice bar, here!”), the public is much younger and the art is more accessible and not just financially. Last but not least, there’s no Jeff Koons inflated glitter in sight. I did see too many Botero though. At least one.

Thorsten Brinkmann, Karl Schrank von Gaul, 2008

Installation view of Art14 London, Photography: Written Light

The reason why Art14 defines itself as “London’s global art fair” is that the 180 participating galleries come from all over the world. Europe of course but also Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America. 38 different countries in total.

What follows is a long series of images of works i discovered at the fair. Most of them are photography because that was the medium that stood out at the fair for me.

Jason Larkin, Pressurised Water, Krugersdorp, Johannesburg, 2013. Flowers Gallery

Johannesburg was founded on the wealth that came flooding in from a gold rush beginning in 1886. The mines didn’t just create the fortunes, they also generated six billion tonnes of waste dumped outside the city’s poorer areas. Some 400,000 people now live surrounded by these mountains of waste.

In his series Tales From the City of Gold, Jason Larkin documents life in these impoverished areas.

Hirohito Nomoto, Facade Pachinko, 2013. Tezukayama Gallery

Hirohito Nomoto, Façade 05 (ed.7) 2011

Hirohito Nomoto, Façade 02 (ed.7) 2011

This series records some of the structures damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Hirohito Nomoto explains: The photographs of the facade of each building were taken using techniques of architecture photography that allowed me to keep my emotions at bay, in order to depict the scene as naturally as possible. The aim of this work was to present the viewer an image of what happened there on the day. Most of the buildings in the series were pulled down and do not exist anymore.

Ohad Matalon, Tower, Egypt-Israel Border, 2011-2013. Podbielski Contemporary

Ohad Matalon, Tower, Egypt-Israel Border, 2011-2013. Podbielski Contemporary

Ohad Matalon. Podbielski Contemporary

Ohad Matalon, P.o.v., Jaffa, 2007

Shen Chao-Liang, STAGE #97, 2011. AKI Gallery

Shen Chao-Liang, STAGE #14, 2011. AKI Gallery

Shen Chao-Liang photographed the extravagant stage trucks employed by cabarets and other performers to travel across Taiwan. In less than an hour, the stages turn from mundane vehicles into 50-foot sensory spectacles complete with powerful sound systems, neon lights, and splashing painted stage sets. And back into trucks again until their next destination.

Francesco Jodice, Capri #3, 2013

Jeff Liao, Luna Park (Coney Island series), 2010. Crane Kalman Brighton

Helene Schmitz, Alabama Fields

Hazem Harb, We Used to Fly on Water, 2014. ATHR GALLERY

Albert Renger-Patzsch, Schubert & Salzer factory, Ingolstadt, Germany, 1950. Kleinschmidt Fine Photographs

Albert Renger-Patzsch, Schubert & Salzer factory (Blow room machine, Cotton Mill Machine. Untitled), Ingolstadt, Germany, 1950 (Blow room machine, Cotton Mill Machine. Untitled)

Bauhaus artist Albert Renger-Patzsch looked for beauty and dignity of prosaic industrial machines.

Nelli Palomäki, Baawo at 30, 2011. Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire

Michael Ormerod, Child with Mask, Hillrose, Colorado, 1989. Crane Kalman

Abdul Abdullah, You see monsters, 2014. Fehily Contemporary

Abdul Abdullah’s Siege refers to the ‘siege mentality’; a state of mind in which one feels under attack. Abdullah feels this is a condition suffered by many minorities and marginalized groups, particularly young Muslims who live in traditionally ‘Western’ societies. Growing up in the post 9/11 era, Abdullah has stated that he believes that if there is a ‘bad guy’ in the popular imagination, it would be Muslims, and as a Muslim he has felt obligated to defend his position.

Ramune Pigagaite, Feuerwehrmann (Menscher meiner Stadt), 2004. Kleinschmidt Fine Photographs

Ramune Pigagaite, Fischer III (Menscher meiner Stadt), 2001. Kleinschmidt Fine Photographs

Ramune Pigagaite, Bahnwärterin, (Menscher meiner Stadt), 2000. Kleinschmidt Fine Photographs

Ramune Pigagaite was born in Varena, a small town in Lithuania. People of my Town is a series of forty small sized colour photographic portraits of people from Varena. Their professions seem antiquated, strange and curious: baker, beekeeper and poet.

Hugh Holland, Stacy Peralta in the Valley, 1977. Crane Kalman

Hugh Holland, Skate Shooter, Kenter Canyon Elementary, Brentwood, 1976. Crane Kalman

Hugh Holland documented the early days of the skating culture in California. The young people he photographed in the 1970’s became legendary names of the sport.

Sofia Borges

Sebastiao Salgado, Church Gate Station, Western Railroad Line, Bombay India, 1995. Sundaram Tagore Gallery

It would be unfair to reduce the fair to photography:

Dominic Harris, Ruffled. Privatekollektie Contemporary Art

He An. Tang Contemporary, Beijing

Anton Goldenstein, Rocket Summer. Coates and Scarry

Anton Goldenstein, There Will Come Soft Rains. Coates and Scarry

Anton’s works are a cultural fusion of African/European cultural references and phenomena. Influenced by his family’s history with tales of deterritorialisation, migration, displacement and assimilation his practice is multiplicitous, presenting an ongoing exploration, a type of meta-anthropology, a broad sweep of culture(s), conglomerations of many themes, histories and ideas (from natural/world/art histories, language and media).

Linus BILL, Weniger Jugend, mehr Polizei, 2011. Christophe Gute Galerie