VOLTA celebrates its decade edition as Basel’s renowned art fair for new and emerging art from June 16 to 21, 2014. VOLTA returns to Markthalle, the historic domed landmark situated in the heart of Basel and former venue of VOLTA5 in 2009.
This year, beneath Markthalle’s recently renovated rotunta, 68 exhibitors from six continents converge to mount a compelling discourse of contemporary projects, including over 50 galleries from previous Basel editions and featuring some of VOLTA’s distinguished ‘alumni’ galleries.
Two returning exhibitors have participated in every VOLTA Basel edition, along with VOLTA NY’s debut 2008 fair: Galería Enrique Guerrero (Mexico City) delivers an of-the-moment survey of new works from its international program, including Colombian sculptors Daniel Gómez, Miler Lagos, and Bogotá duo MANGLE, plus Czech figurative alchemist Richard Stipl and Mexico City-based photographer Daniela Edburg; while David Risley Gallery (Copenhagen) stages a summary of gallery greats, including Swedish narrative painter Anna Bjerger, ebullient Pop scavenger Alex Da Corte (subject of recent solo outings at Institutes of Contemporary Art in Portland, Maine and Philadelphia), and the inimitable Keith Tyson, winner of the 2002 Turner Prize.
Plus, other ‘graduated’ and recurring exhibitors from pre-Markthalle iterations each contribute salient selections to VOLTA10: Galerie Jochel Hempel (Leipzig/Berlin, VOLTA1) juxtaposes five 17th Century masterpieces from the Rusche Collection with five gallery artists shown at VOLTA over the years; Pierogi (Brooklyn, VOLTA2) conceives a multigenerational dialogue in four voices, anchored by expressive drawings by downtown iconoclast Kim Jones — whose expansive career includes Pacific Standard Time (MoCA, Los Angeles), the 2010 Biennale of Sydney, and the 2007 Venice Biennale’s curated group exhibition — along with works on paper by David Scher, photography by young Berlin-based artist Nadja Bournonville, and Patrick Jacobs’ signature mesmerizing lenticular vitrines; Samsøn (Boston, VOLTA4) spotlights experiential renegade Todd Pavlisko, subject of the major installation Crown on view now at the Cincinnati Art Museum, and Steve Locke, whose 2013 catalogued survey there is no one left to blame at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston) travels to Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit later this month; and Michael Janssen (Berlin/Singapore, VOLTA4) contrasts a monumental in situ sculpture by Stijn Ank, recent artist-in-residence at Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain (Luxembourg), with new enameled ceramic paintings by Monique van Genderen.
As well, new paintings from Op art pioneer Bridget Riley focalizes GREEN ON RED’s (Dublin, VOLTA2) project, which also features Irish talent Caoimhe Kilfeather, Caroline McCarthy, and esteemed lens-based installation artist Gerard Byrne, who represented Ireland at the 2007 Venice Biennales; Ethan Cohen New York (New York, VOLTA2) spotlights ecstatic nouchi-style paintings by rising Ivorian star Aboudia, who is featured in Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America at Saatchi Gallery (London), alongside wood assemblages and ink compositions by gallery stalwarts Michael Zelehoski and Qin Feng, respectively; V1 Gallery (Copenhagen, VOLTA3) features new works from artists who have shown in the gallery’s past eight projects with VOLTA, including Troels Carlsen, Shepard Fairey, and John Copeland; Kleindienst (Leipzig, VOLTA4) pairs Impressionistic photography from young Swiss artist Nadin Maria Rüfenacht, who was featured recently in Crossing Views at Marburger Kunstverein (Marburg, DE), with German photographer Claudia Angelmaier (participating in upcoming (Mis)Understanding Photography: Werke und Manifeste at Museum Folkwang, Essen) and virtuosic Leipzig-based abstractionist Henriette Grahnert; AKINCI (Amsterdam, VOLTA2) considers nature through installation and video, via artist-couple Broersen & Lukács (whose film Mastering Bambi screens at this year’s Sydney Biennial) and young multimedia and performance artist Melanie Bonajo, current ISCP NY artist-in-residence and winner of the inaugural edition of the MK Award, Rotterdam’s new visual art prize; and Cokkie Snoei (Rotterdam, VOLTA2) stages a solo presentation by young Dutch artist Kim van Norren, whose current color geometric abstraction series intermingles ‘light’ and ‘dark’ quotations.
Solo projects form the foundation for VOLTA’s platform as a boutique and focused art-viewing experience. For VOLTA10, 16 exhibitors have elected to highlight one artist from their program, including: Brenna Youngblood (Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles), whose mixed-media solo survey Loss Prevention opens Friday at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Grit Hachmeister (ASPN, Leipzig), a 2014 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant recipient and participant in the recently-opened collaborative exhibition Mensch werde wesentlich! at FAK Kunstverein (Zwickau); Athi-Patra Ruga (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town), who performed The Elder of Azania in conjunction with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s current group exhibition Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa and co-represented South Africa at the 2013 Venice Biennale; Frohawk Two Feathers (Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York), presenting an illustrated retelling of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus within his critically-lauded Frenglish Empire narrative; a mini-survey of young Norwegian artist Kristoffer Myskja’s (Galerie Mario Mazzoli, Berlin) elaborate kinetic sculptures, ahead of his scheduled commission for Åsveien School and Resource Center in his hometown Trondheim; Farley Aguilar (Spinello Projects, Miami), featuring new ink-on-mylar compositions from the self-taught Nicaragua-born, Miami-based artist’s dynamic series The Veil; new carved-wood portraiture by Congolese powerhouse Aimé Mpane (NOMAD, Brussels), winner of the 2012 Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Prize and recipient of the 2006 DAK’ART Biennale’s critics award; and life-size Japanese urushi lacquer and nihonga pigment figurative sculpture by Tomotaka Yasui (MA2 Gallery, Tokyo), headliner of Meguro Address: Artist in Urban Life at Meguro Museum of Art (Tokyo).
VOLTA10 at Markthalle is located steps from Basel’s main train station SBB and is five stops from Art Basel and LISTE (Tram Line 2, direction Binningen). Additionally, several underground public car parks are located within proximity to Markthalle. All travel information can be found on our website.
VOLTA was founded in Basel in 2005 by dealers Kavi Gupta (Chicago), Ulrich Voges (Frankfurt), and Friedrich Loock (Berlin).
www.voltashow.com
