And Paris’s Superzoom has one of the best booths in the fair thanks to its pairingof Ugo Schildge with Verdiana Patacchini. Mr. Schildge’s works take an ancientform, relief sculpture, and update it with a modern material, poured concrete.The results are laugh-out-loud scenes of animals: In one, a trio of donkeys seemto blend into a single stubborn braying mass; in another, a crocodile weeps,spewing waterfalls of rainbow tears from its face. Ms. Patacchini’s sculptures aremore serious, drawing on classical art and questioning its permanence. Forinstance, her “Figura Bugiarda ‘3 (Deceitful Figure ‘3)” riffs on iconic depictionsof the reclining female—most clearly “Sleeping Ariadne,” but alsoMichelangelo’s “Dawn” and, more recently, Canova’s “Venus Victrix.” However,instead of being rendered in marble, with all its connotations of strength andlongevity, the sculpture is made of India paper colored with charcoal andpigments, hung on a rough wooden frame, and ornamented with ceramic details.While Ms. Patacchini’s work might not be able to weather time like itspredecessors, it nonetheless shows that artists can still find fertile soil in theoldest of fields.

—Mr. Kelly is the Journal’s associate Arts in Review editor. Follow him on Twitter@bpkelly89.