Irvine in New York

It is art fair time in the Big Apple and Irvine Contemporary has ventured out on their own this time around in NYC, with a program focused on DC/MD/VA trained or based artists. As the fair Heather puts it: "We want to show NY the world-class caliber of the DC and metro area talent here!"

And they have rented a spectacular 3,000 sq. ft Chelsea space for an exhibition, held in conjunction with the opening of the Whitney Biennial, The Armory Art Fair, Scope, Pulse and the LA Artfair-NY.

Irvine exhibition's dates: Friday March 10 - Sunday March 12th, 10:00am - 8:00pm daily. Located at 515 W. 29th Street, 2nd floor (between 10th & 11th Aves).

And (are you NYC bloggers ready for this?) there's a blogger preview Friday, March 10th, from 9-11:00am. VIP Cocktail Reception: Friday, March 10th, 8:00pm-midnight.

The exhibition features new paintings and works on paper by DC/Virginia/Maryland trained or based artists Trevor Amery, Gine Brocker, Ju-Yeon Kim, Peter Charles, Suzanna Fields, Susan Jamison, Christine Kesler, Robert Mellor, Beverly Ress,and Jason Zimmerman.

Also new work by other Irvine artists including Lisa Stefanelli, Kahn & Selesnick, Teo Gonzalez, Dalek, Robert Gutierrez, Frankin Evans, Jenny Laden, Bede Murphy, Amy Ross, Sean Foley and Lori Esposito will be also on view.

Irvine is also working with several prominent artists for the first time (artists that they will show in DC later this year) -- namely New-York based and MICA trained embrodiery artist Orly Cogan, and Brooklyn-based painter Edward del Rosario, (courtesy of Richard Heller Gallery).

They will also feature three surreal videos running simultaneously by CALARTS trained video artist Dane Picard and unique scuptures by MICA trained sculptor Josh Levine, entitled "Trophy Room."

Questions? Email Heather.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

H Y S T O R I A, curated by my good friend J.W Mahoney and Lisa McCarty and featuring the work of Geoff Bell, Julee Holcombe, Betsy Packard, Jeffrey Smith and Champneys Taylor opens tonight at DCAC with an opening reception from 7-9PM.

There's also an artists' talk on March 12 commencing at 4:00pm.

Beckman on Cupidity

The CP's Rachel Beckman checks in with a nice piece on Neptune Gallery's most interesting Cupidity show.

Read it here.

American Gothic in DC

Grant Wood's iconic painting "American Gothic" travels to our area and will be on view at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum from March 10 through June 11, 2006.

This exhibition marks the first time that the painting (owned by The Art Institute of Chicago) has traveled to Washington, D.C. in more than 40 years.

Gopnik and Kirkland on the Whitney Biennial

The WaPo's eloquent Chief Art Critic depressess us all with his insightful and run-for-the-Xanax review of the Whitney Biennial, and JT Kirkland picks up on the mood and asks some good questions about the meaning of it all.

Gopnik here and Kirkland here.

My message to all of this depressive, cynical art and all the associated whiners? If you think life is tough, then think about all the twentysomethings in West Virginia whose only jobs may be pulling the guts out of turkeys, or worse still, the kids in the P.I. who scour garbage dumps looking for something to eat, and if lucky may find some discarded turkey guts to eat.

Gimme a break...

Parsons on Wallsnatchers

DCist's Adrian Parsons reviews the WPA/C's Wallsnatchers in Georgetown.

Read it here.

Referral Commissions

Artists and art dealers should always remember this rule (especially in a small town such as the Greater DC area is): You reap what you sow.

Recently a well-known DC area curator emailed me to let me know that she had referred to me a collector who was looking for figurative drawings. The usual referral commission in the business of art is 25%, so I emailed her back and asked to verify that percentage and she did.

The collector then came to my studio and bought a couple of drawings, and I immediately sent the curator a check for her commission. She then emailed me back a few days later and thanked me for my promptness.

Conversely, a while back a couple of different curators approached me asking for help in finding some artists for a specific acquisition project. I spent some time with each one of them, and then gave them a list of artists, as well as the artists' contact information.

I then contacted those artists and/or their gallery dealer, and told them that I was referring curator so-and-so to them in order for the curator to view and possibly purchase work from them. There were about 15-20 artists that I referred and who were then contacted by the curators of these two separate projects.

Some of the artists are represented by us, and thus they know (because our contract is very clear on that issue) what a referral commission is.

Several of the other artists (whom are not represented by us, or in some cases by any other gallery) emailed me to thank me for the referral, and subsequently even a few of them emailed me to let me know that the curators had purchased artwork. Some never even emailed or contacted me to thank me for the referral, but most did.

So far only one of those artists has asked what our referral commission is, and I am sure that if/when a sale is made, that the gallery will get a check for that commission from that one artist.

Let's see what happens with the rest of them... you reap what you sow.