art market
olivia horn
Installation view of Esther at Estonian House, New York, 2024. Photography: Pierre Le Or. Courtesy of Esther.
On an unassuming block on East 34th Street near the East River lies a French Beaux Arts townhouse built in 1898. As his two-week art fair begins in New York City, many New York art residents may find themselves here, perhaps for the first time. Although just under two miles away, Freeze at The Shed is a metaphorical world away from the headline-grabbing glamor of New York and its many charms. satellite. Since 1946, this building has been the headquarters of the New York Estonian Education Association. It has dark wood-paneled walls, chandeliers, ample fireplaces, and narrow halls, without the neat blank divisions of famous commercial art fairs.
Margot Samer, founder of her eponymous New York gallery, and Olga Temnikova of Estonian gallery Temnikova & Kasela visited the space together on a scouting mission last year. Two gallerists who share an Estonian heritage and an artist (Kris Remsalou) in their respective programs had just exhibited at a joint booth at Independent. Ms. Temnikova is a veteran of New York's mainstream fairs and is well aware of the logistical and financial challenges faced by international galleries like hers, so she wanted to try something different. I did. She probably thought of her five gallery pop-ups. Sameer suggested 25. In the end, their brainchild became the new alternative art fair “Esther”, the first of which was attended by 26 galleries from four continents, with many representatives from Eastern and Northern Europe, and 5 It will be held until April 4th.
Installation view of Esther at Estonian House, New York, 2024. Photography: Pierre Le Or. Courtesy of Esther.
Esther is the latest in a proliferation of alternative fairs centered around key moments in international art, including Supper Club, which began in March during Art Basel Hong Kong. Minor Attractions was held at the same time as Frieze London last year. The Basel Social Club was founded in 2022 in parallel with the main Art Basel fair. Attendees are drawn to these businesses by word of mouth, relatively affordable exhibition costs, and their collegial ethos, which provides a break from the rigid and high-pressure environments often found at traditional trade shows. Masu.
That camaraderie was visible from the moment Esther opened the door on Tuesday. As Samel and Temnikova were greeting early attendees to the press preview, one of the participating gallerists arrived with a case of bottled water and asked the organizers where to deliver her package. For Sameer, this incident exemplified the following: “This is a very collaborative trade show on all levels. Exhibitors keep asking us if there is anything we can do to help, because we are very much in the DIY spirit and have limited “We planned this event on a budget that was available to us,” she told Artsy.
Installation view of Esther at Estonian House, New York, 2024. Photography: Pierre Le Or. Courtesy of Esther.
Many participants cited Samel's personal relationships with Temnikova as their main motivation for attending the fair. Claudia Pareja, founder of the Madrid and Lima-based gallery Ginsberg & Tu, emphasizes her faith in Samel's taste, saying, “Her eye guarantees a good environment and an amazing level of work.'' I thought he would do it,” he said. In Pareja's gallery, Ecuadorian artist Xavier Coronel's work fills his canvases with pastel colors and pop-culture references, and uses pre-Columbian techniques to weave raffia fibers to explore cell biology and cell biology. Also on display are Cristina Flores Pescolan's works, which are finished in delicate shapes that evoke memories. Peeling. With Coronel's work, the gallery faced the challenge of exhibiting in a non-traditional venue. Pareja said one of the paintings could not pass through the door he was installing.
But the specificity of Estonian House also creates moments of joy. Kaufman's Repetto, which has locations in Milan and New York, is a billiards hall and exhibits stylized ceramic works by artist duo Skja Braden. The ship's cheeky, cartoonish iconography, which references American pin-up and Japanese erotica, is complemented by its cheeky presentation on a pool table. It is as if the women depicted are trying to bounce like billiard balls. Shanghai gallery BANK on the second floor has brought in Oliver Herring's video works from his “Area for Action'' series. The series documents the experimental and collaborative behavior of volunteer performers, including splashing paint and glitter onto each other. The screen is placed above the grand piano, and its reflective surface amplifies the sensory impact of the video.
Installation view of Esther at Estonian House, New York, 2024. Photography: Pierre Le Or. Courtesy of Esther.
Meanwhile, across from the building's main entrance, a wooden porch houses a fortuitous frame of a sculpture by Jesse Wein, one of the notable artists featured in Esther. Organized by Glasgow-based gallery The Modern Institute. O Do Rot Coat Roast Aortic Actions Tornados Consortia Rodin Coat (2024) See the works of Auguste Rodin Monument to Balzac (1898) reflects the latter's fluidly robed figure, but with his head removed, indicating that the artist had recently lost his father. The gallery is also participating in Frieze, and officials noted the stark contrast between the fair's sales-driven atmosphere and Esther's more relaxed atmosphere.
But for most exhibitors, Esther will be their only fair presentation in New York this week. This suggests that Esther and similar ventures could become a genuine alternative to, rather than a supplement to, some smaller galleries' main fair week plans. Valeria Gemelli of Apalazzo His Gallery says of the gallery's efforts to diversify its fair presence: “We always try to find special places,” she said. Apalazzo, a destination gallery located in her 16th century palace in Brescia, Italy, knows well the benefits of exhibiting in unusual and historic spaces. Esther's Gallery features metallic grid abstract paintings by New York-based artist Selvan Mary.
bertha leonard innocence, 1983. Courtesy of the artist and Margot Samel.
The venue's compact space allows for an overall streamlined presentation. Near Appalazzo, London-based gallery Gathering is also showing just two works from Tai Shani's recently concluded exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is the Turner Prize-winning British artist's first solo exhibition in an interdisciplinary field. It foregrounds and practices femininity, myth, and the politics of resistance. Gathering founder Alex Flick expressed his desire to publish more work, but was still enthusiastic about the experience. “The art market is volatile and there are a lot of large galleries that take up a lot of space, so it's really important for galleries our size to stick to collaboration,” he said. “We need friends.”
Samer and Temnikova, the friends at the heart of Esther, have ambitions to make the fair more and more experimental in future editions. “We hope to have a really site-specific event next year,” Temnikova said, noting that this year the response to the space was limited because many exhibitors were new to the venue. Sameer himself models the kind of opportunities he wants participants to have at Esther. She brings two oil paintings by Bertha Leonard. Bertha Leonard is a 96-year-old artist who discovered her work only a few weeks ago and has been creating it since its earliest stages. Research stage. Her work, a fanciful, ornately patterned interior scene from the 1980s, is one of her standouts at the fair and well worth the risk.
olivia horn
Olivia Horn is Associate Editor at Artsy.