Fall is an exciting time of year for the New York art world. Galleries kickstart their programs with hundreds of exhibition openings and events and the city gears up for the first round of international art fairs, which attract thousands of art lovers, collectors, and industry professionals every year.
By Gabriella Mazza
The Affordable Art Fair is a staple of New York City’s fall panorama, with a steady presence in the fall and spring. Originally founded in London and now spread over 9 different countries, the fair prides itself on offering a wide range of contemporary artworks by emerging and established talent at a reasonable cost.
From September 20 to 24, Agora Gallery will make its way to Chelsea’s Metropolitan Pavilion for the latest edition of the New York Affordable Art Fair. We will present a collection of seven artists from North America, Australia, and Europe, featuring oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings as well as photographic and paper collages. The showcased artists are Belle Roth, Mark Schiff, Marco Gallotta, William Atkinson, Julia Meyerowitz-Katz, Meredith Knox Barineau, and Fiyor.
Belle Roth, a Filipino Memphis-based painter explores human interconnection through her use of color, light, and architectural influences. Roth’s compositions are rooted in abstraction; deconstructed forms are unearthed and highlighted by both line and shape that coincide with shimmering gold, neutral color fields, and vibrant accent hues. Her works draw in elements from her Southeast Asian roots and celebrate joyous, unexplored opportunities. Roth creates powerful narratives centered around family, community, equality, overcoming adversity, and collective capabilities with hopes of sharing her perspective in the pursuit of a better world.
Mark Schiff presents Lilies, an ongoing series of abstract landscapes inspired by the painter’s world travels. Each piece captures Schiff’s unique emotional impression of a visited city, which he translates into ad lib patterns and color arrangements. Heavily influenced by his interest in culture, music, and yoga, Schiff’s ability to be guided by intuition opens him to what he refers to as, “the ocean of creativity within.” It is from this place that he paints with bold, deliberate strokes creating eye-catching paintings that sizzle with energy.
Marco Gallotta brings his signature paper-cut and photographic collages, including portraits as well as pieces from his latest collection of works, Sidewalk Diaries. Although born and raised in Italy, Gallotta’s core practice centers around New York City, where he works and resides. His latest works depict passers-by in the streets of Harlem, capturing their unique physicality, moods, and idiosyncrasies in a poetic succession of cinematic clips. His narrative records the passing of time in its quiet unfolding, spurring reflections on global identity and the human predicament.
Once tagging the streets of Los Angeles under the pseudonym “Insurgency. Inc.,” William Atkinson uses elements from street art, such as symbolism and familiar imagery in artworks, while favoring personal expression to an anonymous cultural critique. Atkinson’s multi-media works combine imagery from his day-to-day life with imagery from pop culture and street art, which are assembled into collaged pieces. Atkinson applies dynamic brush strokes and lines in a gestural mode to contrast the graphic imagery and leaves his makings exposed and unedited. The diverse range of materials, source imagery, and the artist’s re-contextualization of figures and text prompt all viewers to consider new paths and perspectives of critical thought.
Sydney artist Julia Meyerowitz-Katz translates the nuanced complexity of the emotional mind into powerful visual palimpsests. Her paintings executed with oil paint and oil sticks are impulse-driven explorations of the collective psyche, which she channels through vigorous successions of textured brush and linework. A practicing Jungian analyst and psychotherapist, she examines people’s and her own intergenerational inheritances and how they are affected by global uncertainties and challenges. She says “All my work in one way or another, is an expression of my embodied unconscious responses to the vagaries of uncertainty, trauma, and loss as well as the capacity for connection and joy which we all share.”
Meredith Knox Barineau paints whimsical abstractions in watercolor, ink, and beeswax inspired by the American South. Enamored with marine, botanical, and zoomorphic motifs, the artist plays with the intersection of shapes and spatial depth, interweaving layers of translucency into striking chromatic visuals. Informed by her background as a jewelry designer, natural elements and everyday objects coalesce into exquisite ornaments of lavish beauty. The preciousness of the natural world is highlighted and treasured, as the artist invites us to love and respect our earthly home, in perpetual reverence of the divine.
Fiyor is an abstract painter based in Manhattan, New York, which serves as his main source of inspiration. Fiyor’s creative process commences with spontaneous and intuitive abstraction, rooted in life’s simplicity and details. He rejects the conventional artist’s brush and instead opts for unique textures and effects, crafting his own tools and techniques rather than relying on commercial materials. Fiyor’s art seeks to ignite emotions tied to cherished memories, inviting viewers on a visual journey through life’s intricacies. He says “If my paintings can make the slightest difference and allow a person to think for a moment and smile or stimulate a memory, then I have achieved one of my goals in life.”
The works will be on view at 125 W 18th St, New York, NY 10011, from September 20 to 24, at Booth # D1.
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