The 10 Best Booths at Liste 18

Fairs like Liste are a rare treat in today's art world. Running concurrently with Art Basel in the second week of June each year, it is a must-visit for collectors of artists who are on the enviable road to blue-chip establishment, but whose work can still be attained at a reasonable price. The 10 Best Booths at Liste 18 highlights the most impressive gallery presentations at its most recent edition.

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Oscar Murillo is probably one of the most-talked about young artists in the art world at the moment, so his presence at Liste 18 made the Carlos/Ishikawa booth a must-see for many collectors. While the gallery filled their walls and floor with desirable canvases and installation pieces, there was no comparison between this display and Isabella Bortolozzi's breathtaking Murillo presentation at Art Unlimited. Space definitely played a defining role here—Bortolozzi had a large, cube with a high celing to work with, while Carlos/Ishikawa occupied a thin L-shaped booth that spilled into Liste's magazine section.

Limoncello's energetic booth at Liste 18 showed off Yonatan Vinitsky's work to advantage. This new series of pieces, which consisted of black elastic, super glue and steel nails on bright acrylic paint backgrounds, had eye-catching titles—like one of my favorites, The Magic Riddle (Who Opened The Door?)—and were well-received by collectors. The gallery informed me that they did good business in Basel and expanded their client list to China and Australia.

Office Baroque exhibited a solo show of works by Aaron Bobrow at Liste 18. Bobrow is having a good year, and as expected, the gallery did well with him sales-wise at the fair. The booth itself, however, was an awkward shape, and the work didn't present as well as it should have. I couldn't fault the individual pieces, though, which ranged from impressively sized canvases to abstract metal sculptures. It was a presentation I felt would have been better placed at Art Basel Statements, and I mean that in a good way.

Tucked away in a not-so-great location in the back on the ground floor, Peres Projects definitely had a 'destination' booth this year. Unless you were like me and religiously checking off each square on the map, I'm not sure you would have stumbled into it. The gallery was showing David Ostrowski and Leo Gabin, two of the most sought-after artists on show at this Liste, so it really didn't matter where they set up shop. Their space was filled with a crowd of ardent collectors on preview day.

I'm not sure if Jonathan Viner actually had a larger booth than the other galleries or if it was simply intelligent presentation, but their solo show of wall-mounted sculptural works by Elias Hansen on the top floor had none of the claustrophobic tension that tends to be unavoidable at an art fair. This made it much more pleasant to spend time in than some of the other booths, and I really felt I could appreciate what I was looking at. Hansen himself told me that collectors were responding well to the work, so clearly I wasn't the only one who enjoyed myself here.

Solo projects often command extra attention in the art fair environment, and Rallou Panagiotou's exhibition in Ibid's ground floor space was no exception. His small to medium-sized assemblages looked clean and dynamic in the gallery's booth. There was such a wide range of work on offer that new collectors quickly became privy to the key aspects of Panagiotou's style and technique, while those who were already following him were spoiled for choice.

Works by Nate Boyce, Jessica Dickinson and Liam Everett were on show in Altman Siegel's booth this Liste. Boyce's sculptural video works were well-positioned on the floor, enlivening the space, but the abstract works from Dickinson and Everett on the wall behind stole the spotlight. They were two of the best artists at the fair, in my opinion, and I thought it was interesting that they were shown by the same gallery.

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Harris Lieberman had a fantastic location this year in a bright, airy space near the entrance on the ground floor. They were the first booth I and many others walked into. Not only did this allow for viewing with fresh eyes, the gallery set the bar high with their presentation of pieces by Zak Prekop, Julia Dault and Matt Saunders. By selecting strong, highly collectible works from each artist, they accordingly reported strong sales.

Everything worked for me in Laura Bartlett's booth this year, which featured the winning combination of Lydia Gifford and Alex Olson. The works ranged from painting and sculpture, and all sold well before the fair closed. So many of the spaces at Liste are idiosyncratic and difficult to display art in, so when galleries successfully overcome this by choosing the right pieces and taking the time to present them properly, as Bartlett clearly did, it really shows and should be commended.

Luttgenmeijer have never gone wrong for me at an art fair yet. Their program is strong and their presentation of it is even stronger. The collector, curator and critic in me always swoons a little when I walk into their booths. I feel like they know how to do an art fair without compromising their integrity, and as anyone who has set up shop in one of these environments knows, that's an admirable feat. This Liste, they were showing the talented trio of Stefan Hablutzel (whose work was a highlight of the fair in his own right), Gareth Moore, and Matt Connors, who also featured prominently at Art Unlimited.