Art fairs in NYC and DC

This coming week is a double art fair week... here in DC is the third iteration of the (e)merge art fair, come check us out in rooms 215-216. And in New York is the Affordable Art Fair Fall version, and we're also there in booth A-14. Drop me an email if you need passes to AAFNYC.

In NYC we will be featuring the works of three vastly talented and well-known DMV artists: Anne Marchand, Jodi Walsh and Tim Vermeulen.

In DC we will have an equally talented group of artists, including the UK's Simon Monk, and the DMV's Christopher Baer, Judith Peck, Elissa Farrow-Savos, Ric Garcia and yours truly.

Moby Dick: Queequeg's Fast. Oil on Panel by Tim Vermeulen

Moving On. Ceramic on Textured Panel by Jodi Walsh

Pulse. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas by Anne Marchand

A letter from the new WPA Director

In the past 100 days, I have met with 100 DC-area artists. Not individually, but in groups. We've met in studio buildings, in bars, here at WPA's new gallery. I asked them lots of questions. I listened and took notes. It was a real wake-up call.

 

One of the things I heard time and again was that artists are fleeing our city. There are two principal reasons for this. First, DC has gotten too expensive, so they are moving to the Virginia and Maryland suburbs. Or they are migrating to Baltimore or Los Angeles. The point is, while the population of DC grows, its artist population shrinks.

 

The second reason artists are leaving is because there just aren't many opportunities left for them here. The Corcoran and a number of  important galleries have closed. The (e)merge art fair is on hiatus. Where are artists to exhibit? How can they sell?

 

These conversations underscored for me WPA's great responsibility to this community. It isn't enough for us to simply present exhibitions and events. We need to find ways to retain the existing talent so vividly in evidence in the Auction Gala Exhibition.

 

"But how?" you ask.

 

Well, one immediate way is to attend our Auction Gala on April 9  and buy some art. Proceeds from that event are split 50-50 between the artists and WPA. You can buy tickets here.

 

Beyond that, this is a much longer conversation that I look forward to having with you over the coming year. Stay tuned for more on this subject. In the meantime, let's celebrate and support the artists still in our midsts. I will see you at the Gala.

 

Yours,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Peter Nesbett, Executive Director

A brooding man

"A Brooding Man" is an original watercolor on 300 weight, Ph-balanced, acid free, white paper. It is signed and dated on the lower front margin and on verso. Circa 2014. The painting measures approx. 13 x 13 inches. The watercolor has been professionally float framed in a minimalist black wood frame. Come see it at the (e)merge art fair this coming October.

Need to borrow...

A call out to the DMV arts audience: I am in need to borrow two sets of Pro-panels (http://www.propanels.com) for (e)merge art fair next month... I just need them for about a week during the fair and will gladly trade a piece of original art for them... 

Send me a note if you can lend me some and I will pick them up and return them after the fair.

Trapped Batman

Trapped Batman III
Oil and Alkyds on Wood
11.8 x 11.8 inches
2013 Simon Monk
Will be in Room 216 of the (e)merge art fair next week

Lest We Forget

"Studio View, 9/11"
Oil on Canvas c. 9/11/2001 by David FeBland
I'm sitting on a strangely quiet Reagan National Airport waiting to catch American Flight 467 to Chicago and then 779 to San Diego.

This is a tough week to be away from the DMV, as it is the last week before the (e)merge art fair and I still have loads of things to do before the fair.

Below is the little guy scarfing up the finger sandwiches and veggie sticks at the Marymount University show opening; curator Judy Bass did a great job of assembling this show and I am honored to be included in the company of photography by Jo Ann Tooley, woodcuts by Kristin Reiber Harris, and mixed-media work by Ann Marie Williams

Almost final report...

Exhausted and home from the (e)merge art fair in DC, where today we sold several more Elissa Farrow Savos sculptures as well as several more of my drawings and also work by Ric Garcia... And in NYC the Affordable Art Fair crew is heading home, also exhausted but happy after a good fair in NY.

More later...

Art fair coming to the District

The District has attempted to host international art fairs in the past... artDC was staged one year at the convention center (about a decade ago) by the same people who run Art Miami and Art New York. Then the (e)merge art fair rans for a few years at the Skyline Hotel...

