Zoo-lu

Detail from Chanel- Genesis, by Graham Dolphin

AN ode to Charles Saatchi in the foyer of the Royal Academy set a droll tone at this year’s Zoo Art Fair. With 20 Silk Cut stuck in his front pocket and brandishing a golf sale sign declaring, "Him For Sale", the life-size waxwork creation, commissioned by Trolley, was a big hit with the man himself.

Appearing at the opening night, Saatchi told the artist Gordon McHarg it was "fantastic," however he did not seem overly impressed with the ‘size’ of his figure, considering he has lost weight in the past year.
We wonder whether wife Nigella has been halving the amount of butter she uses in her recipes as of late.

Moving on to Saatchi’s own exhibition space, the art had been chosen by critics from his online site where artists can upload pieces free of charge.
All of the chosen work seemed to fall very much along the lines of Saatchi’s own collection.
Jason Fox’s piece stood out from the slightly ‘samey’ bunch: sadomasochism meets delicate detailed drawings and paintings -  reminiscent of the Chapman Brothers’ work on Goya -  disturbing and brilliant in equal measure.

Upstairs The Seventeen Gallery had a piece by Graham Dolphin. He has gone big.
Having inscribed over almost 100 magazines and album covers in the past, here a billboard sized poster of Nicole Kidman advertising Chanel is adorned in minute text taken from the chapters of Genesis.
The tiny letters follow the contours of her body morphing the words into patterns.
Dolphin covers so much ground in this piece, from medieval monk to tongue-in-cheek commentary on the media, at a glance.

Next on the tour was ‘Centerfold’, which is a big deal for those who are in the know.
Centerfold is a scrapbook come magazine, created by Reza Aramesh. A rotation of Artists and groups including Martin Westwood, Dan Griffiths, Anthony Gross, Gordon Chung, Fay Nicolson and the Redux Project Space to name but a few are given a couple of pages each to fill. The first edition sold for £2,000.
Issue five, selling at the fair had reached £1,500.
Watch this space, there’s a lot more to come from the Centrefold artists.

The Embassy Gallery from Edinburgh displayed work from Ronny Heeps, who had amusing caricatures of celebrities. Who would have thought of putting Margaret Thatcher together with the painted mouse boobs from that postcard permanently appearing in London newsagents since the 1980s? Ingenious. 
They were also exhibiting a painting of a plastic bag painted entirely from e-numbers. Certainly a work that will keep for a long time.

Among other galleries, highlights included paintings from Sea Hyun Lee who draws inspiration from his time as a Korean soldier witnessing fighting around the boarder between South and North; Maegan Reid’s chunky collage made from pencils and fabric, exhibited by the Chung King Gallery, and Chris Jones’ life-size motorbike made entirely from paper.
The Travesia Curato Gallery from Madrid had a cheeky remake of Donald Judd’s famous Ten Units series made from 10 cardboard boxes previously holding HP ink cartridges, stacked up the wall.

Finally the Ziehersmith Gallery was showing a fascinating painting by Andre Pretorius, a New York artist who remakes classic works from the Renaissance upwards with a modern, young New Yorkian twist.

 Pretorius could be a Hogarth in the making.
The painting, 'The Opening' depicts characters - as nu rave and pretentious as you like, skinny, young and fashionable – at a galley opening.   But as your eyes look around the painting you realise that there is no artwork in the piece, and that in fact the characters are looking at each other.

Luckily the Zoo Art Fair was not a reflection of this particular painting, (no comment on Frieze), and if anything, this exhibition proves that art right now is brimming with an eclectic array of substantial and thoughtful artists.

Seventeen Gallery, 17 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8AA, www.seventeengallery.com
Embassy Gallery, East Crosscauseway, Edinburgh, EH8 9HQ, www.embassygallery.co.uk
Saatchi Gallery, Gallery is moving to Chelsea and will re-open in early 2008, www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk
Ziehersmith Gallery: 533 West 25th St, New York, NY, www.ziehersmith.com

 
Julie Pallot

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