It must be said that I am and always have been a fan of Volta, be it here or in New York. The quality of the galleries is consistently good and the work is shown in a sympathetic manner. I like their little booklet, whereby you can go round picking up information on the artist and place it in this handy little folder although in reality, the paper sheets just gets stuffed into my briefcase.
I was a little surprised when I arrived at how quiet it was, the spacious and thankfully airy Markethalle had a few art tourists wandering past the booths, but was lacking in serious collectors. I gravitated towards the English galleries for a chat and to see what was happening on the ground.
Zavier, of Charlie Smith was in an upbeat mood, yes it had been pretty quiet, but he had sold work, including a large and impressive John Stark piece The Atonement. Elsewhere, there was Anthony Spinello out of Miami, who was presenting the grotesque Farley Aguilar as he did in New York and had apparently sold out his booth. I had an informative chat with Honor Fraser based out in LA, she was showing Brenna Youngblood, Sarah Cain and Alexis Smith, part of her booth involved an installation of a revolving door into another space, which I thought was rather clever and fun.
Other galleries I enjoyed were Galerie Mario Mazzoli, whose mechanical kinetic sculptures by Kristoffer Myskja were wonderful contraptions. Ethan Cohen was showing intriguing work by Michael Zelehonski. Galerie Jochen Hempel from Leipzig and Berlin had mixed up their booth to feature contemporary work alongside classical pieces NFS to create a fascinating dialogue. This well curated and standout booth and also featured a wooden sculpture by Stephan Balkenhol.
There were galleries of note, but time marched on and I moved outside into the blazing sunshine. A quick walk to the station and jumped onto a tram to Liste. As ever, there was the weird and the wonderful on display, work that confounds and confuses, but has an authenticity that makes this fair not to be missed. I was very taken by the geometric paintings of Alice Brown showing with Limoncello. I enjoyed the urban photographs pasted onto found metal sheets by Dena Yago showing with Sandy Brown out of Berlin.