The following is from the press release from Superfine! DC:

Why a Superfine! fair in DC?

That's the question many of you have been asking. Why exhibit in Washington DC when I can show in New York, Los Angeles, or Miami? Well, you can. We're launching an LA show next spring, revisiting Miami Art Week in 2019, and launching applications for not only our May New York fair but a second fall show as well. Even London is on our 2019 radar, giving new possibilities to jump the pond and interact with a collector base there. However, we believe strongly in Superfine! DC and want to invite you to join us in the capital this fall for what promises to be a banner inaugural fair.

The Art Market is Here

There are countless ways to be a part of the Superfine! revolution but to overlook DC is to miss a terrific opportunity to be at the forefront of something new and fresh in a city hungry for a contemporary art fair to call its own. Superfine! DC is not merely an afterthought on our calendar but the culmination of a two year search to find the perfect city for not just any art fair, but our own specific take on the fair model: transparent, approachable, and most of all- fair. We look for a market that holds not only an affluent and existing collector base, but also a highly educated young professional market with high disposable income - all attributes that DC has in spades, and the reason we're so confident that our formula will resonate.

Tapping Into the Cultural Core

A smaller but still highly culturally relevant city like Washington DC affords us the opportunity to own not only 100% of the art-related digital impressions in a city (New York's fair boasted 78.5 million of them), but to establish deep and lasting partnerships with major art + culture institutions. From the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Superfine! DC is a week-long hub for all of the capital's cultural institutions and their supportive audiences. A 50% makeup of DC-area-based galleries and artists cements our position as DC's own art fair.

Take a look at our recently updated floor plan with improved flow and sight lines for each exhibitor, and consider joining us on this next great adventure.

Superfine! DC Floorplan

Superfine! DC Applications 

At the Arlington Arts Center

First and foremost, a warm welcome to Stefanie Fedor, the new Executive Director of the Arlington Arts Center. Ms. Fedor comes from the Katzen, where she was an Asst. Curator, and now takes the helm of one of the leading non profit art venues around the DMV.

And AAC's annual call for entries gave 14 emerging artists the opportunity to have solo exhibitions at the Center. This year's crop was selected by DC collector and curator Michael Pollack and independent international curator Melissa Keys, formerly of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. All of the artists will be on hand at the opening reception, which is Thursday, October 6, 2011, 6-9 pm. The artists are:

Chloe Watson: Chairmen's Gallery
Stephanie Elaine Robbins: Experimental Gallery
Arden Bendler Browning: Meyer Gallery A
Jason Irla: Truland Gallery
David D'Orio: Meyer Gallery B
Matt Dunn: Tiffany Gallery

I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the work of the three artists in this group whom are new to me, as well as the always fascinating photography of Matt Dunn (whose "bearded dude riding the chicken" photo at (e)merge was - in my opinion - the defining image for that terrific art fair).

New art gallery to open in DC

Lauren Gentile, longtime art professional and former director of Irvine Contemporary, sets up shop in Washington, D.C. After serving as the Director of Irvine Contemporary and working in the art profession for 13 years, heading to New York or Los Angeles, might be the conventional wisdom. Instead, inspired by Washington’s promise of becoming a major national platform for emerging and contemporary art, Gentile is committing her considerable talent, energy, and creativity to opening her own gallery, Contemporary Wing.

“For awhile now, there have been rumblings about the Washington’s burgeoning arts community breaking through and becoming a force for contemporary art, and I want to be a part of that change. The Rubell’s plan to open a contemporary art museum in the nation’s capitol, the recent success of the (e)merge art fair, and a committed art community, all convince me that the time is now,” according to Ms. Gentile, “Washington is an ideal destination for contemporary art, and I am prepared to invest in that vision.”

With the rounding support of her colleagues, artists and collectors, Gentile will launch Contemporary Wing on November 1. While Gentile is in the process of finalizing her Northwest Washington location, Contemporary Wing will be open for sales and appraisals, at www.contemporarywing.com.

