Art New York & CONTEXT New York Launched Art Week with Strong Acquisitions and Attendance

Acclaimed Artists, Renowned Collectors and Art Luminaries Flocked to Pier 94  For Five Day Fair

New York, NY – May 10, 2017 – Art Miami, the leading producer of international contemporary and modern art fairs, celebrated its third edition of Art New York and the second edition of CONTEXT New York, when they welcomed more than 26,000 attendees to Pier 94 Wednesday, May 3^rd through Sunday, May 7^th. The sister fairs showcased important artworks from 120 of the leading international contemporary and modern galleries, representing more than 1,200 artists from 50 countries. Art New York provided an elegant platform for acquiring important blue chip works, while CONTEXT focused on the development and reinforcement of emerging and mid-career cutting-edge artists.

Prestigious collectors, art world luminaries and celebrities, including Stanley Tucci, New York Academy of Art President David Kratz, Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das, Yigal Ozeri, Kim Heirston, Paul Jambers, Pascale Naessens, Stephanie Stokes, Michael Shvo and his wife Seren, Lady Liliana Cavendish, Ziel Feldman, Ruth Baum, Diane and John Sculley, Michael Alago,Danny Clinch, Kara Ross, art historian and Curator at El Museo del Barrio Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, President of Creative CapitalSuzy Delvalle and Janna Bullock, emerged from luxury black sedans provided in partnership with Carey International and streamed through the doors of the fairs to get the first look at more than $150 million worth of art available for acquisition.

At Art New York, London’s ARCHEUS / POST-MODERN placed a François Morellet from the 1970s for $120,000 and Bridget Riley’s Blaze for $75,000. They also placed two additional works by Riley and one by Richard Serra for undisclosed amounts, while Paris-based gallery, 55Bellechasse placed two David Ramirez-Gomez self-portraits for a total of $60,000, as well as two other works by Ramirez-Gomez for undisclosed amounts. The gallery also placed Niloufar Banisadr’s Batman and a pair of his Mes Voyages for a total of $37,000; a Jon Davis; and six works by Pascal Vochelet from his series Punk Attitude for a total of $23,000.

At CONTEXT New York, Miami-based Markowicz Fine Art placed almost all works by KAI, including Knowledge is Power (2017), JUST EVIL (2017) and Morons Soft Pack Small (2015), for a total of $117,000, while Bogotá-based Galería Casa Cuadrada placed works by Rafa Macarrón, Martín Mancera, and Ismael Lagares, and nearly sold out of all works by Fidia Falaschetti for over $100,000.

During Art New York, guests were surrounded by hundreds of iconic artists and masterworks, including Damien Hirst’s breathtaking, large-scale Beautiful Remastered Rubellite Tourmaline Painting at Jerome Zodo Gallery. The classic Disney characters of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs immediately captured the attention of fairgoers in the interactive three-dimensional video installation by Dominic Harris, who has previously shown at Design Miami/Basel. Presented by Priveekollektie Contemporary Art | Design, crowds were mesmerized by the display. The VIP Lounge also saw significant foot traffic, with guests eager to see the ephemeral suspended installation by Mabel Poblet, presented by CYNTHIA-REEVES. The work is comprised of ocean images from the artist’s home in Cuba, enhanced by a shimmer of mirror-like elements. Poblet will be representing Cuba at this year’s Venice Biennale.

“The third edition of Art New York exceeded our expectations, as we saw impressive attendance and significant acquisitions throughout the five fair days of the fair,” said Katelijne De Backer, Director of Art New York. “Our carefully curated selection of galleries offered the most significant works on the market to complement the fairs and auctions taking place in May. Art New York continues to cement itself as one of the preeminent fairs for New York Art Week.”

Gary Lichtenstein Editions’ booth was abuzz when Jon Bon Jovi arrived with his wife, Dorothea, to admire the work of famed rock ‘n’ roll photographer Bob Gruen and Jason Newsted of Metallica at the combined exhibition ROCKERS RAWK. Gruen’s ROCKERS exhibit included a print of Bon Jovi taken at the 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival, as well as images of Led Zeppelin and the most iconic John Lennon images ever taken. RAWK was Newsted’s New York City debut, and he sold almost his entire collection of large paintings and prints at his first international show. Fifty percent of all proceeds from the dual exhibit were donated to the Perry J. Cohen Foundation.

Throughout the fair, Art New York presented a series of special partnerships. A selection of Soho House members was provided with a VIP cocktail reception and complimentary fair tours, while Contemporaries and Contemporaries Patrons of The Whitney Museum were treated to an intimate VIP brunch reception and complimentary fair tours.

