Opened for its ninth edition last week, Contemporary Istanbul – Turkey’s biggest international art fair – exhibited a vast array of artistic wares from over 100 galleries across the globe. This year, visitor numbers and sales rose in equal measure, exceeding records set from the last nine years of this art show.
Since establishing itself almost a decade ago, Contemporary Istanbul has used its location at the gateway between Europe and the Middle East to attract big name galleries, drawing not just on its own energetic youth arts scene but that of 22 countries too. Among the work sold, generating significant interest were Alex Katz’s Red Lines Sunrise and the familiar work of Yayoi Kusama’s Dots Obsession.
Taking place between the Istanbul Congress, Convention and Exhibition centres, visitors to this four-day art fair found an emphasis this year on the future of contemporary art and the ever expanding digital art market. From Sedition who sell art for collection and resale for personal digital screens, to Adam Magyar’s beautifully use of photography and post-production to form anthropologically curious prints and Lukas Ulmi’s geometric sculptures produced in the 1950s and ‘60s, to name just a few, this years’ exhibition proved once again to be a hugely successful collection of contemporary art in the eyes of Istanbul.
Villa del Arte Galleries. Lukas Ulmi, Quid Pro Quo
Faur Zsofi Gallery. Adam Magyar, Squares, Hong Kong V
Whitechapel Gallery. Nick Thurston, The Visitation of ****
by Stephanie Clair
More information of the art fair and magazine can be found here.