Art for Giving Your Eyes A Place to Rest
Fresh contemporary artworks to help recover from fair week overstimulation
Good morning and welcome to the post-fair week exhale!
We have many new subscribers since last week’s issue, so I want to take a moment to say hi and welcome. Every week, I share a curated, punchy selection of contemporary art (with prices!) by emerging artists whose practices I am discovering and following. If you are interested in buying one of the works below or have a question, just reply to this email.
Every fourth issue is free, and in the three weeks between, the artwork selections are reserved for paid subscribers. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to support the research and curatorial work behind this publication, and to receive every artist selection each week.
For everyone who successfully participated in the fairs last week, congratulations! Are you digging out of your willfully ignored inboxes as well? I heard a lot of good news on booths as I walked around Independent, NADA, Frieze, Future, and 1-54. Overall it seemed like sales were slower but still closing, and I’m gratified to hear so many people’s collections were enriched by acquisitions last week.
My sister and I have this saying (usually applied to painfully overdecorated spaces) that “our eyes have nowhere to rest”. This saying also applies to art fairs. At the end of the week, you have seen hundreds of works in a compressed window, standing in booths with crowds and noise and visual stimulation.
Fairs are genuinely one of the best ways to discover the most art in the least amount of time, and they are also completely the wrong conditions for actually absorbing any of it. So I have decided that this week’s issue is our collective recovery issue. The strongest collections begin with paying attention and that attention is always recoverable (just ask my inbox).
Veronika Pausova’s paintings are each a visual puzzle; Ren Light Pan’s process remains a mystery; Zuriel Waters we NEED to see detail images of the sewn canvases; and just try to convince me that your mind isn’t boggled by the CAST GLASS Alice Gong Xiaowen piece made from found photo albums (hot tip: she’s showing at Art Basel next month).
I could go on about the reasons I have included each of the works below, but I’ll leave the rest to your own curiosity and discovery. Reach out and let me know which artworks you would like to know more about. I can’t wait to hear what you think. Enjoy!
Ren Light Pan
palm (0206), 2025
Ink, water, infrared light and canvas
34 x 24 inches
$7,000
Veronika Pausova
Dwelling (Anchors), 2026
Oil on canvas
29 x 25 inches
$12,500
Zuriel Waters
Untitled, April, 2026
Pigment dispersion and acrylic on sewn canvas
44 x 84 inches
$12,000
Alice Gong Xiaowen
Untitled, 2026
Cast glass
9.5 x 7.25 x 0.75 inches
$3,400
Gabe Cortese
A Premonition, 2026
Oil on panel
16 x 16 inches
$5,500 + $200 frame
Vincent Pocsik
Hand with Purple Cone Flower, 2026
Carved walnut, bronze
14 x 6 ¾ x 4 ½ inches
$8,500
Dan Perkins
Lunar Void, 2026
Oil on panel
36 x 60 inches
$11,000
Rives Granade
Darkness Beginning to Trace the Light, 2025
Clay scratchboard
24 x 18 inches
$6,200
Emily Ponsonby
Salvia Nemorosa, 2026
Beeswax and oil on panel
8 1/2 x 11 inches
$6,800
Maude Maris
Petit Chien Blanc, 2026
Oil on canvas
13 x 9 1/2 inches
$3,600
Molly Rose Lieberman
The wind wakes me up, 2025
Acrylic, oil, cold wax, inkjet print, photograph on linen in artist’s frame
26⅛ x 26⅝ inches
$15,000
If you enjoy weekly access to artist selections,
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And if you know someone building a thoughtful collection,
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Great post! Thank you so much for such an amazing post! I love the Gabe Cortese, the colors are wonderful - will be sharing with my friends :)