Volta Goes Solo

Courtesy Hales Gallery

Adam Dant, "Authority, New York public library reading room" (2008) at Hale's booth

Courtesy Goff + Rosenthal

Kevin Francis Gray, "Ghost Girl" (2007) at Goff + Rosenthal's booth

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Across the aisle at the booth of New York’s Spencer Brownstone gallery was yet another dizzying, kinetic work: Ian Burns had built a Jon Kessler-like contraption featuring an ironing board and a mop, which included a live-feed video screen that shows enlarged views of the piece.

Elsewhere, the mood was more subdued. At the booth of New York dealer Goff + Rosenthal, artist Kevin Francis Gray had installed his cast and bronze sculptures, eerie figurative works that use street kids from the Hackney section of London as models, but depict them in a melting, sort of gothic style. They are priced between $44,000-80,000.

If nothing else, the debut edition of Volta New York has shown that a fair based on solo exhibits gives artists a respectable amount of space to show a range of work, rather than be thrown in among their peers in a salon-style hanging. And this, according to Hedge, is as valuable for an artist as a random sale or two.

“We can present something and talk to people about it,” he says. “This is as much for PR as it is for sales.”

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article misidentified the director of Volta as Christian Viveros-Faune; in fact, Amanda Coulson is the fair's executive director and Viveros-Faune is the curatorial advisor.