Earlier this week, the organizers of Cutlog, the French art fair coming to the Lower East Side this spring, invited guests to the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center for a preview. The event, showcasing emeging art from around the world, will be held May 10-13 at the partially renovated Suffolk Street facility.
Co-director Guy Reziciner led a tour of the building, which recently received an exterior makeover (the interior renovation is still to come). Forty galleries – some from new York (including from the LES), others from overseas – will take part in Cutlog. There will be an accompanying film festival and a sculpture garden in Clemente Soto Velez’s courtyard.
Cutlog coincides with Frieze New York, which is held on Randalls Island. Another art fair, NADA New York 2013, will be held at Basketball City on Pier 36 at the same time. So this spring the LES will very much be a destination for art aficionados. Cutlog is meant to celebrate emerging artists. Reziciner said there was a strong desire to stage the American version of the event in the neighborhood, which has become a center for cutting edge galleries in the past five years. Jan Hanvik, executive director of Clemente Soto Velez, indicated his organization was eager to host the fair, since it’s likely to raise the profile of the LES cultural center. The event will use a variety of theaters and studio spaces in the sprawling former school building.
Reziciner has been reaching out to other arts institutions and community organizations throughout the Lower East Side. He’s partnered with the Lower East Side BID, for example. The other night he hosted an informal cocktail party, following the tour at Clemente Soto Velez, at Cantine Parisienne, the new restaurant at the Nolitan Hotel (he designed the space).
The gallery lineup has not yet been announced. Applications are being accepted through the end of the month.
