(e)merge visiting

The second iteration of the (e)merge art fair ended today. I went visiting yesterday (that's me with the amazing Mera Rubell and the amazing Dr. Anderson de Campello hanging out at the bar of the Skyline Hotel).

This second (e)merge cements this art fair as unique not only in its stated goal to focus on emerging artists - it does that and it does it well - but also it has become the leading art fair in the world for performance art.

Last year's (e)merge was the springboard for the extraordinary talent of Wilmer Wilson IV - a spectacularly intelligent performance and installation artist (and one of the artists that I mentored last year!) who used (e)merge to spring straight from student status to worldwide exposure via art fairs from DC's Connersmith.

This year the fair's center of attention was the brilliant performance of my good bud Andrew Wodzianski, whose Ishmael performance was described by a New York gallerist as "heroic" and he added that he needed to "look this guy up!."

Wodzianski (see photos from WJLA TV here), was a little shaky when he was finally "rescued" from the waters of the Skyline pool yesterday, but this multi-talented and multimedia artist was the hit of this second version of (e)merge. Let's all hope that good things happen to him as a result of (e)merge.

That's Andrew below with Mera Rubell.