Toiletpaper magazine at Fondation Beyeler
This absurd domestic interior—there is an alligator (or crocodile?) that greets you outside the bedroom—is also overloaded with bucatini pasta that is made fresh daily and strewn about the stand, which some visitors have even tried eating. The installation, called Maze of Quotes (2016) and designed by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari (the founders of Toiletpaper magazine), makes close associations between death and domesticity, as evidenced by a tombstone in the stand. “It’s funny, but it’s a bit disturbing in a provocative way,” says Angelika Bühler, the Beyeler’s head of events and public programmes. The stand is not for sale but the magazine is available for purchase through the foundation’s website.
Katherine Bernhardt, Untitled (2016) at Xavier Hufkens (Image: © Vanessa Ruiz)
Katherine Bernhardt at Xavier Hufkens
This untitled, 120in-tall work on canvas from 2016 by the US artist Katherine Bernhardt shows a grinning Pink Panther with a cigarette lingering in the corner of the frame. The dealer Hester van Royen was “unsure what it is supposed to symbolise” but confirmed that the work sold on the opening day of the fair. Although she declined to name the price, similar works in size and subject by Bernhardt have sold for around $65,000.
Installation view for Wong Ping (2016) at Edouard Malingue Gallery (Image: © Vanessa Ruiz)
Wong Ping at Edouard Malingue
“This makes me uncomfortable,” one visitor was overheard saying in this stand dedicated to the Chinese artist Wong Ping. It is covered with deceptively cute pink carpeting and “beckoning cat” figurines, but the paws have been replaced with penises and an animated film deals with themes like prostitution and impotence. The film, Jungle of Desire (2015), is for sale for $10,000.
A sculpture by Nathalie Djuberg in an untitled installation (2016) on the stand of Gió Marconi (Image: © Vanessa Ruiz)
Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg at Gió Marconi
Nearly 30 anthropomorphic sculptures of various foods and animals by Nathalie Djurberg—grimacing bananas among them—are presented in this stand alongside a cartoonish musical soundtrack by Hans Berg. “Everyone, big and small, has loved the characters,” says the dealer Esther Quiroga. The entire installation is for sale for $95,000 and some of the sculptures will be included in a short forthcoming film by the duo called The Lights of an Undirected Mind (2016).
Aaron Curry, Dark Matter Matter (2016) at Michael Werner (Image: © Vanessa Ruiz)