Kunstraum Video Shop. Image courtesy of Kunstraum.

Kunstraum, an artist-run gallery near the Brooklyn Navy Yards, opened only last year, but they’ve done something pretty amazing already. At NADA, the gallery presents world premiere or rare video art in artist-authorized bootleg editions of their work. Combine a 1990s blockbuster feel with affordable work by legends like Susan Silas, Jon Kessler, Michael Mahalchick, and you get retro-chic video art realness.

Bernhard Buhmann, Untitled (a3), 2016. Oil on canvas, 200 x 150 cm. Image courtesy the artist and Carbon 12, Dubai.

Austrian painter Bernhard Buhmann stopped us in our tracks with his giddy pastel colors living flamboyantly together like old chums. These new works are a departure from his surreal, figurative paintings, but something about their pared-down colors seems equally enticing. 

Oran Hoffmann, Incipient Type #4, 2016. Archival pigment print, 100 x 80. Courtesy the artist and Tempo Rubato, Tel Aviv.

As we stood in front of Israeli artist Oran Hoffmann's photographs, a colleague told us, "You can't go wrong with red, yellow, and blue." There is more to Hoffmann's work, though, than primary colors. When you spend time with the artist's images, you encounter an unsettling oscillation of depth and flatness that is deeply engaging.

Lucas Michael, Nature Morte - Parrot Tulips, 2006. Polaroids, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches each. Image courtesy the artist and INVISIBLE-EXPORTS.


You might know Lucas Michael from the candid Polaroids he has taken at the Golden Globes, but there is so much more to this multidisciplinary artist and activist. Here, Michael creates spectacularly tragic pictures of dying flowers that tug at your heartstrings more than you might expect.  

Sarah Faux, Blue becomes you, 2016. Oil on canvas, 72 x 56 inches. Image courtesy the artist and Stems Gallery, Brussels.

Sarah Faux was a standout at Garis & Hahn's recent exhibition "Beyond the Gaze: Women Painting Women" with her vibrant and painterly investigations of femininity. Here, she combines a potential compliment ("Blue becomes you!") with something sinister, as if color could takeover one's identity.

Tom Otterness and Jenny Holzer. Bronze casting with gold plating, 2.75 × 3 × 1.5 inches. Image courtesy the artists and Printed Matter.


Printed Matter is perhaps the coolest place in the New York art world, a title that it has cemented with the publication of A Book About Colab (And Related Activities), a beautiful scrapbook of sorts that chronicles the legendary artist-activist organization. After you pick up a copy of the book, you can giggle nervously at the deadly-serious fundraising edition by Colab members Tom Otterness and Jenny Holzer that mocks our obsession with the almighty dollar.

Installation view, Max Frintrop and Mira Schor at Lyles and King. Image courtesy the artists and Lyles & King.


Mira Schor's conceptually replete drawings and paintings on view at Lyles & King repulse, seduce, provoke, and meditate simultaneously. 

Dave Hardy, Untitled, 2016. Aluminum, polyurethane foam, cement, ink, tint, clay, 10.5 x 9 x 6.75 in.


Brooklyn's own Dave Hardy presents oddly sexy visions of the human form that make for a surreal and intriguing display. We wanted to squeeze these foam-based objects and maybe even snuggle with them (and for a very reasonable price you can).

Installation view, CURA. Image courtesy of CURA, Rome


CURA, an art magazine and curatorial platform based in Rome, is pretty in pink with the most elegant and welcoming booth in the entire fair. Among the artists who have worked with CURA is David Doudard, who presents an intriguing work that features eggshells encased in fleshy resin.

Edgar Arceneaux, Detroit Crystal Monolith, 2015. Eight music videos, electronics, and wood, 14 x 9 x 9 in. Edition of 3. Image courtesy the artist and LAND. 


Edgar Arceneaux made a splash at Performa 15 when he won the Malcolm McLaren award for his stunning performance piece with Frank Lawson, Until, Until, Until...He continues his investigation of race and performance with Detroit Crystal Monolith, a living sculpture that you can plug into your laptop to fill your world with the beats of Detroit techno.