A Surprisingly Coherent Art Fair in Upstate NY

by Claire Breukel

https://hyperallergic.com/55011/nada-hudson-2012/

Anton Ginzburg’s “Flood” installation at the Braverman Gallery wins the day.

However, reintroducing the competitive side of the art world, if there were a NADA Hudson prize to be awarded it would go to Anton Ginzburg whose work “Flood” at Braverman Gallery flaunted a strong consideration of material and an unsurpassable conceptual premise. A single flowing tap connected to a pipeline along the inside brick wall of an alcove drenched the wooden floorboards. A modern, and somewhat twisted take on the age old symbol of the water fountain, Ginzburg’s installation felt paradoxically unsettling in its horror movie aesthetic and poetic in its fundamental references.

“I wanted to realize the installation ‘Flood’ for awhile, and the space in Basilica / Hudson seemed to work perfectly for that,” Ginzburg told me. “It was interesting to develop formal language that would interact with the site.”

Departing “Flood” to watch the river scenes speed past on the Amtrak ride home, I thought back on the work I had seen and could — to my surprise — recount actual artworks in their entirety. Coherent memories in contrast to what is ordinarily a post-art fair bombardment of imagery enough to spark an epileptic seizure. If anything NADA Hudson offered the ideal escape.

NADA Hudson 2012 took place from on July 28–29 at Basilica Hudson (110 South Front Street, Hudson NY).