The first exhibition, a multi-work video installation designed to run concurrently with Art Basel, Miami Beach, will take place on December 1-4, 2011 in Miami, Florida. For “Ivory Tower” artist Tiffany Carbonneau will project an original art work onto the exterior of the Marquis Miami, where the exhibit will be held. Her site specific projection will be visible from the surrounding area as well as from I-95 North and South bound, I-395, I-195, and the Venetian Causeway. Once inside the exhibit, viewers will be immersed in a conceptual and humorous feast of sight and sound. Gentile is co-curating the exhibit with New York curator Ginger Shulick, of Big Deal Arts. Participating artists include: Nia Burks, Sean Capone, Tiffany Carbonneau, Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky), Paul Moakley, Phillip David Stearns and Alex Villar.

For more information about the gallery and exhibitions, please visit contemporarywing.com or contact info@contemporarywing.com

Opportunity for Artists

APPLICATION DEADLINE: May 2, 2011
NOTIFICATION DATE: May 23, 2011
EXHIBITION DATES: June 22, 2011 - August 21, 2011
OPENING RECEPTION: June 24, 2011, 6 to 9 PM

PLANNING PROCESS: Drawings and Finished Works at Arlington Arts Center.

Juror: Helen Allen, former creator and Executive Director of PULSE Art Fairs, former Executive Director of Ramsay Art Fairs, and current partner for the upcoming (e)merge art fair in Washington DC.

PLANNING PROCESS is a juried drawing show with a difference: All of the drawings selected for inclusion must be studies created in preparation for finished artworks.

Winning studies will be shown alongside finished pieces in a variety of media: A sculptor or a painter could show sketches alongside finished objects . . . a video artist could show storyboards alongside video . . . an installation artist could show plans alongside photos documenting a finished project--or a recreation of that project onsite.

Artists can submit images of up to three projects, and four preparatory drawings per finished project. The juror will pick as many projects from a given artist as she likes, and as few or as many studies connected to each project that she would like to feature.

BOTTOM LINE:

- This show is open to cutting edge contemporary artists working in any/all media, and who live or work in Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, or Pennsylvania.
- You may submit images of up to THREE PROJECTS: Up to four images of preparatory drawings may be submitted for each project; submit one JPEG of each finished 2-D work; up to TWO JPEGs of 3-D works; and MPEGs no longer than five minutes for video works.

Application here.

(e)merge coming up!

We will be in rooms 205 - 206... Please come by and say hello... We will be showcasing the work of Tim Vermeulen, Judith Peck, Jeannette Herrera, Simon Monk, Audrey Wilson, Elissa Farrow-Savos and the kid.

Planning Process at AAC

While I was in the UK I got the news that I had been selected by Helen Allen (former creator and Executive Director of PULSE Art Fairs; former Executive Director of Ramsay Art Fairs; and current partner for the upcoming (e)merge art fair in Washington, DC) to exhibit at the Arlington Art Center's "Planning Process" exhibition.

What's this exhibition about? From the prospectus:

PLANNING PROCESS is a juried drawing show with a difference: All of the drawings selected for inclusion must be studies created in preparation for finished artworks. Winning studies will be shown alongside finished pieces in a variety of media: A sculptor or a painter could show sketches alongside finished objects . . . a video artist could show storyboards alongside video . . . an installation artists could show plans alongside photos documenting a finished project—or a recreation of that project onsite.

So for this show I will be doing an installation of my Hotel Art Intervention Project.

As many of you know, since 1977 I have been conducting a one man crusade to add original artwork to hotel rooms. As part of this process, when I travel I often bring a minimal set of art supplies as well as tools. Once I check into a hotel room, I identify a piece of hotel wall décor to be “improved” by the addition or substitution of original art. I usually disassemble the piece, and sometimes add imagery to the original piece. In some cases, whenever I feel that I can “get away with it,” (which depends on what other images are hanging in the room) I do a complete substitution of the original hotel piece (most often substituting it with an original drawing or watercolor).

For PLANNING PROCESS: Drawings and Finished Works, I proposed re-creating the Hotel Art Intervention process itself by recreating an entire hotel room at the Arlington Art Center (or at least a subset of it). There would be a bed and other hotel paraphernalia, including some usual hotel wall décor hanging on the wall, and one disassembled piece laying on the bed and been “intervened” upon. At various times during the exhibition period, this piece would be worked on and added to (by me), and at the end of the show the “finished artwork” would be hung back on the wall.

