Volta: prices under pressure as fair expands

Dealers benefit from satellite’s lower overheads, but New York stays away

By Viv Lawes | From Art Basel daily edition, 12 Jun 09
Published online 12 Jun 09

“I want to keep my galleries in business,” said Volta director Amanda Coulson as she hotfooted it around Basel’s Markthalle, an expansive former fruit and vegetable market.

The move to the 1920s Markthalle provides plenty of space for the 110 galleries in the satellite fair’s fifth edition, 42 more than in 2008. And the stands are more affordable for dealers. This concession failed to persuade galleries from London and New York, many of whom stayed away.

Not everyone agreed that a bigger Volta was necessarily better. Coulson denied that she had been under pressure from the new owners of Volta, the US-based Merchandise Mart Properties, to expand at the expense of quality. She underlined that Volta’s selection committee, which is made up of international curators rather than dealers, resulted in a wide range of artists and galleries selling significant work. “I asked all exhibitors to outline their concept and stick to it,” said Coulson.

With some buyers looking to haggle, dealers had to decide whether to negotiate or not. “I’m sticking to my guns,” said Steve Sacks of Bitforms Gallery, New York (G12). “People are coming here looking for a 20% to 30% discount, but I’ve already priced the works to take the economic climate into account,” he said. He was wrangling with a collector who wanted a discount on U-Ram Choe’s kinetic stainless steel and LED sculpture Una Lumino Portentum, 2008 (edition of six), priced at $80,000. His policy worked for Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s interactive LCD screen Make Out, 2009, which went to a new Australian collector for the asking price of $90,000.

Miguel Ángel Sánchez of ADN Galería, Barcelona (G13), spoke for dealers with disappointing sales so far, saying that meeting curators was an important part of the fair. Eugenio Merino’s disturbing Pretty Murakami, 2009, €32,000, was still on sale. But a curator at Volta invited the Spanish artist, who caused a stir with his sculpture of a suicidal Damien Hirst earlier this year, to the 2010 Shanghai Biennial.

There were some big prices for a few dealers. The Voges Gallery, Frankfurt am Main (C1), was dominated by Winter + Hörbelt’s Circle of Fifth, 2009, a doughnut-shaped bench made of steel mesh and green acrylic resin, doubling as a chill-out zone as it played the 12 tones of the harmonic scale. It was bought by the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung for the foyer of its Munich headquarters for €120,000. A Shanghai collector also commissioned a piece for his museum.

Pippy Houldsworth, London (F8), had success with some big-ticket pieces: ten sets of the Royal Art Lodge collective’s Learned Helplessness, 2009, went to a new Korean museum for €170,000. The Smart Museum in Chicago is negotiating with the artist to make another three sets.

Lithuanian artist Zilvinas Kempinas’s Flux, 2009, a mesmerising installation made of magnetic tape, a fan and plywood, sold three of the edition of six at the Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York (F1), at €35,000 each.

Modest pricing and small editions were the key to success for most dealers. Tot Taylor of Riflemaker, London (G7), reported that most of his stand was sold by the third day, with prices between £3,500 and £32,000. José-María Cano’s Nicolas Sarkozy, 2009, went to a European collector for £32,000, one of the series of newsprint style images of political figures in paraffin encaustic pigment and wax. Simon Henwood’s painting of Kylie Minogue as a naked boy went to a British collector for £14,000; his star looks set to continue to rise after making Kanye West’s latest video, which the singer commissioned after buying one of his works at a recent Riflemaker solo show.