Between Tropes and Treats at NADA New York

The New Art Dealers Alliance fair in New York felt like a mall, with many booths selling marginally different versions of the same trends. Zany little sculptures and assemblages, shiny materials, abstracted horniness, kitschy vibrancy, and flower-related art appeared widely, making some booths feel interchangeable. Despite this, many works were enjoyable, especially when considered outside the fair’s context. Standouts included Elena Roznovan’s solo presentation, featuring dimensional watercolor self-portraits embedded with maternal ephemera such as fingernail clippings, breast milk, strands of hair, prenatal and postnatal vitamins, and a preserved umbilical cord. The works were presented in concrete panels adorned with bondage tape, using visual and verbal languages associated with BDS.

"This week marks the 12th annual New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) fair in New York, as well as my first time ever attending it. My inner compass always goes haywire in the enormous exhibition space at Starrett-Lehigh Building in Manhattan, but even more puzzling was that the actual fair made me feel almost like I was at the mall. Not like the Frieze experience, which feels like a mall because it's at The Shed, but rather evoking the realization that almost every store is selling marginally different versions of the same thing these days."

"It's a sweeping overstatement, I know, but it's just that there were trends and tropes everywhere I turned. The prevalence of zany little sculptures and assemblages, shiny stuff™, abstracted horniness, kitschy vibrancy, and flower-related art across the entire fair made some booths feel practically interchangeable. All of that is to say that there were many works - including those among the aforementioned tropes and their varying combinations - that I did enjoy, and probably would have felt more strongly about outside of the context of NADA."

"I came across California-based Moldovan artist Elena Roznovan's solo presentation at the Central Server Works booth early on in the fair and approached it with intrigue. The artist shares a series of dimensional watercolor self-portraits embedded alongside fingernail clippings, breast milk, strands of hair, pre- and post-natal vitamins, a bit of her child's preserved umbilical cord, and other maternal ephemera in concrete panels adorned with bondage tape."

Read at Hyperallergic