VOLTA NY 2008

VOLTA NY is organized as a curated exhibition.

VOLTA—the cutting-edge art fair that debuted in Basel —brings 53 international artists and 52 galleries to New York during The Armory Week for its inaugural solo invitational exhibition, VOLTA NY, held at an extraordinary location off 5th Avenue, immediately opposite the Empire State Building.

Continuing the original VOLTA mandate to create a tightly-focused, curated event that is a place for discovery and a showcase for current art production, VOLTA NY introduces a new format that features exclusively solo projects of notable international artists, conceived to complement the exciting program of art presented by The Armory Show and available in New York during Armory Week, March 2008.

A platform for challenging, often complimentary, sometimes competing ideas about contemporary art, VOLTA NY is an exhibition contained within the format of an art fair and aims to promote a deep exploration of its selected artists—who, in turn, are some of the world’s most innovative exponents of new trends in art. Organized as a curated exhibition under the title The Eye of the Beholder by the Directorial Team of art critics/curators Amanda Coulson (Executive Director) and Christian Viveros-Fauné (Curatorial Advisor), the show considers, among other themes, beauty and its opposite—that is, the twin polarities presented by criticality and aesthetics in contemporary art.

Embodied in the works of its participating artists—exponents as varied as video artist Peter Sarkisian and painter Ena Swansea and conceptualists William Pope.L and Vienna’s International Festival— VOLTA NY charts some of the most compelling directions in contemporary art today.

Highlights of VOLTA NY include a solo exhibition of the photographs of 2008 Whitney Biennial artist Melanie Schiff; a debut installation by kinetic sculptor David Ellis and his parallel live-in project at Chelsea’s Theory Store (38 Gansevoort Street); the first U.S. exhibition of the highly political work of Venice Biennale veteran and Kwangju Biennial Prize Winner Jota Castro; the inaugural U.S. exhibitions of the works of Czech sculptor Kristof Kintera, Mexican artist Jose Dávila and Japanese sculptor Takaaki Izumi; the New York debut of Romanian painter Serban Savu; a solo exhibition of new photographs by American artist Tracey Baran; an exhibition of the post-Katrina images of New Orleans by American Clay Ketter (in advance of his 2009 solo at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet); a solo exhibition of large-scale drawings by British artist Adam Dant; as well as a lobby mural and limited edition works by German painter Florian Merkel. With site specific pieces (such as Swiss artist Nils Nova’s wallpaper room installation) and ambitious large-scale projects (like avant-garde composer Theodor Koehler’s live hourly orchestral performances that are part of Frankfurt-based, American artist Adrian Williams’ media performances), VOLTA NY will provide visitors with unusual, unexpected and innovative projects rarely seen in an art fair format.

The full list of VOLTA NY Artists and Exhibitors follows below:

