Lee Cavaliere Shares What to See at Volta New York
The fair’s artistic director offers his highlights exclusively with Surface, from a “brave” floral abstraction by Karin Waskiewicz to a fantastical creature that Margriet van Breevoort seemed to beam in from another dimension.
Volta New York 2023. Photography by Phillip Reed, courtesy of VOLTA…
Last year, when Lee Cavaliere was announced as the incoming artistic director of Volta, he emphasized that his primary focus would remain the cutting-edge curation that established the fair as a must-attend event within the contemporary art circuit. He also revealed plans to introduce a fellowship program to encourage new galleries to curate presentations that boldly present the unique perspectives of their artists to the emerging market. Fast forward to this week, and it’s clear his work is bearing fruit. Volta’s 16th edition, which opens to the public on Sept. 5, introduces a culturally driven Town Square section that zeroes in on a Ukrainian Pavilion, which features contemporary artists from the country who couldn’t otherwise showcase their art due to the ongoing war. Beyond that, more than 45 exhibitors from far-flung locales like Peru, Portugal, and South Korea are sure to offer new discoveries to even the most discerning collectors. —Ryan Waddoups
Below, Cavaliere shared his most anticipated artworks from the fair exclusively with Surface.
I’ve long been an admirer of Lagunju’s work whose large floral compositions take inspiration from Yoruba textiles. While rooted in the traditions of Southwest Nigeria, they also speak to globalization, hybridization, and cultural mixing. They carry an iconic quality that is at once immediate and anchored in history. In short, they epitomize what Volta stands for.
It’s difficult to interpret large-scale spaces at times—they feel overwhelming and hard to pin down visually. Fabini, who has a background in documentary filmmaking, brings it back to human experience, to ritual, story and personal histories. His work speaks to how the land we’re from bore us up, and how it reflects and embodies our present and past, our memory and tradition.
Invernizzi Art Lab | Montevideo, Uruguay | Booth 11
I’ve always resisted the “high art” aversion to floral painting—I think it’s outdated and tied to the snobbery of art education from a bygone era. Flowers are beautiful, and beauty is fully permitted and encouraged, thank you. Waskiewicz’s paintings are not dumb beauty; they dig into what “beautiful” means, why we’re so taken by nature, its profusions, and its fragility. They are stunningly, uniquely rendered, and in their sense of surrender, they’re incredibly brave.
Parvaze uses a traditional Kashmiri chain-stitch method to create these striking and incredibly intricate pieces that hark back to 20th-century minimalism, while reflecting his own cultural heritage. I love these contemporary takes on artisanal craftsmanship, and the way they connect us to the continuum of artistic practice down the ages.
This artist’s work breaks my heart. The craftsmanship is just mind-bending; the intensity, the texture, the depth, the sheer effort and human time compressed into each piece. Using painstakingly hand-dyed paper, Kim creates complex landscapes of color that are both tactile and sculptural, while creating a silence and stillness that is quite profound. They represent distilled time and are achingly beautiful.
NL=US always brings something new to the table. I’m particularly captivated by van Breevoort, an artist gaining remarkable traction with audiences. These fantastical hybridized creatures seem to have beamed in from another dimension or technologically warped future. There is a melancholy in their messed-with existences.
NL=US | Rotterdam, Netherlands / New York, USA | Booth 30
For me, it’s a special achievement for figurative painting to be both beautiful and slightly disturbing. Støyva is an artist who ticks that box. This slightly surrealistic piece has a central character challenging us directly with a fixed gaze, while the scene around them challenges our imagination and credulity. The paintings have a light touch and a timeless storytelling quality that I adore.
Galleri Ramfjord | Oslo, Norway | Booth 37
Photo by Melissa Kaseman…
Lulu Sotelo at Creative Growth’s Beyond Trend fashion show (2019)
Sotelo’s embroideries and garments are pure joy. Relentless curiosity and unbounded joy in making are the hallmarks of an artist, one who creates no matter what. I love the naturalism of this artist’s practice and the way it is drawn from a childhood love carried through life. And there is an unfussy generosity in making the pieces wearable–an urgent need to share, to play, to explore.
Working across media, Bilyk has a knack of interrogating her media; she always finds some way to undermine and question, raise up and dislocate, always finding something new and untrodden. These tapestries are incredible – they reveal their creation and don’t hide anything from us, while the imagery itself is suggestive, challenging and provocative.
The Naked Room | Kyiv, Ukraine | The Ukrainian Pavilion
Volta New York will take place at Chelsea Industrial (535-551 W 28 St, New York, NY 10001) from Sept. 5–8 with a preview day on Sept. 4.
