DiVA Art Fair

We went to the DiVA Art Fair today, and it was definitely the most pleasant experience of all of my art-going this weekend. It's at the Embassy Suites downtown on two floors, with a big atrium, so there is a nice feeling of openness and light as one wanders from room to room. I think it's also a result of the pace of viewing video works. It's harder to just run from space to space. One spends a minute or two seeing if a work is interesting, and then staying longer if it seems to be. Having plenty of chances to sit and look at work in dimmed lighting is a welcome change from the Armory and Scope experience. I found it intereresting that the majority of the galleries are from foreign countries. Also, an art fair featuring time-based work that gives out tickets that allow one to return on following days is a great idea.

My top picks, in somewhat random order:

• All of the video work by Matthew Lutz-Kinoy at Paris-based Yukiko Kawase - quirky, funny, and brilliant work by a 20-year-old(!) artist

• Jill Miller's I am making art too at Galerie Anne Barrault. The artist received permission (described as "enthusiastic" in the press release) from John Baldessari to create a new work based on his 1971 performance video titled I am making art. The resulting video, mixing her performance with that of Baldessari, all set to Missy Elliot's Work It is both funny and brilliant.

• Patrick Jolley's Here After (2004) at Prato-based Nicola Fornello. Yes, that's edgy video work from a gallery in a town outside of Florence. Can you imagine such a thing in Westchester? We last saw Jolley's work when we saw Burn in a group show at the Chelsea Art Museum.

• Steffan Saffer, Susanne Weirich, and Christoph Draeger at Müller DeChiara

• Federico Solmi at Boreas -- see James for more info on the artist

• Corinna Schnitt's video Living a Beautiful Life at Galerie M+R Fricke. The artist interviewed adolescents about their idea of happiness and filmed this work about idealised lives at a luxury home in Beverly Hills.

• Robert Boyd's Xanadu at LMAK Projects. We first saw it at White Box, and it gets better upon each viewing.

• Carina Diepens's two videos at Marijke Schreurs

• Carolee Schneemann at Elga Wimmer

• Alexandre Castonguay's interactive video-based works and Marc Audette's amazing video installation involving projections on curved photo screens in the back at Montreal-based Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain.

• Eva Koch's NoMad at Galería Magda Bellotti