Additional noteworthy sales at Art New York included:

• BOCCARA ART (New York)placed three sculptures by Evfrosina Lavrukhina. Two pieces for $35,000 and $30,000, while the third sculpture was sold for an undisclosed amount
• Cynthia Corbett Gallery(London) placed nine works by Andy Burgess for more than $32,000; Elisabeth Caren’s The Last Mile (2016); Elise Ansel’s In Pursuit of a Geometry of an Exact Expression III, after Vermeer (2015); three works by Mary O’Malleyfor undisclosed amounts; and five works by Zemer Peled for a total of nearly $20,000
• LICHT FELD Gallery(Basel) placed two video sculptures by MARCK, G (2016) and B (2016) for a total of $32,000
• David Benrimon Fine Art(New York) placed Mel Bochner’s Amazing! (2016), monoprint, for $28,000; Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (P1) (2014); and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Rinso (1982)
• Onishi Gallery (New York) placed Konno Tomoko’s Fuyu (Winter)(2017), ceramic and acrylic on canvas, and Life Bowl 03(2017), ceramic, as well as Shun Sudo’s CHAOTIC HAPPINESS 4 (2017), acrylic on canvas, for a total of $25,000
• ARTÊRIA(Bromont) placed four works by ZUT – Je plane pour toi, Je suis crazy crazy crazy… de toi, I feel you, and An Impression it is Bigger Than Me – for undisclosed amounts, as well as four works by Hugo Cantin – Super 8 Color Variation, 1970s Phoenix Corn, Brady Bunch, and The Beatles at the Ed Sullivan Show – also for undisclosed amounts
• Beaux-arts des Amériques (Montreal)placed two works by Patrice Charbonneau: Étude pour un atelier (2017), acrylic and aerosol on canvas, and Délimitation contextuelle (2016), acrylic on canvas
• BLANK SPACE(New York) placed Arno Elias’ Tembo 9 (2015), hand embellished with paint, gold leaf, silver leaf and diamond dust; two works by Kyu-Hak Lee: Monument–Street Road Auvers (2012) and Monument–Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear #2(2017); four pieces by Byung Jin Kim: Love-Love (m) (2017), steel and car paint, Donkey-Love (Green) (2014), steel and car paint,Love-Love (Green) (2017), steel and car paint, and Love-Love (2017), steel and car paint; and three works by Nemo Jantzen: R+B (2016), photography, acrylic and glass spheres on wooden panel, Pop Icons III (2017), photography, acrylic and glass spheres on wooden panel, and All That Jazz (2016), photography, acrylic and glass spheres on wooden panel, all for undisclosed amounts
• Gary Lichtenstein Editions (Jersey City)placed 12 graphite and colored pencil on paper works by Jason Newsted, and four ofBob Gruen’s silkscreen photo prints, including Johnny Rotten & Sid Vicious, Europe 1977, Jon Bon Jovi, Moscow, Russia 1989 and The Clash, Boston, MA 1979
• SPACE 776(Brooklyn) placed two of Jungsan’s Bul-lip-mun-ja (2010), mixed media, for undisclosed amounts
• ZK Gallery(San Francisco) placed three untitled C-Prints by Jack Daly for undisclosed amounts

At CONTEXT New York, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel spotlighted Piers Secunda’s ISIS Bullet Hole paintings, which attracted thousands of fairgoers. The pieces were created from molds of the bullet holes that Secunda found when he traveled to Iraqi villages recently liberated from ISIS control.

LaCa Projects highlighted emerging artist Cristina Toro, who is influenced by Puerto Rico’s natural landscape; Richard Koh Fine Art displayed intricately woven structures by Malaysian artist Anne Samat; crowds swarmed at Donghwa Odé Gallery for Raphaele Shirley’s neon installation, Astonish; and artist duo Dosshaus were seen wearing their monochromatic paintings at Corey Helford Gallery’s booth.

“CONTEXT New York’s second edition was a tremendous success, providing fresh talent and mid-career works to collectors at Pier 94,” said CONTEXT New York Director, Julian Navarro. “We saw significant sales of emerging artist works this year, and our special projects, which focused on the social issues facing our world today, were well received by the public.”

Additional major sales at CONTEXT New York included:

• JoAnne Artman Gallery (New York) placed a wide selection of works by John “CRASH” Matos, including Peace to My Peeps(2017), spray paint on canvas, created especially for the fair, and The Midnight Bomber, spray paint on canvas, for a total of $56,500, as well as America Martin’s Mermaids on Rocks & Birds in Sky for $27,000
• Connect Contemporary(Atlanta) placed a Craig Alan work and a Pezhman for a total of $40,000
• Donghwa Odé Gallery (Englewood Cliffs)placed a work by Ilhwa Kim and a work by Kyung Youl Yoon for a total of $31,000
• Lucía Mendoza(Madrid) placed Cristina Gamón’s Territories II (2016), acrylic on plexiglass, and Oliver Czarnetta’s Lethe III (2016), resin and concrete, for a total of $31,000
• Castle Fitzjohns Gallery (New York) placed a WhIsBework for $30,000
• JOERG HEITSCH GALLERY(Munich) placed Wandarbeit Rot (2016), stainless steel, painted color, wood and LED lamp, by Yoshiyuki Miura for $30,000
• GALLERIA CA’ D’ORO(New York) placed a work by Jeremy Penn and one by Ewa Bathelier for a total of $29,000
• GALLERY LEE & BAE(Busan) placed six of Kim Hyun-Sik’s Who Likes K Colors? (2017), two of Lim Chang-Min’sInto a time frame 8 (2017), and one of Chang-Min’s Into a time frame – Samcheuk, for an undisclosed amount
• HOHMANN (Palm Desert)placed a Julian Voss-Andreae’s Quantum Buddha (2016), bronze, for $24,000 and two jd Hansen works, including Spiegel im Spiegel (2017), bronze, and New World Symphony, bronze, totaling $25,000
• GACI/Prak-sis Contemporary Art Association (Chicago) placed the Beyond What You Seeseries by Angela Hojung Jang
• galerie bruno massa(Paris) placed Jean Philippe Kadzinski’s FE200 Summer3 (2016), mixed media on Diasec, andMaryam Alakbarli’s Imitation de Van Gogh (2015), oil on canvas, for undisclosed amounts

