The ADAA’s Art Show Shines

POST BY PADDY JOHNSON

All photos AFC

What visitors may lose in ultra modern ArtForum lounge chairs at The Armory, they gain in showroom and quality at the ADAA. In short there’s better art at the ADAA, even if their focus largely excludes the emerging contemporary field in favor of the secondary market and blue chip contemporary. Also a perk: It can be viewed in an hour or less! No need for any visual palate cleansers. A few highlights after the jump.

Inside the ADAA’s Art Show

Just to be clear, this photo accurately captures the atmosphere at the ADAA. Suits are a stuffy crowd by nature, but you know what? To hell with hipsters. This isn’t a bad show.

Friedrich Petzel, Cheryl von Heyl: Paintings and Works on Paper

We highlighted Friedrich Petzel’s Sean Landers show at The Armory, and were pleased to see their Charline von Heyl at the ADAA similarly stood out. Galleries and artists are rarely this consistent, so a tip of the hat to them.

Nancy Spero at Galerie LeLong

I took this shot thinking it was the most Armory-esque art at the show, which just goes to show how much the contemporary art world owes to figures such as Nancy Spero. The artist died of heart failure last October at the age of 83.

Lucian Freud, The Painter’s Mother, 1972, oil on canvas, 13 3/4 x 10 3/4 inches, Acquavella Gallery

Even though the content of Lucian Freud’s paintings is informed by intensely worked brushstrokes, it can still be too much. This particular image avoids this pitfall by leaving parts of the painting alone: the subject’s sweater is only lightly touched. Obviously this is no Leigh Bowery portrait, but it’s assuredly a jewel in its own right.

Charles Long, installation view, Aqua-resin fiberglass and latex paint over steel with found objects. Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

Charles Long, Untitled, 2010 Aqua-resin fiberglass and latex paint over steel with found objects. Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

This Long installation is totally jellyfish meets UFO, minus a Matthew Barney film, and I embrace that. The viewer has to view the piece from the side to see what lies beneath it, making the work mysterious in its cheesiness.  That’s a good thing.

Robert Longo, Part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibit, “The Pictures Generation, 1974—1984,” on view in 2009. Metro Pictures

I’m not convinced this Longo is any good, but thanks to the “Pictures Generation” show at the Met last year it looks a little more iconic than it might have two years ago. It’s pictured above for this reason alone.

Stephen Mazoh & Co. Poorest booth install

This is crazy. Stephen Mazoh & Co. has a fair amount of good work on display — the Sherrie Levine gold Duchamp toilets amongst them — and nobody can tell because of the booth’s random-assortment-of-crap aesthetic. Not good.

Fred Wilson at Pace Wildenstein

Speaking of not good…

Fred Wilson at Pace Wildenstein

I guess every rose has its thorn.

RELATED: Karen Rosenberg at The New York Times agrees with me.