The artists selected by Allen for this exhibit are:

John James Anderson

F. Lennox Campello

R. L. Croft

Craig Kraft

Magnolia Laure

Jessie Lehson

Ephraim Russell

Samuel Scharf

Dan Tulk

Jessica Van Brakle

Tom Wagner

Andrew Wodzianski

Pro Panels Anyone?

I'm looking to borrow a set of Pro Panels (or something similar) that I can use at the (e)merge art fair next month.

In exchange I will give the lender a small framed original drawing?

Pro Panels anyone?

Send me an email to lenny@lennycampello.com

Miami bound... but a note about art fairs

As I write this for later posting here, we're flying to Miami to participate in the annual Art Basel week of art fairs. As I've written many times before, this is the world's "big dance" when it comes to the visual arts; this is the big party and everyone is invited. However, it is a matter of getting here that's the issue.

Art fairs are very expensive. As I've noted before, many galleries risk everything to come to Miami, and I suspect that many are financially destroyed at the end of the week. And yet, many do well and return year after year.

Between my years with the Fraser Gallery and now with AAAP, we've been returning to Miami for many years now. Other DMV and regional galleries that keep coming back are my good buds at Connersmith, Hamiltonian, and Virginia's Mayer Fine Arts. They consistently take the financial risk and venture to Miami (and in some cases all over the US and Europe). Some newer participants are Morton Fine Arts and Adah Rose; both galleries did their first art fairs a year or two ago and both are enthusiastically now doing art fairs all over.

Others have tried a year or two, crashed and burn and never return to the party.

Is there a formula to this? What the the magic that makes this work for some and not for others?

I know of at least two galleries in the Mid Atlantic who have "financial backers" who absorb most or some of the financial risk involved in doing an art fair. Since these sort of galleries are very limited (who wouldn't love to have a financial backer?), they are the "outlayers" in the formula for clicking the right button in the art fair game.

Some non-profiits have the economic stability to play consistently in the art fair game; and to make it easier for them, many art fairs have special, lower pricing for non-profits. So they are also a special case, I think, because in most cases, the financial risk is absorbed by the state of their income-gathering to stay afloat as a non-profit.

It is a mystery to me why not more DMV area non-profits go to the art fairs. Hamiltonian is a notable exception, as is Honfleur Gallery in Anacostia. And the WPA does participate in our own (e)merge.

But I would submit that there are several area non-profits that could, and should participate in Miami and New York art fairs as part of their business model; if a local non-profit can afford to pay $70-$80,000 a year to its executive director (and several DMV non-profits are in that range), then it can certainly afford to budget $12-18K to participate in an art fair outside of the DMV. I think this anyway... As an outsider to the money shell game that running a non profit must be (I tip my hat to them).

I'm not saying that all visual arts non-profits should do this - I am sure that the mission of some of them are strictly focused on "local" only, rather than expanding their artistic presentations outside the capital region.

But that still leaves several key ones that (if I was the DMV art dictator) should be in NYC and Miami during art fair times.

This also applies to some of our large membership-based visual arts organizations and cooperative galleries, such as The Art League.

I'm a big fan of The Art League, and when I lived close to Alexandria I was a member for many years, and I have been honored multiple times by being selected as a juror for them.

And thus I am going to use them as an example, but this example applies to the multiple "other" art leagues, groups, clubs, cooperatives, etc. that exist around our region and which are important and significant components of our cultural tapestry. I could just as easily have picked the Rockville Art League, or the Reston Art League, Gallery West, Touchstone, Fairfax Art League, CHAW, etc.

The money part is always an issue, but when the money part can be divided into several (rather than one) entities, then the financial risk is reduced, because it is spread, rather than concentrated into one (the independent commercial gallery) bank account.

So let's proceed with this possible example using The Art League.

They have several thousand members and run a very successful and important program at their space inside the Torpedo Factory and assorted classrooms all over the area.

So the issue is, how does The Art League (again, you can fill in any of multiple DMV area membership-based art organizations) pick or select the 3-5 artists to take to an art fair?