Galleries who participated in Art New York and CONTEXT New York spoke highly of the quality and experience of the shows, as well as New York’s vibrant cultural scene.

Brian Balfour-Oatts, specialist of ARCHEUS/ POST-MODERN (London), said, “In a crowded art-week in New York, I was pleased to see so many of our clients taking the time to make the trip to Pier 94, particularly over the weekend. Between the various fairs there was a great deal of choice, especially for blue chip works as the auction previews began. We were, though, rewarded by several sales of works by the artists on whom we had focused our presentation: Bridget Riley and François Morellet, in particular.”

Preeya Seth, Director of Rosenberg & Co. (New York), said, “The 2017 edition of Art New York was defined by an upward trajectory. This relatively new fair is up-and-coming, with increasing quality in the art shown and galleries included. We were pleased to welcome and meet a vibrant, international crowd, who was knowledgeable and interested to learn more about modern and contemporary fine art.”

Christian Hohmann, Director of HOHMANN (Palm Desert), said, “It was our first time participating in CONTEXT and Art New York, and in fact I hadn’t been back to New York in years. It was an incredible experience and we made some fabulous new clients, met some very good artists, and we are going home happy and inspired. The fair was vibrant, and the kind of conversations we had with prospective buyers were a testimony to how sophisticated New Yorkers are. Kudos to fair management, who did an outstanding job.”

 This year, many of the special exhibitors at Art New York and CONTEXT New York placed a heavy emphasis on social consciousness:

• Jason Myers’ The 99%: United We Stand, an installation of intimately-scaled portraits, each representing a faceless, nameless member of the 99%, presented by Long-Sharp Gallery.
• Inside/Out, an exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculptures depicting both interiors and exteriors, was created by alumni of the New York Academy of Art’s graduate school.
• Welcome, an installation shining light on the current refugee crisis, was created from barbed wire and plated in 24-karat gold. Presented by Amarist Studio, all proceeds benefited USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
• All Proceeds, a series of conceptual works by artist, educator and Director of Adult and Academic Programs at MoMA,Pablo Helguera. One hundred percent of funds were donated to a variety of organizations that support social issue causes, including United We Dream, Planned Parenthoodand American Civil Liberties Union.
• Tone Pictures: Our Year of Dissent, by Ted Riederer, featured photo emulsion prints made with records that he recorded himself and cut to vinyl.
• Untitled/Water Glass, by Terry Berkowitz, asked the age-old rhetorical question, “Do you see the glass as half full or half empty?”
• Richard Garet’s Open, explored the suggestive and poetic notion of crossing through an opening into the unknown.

Art New York and CONTEXT New York are pleased to have partnered with Artsy as the “Official Online Partner” of the fairs. Visit the Artsy Preview for works still available for sale for Art New York and CONTEXT New York.

 For more information, please visit www.artnyfair.com and www.CONTEXTnyfair.com.

SPONSORS AND PARTNERS:

Conrad New York, Carey International, Resorts World Bimini, The Wall Street Journal, NYCxDesign, One Art Nation, Venü, Children’s Museum of the Arts, Blouin Artinfo, Art in America, Artillery, Manhattan, The Art Newspaper, Art & Antiques, ARTnews, Whitewall, artnet, Fine Art Connoisseur, Observer, ArtPulse, Cooper Hewitt, No Longer Empty, International Center of Photography, Americas Society, El Museo del Barrio, Turon Travel, Bourlet ArtLogistics, Butterfield Market, VOSS Water, Aesthetica, Bronx Museum, SculptureCenter, Norwood and Bric.

ABOUT ART MIAMI LLC:

Art Miami LLC is a partnership consisting of art and media industry veterans Nick Korniloff, Mike Tansey and Brian Tyler. In addition to three fairs during Miami Art Week – Art Miami, CONTEXT Art Miami and Aqua Art Miami – the company annually produces thePalm Beach Modern + Contemporary in January; Art Wynwood during Presidents’ Day Weekend in February; Art New York and CONTEXT New York at Pier 94 in New York in May; Art Southampton in July; and Art Silicon Valley/San Francisco in October.