Are there really enough collectors to support the growing number of art fairs out there? Probably not, but there are certainly enough galleries. Under Ari Emanuel’s leadership, Frieze has opened new fairs in Seoul and Los Angeles and acquired The Armory Show and Expo Chicago, and his recent acquisition of the company for $200 million indicates that he continues to believe in the business. This week, Frieze, several other art fairs, and the spring auction sales are taking place in New York; gallerists, artists, and auctioneers are putting their best foot forward to engage collectors in their work. Commenting on the uncertainty of the market, the international shipper Franz Dietl recently shared in an interview with Art Basel that some might want to “park their cash in a quality artwork.” And, given the declining dollar, European and international collectors buying in New York “just became 20% less expensive.” A positive take that I hope holds true. If you see something you like, buy it, and don’t be afraid to ask for a payment plan—support living artists and their gallerists.  

Curator Erica Criss, presents, through her advisory Criss Collaborations, textile works by Katie Commodore and sculptures by Lesley Bodzy. Unifying the presentation are the artists’ engagement with the female body, which Erica Criss thought about during her curatorial process: “it is like thinking of an exhibition as an artwork,” she commented. Bodzy’s balloon works are abstract, but sagging, deflated, and coated in shiny materials like resin or injected with foam, they allude to the body and its modifications, and also lead to intangible associations. The press release for her most recent solo-show, Levity and Depth at M David and Co at Art Cake, stated that she is exploring the abyss, I would add ‘and having fun with it.’ Indelible sagacity, for instance, pancakes in its form, but its surface is inviting with acrylic pigment specks. As a sculptor, Bodzy’s work traverses 3D printing, acrylic paint pours, latex, and silicone, It is in these material explorations that the strength of her artistry comes forward. Bodzy is having a moment; the fair comes on the heels of her solo show, which Flaunt featured in a splashy editorial feature (that I penned). Commodore’s work of delicate figurative water colors on ivory, where she has painted her friends in intimate settings, in the nude or their underwear, and two digitally woven tapestries, one Kelly and Rodrigo, of a couple in bondage, embracing, are celebrations of desire, sexuality, and one’s own body. They are, in Criss’s words, “a rebellion to reclaim the female gaze” and refreshingly feminist. Commodore recently finished a residency at Wassaic and teaches printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design.

read the full article: Whitehot Magazine