VOLTA NY heads confidently into 2009, taking its cutting-edge concept to the finest location in town: 7W 34th Street, recently praised as an art venue by Roberta Smith of the NY Times. In a short time 7W has cemented its reputation as the art world's new exhibition center, showcasing a dozen art-related events in as many months, among them the Outsider Art Fair, held with major success during the first week of January.

This year's theme, "Age of Anxiety," is taken from W.H. Auden's 1947 volume of the same name and will address the present socio-cultural moment as well as the artistic possibilities that it will invariably create. The fair, co-curated by Amanda Coulson and Christian Viveros-Fauné, will showcase 77 solo artist projects that reflect on many of today's social and global issues including the economy, the environment, gender and race relations, as well as matters intrinsic to art making in our new environment. In a concerted effort to reach out to underexposed artists and countries, VOLTA NY's list of exhibitors boasts galleries and artists from Chile, Mexico, India, Iran, Israel, Peru, Slovenia, Russia, Venezuela, and Wales, among others.

In keeping with VOLTA NY's mission to constitute a space for discovery, exhibitors at VOLTA NY have been invited to participate through a selection process focused both on the artist as well as the representing gallery. Some of the artists exhibiting at this year's VOLTA NY are, among others, Miha Strukelj, who will represent Slovenia at the upcoming Venice Biennale, and Gosha Ostretsov who will represent Russia; Peruvian artist Sandra Gamarra who has also been invited to Venice this year; Regina José Galindo, Venice's 2005 Golden Lion Winner; the Chilean Patrick Hamilton, soon to participate in the upcoming 2nd Canary Island Biennial; 2008 Whitney Biennial 2008 sculptor Lisa Sigal; the Iranian painter Hayv Kahraman, a Sharjah Biennial (UAE) participant; Romanian artist Iona Nemes, recent winner of the "Future of Europe" prize for best young East European Artist; British artist Andy Harper, soon to exhibit at London's Whitechapel Gallery; Indian painter Schandra Singh, soon to be featured in the Saatchi Gallery's exhibition "The Empire Strikes Back"; sculptor Sue Collis, whose work will soon be seen at Jerusalem's Israel Museum; Croatian installation artist Igor Eskinja, currently on show at Casino Luxembourg; and Charlie White, whose film "American Minor" premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
 
The complete list of solo projects/exhibitors to VOLTA NY 2009 can be found at the end of this press release.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other activities include the presence of Imperfect Articles, who will be on site with their limited edition T-shirts with artwork by contemporary and emerging artists, such as Akroe, Anders Nilsen, Atsushi Kag, Carmen Price, Cody Hudson, David Shrigley, Davis/Langois, Eri Ito, Huskmitnavn, Hvass&Hannibal, Ian Pedigo, Joshua Abelow, Katherine Bernhardt, Matthew Feyld, Misaki Kawai, Rashid Johnson, Richard Colman, and UFEX as well as Italian artist Pesce Khete and Troels Carlsen from Denmark, both of whom are exhibiting at VOLTA NY.

In the lobby will be Colección Whitney, a work by New York-based artist Trong Nguyen, a replica of the medieval discipline device of the stocks, used often in olden days of New York City to publicly punish criminals. In keeping with his practice, which often questions the power relationships between viewer and art object, here the Vietnamese artist aims to regain control of the act of looking by encouraging the visitor to spend time in the stocks. Both the object's name and its given name ("stocks" and "Whitney") also ask us to consider how the financial crisis, banks, or public and private collections, create a hierarchy of art objects and artists.

On a lighter note, the collaborative operation of Sweet Tooth of the Tiger with contemporary artist and pastry chef Tara Strickstein, presents Suck-it!, in which sweets will be given out to visitors, artists and dealers. Highlighting the choreography and ceremonial nature of food exchange, Tara and experimental chef Adam Danforth, explore innovative flavor pairings combined with a unique sense of social ritual based in art theory and reflecting their individual studio practices. STT organizer, Tracy Candido, utilizes the public sphere as a place for eating, feeding, and talking with your mouth full and provides a "sugar high" that aims to engage active dialog and conversation.

Also focusing on positive propositions for the future that perhaps come out of anxious times, is this year's video and film project, curated by Victoria Brooks & Natalie Kovacs, which moves beyond the 7W elevators and into other domains in the fair and outside its walls. Concentrating on alternative visions and innovations by artists, designers and filmmakers from the 1950s to now, A New Stance for Tomorrow includes screenings, site-specific design, sound art and performative installation with works by: Adrian Blackwell, Byron Broadbent, Michel de Broin, Charles & Ray Eames, Tim Etchells, Sylvie Fleury, Noam Gonick & Luis Jacob, Claire Hooper, Pierre Joseph & Philippe Parreno, Yves Klein, Oswaldo Macia , Simon Martin, Mathieu Mercier, Alain Resnais, Pia Rönicke, Robert Stadler, Mika Taanila, and Andrea Zittel.