Several weeks ago, we traveled through the wild snow storms of the endless winter season to go to the Armory Show on piers 92 and 94, a space in which hundreds of galleries showcased selected artists and works to curators, collectors, and the avid art enthusiasts. The first floor of the show highlighted the work of international and local contemporary artists, ranging from Chris Ofili at David Zwirner Gallery from New York City to Tatiana Trouve at Johann König Gallery from Berlin. Each gallery had the option of selecting one or a variety of artist’s work to represent and ultimately sell to collectors. While looking through the immense amount of work, we were able to ask the gallerists questions about both the work and the artists to learn more about how and why specific artists and artworks were chosen for the show. Interestingly enough, many of the works which were selected for the Armory show will also be exhibited at the Venice Biennale in Italy this summer – a show that all of the AAP students in Rome will be able to see and experience.
The idea of the biennial as a space for public art is one which was reemphasized during last week’s meeting with Prospect New Orleans director Brooke Davis Anderson in Jane Farver’s Professional Practice class where she discussed the importance of public art having an impact on the community. Prospect New Orleans is an art organization which was created as a means of addressing the devastation and bringing awareness to and of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The biennial showcased public art works such as that of Paul Chan, who researched different types of soil which could help remove contamination in the damaged soil. The work became so recognized that a congresswoman of California began conducting her own research and discovered that the soil in her own backyard was actually contaminated, a realization that resulted in increased funding for New Orleans. Consequently, like the rest of the work exhibited in the Prospect Orleans Biennial, Chan’s work demonstrates the impact that art can have on a community – an aspect of art which we hope to incorporate into our own work as we prepare for our upcoming second critique.
