ARTNEWS
The New York–based artist Sanya Kantarovsky has made his name with wry, winsome paintings that he typically fills with scenes radiating some mixture of sinister mischief, ennui, and male humiliation. Sheets of music fly off a conductor’s stand, a crocodile seduces a naked woman, or a man leans against a wall forlorn, gripping his head—that sort of thing.
But for a solo booth with his Berlin gallery, Tanya Leighton, at Art Basel Miami Beach, Kantarovsky is branching out a bit, following the mold of artists like Seth Price and Jeff Koons and turning his artwork into fashion items, with a clothing line he’s started in collaboration with George McCracken. It’s called Infinitely Repeating Pattern, and it was drawing quite a bit of attention at the opening of the fair on Wednesday.
COURTESY THE ARTIST AND TANYA LEIGHTON
The pieces—two handsome shirts with nude men sprinting through a garden of cactuses, their needles apparently causing blood to fly, and a chic jacket printed with a web of besuited arms holding multiple heads of, it seems, the same elderly gentleman—are limited runs and, for a blue-chip art fair, quite modestly priced. The two shirt styles, which are editions of 25, are tagged at $800, and the jackets, an edition of 20, are going for $950.
All of that said, those just on the hunt for something for their wall are also in luck. Watercolor and pastel works on paper of the patterns were also being offered, and they are quite attractive too.
ARTNEWS