The "good" art fairs are nearly always tightly juried. There are many art fairs where one just pays and anyone and everyone can go - those usually suck and in about a week or so, some DMV galleries and many DMV solo artists will unfortunately discover this.

And thus for Miami/NYC fairs I am thinking (in no particular order) about Art Miami, Context, Aqua, Pulse, NADA, Affordable Art Fair(s), Scope, Miami Project, Frieze... some of these are very, very hard to get in, but they're listed nonetheless, because there is a "food chain" of art fairs, and the bottom-feeders usually spell disaster for the participants.

And thus The Art League would need to establish a process to pre-jury its membership to 3-5 artists and apply with those artists to an art fair. I would start with The Affordable Art Fair in New York. They are close by and they are a "proven" fair. I have done it many times and consistently recommend it to any gallery that asks me about art fairs in general.

And thus redux The Art League would need to canvas their membership and find out who's interested in being juried for possible selection for further jurying into an art fair. I would make this process independent from the Art League itself - just like they do for their monthly juried shows, and have interested artists bring their work in to be juried by an independent juror.

That juror has to be a very special juror - in fact 98% of your standard-issue visual art juror (art professors, art critics, art writers, art center directors, artists, etc.) would guarantee a disaster to this process. In the DMV the jury pool for this process is very limited and its members are only those gallerists who have participated in multiple art fairs. In fact I can't think of anyone better to jury this part than me!

Back to the generic process... In the next post... Or soon... All DMV (and nationwide visual arts non profits/co-ops and clubs should be reading this...).

Obama Agonistes

Obama Agonistes. Charcoal on 300 weight paper with embedded video player and continuous loop video. Matted and framed under glass to 16 x 32 inches. Circa 2011 by F. Lennox Campello
The above piece is my latest exploration of marrying embedded video with drawing. You will be able to see this new piece at the coming (e)merge art fair this coming week.

The work is being presented by Mayer Fine Art, who will be in room 313 of the fair. MFA will also showcase works by DC's own Ben Tolman and self contained video installations by Tidewater area artist (currently living and working in Japan) John Miles Runner.

The new video/drawing shows the President, hugging his knees and agonizing over a variety of issues and problems during his presidency - much like the same way in which every President before him and those who will come after him are often brutalized by the weight of the White House. The extraordinary responsibility of being POTUS and the even more extraordinary demands and expectations that we leverage on all who occupy that job, is reflected on the immense internal combat depicted on this piece.

The continuous loop video plays a series of 20 appropriated news clips, cartoons and other material that deliver a conceptual tie-in to the struggling President, almost overwhelmed by his failures as much as by his successes, but nonetheless ready to continue to fight.

Matted in a white pH-balanced, acid free white mat and then framed under glass in a custom-made black wood frame to 16 x 32 inches.


Detail of Obama Agonistes, showing the embedded video being played.


Detail of Obama Agonistes, showing the drawing part of the mixed media piece

Hope Chest

HOPE CHEST: a young woman's accumulation of clothes and domestic furnishings (as silver and linen) kept in anticipation of her marriage; also : a chest for such an accumulation.

This is a special event featuring artwork by DC/Baltimore artists Mariah Anne Johnson, Becca Kallem, Chandi Kelley, Michelle McAuliffe, Erin Murray, Elle Perez, Katherine Sifers, and Dafna Steinberg. These emerging artists "challenge and reinvent tradition, romance, gender roles/expectations, and sexuality. Their work also investigates what we keep, save, and treasure in contrast to what is discarded. Photography, installations, mixed media work, and paintings present the domestic, nostalgic, and personal in new contexts."

September 15, 2011, 6-9 pm
GreenHouse 11
1123 11th St NW
Washington, DC

Work on view September 15 - November 15 by appointment. A special event will be held on September 24 to coincide with Shaw's NUIT BLANCHE Art All Night and the (e)merge art fair.

A new art fair model for the Post Covidian Age

I first proposed a version of this model about a decade ago, when there was (even then) a sense of art fatigue brewing in the art world. 

In a post Covidian world, I suspect that a lot of people will still be a little leery of large group gatherings, and art fairs based on pre-Covidian standards may be a bit antiquated in the Brave Chickenized New World.

