10 Works under $25K at Frieze New York 2023
The APAA (Association of Professional Art Advisors) select their highlights, spanning paintings by Trisha Baga, Maia Ruth Lee and Woody De Othello and textile works by Sanaa Gateja and Jagdeep Raina
The APAA (Association of Professional Art Advisors) select their highlights, spanning paintings by Trisha Baga, Maia Ruth Lee and Woody De Othello and textile works by Sanaa Gateja and Jagdeep Raina
TRISHA BAGA
COSTCO, 2022
Oil on canvas
25.87 × 37.8 × 1.5 inches
$10,000 - $20,000 USD
Presented by Gió Marconi
What interests me in all art, and this work specifically, is the line between beauty and a deeper layer. While this work by Trisha Baga seems to represent an atmospheric landscape, upon further observation, the familiar florescent lights and metal framing of a Costco ceiling appear within the clouds on the top half of the painting. This motif would likely go unnoticed at first glance without knowing the title of the work – COSTCO – which shows us that the landscape of suburban big-box stores has seeped into our unconscious minds, so recognizable that they have become invisible even when presented out of context. Trisha Baga’s work often represents the mundane but does so with a dream-like quality that tows the line between the digital and real worlds. While formerly focused on creating multi-layered video works, Baga shifted toward a painting practice in 2020, bringing elements of collage and image sequencing into this new body of work, which layers ideas, environments, and objects to create entirely new narratives. – Elizabeth Fiore
CAMERON CLAYBORN
roompiercer (with a mended form) #4, 2023
Bronze, dyed muslin, and wire rope
Under $10,000 USD
Presented by Simone Subal Gallery
I was immediately drawn to the intricate bronze sculpture by American artist Cameron Clayborn for its poignancy. The title roompiercer is fitting for the forms of this intimate work, as a pointed needle extends horizontally from the wall, piercing a hole through an abstracted form resembling a cloaked figure. Clayborn has described their practice as translating their own psychological landscapes, and the small sculptures become "emotional tools" for the artist to unpack their experiences and struggles with their identity, race, sexuality, and mental health. – Laura Smith Sweeney
WOODY DE OTHELLO
Lately, 2022
Watercolor and colored pencil on paper
22 1/2 × 30 1/2 inches; 57.15 × 77.47 cm
24 1/4 × 32 1/8 inches; 61.59 × 81.61 cm (framed)
$ 20,000 USD
Presented by Karma
Woody De Othello achieves a level of engagement that makes this work on paper my top pick. Incorporating artefacts from daily life (chairs, a glass of ice water, tulips), vestiges of his Haitian ancestry and hints at the uncanny (several vertebrae, a locked safe), de Othello layers figuration and representation in a cornucopia of color and intrigue. His sense of humor peeks through in the central cartoonish figure, who - amidst an active environment - seems to be peacefully asleep while balancing a coffee mug atop his chest. The complex layering creates a scene that is simultaneously exterior and interior as verdant, leafy plants collide with stark white tile. Distorted suggestions of household furniture recall the artist’s ceramic work and playfully warp and anthropomorphize these everyday objects. De Othello’s Lately is a dynamic composition that is visually exciting to unpack and experience as a whole. – Laura Solomon
ROE ETHRIDGE
Decanter with White Roses, 2017-2023
Dye sublimation print
43 x 33 inches (109.2 x 83.8 cm.)
Edition of 5 plus 2 artist's proofs
$18,000 USD
Presented by Andrew Kreps Gallery
Earlier this year, Gagosian and Andrew Kreps mounted a two-gallery show of photography by Roe Ethridge entitled AMERICAN POLYCHRONIC to coincide with the artist's first monograph, which documented his 20-plus year practice. Ethridge’s work blends commercial photography: fashion, advertising and stock photos with his own personal and private vernacular—between careful still life compositions to cell phone imagery snapped on the fly. There is a humorous tension of beauty and decay, camp and sincerity, nostalgic and current symbols. His photographs are often lush and poetic, but can be somewhat kitsch, investigative, ironic, and edgy. Ethridge photographs encapsulate current pop culture, but his is a hybrid style—“Polychronically” doing more than one thing at a time. All of them pleasurable and rewarding to the viewer. – Lorinda Ash
SAANA GATEJA
After the Birds, 2023
Paper beads on barkcloth
58¾ x 27¾ inches, 149.22 x 70.48 cm
$25,000 - $30,000
Presented by Karma
Although these works push the price category to the upper limit, Sanaa Gateja’s work is modestly priced for an older artist who has been exhibing for decades. His African background and use of recycled materials aligns him with such well-known artists as El Anatsui. Known as Uganda’s bead king, he also has a serious educational background which includes stints studying jewelry design at Goldsmiths and in Florence, and his workshop in Uganda has employed thousands of women since 1990. The works are delicate and feel more understated, perhaps even traditionally “female” as opposed to Anatsui’s powerful gilt tapestries. I love the glorious mashup of paper beads, raffia, banana leaves and wood and the backstory of his empowerment of women in his community. – Lisa Austin
LISA OPPENHEIM
Entartete Kunst, Südfranzösische Landschaft, 1945/2023 (Version I), 2023
Silver gelatin photograph exposed to firelight
Unframed: 23 x 27-1/4 in. (58.4 cm x 69.2 cm)
$18,000 USD
