Coinciding with the main fair (covered here & here), Volta Basel opened its doors last week through this weekend presenting a selection of galleries included in their 13th edition. 70 international galleries presented a variety of latest works by their artists under Markthalle’s familiar and spacious cupola dome.
The organizers pointed out that in a “global society of stress and strife, the possibility of art as means of social change, of balm to misunderstanding and beacon for the marginalized, is a very real and powerful thing.” With this in mind, a significant amount of works on view referenced some sensitive social and political issues – examples of which include Penny Byrne’s ceramic pieces addressing world politics and the refugee crisis at the Coates & Scarry booth, Eugenio Merino giving a strong commentary about the Syrian war with his effective sculptural piece at the ADN Galeria booth, and Niek Hendrix incorporating images of refugees in his hand drawn collages of historically important moments at the Katwijk booth.
Also, long time Volta exhibitor, V1 gallery from Copenhagen, used this opportunity to show all new body of work by Geoff Mcfetrtidge (seen above). The US-based artist presented several new canvases that play with idea of camouflage, a series of original paintings on photo prints called “paintings that never happened,” as well as a sculptural work that perfectly fit his recognizable flat visual language.
Photo credit: @sashabogojev for Arrested Motion.