Herewith a revised Campello Art Fair Model

---

The important thing to remember, as I mull, chew, and refine a "new" art post-Covidian fair model to replace the existing pre-Covidian art fair model, which in its American incarnations seemed to work well only in Miami and New York, but not so well in the West coast (and as we DMV-based folks have seen with (e)merge and artDC, not at all in the capital region), is the marriage of a legitimate art entity (a museum) with an art-for-sale process as a means to raise funds. 

The seeds for this model already exist in the DC region with the Smithsonian Craft Show, now in its third decade. 

Considered by many to be the finest craft fair in the world -- and from the many artists that I have spoken to over the years -- one of the best places to sell fine crafts as well, this prestigious and highly competitive juried exhibition and sale of contemporary American craft usually takes place each April for four days. It takes place at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC and it includes one-of-a-kind and limited edition craft objects in 12 different media: basketry, ceramics, decorative fiber, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, paper, wearable art and wood. 

There were 120 exhibitors in last year's show, including emerging artists and master craftsmen, over 30 of whom were first-time participants. Twelve of those selected were also first-time applicants to the show. All were chosen by a panel of expert jurors from a highly competitive field of close to 1,400 applicants.  

So we have a model for crafts in DC which has been working for over 30 years. 

See where I'm going? 

Can we envision the Smithsonian American Art Fair? 

Or... The Smithsonian American International Art Fair?

The SAIAF would dramatically expand the business model of the Smithsonian Craft Fair to a National Mall-wide - outdoors - or even a citywide art fair anchored and guided by the Smithsonian Institution, and possibly either:

(a) spread throughout the various accommodating outdoor spaces at the various SI locales around the National Mall or even

(b) in temporary art spaces, booth, or containers on the open spaces of the National Mall itself! 

The latter is not as big of a deal as it sounds. 

The National Mall already hosts a spectacular variety of outdoor events on the Mall spaces where complex display spaces are temporarily built, secured and just as quickly dismantled, grass re-seeded, and by Monday the Mall is back to normal. 

For art, all we need is protection from the weather and security. Perhaps even a combination of "free" (to the public) set of exhibitors (maybe out on the Mall) coupled with a paid admission set of exhibitors inside SI spaces -- or just make them all free to the public? 

Details... details... 

This new fair model would be open to both commercial art galleries and art dealers, as well as to art schools, and (and here's the key "and") to individual artists and cooperative artist-owned galleries. 

Size matters. 

Would 1200 galleries, dealers, schools and artists in a mega, new-model art fair raise some interests from art collectors to come to DC for a long weekend in May? 

It would if it attracted 100,000 visitors to the fair instead of 10,000 (like the long gone art fair artDC attracted). 

Are you aware that in May the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival in nearby Bethesda attracts 30-40,000 people to the streets of Bethesda for this artist-only street fine arts fair? or that also in May the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival attracts the same number of people to the streets of the Reston Town Center to buy art from individual artists? 

Both Bethesda and Reston have two of the highest median household incomes in the US. And I am told that the Greater Washington, DC region has the second highest concentration of multi-millionaires in the world. 

The money is here - the key is to get the disposable income crowd in touch with the art. 

Both Bethesda and Reston manage to accomplish this one weekend each year. Do not, under any circumstances assume that these are "street fairs" where teddy bears, country crafts, and dried flowers are sold. These are both highly competitive fine arts outdoor fairs where artists from all over the nation come to and compete for spots because artwork sells well. 

I have seen $80,000 worth of sculptures sell to one collector in Bethesda and a painter with a price point of $17,000 sell out in Reston. 

Do not let the snobby attitude of the high art world affect your preconception of what these two street art fairs are like; go visit one this coming (and hopefully post Covidian) May and open your eyes. 

And because of them, and because of the success of Art Basel Miami Beach, we know that given a certain critical mass, people will come out to an art fair. The primary key for art dealers to have interest in an art fair is sales (and also exposure to new collectors, museum curators, etc.), but mainly sales. 

If you are a British gallery, by the time you get yourself and your artwork to Miami Beach, you're in the hole a whole bunch of Euros and British pounds; if you don't sell anything (like it happened to a British gallery in artDC and an Israeli gallery at another fair), chances are that you won't return to that fair. 

