Ana Sokoloff’s Top Picks | Miami Beach 2020
UNTITLED, ART is pleased to introduce a new series of curated selections from the art fair. Cultural tastemakers, international curators, gallerists, and local collectors will be tapped to share their picks from the Online Viewing Rooms of UNTITLED, ART Miami Beach 2020.
Today’s highlighted selection comes from Ana Sokoloff, art advisor and founding partner at Sokoloff + Associates, LLC. Read below to see her five picks from the fair, and what she finds striking and engaging about each.
Ryan Schneider, Prayer Hands 1, Oil pigment on burnt wood, 2020.
On view with Over the Influence, Booth B17.
The raw wood carving and the use of color to depict the human figure drew me to the work. Through these carvings, Ryan Schneider seems to be recounting the history of our Western territories. The influence of the Church; the hardship of the settlers, the violence towards the native American, a plethora of events that shape the character of the people of the West.
Tuli Mekondjo, Mother of Tsui-Goab/ Wounded Knee, Mixed Media on Canvas (photo transfer, collage, acrylic, millet grain and resin on canvas), 2020.
On view with Guns & Rain, Booth A7.
The silhouette of a woman adorned by a spiraling field with plants, all in earthy brown hues, and highlighted with gold makes for a lush composition in which the spectator can read into the strength and yet vulnerability of the female character. Every element of the composition appears as symbols of the cultural milieu of the sitter.
Esteban Whiteside, Wheel of Misfortune, Acrylic and Oil stick on canvas, 2020.
On view with Richard Beavers Gallery, Booth A10.
The issues addressed in Esteban Whitside’s work, and how he depicts them through the use of both language and images incites reflection upon the spectator. His work is denunciative both in subject and in form; block type letters, bold colors and figures narrate US historical events that cannot be ignored.
Leonardo Benzant, Cosmology of Resistance, clothes/fabric/textiles, string, monofilament, leather, efun, coffee-grinds, vija, glitter, acrylic, gel-medium, glass seed-beads, 2020.
On view with Claire Oliver Gallery, Booth D2.
Weaving, coiling, knotting, and beading tissues, threads and objects into organic forms is a meditative action that serves as a metaphor or enactment of religious and shamanic rituals from the trans African-Atlantic diaspora. Cosmology of Resistance appears to underlines the importance of these traditions in the Afro-Atlantic communities and how they are still present today, resisting all efforts of erasure inflicted upon them by western beliefs.
Zeh Palito, Ou tu Chambra ou tu Lacra, Acrylic on canvas, 2020.
On View with LUCE Gallery, Booth C4.
As we see more and more portraiture and domestic scenes being depicted in contemporary art, what draws me to Zeh Paito’s work is the strong flat backgrounds of bold colors that he uses for his sitters. Likewise, as in history paintings, there are a few objects that give further clues about the sitter’s role or character. The spare use of elements around the figure makes the spectator focus on the sitter.
UNTITLED, ART Miami Beach OVR is open December 2–6, 2020.