Tracey Baran | Arratia, Beer | Berlin Saul Becker | Sunday L.E.S. | New York Jesse Bercowetz | Galerie Michael Janssen | Cologne/Berlin Ronald de Bloeme Hamish Morrison Galerie | Berlin Ian Burns | Spencer Brownstone Gallery | New York Jota Castro | Elaine Levy Project | Brussels Adam Dant | HALES Gallery | London Jose Dávila | Travesía Cuatro | Madrid Tyler Drosdeck | NEWMAN POPIASHVILI | New York David Ellis | ROEBLING HALL | New York David Ersser | SEVENTEEN | London Peter Funch | V1 GALLERY | Copenhagen Jacin Giordano| Galerie Baumet Sultana | Paris Kevin Francis Gray | Goff + Rosenthal | New York/Berlin International Festival | FRUIT & FLOWER DELI | New York Takaaki Izumi | TARO NASU | Tokyo Itamar Jobani | NOGA Gallery | Tel-Aviv Clay Ketter | Bartha Contemporary | London Khalif Kelly | Thierry Goldberg Projects | New York Kristof Kintera | Jiri Svestka Gallery | Prague Martin Klimas | COSAR HTM | Düsseldorf Aishleen Lester | Riflemaker | London Renée Levi | EVERGREENE | Geneva Micah Lexier | Birch Libralato | Toronto Jarbas Lopes | A GENTIL CARIOCA | Rio de Janeiro Domingos Loureiro | Paulo Amaro | Lisbon Rosaline Luduvico | Zink Galerie | Munich/Berlin/NY Dietmar Lutz | ARQUEBUSE | Geneva Corinne Marchetti | Galerie Laurent Godin | Paris Cathy de Monchaux | FRED LTD. | London/Leipzig Nils Nova | Kenworthy-Ball | Zurich Niamh O’Malley | Green on Red Gallery | Dublin Anna Oppermann | art agents gallery | Hamburg Adriaan van der Ploeg | HAAS & FISCHER | Zurich William Pope.L | Kenny Schachter/ROVE Projects | London Julius Popp | Dogenhaus | Leipzig Ricardo Rendón | Galería Enrique Guerrero | Mexico City Werner Reiterer | Galerie Loevenbruck | Paris Gideon Rubin | ROKEBY | London Serban Savu | KONTAINER | Los Angeles Pietro Sanguineti | Nusser & Baumgart Contemporary | Munich Peter Sarkisian | I-20 | New York Melanie Schiff | Kavi Gupta | Chicago/Leipzig Michael Simpson | David Risley Gallery | London Suzannah Sinclair | Samson Projects | Boston Ken Solomon | Josée Bienvenu | New York Johannes Spehr | Thomas Rehbein Galerie | Cologne Ena Swansea | André Schlechtriem | New York Gavin Tremlett | Wohnmaschine | Berlin Sage Vaughn | galerie bertrand & gruner | Geneva Muir Vidler | Kenny Schachter/ROVE Projects | London Herbert Volkmann | Laden fuer Nichts | Leipzig Adrian Williams | VOGES + PARTNER | Frankfurt

Aside from convenient public access by subway or taxi, visitors can reach VOLTA NY’s prime location just off 5th Avenue with shared shuttles directly between The Armory Show on Pier 94 and the VOLTA NY site opposite The Empire State Building on 34th street.

VOLTA was founded in 2005 by dealers Kavi Gupta (Chicago), Ulrich Voges (Frankfurt) and Friedrich Loock (Berlin). VOLTA4 will be held in Basel from June 2nd-June7th, 2008, at Ultra Brag, while VOLTA NY premieres in 2008 from March 27th-March 30th. NY Fair Location and Office: 7 W.34th Street, New York, NY 10001, USA Tel: +1.646.641.8732

VOLTA Production Office (Switzerland): Südquaistrasse, 55 CH- 4019, Basel Tel.: +41.61.322.1270 Fax: +41.61.322.1269

Contact: General Information: Office info@voltashow.com

VOLTA NY
"The Eye of the Beholder"
Kuratoren: Amanda Coulson, Christian Viveros-Faune

Künstler: Tracey Baran, Saul Becker, Jesse Bercowetz, Ronald de Bloeme, Ian Burns, Jota Castro, Adam Dant, Jose Davila, Tyler Drosdeck, David Ellis, David Ersser, Peter Funch, Jacin Giordano, Kevin Francis Gray, International Festival , Takaaki Izumi, Itamar Jobani, Clay Ketter, Khalif Kelly, Kristof Kintera, Martin Klimas, Aishleen Lester, Renée Levi, Micah Lexier, Jarbas Lopes, Domingos Loureiro, Paulo Amaro, Rosilene Luduvico, Dietmar Lutz, Corinne Marchetti, Cathy de Monchaux, Nils Nova, Niamh O´Malley, Anna Oppermann, Adriaan van der Ploeg, William Pope L, Julius Popp, Ricardo Rendon, Werner Reiterer, Gideon Rubin, Serban Savu, Pietro Sanguineti, Peter Sarkisian, Melanie Schiff, Michael Simpson, Suzannah Sinclair, Ken Solomon, Johannes Spehr, Ena Swansea, Gavin Tremlett, Sage Vaughn, Muir Vidler, Herbert Volkmann, Adrian Williams