But increase the public attendance numbers exponentially, and Economics 101 tells you that sales will also increase exponentially. And unlike the hotel-deprived artDC location at the Convention Center, I am told by DC's tourist gurus that the National Mall is already a magnet location where visitors, regardless of where they are staying around the Greater DC region, flock to during their visits to the capital. 

Since two major Greater DC area street art fairs already exist in May in the Greater DC area, we can even consider aligning the weekends so that both Reston, Bethesda, and the The Smithsonian American International Art Fair all take place on the same weekend! 

Offer free bus service between Reston and Bethesda and the National Mall for collectors to hop around during the fair weekend, and a public buzz alignment will begin to happen. The Smithsonian American International Art Fair starts on a Thursday through Sunday and both Reston and Bethesda continue to run on Saturday and Sunday. And the Smithsonian American International Art Fair is focused as a major fundraiser for the cash-hungry SI. 

A formula of booth prices + perhaps a 5% commission on all sales (both tax deductible for American galleries) would take care of temporary Mall booth construction, re-seeding of grass, and booth construction inside SI venues and still yield a nice chunk of cash for the SI. 

If there's commercial success and high public attendance, soon we'd see some satellite hotel fairs popping up all over DC and its easy-to-get-to suburbs; the Phillips will jump on the bandwagon right away. 

ABMB had 26 fairs all over Greater Miami last December.  Another DC-unique element to the above model, and an important element that only a Washington art fair weekend can add: include the Embassies! 

In addition to all the above events taking place, the fair could also align with shows at 15-20 embassy galleries around DC. The embassies would showcase one (or a group) of their national artists, and then the fair would really have an international flavor, and the beginning seeds of an American Venice in the DMV. 

DC is a small city; it's fairly easy to set up transportation between the embassies and the Mall. In fact, some embassies could probably set that up themselves.

I think that this "new" super model could (and eventually when someone delivers and implements it -- it will) challenge Miami Beach -- and yes, I am aware that DC in May is not Miami in December -- but I also think that the District's own museums and public attractions trump Miami's anytime, so the DMV has something different to offer the potential collector who may be considering attending a new art fair in a city (like DC) that also offers him/her some other cultural and visual attractions besides good weather and nice beaches and sexy Cubans. 

DC art commisioners... Smithsonianos... DC city fathers and mothers.... call me! 

Mathematics and the art fair model

Much has been written about the phenomenon of art fairs as the new salons of the 21st century, as magnets where galleries congregate and collectors and curators, and celebrities, and the illuminati go to see and buy art. Furthermore, anecdotal figures from the major fairs seem to confirm that a lot of artwork is being sold by galleries at the fairs. My own experience in doing art fairs for the last ten years confirms this fact - I have my own positive empirical evidence, most recently with the great Context Art Miami fair for the past two years.

Here in the DMV, we've had our own taste of a major "Miami style art fair" with artDC in 2007 - and that fair was a major failure, as that basic fair model didn't work in the Greater Washington area, which historically has a well documented degree of apathy when it comes to actually buying art or getting the main stream press interested... or the immense reluctance that suburbanites have in driving to DC over the weekend to parking-challenged areas.

Subsequently to that epic art fair failure, the (e)merge art fair - a hotel variation of the "art fair inside a huge building/tent" model, where the fair is held in a hotel (in this case the Capitol Skyline Hotel) - has had more success

And yet... an idea that I have been mulling in my head for years now keeps bugging me.

Stick with me here.

There's another "world" out there of fine art fairs that, because of the curious high brow attitude of the "high art" cabal, never really gets any attention from the art media, etc.

These are the outdoor art fairs that some of us know well, and many more others think they know well even though they've actually never been to any of the good ones. I am talking about the outdoor art festivals that get ranked as the top ones by Sunshine Artist magazine; fairs such as the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, or the Ann Arbor Arts Festival (actually four separate art fairs that draw over half a million visitors), and of course, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Miami, which routinely attracts about 150,000 visitors in the Miami area.

