Cool Hunting

Three artists playing with light, form, perception and optical illusion.

Sean Snyder: A broken piece of raw optical glass from the Carl Zeiss Archive, 2007
Snyder picked this photo of raw optical glass, taken between the First and Second World Wars, from the Carl Zeiss Archive (world famous lens manufacturer) and reprinted it using the various standard processes of the printing industry—as a photographic print, a magazine image, a newspaper image and as an internet jpeg. The Lisson Gallery, which represents this American artist, describes his work as dealing with ideas "of accessibility, transparency and the limitation of what is visible." Image courtesy of the artist and The Lisson Gallery.

Kris Martin: Space I and II, 1007
A multimedia artist of the moment, Martin is enthralled with abstract compositions of light, space and form (currently on display at the Marc Foxx Gallery). He was also commissioned by the Frieze Foundation to create a site-specific work for the fair this year. His appeal, asking every visitor and participant to hold a minute of silence to commemorate something personal to them, was, "a moment of reflection, during which time the wheels of commerce may be momentarily stilled."

You can also check out his work currently at P.S.1 in New York through 7 January 2008.

Alex Hartley: Annexe and Portal, both 2007
Integrating architectural form and photography in his work, in these photographs this British artist uses satin etched glass boxes to filter interior spaces. The blurred images confuse the eye, which tries and fails to focus on the partially obscured forms in space. (Annexe is pictured above left and Portal above right.) TheVictoria Miro Gallery describes his work as "An innovative dialogue with iconic modernist architecture." Images courtesy of Victoria Miro Gallery.