Matt Bahen, “Gatekeeper,” oil on canvas, 2010
Gershwin Hotel
7 East 27th St. at Fifth Ave.
March 4-6, suggested donation $10 (vernissage and party $50), 3:00 – 10:00 pm
www.poolartfair.com
www.gershwinhotel.com
Organized by Frère Independent, the PooL Art Fair features unrepresented artists not seen at other art fairs, offering collectors, gallerists, and art lovers the opportunity to get in on the ground floor with emerging talent. The fair opens on Thursday at 3:00, followed by vernissage at 6:00 and a party at 10:00 with a DJ and open bar ($50). The art is spread out in more than thirty rooms on the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors, in addition to the lobby, with a focus on painting. Among the stronger works are two large-scale, densely textured oils by Matt Bahen depicting mysterious locations with dogs, “Gatekeeper” and “We Carved Our Names”; Bob Clyatt’s “Reframing Figurative Sculpture,” particularly three male figures hanging upside down; Claudie Bastide’s “Freedom and Random,” consisting of French Abstraction Lyrique canvases bathed in reds and yellows and blacks; Dan Pottick’s photographs of naked threesomes playing together, in the same room with several lovely paintings by Lola Morishita; and dirquo nyc/++’s and Tracey Kessler’s graffiti-culture abstract works. As you walk into each hotel room, you’re also entering each artist’s unique vision of the world, with most of them there to share it with you, so be sure to say hello and ask questions.