NADA Disappoints

Nada Entrance. Image via: Art Observed.

It’s hard to shit on NADA. It’s free and the art is consistently strong. Every time I visit, I am happy for having seen good art.

This year is no different, but I left feeling a little disappointed, regardless. By NADA’s own standards, the fair felt more commercially driven. There were fewer risks being taken and the weird shit they’re known for was generally confined to a booth. Last year in New York, Shoot the Lobster presented their booth in a car. In 2013, Merkx & Gwynne built out a film set-cum-installation for their “King Arthur Rock Opera” that included a mock, saddled war horse, and a stage draped with fabric and adorned with flags.

What booth-defying installations did 2015 bring? The Hole wrapped their booth in cheap see-through plastic, and Vaginal Davis’s enclosed booth at Rod Bianco left only two, short entrances. Not bad, but those are no opera.

It’s also hard not to remark on the sheer volume of painting at this year’s fair. Even Bitforms, a gallery known for its representation of artists who use technology in their art was showing painting.

I haven’t seen any of NADA’s public programing yet, so maybe that will adjust my point of view. But, frankly, that’s not why most of us go to the fairs. I’m not sure what it will take to bring back the car booths and musicals, but I want to see them.

None of this is to say that there weren’t good works at the fair. On the contrary, NADA presents more quality work than any other fair we attend. Michael Anthony Farely nailed most of highlights on Friday, but here are few others below.

Vaginal Davis at Oslo based gallery Rod Bianco. This booth was nearly fully enclosed, with only two small openings visitors have to duck under to get in. Also pinned to the wall are hand written diary like notes that include descriptions of male escorts, and prostitution on hotel stationary. In the context of a fair, very little seems riske, but that’s mostly because there’s not the time to think about the work. Even a small bit of time with this work, and it’s obvious that Vaginal Davis’s lifestyle was by no means common.

Pretty much everyone we know thinks these Genieve Figgis at Half Gallery were the show stopper. No argument there.

Just take a look at this detail: the creepy skull faces dashed on to the side of the face give these works a bizarre sense of history.

Puppies Puppies at Courtney Blades presents a dead monster in a suit surrounded by leeches. (The Michael Jackson prints are by another artist.) It’s hard to explain how unsettling this booth is, when the guy on the floor is obviously just a sculpture. But the number of times I looked over because I was certain I saw him move is more than I like to admit.

Okay, this is hilarious. Katie Herzog at Klowden Mann

Elizabeth Jager, “Maybe We Die So Love Doesn’t Have To”, 2015 at Jack Hanley Gallery. What does this title even mean? Is fucking going to kill these two people? Who knows. Mostly, I like imagining placing this sculpture on my lawn.