The Affordable Art Fair, Banksy, and the High Line

I had been waiting months for the Affordable Art Fair to arrive in the city, and finally the day was here!

Their opening gala was on Wednesday night.  And interestingly, the art fair coincided with the opening days of Banksy's month-long show on the streets of NYC.  Banksy is a well-known, but still anonymous, graffiti artist/political activist from England who has been on the scene since the 1990s.  His pieces sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Banksy's works are at times mildly subversive, but also a bit cheeky, and he is after all an artist.  So I had to wonder if it was merely a coincidence that the second piece in his show appeared the morning after the opening gala of the art fair, only a block or so away from the venue where the gala/fair was being held.  You see, because Banksy's art is (technically) illegal, in that it is (technically) graffiti, he creates each piece in the middle of the night and it's not found until the next morning when all of NY (well not all of NY) runs around in a frenzy trying to find its location, aided by hints provided by Banksy on his website and Twitter.  So, the timeline here is very curious... on the same night that the art fair held its opening gala, Banksy was also in the area creating the second installation of his show.  Coincidence?  How far of a stretch would it be to imagine Banksy at the gala, or perhaps even involved in the fair in a more official capacity?  (Every anonymous graffiti artist needs a proper cover.)  Or... was this second piece just a strategically well-positioned work aimed at maximizing his visibility, given its proximity to the art fair, Chelsea galleries, and the High Line?  Will we ever know?  Will we ever solve this mystery?

Well, either way, I was eager to see Banksy's second installation.  It's a playful piece that reads, "This is my New York accent... normally I write like this." It uses a style of tagging that originated in NYC in the 1970s and has since spread throughout the world.  Many New Yorkers appreciated Banksy's nod to local culture, especially so early on in his month-long residency.  I've even heard some people go so far as to say the piece is iconic.

Perhaps Banksy was hoping the work would be better received than his initial piece, and left untouched, due to this gesture, but no such luck...  It was defaced quite quickly, which is de rigueur for this type of work, and sadly, by the time I viewed it on Saturday you could barely make out the original writing.

From Banksy I moved on to the art fair... and in 3 words, it was wonderful.  The objective of the fair, which has been holding shows since 1999, is to gather a number of galleries, locally and from around the world, in one place and to offer the best of their collections to the public.  I just love the idea of bringing art to the people, and at a price that many people can afford -- there were several pieces under $50, but of course they also had absolutely wonderfully breathtakingly beautiful pieces for up to $10,000.  The fair showcased many types of art, including ceramics, photography, sculpture, painting, and print making.  But the highlight of the event was that many of the artists whose works were on display were also present at the show.  It's really quite amazing to be able to talk to the artists in person about their work, their process, their inspiration, their interpretation of their pieces, and what they like best about their work.  Some lucky viewers were also able to watch a few artists create their pieces as part of the show, which were then sold at the fair.  It was all very exciting. 

 

I was so taken by it all that I purchased a small print by Chad Kouri on the spot.  Of course this was only after I asked him to give me his opinion about which print he liked best.  Fortunately, our thoughts were aligned on this matter!

There was only one way to close out the evening's events, and that was with a stroll on the High Line.  This was the perfect setting to reflect on art, what it is, who creates it, where we find it (on the streets, in the galleries, in the parks, in the skylines of our cities), and why we need it.  The night felt like it was plucked from late summer, with its damp humid air and temperatures in the low 70s.  What a treat it all was.