Immediately the clueless sap esso tutto who have never been to one of these top-of-the-line outdoor art festivals will think and imagine what they visualize as an outdoor art market: dried flowers, teddy bears and watercolors of barns. 

Don't get me wrong, there are thousands and thousands of these type "art" fairs around as well - but those are NOT the ones that I am talking about.

I am talking about the cream of the Sunshine Artist Top 200 list. These are shows where only original art, not reproductions, are allowed, and photography has very severe rules (must be done by the photographer, limited editions only, signed, archival processes only, etc.). These shows are highly competitive to get in (they're juried), and usually offer quite a lot of money in prizes for the artists. The jurors vary from museum curators, art center managers, art critics, artists, etc.

I guess I'm saying that there's some curatorial legitimacy to them as well... for the elitista amongst you.

But the real destination to which I am driving here is attendance: thousands.

Locally in our area, there are several of these exceptional fine arts outdoor festivals: The Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival attracts around 30,000 people; the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, and the Bethesda Row Arts Festival also attract those numbers of people and are all highly competitive.

Consider the median income in either Bethesda ($185K) or Reston ($105K), and what you get out of it is a lot of people with a lot of disposable income. As a whole, the DMV itself has a median household income of around $90K - that ranks highest among the U.S.'s 25 most populous metro areas.

Art price tags at these local fairs range from $100 to $20,000. So there's a somewhat comparable universe of prices to the DC area gallery market, as an example.

And I submit that a lot of the people who attend one of these outdoor fine art festivals do not have the "formation," as a Communist would say, to dare set foot in a white cube gallery... and have probably never heard of Art Base Miami Beach.

If Mohammed won't come to the mountain gallery, then bring the gallery to Mohammed (don't kill me radical "non-Islamic" Islamonazis).

So here's the issue that has been brewing in my head:

All of these huge and highly successful outdoor arts festivals (as far as I know) only allow individual artists to sell their work at the fairs. Why doesn't an enterprising fair organizer go one step further and add a whole new angle to the outdoor arts festival and set aside a whole section for independent commercial fine arts galleries? 

Or even better: create an outdoor gallery-only fair with one of those huge tents like they do in Miami? But somewhere in the DMV with plenty of parking and/or Metro Access?

Because the entry price point is a substantial fraction of what it costs to sign up for a gallery art fair such as the 26 or so fairs during Art Basel Miami Beach week, the financial mathematics of this idea make sense to both sides of the equation.

For fair organizers, they could offer the gallery a basic price tag of $2000 for the weekend, which (for an additional fee) would include a 10 feet by 20 feet double tent and display equipment. Or -- and this is a big or -- the organizer, in order to attract the art galleries, could offer them zero entry fee and instead a 10% commission on all sales. This may get a little sticky in the monitoring of sales and unreported sales by art dealers who lack ethics and scruples, so a flat fee is probably the best and easiest idea.

Another option: Align with the Smithsonian Institution and set up a giant tent on the National Mall. We all know of at least a dozen other fairs - none of them art - that do this on a regular basis on the Mall.

The Washington Art Fair on the National Mall!

For the gallery it would offer them an opportunity to expose their artwork to possibly thousands of new potential collectors, exposing most of them, for the first time, to an art gallery.

It's all in the numbers.

No art gallery that I know gets 30,000 visitors a year, much less in a weekend. Would any of them turn down an opportunity, for a reasonable amount of money (much, much less than it costs them to advertise in an art magazine that will only reach a few hundred people in their local area), to expose themselves to a few thousand potential new clients?

You do the math: 1% of 1% of 30,000 people is 3 new sales over a weekend. Not even to mention the possible future sales of new people who become exposed to the gallery at the festival, and start attending openings: new blood collectors.

I would do it.

Now let's see some enterprising art fair organizer run with this.

Comments welcomed.

Art fair(s) report...

The NYC crew at the Affordable Art Fair continues to report good sales... Multiple sales for Anne Marchand, multiple sales for Jodi Walsh and multiple sales for Tim Vermeulen... That is great news!

The DC crew at (e)merge is also kicking it... Today we sold four sculptures by Elissa Farrow-Savos (including sales to a very well-known collector) and six of my pieces, including two major and very large embedded video pieces.