The wake effect begins

I've described the art fair "wake effect" (wake in the sense of the wake that a ship leaves behind when it moves through the water) as a significant reason to attend and be present at art fairs: all the good stuff that happens "after" the fair is over and because of the fair.

First wake effect: Vogue magazine editors saw Cirenaica Moreira's work at Aqua and now we've been notified that they will be doing a feature article on her and her work in the near future!

Aqua: The Last Day

Sunday, being the last day of the fair, is usually a dreadful day - especially bad if you've had a bad fair and now have to face the brutal realities of packing out, the harsh dance of loading artwork on double parked vans, trucks and cars along one of the world's worst traffic streets...

But this art fair has been a great one, and that always makes things - even packing and loading - a little better to swallow. I am also lucky to have had the help of several DMV artists (and their spouses) plus my hard working intern, to make this Sunday pack-out the best one ever.

My cool intern even managed to dance the gallery van into a primo loading spot, once we were ready to haul back and load the van for the drive back to the DMV.

Between my last report on mid Saturday and tonight, sales continued to be brisk, as we sold two nice Jeannette L. Herrera paintings, two of British artist Simon Monk paintings, one more of my video drawings and several other "regular" drawings as well as three paintings by the ubertalented DMV artist Judith Peck.

We also sold a cool Andrew Wodzianski painting as the DMV's leading performancer/interdisciplinary artist returns to painting.

And a last minute sale of a glass piece by the DMV's first green artist, Erwin Timmers, to a Canadian gallery owner, finished what is easily the best (as far as fun and sales) art fair that I have ever done.

Thank you to all the DMV area artists and collectors and dealers who dropped by to say hello during these hectic and fun days.

The gallery intern is driving the van back, we're home safe and now time to think about the New York fairs early next year!

Aqua Day Three

Last night the major score was achieved by DMV artist Cory Oberndorfer, who managed to sell about 19 of his "Donut" series paintings

Corey Oberndorfer paintings of donuts

Yep! That many... I also sold my "T-Subucula Deus" video piece to an art critic from Canada plus about eight more regular drawings through the night.

What are they watching?

These ladies sitting by the hot tub at Aqua...

Are all watching this:

We'll never forget!

Aqua Day Two

Good day at Aqua Art Fair yesterday and decent crowds all day long... also a steady stream of DMV artists stopping by to say hello.

 

Super talented and hard working gallery intern Audrey Wilson (one of the bennies of being our gallery intern is that you get to bring artwork to the fairs) sold her biggest glass piece - Yay! It went to a New York art collector.

 

Also sold a Dulce Pinzon photo - the very last proof piece of her fabulous iconic image from her Superheros series, my largest video piece (remember "Artist Worshiping at the Altar of Modern Art"?), a Cory Oberndorfer donut painting and several of my regular drawings.

 

It's interesting to me that three of my personal sales have gone to other gallery owners; more on that later.

As I've discussed before, there are other perks of doing an art fair - what I call the "wake effect" -- on opening night I connected a major university's museum director with the owner of the vintage Korda photographs of the psychopath Che Guevara - they will be exhibited at the museum in the near future and also become part of a new history course on the Argentinean adventurer.

Also met a NYC art center director who connected me with an unlikely art collector couple (unlikely in the sense that they are known to collect Asian art), who are refocusing their attention on collecting Cuban art and plan to open a museum space in the Big Apple focused on Cuban art; more on that later.

A well-known art collector who owns my work (and who is on the "Top 100 Art Collectors in the World" list, and who bought another one of my pieces on VIP night) also connected me with a young guy who is building a new boutique hotel in the Miami area. Apparently the art collector is the money behind the scheme, as the hotel development young guy was directed to work with me to ensure that the project had real artwork instead of "hotel art"; we traded business cards and chatted about "hotelism" and "real art for hotels."

Opportunity for Artists

BlackRock Center for the Arts Call to Artists 2014
BlackRock Center For the Arts is accepting entries for exhibits January - December 2014. You can download the prospectus by clicking the link to the right or go to www.blackrockcenter.org Deadline:  Friday, December 21, 2012 Entry Fee: $35 check or money order made payable to BlackRock Center for the Arts Eligibility: Open to all artists 18 years and over residing in  Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC.  Special Consideration: Artists who are willing to conduct a lecture or workshop for a BlackRock standard fee will receive special consideration during the selection process.     About the Gallery BlackRock Center for the Arts gallery is 1500 square feet of gallery space.  Its high white walls and beautiful windows allows in just the right amount of natural light. We take pride in the outstanding artists we have exhibited over the years, which have been reviewed by Claudia Rousseau, Lenny Campello, and other art critics in the area. Eligibility The Call to Artists is open to all artists residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC over the age of 18 for original artwork only. All work must be ready for sale and to be presented in a professional manner to the public at the time of delivery. (See Terms for Exhibit for details.) Pedestals are available for three-dimensional work. Selection Process This call will cover exhibits in the Gallery from January to December 2014. An exhibit may include one applicant or a combination of applicants, based on the judgment of jurors (i.e., 1 or 2 wall artists may be combined with a pedestal artist). A jury will select the artists and create eight exhibits to be included in the exhibit year. This season, the jury panel is comprised of Lenny Campello (artist, writer, blogger), Marsha Staiger (artist, Torpedo Factory), and Tim Tate (artist, Washington Glass School). In addition, the panel will have an alternate juror, Krista Bradley (Executive Director of BlackRock).	CLICK HERE FOR PROSPECTUS Send to: BlackRock Center for the Arts Call to Artist 12901 Town Commons Drive Germantown, MD 20874 Questions? Contact: Kim Marshall Gallery Manager kmarshall@blackrockcenter.org All correspondance by e-mail, no phone calls please.