Presented by Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Lisa Oppenheim’s Entartete Kunst, Südfranzösische Landschaft, 1945/2023 (Version I), 2023 is a great find for collectors, both from a visual and intellectual perspective. This solarized photographic diptych was inspired by German artist Erich Heckel, a founding member of the German Expressionism group Die Brücke, and who was considered a “Degenerate” artist by Hitler. Like artists in Die Brücke, Oppenheim builds a conceptual bridge between the past and present. She creates an appropriation of sorts, by recontextualizing the image and connecting it with the contemporary world. The original image of a Heckel painting is described on the left next to the artist’s reinterpretation on the right. It is as if the past wrongs of the political environment are seeping into the present. – Lela Hersh
TANIA PÉREZ CÓRDOVA
Alocasia Odora (40% chance of rain), 2022
Iron, epoxy clay, plastic, acrylic, gold plated brass chain, patterns of leaf damage
27.5 x 12.75 x 12.75 in. (70 x 32.5 x 32.5 cm)
$10-20k
Presented by Tina Kim Gallery
While navigating the bustle of an art fair, it’s a pleasure to connect with contemplative works like those of Mexico City-based artist Tania Pérez Córdova. In her series 'Precipitation', Córdova continues her practice of recontextualizing natural forms with complex construction methods. The subject of Alocasia Odora (40% chance of rain) is a single green leaf - its delicacy and fragility compromised by disintegration both natural and synthetic. In this work, Pérez Córdova pierces the leaf with strands of brass chains piercing the leaf to mimic rain, evoking another powerful natural element. The sculptural relics of her practice quietly but proactively address the complex natural world. – Lela Hersh
JAGDEEP RAINA
She travels softly through the seven gates as her garden croons for her, 2022
Silk and cotton embroidered tapestry
26 × 17 in | 66 × 43.2 cm
$8,000 USD
Presented by Cooper Cole
Jagdeep Raina often depicts complex scenes in fast, immediate drawings that convey the dynamism of his subjects. He also works in the relatively slow medium of embroidery, capturing the gestural quality of his drawings in the painstaking detail of needle and thread, specifically incorporating embroidery techniques and traditions from Kashmir and the Punjab. These dense and somewhat difficult-to-photograph objects hang with a peculiar weight and poetic presence. They command our attention despite their small size, conveying layers of meaning that may or may not be apparent to someone outside of the diasporic communities they represent. – Jeremy Johnston/Darling Green
MAIA RUTH LEE
Bondage Baggage series, 2018 onward
$10,000 - $20,000
Presented by Tina Kim and François Ghebaly
Following her much lauded show that just closed at Tina Kim Gallery in New York, I’m very excited to see Maia Ruth Lee’s paintings at Tina Kim and François Ghebaly’s booths. These paintings showing with Tina Kim are a relatively new development within Lee’s ongoing Bondage Baggage series begun in 2018 which takes inspiration from the rope-bound bulbous luggage bundles ubiquitous in developing countries. Lee has been fascinated by the form ever since encountering it at the Kathmandu International Airport where she lived for several years with her parents who are missionaries and linguists. The paintings are literally born out of the sculptures. Referred to as “skin” by the artist, the canvases start as the shroud that envelops the sculptures and takes its organic form from the taut ropes and masked contents. Lee applies ink that articulates the irregular trellised pattern of the rope as negative space almost like a cyanotype. Once the rope is cut the canvases shift from sculptural objects to two dimensional images. No longer indexical, the paintings engage a rich lineage of abstract painting – Simon Hantaï’s pliage technique, Yves Klein's Anthropométries series, the Pattern and Decoration movement, and the cellular architecture of Terry Winters’ paintings. All these formal dialogues exist concurrent with Lee’s exploration of themes relating to migration, labor, and diasporic identity. There are a lot of different ways to engage these paintings – plenty for the eye and mind. – Alex Glauber
MAAIKE SCHOOREL
Tulips and Toys, 2023
Oil on canvas
40 x 50 cm
$10-20,000 USD
Presented by Mendes Wood DM
At first glance, Dutch painter Maaike Schoorel’s painting Tulips and Toys appears to be an abstract arrangement of delicate painterly brush strokes across the canvas. When the viewer slows down and looks closely at the artwork, details emerge of tulips in a glass vase and other objects on a table. Sustained observation rewards the viewer’s time and focus with a quietly beautiful still-life. While contemporary and quite audacious in challenging us to spend time decoding what we see in Schoorel’s canvases, the work also nods to a long tradition of virtuoso Dutch still-life painting. – Lisa Marie Marks
RONNY QUEVEDO
El crack, 2022
Gold leaf on carbon transfer on paper
11.61 x 16.26 inches
Presented by Alexander Gray Gallery
The subtly and elegance of Ronny Quevedo’s work is evident in the 2022 gem titled el crack. The mapping and graphing of what appears to be a soccer pitch provides gracefulness to one of the worlds most beloved sports, fútbol. Born into a family of Central American sports enthusiasts, Quevedo was informed and exposed to his father’s playbook as a child. Each player on the field is essential and intricately performing in concert in an attempt to drive the ball into the net. Fútbol in Latin America and throughout the world can either unify and/or divide families and communities as players become allies or adversaries on the pitch. In el crack all performers crowd the central field whereby only the most skillful athletes will break apart the coagulation of deft athletic technicians. – Erica Barrish
With thanks to APAA members Lorinda Ash, Lisa Austin, Erica Barrish, Elizabeth Fiore, Alex Glauber, Lela Hersh, Jeremy Johnston/Darling Green, Lisa Marie Marks, Laura Smith Sweeney and Laura Solomon.
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Main image: Woody De Othello, Lately, 2022, Watercolor and colored pencil on paper, 22½ x 30½ inches; 57.15 x 77.47 cm, 24¼ x 32⅛ inches; 61.59 x 81.61 cm (framed), courtesy the Artist and Karma