Visiting art fairs can work up an appetite, but a series of drawings at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects in Frieze New York (C25) might make you rethink your choice of snack. The gallery sold three drawings on Pop Tarts by the Los Angeles-based artist Pope.L, including Quad Figure (Four Tarts) (1997-8), during the fair’s VIP preview on Wednesday. The tarts “have so many preservatives they have maintained their integrity for nearly 20 years”, says the gallery’s director Kevin Scholl.
Pope.L, whose work tackles issues of race and class, painted crude caricatures of African-Americans on the tarts, which are a staple in the pantries of low-income homes. Vielmetter says she found no takers when she included the Pop Tart series in Pope.L’s solo show at the gallery last autumn. But the subversive treats sold quickly at Frieze New York for $8,000 each to buyers including the artist Nicole Eisenman.
Elsewhere at the fair, another work by Pope.L sold at Mitchell-Innes and Nash (C39) “in the range of $85,000”, according to the gallery’s associate director. The nearly seven-foot-wide text work Another Sure (2016) is made with charcoal and pen on matte paper.
