Photo by Lars Schleicher, via Flickr

A press release has been issued for the Jan. 22-30 VIP Art Fair, which we broke news of last week here on Art Market Views.

(Read that story here).

The fair’s website is also up and running, found here.

Big name participants include:

David Zwirner (New York), Galerie Max Hetzler (Berlin), White Cube (London), Gagosian Gallery (New York, London, Beverly Hills, Rome, and Athens), Gallery Koyanagi (Tokyo), Hauser & Wirth (Zürich, London, and New York), Anna Schwartz Gallery (Melbourne and Sydney), Xavier Hufkens (Brussels), Fraenkel Gallery (San Francisco), Kukje Gallery (Seoul), Sadie Coles HQ (London), and James Cohan Gallery (New York and Shanghai).

Other tidbits:

The online fair permits free browsing. To have interactive capabilities, which do not include Larry Gagosian’s cell phone number, one must purchase a VIP ticket for $100.

Browsers may view artworks online using a zoom feature, 3-D views and watch videos for multimedia pieces.

Dealers and collectors will hold conversations via instant messenger, Skype and heck, the old fashioned phone.

Fair will offer online tours as well as the ability for collectors to create and post their own tour in the virtual VIP lounge.

Photo: Hanny B via Flickr

In a radical twist on the art fair model, the new VIP Art Fair will exist only online, catering to busy collectors weary of the cost and hassle of traveling. It’s Second Life meets Gilt Groupe for the art biz.

Seasoned Chelsea dealer James Cohan has teamed up with Internet entrepreneur Jonas Almgren, to launch the fair, according to art market sources. The event is being billed as the “first ever” virtual art fair.

The first edition is slated for January, usually a quiet time in the gallery sale cycle. The fair is comprised of virtual stands priced $4,000 to $20,000, according to sources. The fair will be timed, and we believe, last for one week, like timed sales mounted by online retailers on member-only sites such as Gilt Groupe and Ru La La. (A VIP Art Fair web page, with a snazzy black and white logo, has been set up, but the site is not yet live. The fair also has a Facebook page with 22 fans).

Cohan already has signed aboard an impressive…

FIAC’s upcoming October 21-24 edition includes 192 exhibitors, including the 50 newbies who did not take part in 2009 (see list below). Notable names include Berlin’s Max Hetzler, New York’s Cheim & Read, Metro Pictures and David Zwirner and London’s Victoria Miro.

Sixty-four from 2009 did not return. Yesterday we posted the OUT list. Today we present the IN list.

IN: GALLERIES WHO DID NOT SHOW IN 2009
Bendana-Pinel Art Contemporian, Paris
Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
Carlson Gallery, London
Bernard Ceysson, Luxembourg/Paris/Saint-Etienne
Cheim & Read, New York
Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin
Crevecoeur, Paris
Gagosian, Paris (other Gagosian branch showed last year)
Galerie of Marseille, Marseille
Gladstone Gallery, New York/Brussels
Elvira Gonzalez, Madrid
Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt
Karsten Greve, Paris/Köln/St. Moritz
Bertrand Grimont, Paris
Max Hetzler, Berlin
Galerie Hussenot, Paris
Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo/Kyoto
Francesca Kaufmann, Milano
Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich
Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo/Kyoto
Kukje Gallery, Seoul
Kurimanzutto, Mexico
Lehmann Maupin, New York
Mai.36 Galerie, Zurich
Metro…

FIAC!, the Parisian art fair with an exclamation point as part of its logo, has lost (or rejected) 64 dealers who took part in the 2009 edition.  The fair takes place Oct. 21-24.

In this ever churning world, the fair — which boasts 192 modern and contemporary exhibitors –  includes 50 new exhibitors, including 16 in a section devoted to dealers who have been in business less than 10 years. Overall 72 exhibitors are French.

Some of the prominent names on Art Market Views‘ OUT list (compiled by the ever helpful AMV’s contributor Mackie Healy) include Acquavella, Richard Gray, L & M Arts, Krugier  and Pace Wildenstein (now Pace Gallery), who had all taken part last year in a joint stand orchestrated by Daniel Malingue. Other New Yorkers who exhibited in 2009 and are out for 2010 include Marianne Boesky and Bortolami.

Never fear. The fair has bolstered its New York representation, adding Gladstone, Lehmann Maupin NY, Metro Pictures, Salon 94, Ubu Gallery, Michael Werner and David Zwirner plus and Los Angeles dealer Blum & Poe. Tomorrow we will post the IN list.

OUT: GALLERIES WHO ARE NOT RETURNING

Gallery…

Park Avenue Armory via Flickr

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

The Art and Antique Dealers League of America have announced plans for a new ‘Spring Show,’ at the Park Avenue Armory. The event, which will include fine and decorative arts and antiques, will run April 28 to May 2, 2011.

From 2002 to 2005 the league held a fair at the Lexington Armory on 26th Street. New York based furniture dealer and AADLA president Clinton Howell said the group was determined to re-locate uptown, calling the Lex location “a tough draw,” and “a difficult spot for a high-end show.”

Seventy-five percent of the fair’s booths are booked, and participants include Kentshire Galleries, Hyde Park Antiques, George Subkoff Antiques, Jack Kilgore and Company, Dalva Brothers, Arnold Lieberman and others.

The Art and Antique Dealers League of America is the oldest antiques and fine arts organization in America. It began as the Antiques Dealers Luncheon Club in 1926. In 1946, the name was changed to the Art and Antique Dealers League of America and today represents over 110 members in 60 fields of expertise.

More information can be found here.

Artist Nacho Carbonell seated in his spiky design at Galerie Rossana Orlandi's stand. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

Just when I thought I’d exhausted my supply of Basel related photos, here’s a few from the Design Miami/Basel fair which was located on the back side of the main convention fair. The fair is a blend of old and new and is always a bit of an aesthetic breather from the main fair. The stands are large, and since this is in fact a design fair, there is a strong emphasis on presentation.

Neville Wakefield, who curated "Drawing Restraint," at Schaulager. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

There’s usually not much time during Art Basel to explore events beyond the convention center, but this year I managed to attend the annual brunch held at the Schaulager, a wondrous Herzog and de Meuron museum and art storage space (the architect team is based in Basel) where Matthew Barney ’s Prayer Sheet with the Wound and the Nail including Drawing Restraint was installed on the first two floors.

I took a few photos of the building’s exterior where a pair of giant screens broadcast Barney’s video. Visitors were even able to watch the video as they waited for the tram across the street, a sort of high-brow drive-in. For moving pictures, Vernissage TV has great footage, found here.

New York's Harris Lieberman stand with Alexandre Singh installation. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

I covered the Liste fair for The Art Newspaper, an event that I recommend to any Basel fair-goer hunting for new talent.  There was plenty of appealing work, much priced well under $10,000.

My story can be found here.

Here are some photos.

Messeplatz in front of Art Basel convention center. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

Here’s a story I wrote with The Art Newspaper’s Charlotte Burns on the phenomenon of dealers using Art Basel as a venue to introduce and boost their newest names.  Link to story here.

Opening at Art Unlimited. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

In addition to the usual dealer stands, Art Basel includes a cavernous showplace dedicated to bigger artworks, videos and installations. Here are some photos from the 2010 Unlimited section.