More Post ArtFair Thoughts: Mateo Rivano and the Nature of Art

Mateo Rivano's agYU installation at Art Toronto

Since Art Toronto isn't a massive multi-fair enterprise it offers something Miami's forthcoming late november and early december events - including but not limited to SCOPE, Photo Miami, Pulse, Verge, DesignMiami, Art Basel Miami Beach - can't, and that's diversity under one roof. 

In Toronto there's a weird medley of anything that defines itself as art - emerging street artists, bucolic oil landscapes, neo pop collages from China, Muybridge collotypes, Damien Hirst hearts, abstract Canadian icons or newly hyped things.

Which comes to my favorite point: how are all these different things all considered art?

For example Mateo Rivano's installation at the Art Gallery of York University was my favorite booth. Collecting found frames or books from vintage stores, trash bins or the street, this Columbian artist then fills them with doodles, drawings and colors. Not limited by medium he also works with animation, installation, the street and sculpture. The way he talks about his work is neither highly conceptual or simple production. If I try to boil down with the simplest of reasoning why I like his images: they are pleasant funny narrations with an aesthetic I like. 

Now if I try to boil down with the simplest of reasoning my take on the "weird medley" mentioned in the second paragraph of this post it goes as such: the tacky landscapes with the unmissable touch of orange, pink or purple; the crappy Chinese photo collages of Western 'icons'; the simple and so important Muybridges; the overrated and flatly boring but highly lucrative butterflies by Hirst; the captivatingly abstract and poignant Ron Martins; and the somewhat too glittery new stuff by Kim Dorland.

But all of it is art. It was all shown at a fair, made with intention, possibly bought after a powerful interaction and packed with care.