Think, for example, of the feelings that flow through the blood at the preview, or the sentiments on the official day of the fair’s opening, when we all become a touch soberer – the gallerist, the artist, the visitor, the press, and finally, the last hours or minutes of the event’s closing for the year. Today I can provide a personal list of highlights of those booths and artists that I found particularly interesting. My personal favorites are two galleries from Salzburg, three from Germany, and one from Palma de Mallorca.
Anouk Lamm Anouk (AT) / MAM Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Salzburg (AT)
I am drawn from the dominating calm tones, but also the black that arises here and there, the constant repetition by Anouk Lamm Anouk of the note, or title ‚LESBIAN JAZZ‘ in all the displayed canvas. The works deliver tranquility, sensuality, solutions.
Caro Jost (DE) / Britta Rettberg (DE)
Caro Jost has a unique artistic approach. The background from the law degree is evident. Her art is investigative; collects fragments, highlights, and interprets (BTW her working method is protected by a trademark). At SPARK 2022, in parallel with her famous „Invoice Paintings and Notes“, the artist shows works from her new series of Public Paintings. The artist highlights advertising flyers from night schools in NYC in a playful manner. In an interview with LNR, Jost says, „I transfers these to canvas and deconstructs the text by hiding certain words with camouflage-like overpaintings and highlighting others as catchwords. The urge for self-improvement revealed in the messages of these course offerings is more present than ever, especially in social media. A critical-ironic and humorous attitude towards the promises of these evening courses. In the glossy image surface, the viewer reflects and recognizes himself in the mirror.“ On the back of the canvas, where we as an audience rarely get to otherwise, is written „First Impressions (2001+2022)“.
Lou Jaworski (PL) / max goelitz (DE)
Lou Jaworski uses in his works unique materials such as magnets, hand-cut marble, LED lights, industrial shelves, server ventilators, as well as ready-mades. The booth is remarkable and the presence of the artist and his words about this series help you see a lot of things that you would hardly have captured only with your pupils. The recurring number of LED lights used in his work META obliges one to make a long stop in front of the artwork.
Rannva Kunoy (FO) / Lundgren Gallery (ES)
Lundgreen is a Palma De Majorca-based gallery exhibiting this year’s large-scale works by the Faroese artist Rannva Kunoy. When I try to research the artist on social media, the gallery owners tell me it’s not the easiest to find Kunoy in such places. When wanting to see her works initially, the gallerists of Lundgreen had to travel to London to see the artist’s atelier. The artist is recognized for giving her canvas countless layers of colors. Many gallerists tonight tell about multilayers were applied to the artworks of their artists to provide them with dimensions, but the work of Rannva Kunoy really gave this sense of how much depth a painting can have. Brings me so to walk around the artwork three or four or five times just to experience the change of colors and depths. On the top, the artist etches in various depths, lines, figures, fortes that take time to decipher… I once had the feeling of seeing an hourglass. Another viewer said to me that he saw Einstein.
Johanna Dumet (FR) / KÖNIG GALERIE (DE)
Johanna Dumet, represented by König Galerie, has super fresh images, striking kitchen scenes with abundant table settings, yet no people. The artist also incorporates fashion, brands, and text into her paintings. It stays in my mind the statement, “ The higher the heels the closer to God“. These motifs stand for Dumet’s ideal of sustainable hedonism: the time spent with friends and the celebration of life.
Julian Heuser (DE) / Elektrohalle Rhomberg (AT)
Six equal extra-long canvases and a miniature canvas to which the artist has assigned very surreal names – Rancho Relaxo video tour; Troy and company’s summertime smile factory; Pimp my armory part 2; Alice adventures through the windshield glass (…). There is a notable lightness in the totality of what Julian Heuser has given to this works through the use of thoughts, paper prints, spray, chalks, acrylic, oil pastels, and markers.
About the Writter: Erka Shalari (*1988, Tirana) is a Vienna-based art author. She focuses on discovering unique artistic positions, unconventional exhibition spaces, and galleries that have deliberately broken new ground in their working methods. In this regard, she relies on unorthodox publishing practices, coupling these with a nonchalant manner of writing. The work oscillates between articles for magazines, exhibition texts and press releases.