Mixed Bag @ artexpo New York

artexpo New York (Photos by Karen Carstens)

I visited the artexpo in New York on Sunday, March 25, which featured what one might expect - an eclectic mix of art spread out over a vast space (Pier 92 along the Hudson River, to be precise).

"International Artexpo New York has stood at the pinnacle of the commercial fine art market for the past 33 years," states on official press release.

"The list of past exhibitors is a veritable Who's Who of visual artists, including Andy Warhol, Peter Max, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Indiana, Keith Haring and Leroy Neiman."

artexpo New York 2012

What was on display this year by a variety of gallery owners, art dealers and individual artists were mostly paintings, as well as some photography, mixed media works, sculptures, and works in glass and metal, plus a smidgeon of multimedia elements such as video - although surprisingly few such digital-era works were actually on display.

(One exception to this rule was an über-cute "claymation" video by a young artist called Susi Q which many passersby - including myself - found highly amusing and absolutely adorable. I also must have missed this.)

One particular booth I steered clear of was that of the famous Thomas Kinkade Gallery.

I was just not that into him.

(If you're unfamiliar with this reference, you're probably not a fan of the now defunct HBO series Sex in the City.)

There were many more artists and artworks I was more drawn to, and some that I found truly breathtaking, or at the very least something I thought would look cool in my office or apartment.

Life-sized sculptures at artexpo New York

But as I had visited the breathtaking Ron Lauder exhibition at the Neue Galerie earlier that same day, I was by contrast somewhat underwhelmed by most of the contemporary artworks on display at artexpo.

Let's face it. For any artist alive today it is really hard to come close to the likes of Klimt, Schiele, Cezanne, Picasso, Van Gogh, Degas, Brancusi, Richter, Polke, the German Expressionists or the chief designers and artists of the Wiener Werkstätte, whose works - among others - have been collected by Lauder and are now on display at the Neue Galerie through April 2.

Those preternaturally talented artists of yesteryear are all pretty tough acts to follow!

There was nevertheless quite a lot of good - and possibly also some great - art on disply at the artexpo.

Paintings at artexpo New York

Among several of the artists whose works caught my eye at the artexpo were Ahni Kruger, Anne Marchand, Nick Paciorek, Diana Pinck, Julie Satinover and Boris Giulian, whose somewhat surreal "Alphabets - Beauty of Diversity" paintings are clever and amusing pieces. (By contrast I was less into this, which somehow left me cold.)

The creative stylings of Sophie's Dervieux and Martin Kaupp also amused me.

I also LOVE this Web site - The World of Ed Heck - very cool!

And I know a friend of mine who is professional Porsche mechanic would absolutely ADORE this, as well as possibly the photograps of vintage pick-up trucks by Nancy Louise Formn (Weezy).

Spotting the art of Dr. Seuss on the premises was fun too.

(There were, of course, many more artists represented at this international art event. You can peruse their works via this complete exhibitor list featuring hundreds of artists and gallery owners. One of the galleries that caught my eye for its nice selection of imported oil paintings was Paul Robinson Fine Art.)

One of several art-filled corridors at the artexpo

The upshot: there was a lot of pretty nifty and fun stuff to see at artexpo (where I admittedly only had a limited amount of time to spend - less than two hours).

The problem for me was that I was (subconsciously) comparing a lot of it to Ron Lauder's collection, which I had just viewed at the Neue Galerie, and which literally blew my mind (even his medieval armor collection got to me - he had me at the 15th century!).

If I were a professional gallery owner or art dealer I would, however, have likely approached everything I saw at artexpo quite differently, ie with a view to the value and marketability of the artworks on display. Taste in art naturally also remains purely subjective, which is part of what makes it so much fun to behold.

(Ron Lauder's private collection is, incidentally, one of the finest in the world. I blogged about this before here.)

Wrapping things up at the end of artexpo New York on March 25, 2012