VOLTA11 and GalleryLOG reunite for a new series of artist videos

15 Jun 2015

Guest contribution by VOLTA11 and Gallery LOG

All eyes set on Basel when the art world descends on the city this week as Art Basel and several collateral fairs and exhibitions open their gates. VOLTA11 - the renowned art fair for new and emerging art - is one of them.

Opening today at the iconic landmark cupola in Basel's city cente, the Markthalle, it comprises 69 international exhibitors that have assembled artist projects from all corners of the globe. VOLTA11 and GalleryLOG reunited for a new series of engaging artist videos to bring you an inside look. Watch the series of inspiring interviews featuring five artists whose works are exhibited at VOLTA11 here on ArtRabbit. The presentation features artists Batia Shani, Liz Jaff, Gail Stoicheff, Phillip K. Smith III, and Greg Haberny.

Batia Shani // presented by Tamar Dresdner Art Projects, Tel Aviv, Booth Number C8

Batia Shani creates the site-specific installation 'Tissue'. The Hebrew word 'rikma' references this and translates to 'needlework', which the artist has been doing since she was a child. The installation reflects the ongoing political instability in the Middle East. By combining gendered outfits — male army uniform scraps stitched into handmade dresses — Shani explores shifting identities, exploitation of authority, and the overall cycle of confusion caused by areas in constant flux.

Liz Jaff // presented by robert henry contemporary, Brooklyn, Booth Number C23

Liz Jaff instills the sculptural power of paper into her large-scale folded-paper installations. Her hand-cut and folded paper works culminate in the majestic booth-wide installation “Plugs and Fuses”. Jaff was featured in 'Behind the White Walls', a group exhibition of Guggenheim, MoMA, and Whitney Museum art handlers, at BFP Creative (Brooklyn) through this past May.

Gail Stoicheff // presented by Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, New York, Booth Number B17

Gail Stoicheff contributes a major discourse on image-making and its relation to the creator's unique environment, in her presentation with Catinca Tabacaru Gallery. Her sumptuous process-driven paintings marry intentional gestural interventions with manipulations of the canvases themselves. She received the prestigious Daedalus Foundation Master of Fine Arts Fellowship in Painting and The Elaine DeKooning Painting Award.

Phillip K. Smith III // presented by royale projects:contemporary art, Los Angeles, Booth Number A6

Spatial perception and the emotive power of light are harnessed within the ephemeral installations and geometric sculptures of Phillip K. Smith III. The LA-based artist has an enviable retinue of installations already, from his ethereal "Lucid Stead" in Joshua Tree to "Reflection Field", commissioned for the 2014 Coachella Music & Arts Festival. He brings both his signature "Lightworks", immersive time-based light sculptures, and subtle "Light & Shadow" sculptures, utilizing painted fibreglass to mimic the innate chiarscuro of his electronic works, to the Basel fair.

Greg Haberny // presented by ETHAN COHEN NEW YORK, New York, Booth Number C5

Greg Haberny envelopes visitors within a Pop-skewering and — in the artist's own words — "completely loose and out of control" — installation at VOLTA11. His filmmaking background and grasp of cultural iconography inspires his dynamic treatises on "our contemporary wasteland". Haberny was subject of the solo exhibition "Hyper!" at Middlebury College Museum of Art (Middlebury, VT) last autumn.