05 April 2019 The fair, from April 25 to 28, has a particularly strong photography offering this year, plus a new Invited collection of galleries that challenge perceptions
This year's Prime selection hosts a raft of blue-chip galleries, including Blain/Southern, Almine Rech, Krinzinger and Galerie Lelong & Co, showcasing world-class talents; Discovery and Rediscovery highlight emerging and established artists; and a new Invited grouping, launching this year, focuses on nine galleries that are challenging the traditional perception of a gallery - "offering booth space for exhibitors who do not fit the typical gallery mould, in response to the ever-changing art market", explains managing director Anne Vierstraete.
Collectors can look forward to huge variety across the fair, she says, "from performances and video art to strong themes of geometric abstraction, textile pieces and photography".
Indeed, it promises to be a particularly snap-happy affair this year, with a strong photography showcase - both in the form of standalone images and work incorporating photography. A particularly striking scene by Noémie Goudal is Soulèvement IV (2018), an inkjet print presented by London outfit Edel Assanti (booth price range £7,000 to £70,000), which appears as a block of mirrored shapes perched on an unending landscape of sea and sand. Elsewhere, Louis Stettner's Pepe and Tony Series from 1956 (gelatine silver, printed in the 1970s) is a standout from Antwerp-based photography specialists Gallery Fifty One (booth range €2,000 to €500,000).
New York's Martos Gallery (booth range €50,000 to €100,000) is showing Kayode Ojo's splendidly named Closed Audition: Boohoo Plus Verity Slinky Plunge Split Maxi Dress (2018). The very striking image shows a half-naked woman whose face is obscured by her hair. The colours of her skin, hair and dress are mirrored in the works of art behind her, implying that she too is an artwork.
SAGE Paris presents Robert Mapplethorpe's Cedric, New York City, dating from 1977 (price on request) - a stark and striking gelatine silver print featuring shoulders and a shaven head. Helena Almeida's Tela Habitada, from 1976, a series of nine black-and-white photographs featuring the artist stepping from behind a canvas, comes courtesy ofLisbon's Galeria Filomena Soares (booth range €9,000 to €200,000). And finally, one of the multimedia works incorporating photography that is well worth a look is Lara Gasparotto's Untitled (2018) - a drawing on photography of a group of young sleepers from Antwerp-based Stieglitz19 (booth range €1,500 to €4,000).
