If attendees at the second edition of Art Basel’s Paris+ fair had any anxiety leading into the event, their fears appeared to have been assuaged during the first VIP preview day on Wednesday. The aisles were jam-packed throughout the day, and dealers reported a bevy of sales during the fair’s opening hours. simplebet8
Among them were four works, sold for over $1 million each, at Hauser & Wirth and several pieces at Pace Gallery’s Rothko-dedicated booth, including a $65,000 sculpture by Alicja Kwade, who has just joined the gallery. Thaddaeus Ropac announced the successful sale of a $2 million Robert Rauschenberg, and the Paris-based Mennour gallery, meanwhile, said it had sold nearly €3.5 million worth of art.
“Paris+ confirms its major importance,” dealer Kamel Mennour said in a statement accompanying his gallery’s initial sales report. “Since the opening this morning, the concentration of international collectors, curators, and art world players, is extremely high and energizing.” simplebet8
Strolling through the aisles of Paris+, out of the corner of your eye, you might spot that something seems askew in Maxwell Graham’s booth. The two paintings on one wall are hung flush left, with barely a gap between them. The central wall is completely empty, and so is the facing wall, minus the small bulb of a camera. Upon closer inspection this installation is a clever reconfiguring of art-booth aesthetics in service of a work by Ghislaine Leung, who is one of the nominees for this year’s Turner Prize.
Titled Monitors (2022), this conceptual piece has a simple score: “A baby monitor installed in one room and broadcast to another.” A version of this work is currently on view in the Turner Prize exhibition at Towner Eastbourne, where the feed shows the museum’s art storage facilities. At Paris+, an easy-to-miss screen for the monitor is installed on the other side of the false wall. When you gaze into its tiny baby monitor, you can see that the two paintings and floor sculpture are now perfectly framed.
The use of a baby monitor in this work and much of Leung’s recent work is significant. As she wrote for a 2022 solo show at the gallery: “I do not wish to drop out from my art, I do not wish to entirely outsource care for my daughter. I wish to do both art and care and in doing so change the terms of identity and labour within our industry.” simplebet8