Riptide has been noticing lots of weird little trends during Basel week. Which is quite easy considering the sheer amount of art gracing the city right now. The real feat would be finding a piece so unique it is essentially peerless. But the artists responsible for the latest trend we've noticed clearly have no problem with making connections to other artwork, or more specifically artists.
We've come across a handful of series of artist portraits, or other types of homages to artist's personas. We like it, and it totally makes sense that it's here. The high concentration of art nerds in town perusing the fairs means that the references will not go unappreciated. But what does it say when you're an artist who makes work celebrating other artists, no even for their work, but because simply they are somewhat famous? Does it mean that on some level you want to be famous too, hmmm? Do you one day want someone to make a piece diffusing your likeness or persona? Do you not agree that an artists work should speak for itself, and that his or her public persona should have no bearing on their artistic renown? Good, because we are announcing our new series of portraits of artists who have made series dedicated to other artists debuting in Wynwood during the next gallery walk (full disclosure: it is absolutely not).
The series at the top of the post didn't have an ID tag, but it's at the {CTS} Creative Thriftstore, Brooklyn gallery at Scope.
This is a series of cute balloon based portraits from Pulse, including homages to Matthew Barney, Frida Kahlo, and Bansky as the punchline. There's more to the series on display. We do not have the artist information. Can you tell by now that we've misplaced the reporter's notebook we took to Pulse. But you should go and find out for yourself, because Pulse is pretty stellar.
Finally, here is a more traditional series by artist Enzo Fiore called Archivio. It's at the Galleria D'Art Contini at Art Miami. In these flat picture it doesn't look very special, but the nice thing about these is that they're all goopy and such, creating a sculpture on canvas effect when seen in person. Still though, we aren't sure who the perfect client for any of these pieces are? Perhaps the person who really loves a certain artist, but can't afford one of their pieces.
