Miami report

Although as usual I'm always stuck at whatever art fair that I'm doing, and seldom have the chance to explore other art fairs, DMVers in Miami for the fairs, as well as fellow dealers are always reporting to me.

I'm at Context Art Miami, which so far has been doing very well for us. We have DMV artists Ric Garcia and Audrey Wilson (and my own brilliant work, of course). Wilson, who will have her first solo show coming up in DC soon (more on that later) has been especially doing well, both in sales and commissions, as well as curatorial attention. The key here is that DC collectors need to buy Audrey Wilson now, as soon as she has that first solo show.

Also at Context are DMV artists Tim Tate, showing with California's Seager Gray Gallery and Mark Jenkins, showing with LA's Fabien Castanier Gallery.

Context is easily the best art fair that I have ever been to - the level of artwork is right up there with the top of the art fairs food chain. There is powerful diversity at Context - both in artwork as well as geographic distribution of the galleries. It's clear to me that this art fair made a powerful debut last year and now has made an even more powerful statement in its second year.

Scope had a great opening night on Monday with strong sales on their previews, but just like Untitled, they are now facing the same challenges as Untitled because Ocean drive in Miami Beach is down to one lane because of constructions. Also the hike between the two was tough (either across the beach or all the way back to Ocean Drive). Scope's VIPs had free rides from Fiats, which was a good coup as they could get rides around; I hear that the Fiat Pop was a delightful car.

DC's Project 4 is showing at Scope. Also at Scope you can find DMV artist JT Kirkland with New York's Blank Space. I am also told that Miami's Emerson Dorsch Gallery in Untitled has an arresting video program that is that highlight of that fair. Victoria Fu's "Belle Captive II" video has been getting rave reviews from some key video collectors that reported to me.

Some think that "Aqua is struggling," in part because "the young, quirky galleries have mostly been replaced by established galleries and replaced by Art Miami galleries," said to me one collector. There is also some sort of "art project" sign hanging near the entrance to Aqua that is causing some consternation to some galleries, as the sign (which again, is an art project) delivers the "impression that Aqua is where one goes to get cheap art for the office." On the other hand, Norfolk's Mayer Fine Art Gallery is reporting booming sales (she's also exhibiting DC's Victoria Gaitan's gorgeous photography). DC's Morton Fine Arts is also showing at Aqua, and some DMV artists, such as Eric Finzi and Barbara Januszkiewicz, are also there with other galleries.

Texas collector Ardis Bartle noted that "Aqua traditionally brought in an University or college art program and the emerging artists out of that program, and as a collector I would always buy one those pieces, and it gave the University (last year it was Atlanta University) a chance to shine."

"This year," she noted, "they curated two emerging artists who looked like the rest of the show: it was somewhat banal." She added: "Bring back the Universities."

Art Basel apparently has added a lot of new, upcoming artists from all over the world, that there seems to be a new wave of newer artists (Claire Morgan's name was mentioned to me) in addition to all the multimillion dollar blue chip artists.

I went to the grand opening of the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) last night, which could now possibly be the most spectacular museum architectural design on the planet -- the video by Yael Bartana that they were playing on the screen at the opening was breathtakingly beautiful and full of raw power.

PAMM's grand opening was packed to the gills - I mean thousands and thousands of people! Everyone and anyone who is someone in the arts world seemed to be there, as well as thousands of people who had previously probably never set foot in a museum... cough, cough...

I'm a little worried about the PAMM's ability to stand a strong hurricane though... there are a lot of wood floors! I wish them the best of luck - it is a spectacular museum at an even more spectacular location.

At Pulse I hear that "it was too crowded! They need to do something about the bathrooms!" Being too crowded if a good thing most of the time. I hear that Sabrina Gschwandtner's quilts of 16mm film are the true find of Pulse - at least two major collectors passed that info to me.

Art Miami across the way from Context is also very impressive - DC's Connersmith is there (they are also at Context).

Ardis Bartle noted that the Zoom In video halls were impressive, but "it's too hot inside those tents during the day to stay in there long!" Good advice from a very intense collector!

More later!

Miami at Night...

Miami at Night - Grand Opening of The Perez Museum

Miami at Night - Grand Opening of The Perez Museum

Art 2.0: The Art of Collecting Online

Millennium Arts Salon Board Member Sharon Burton directs the Artinista Art Advisory which will present  a panel on the changing climate of purchasing art online coming in early 2014, venue to be announced.

  "Art 2.0: The Art of Collecting Online", will feature Myrtis Bedolla, Founding Director, Galerie Myrtis, Catriona Fraser, Director, The Fraser Gallery, and Victoria Reis, Co-Founder, Transformer, to speak on their experiences and provide guidance to collectors with online art sales and purchases.  

The cost for the presentation including refreshments and materials (including a guide to purchasing art online) is $10 in advance and $15 at the door.  To reserve your space, visit: The Artinista RSVP.  

Artist Talk

Please join the Gateway CDC at the 39th Street Gallery for an artist talk with Pat Goslee on Sunday, Dec 15 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM.  Pat has been Gateway CDC's Artist in Residence for the past 4 months. Please join them to view Pat's work and  hear about her process.

3901 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood, MD 20722

(second floor, 39th Street entrance)

VIP Night at Context

Sold three drawings of mine at VIP night at Context Art Miami, and we're working an offer for a major double commission for Simon Monk.

And just as we were closing, we sold "And then she invented a machine to make him change," Tempered Glass & Found Objects by Audrey Wilson!

Also saw lots of familiar DC faces walking around as the DMV crowd hits the Wynwood openings.

Nazi art loot

German authorities have released another 101 images of artwork found in a Munich apartment which had been stolen by the Nazis.  This release, now totaling 219, include drawings and watercolors by Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso as well as the painting Two Riders on the Beach by Max Liebermann.

The works were found in the Spring of 2012 during an investigation into money laundering.  The apartment owner, Cornelius Gurlitt’s was stopped on a train to Swizerland in 2010 carrying 9,000 euros in cash during a sweep looking for Germans with undeclared bank accounts. The works were discovered during a follow-up search of Gurlitt’s home which uncovered over 1400 pieces of art, hoarded in disarray, some lying behind tins and packets of food. Gurlitt was the son of a prominent German Art dealer, only one of four people allowed to seal “degenerate art” during the Nazi era.  Gurlitt Sr., who died in a car accident in 1956, left all his paintings to his surviving family.

Read it all online here.

Context Art Miami hanging is done!

And for the first time in the many years that I have been doing art fairs, we are actually finished with all the hanging and the fair doesn't even open until 5:30PM tomorrow for the VIPs!

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...).

Channeling Jackson Pollock

I've created a large painting in the style of Jackson Pollock, with a window in the middle where a video plays and shows that part of the painting (where the window has been cut) as it is being created... below is the video itself.

In other words, if you see this piece hanging, you may glance at it and think: "There goes another artist channeling Jackson Pollock..." but if you stay a few seconds, the middle of the painting dissolves (it is a video) and it starts with a blank, white space, which slowly gets covered in drips of paints, until the piece is finished again!

Below is the piece drying inside my studio in between layers of paints... note the window in the center...

And here is the work, still with the cut out window in place, but now with all the Pollockian layers of paint...

And here is the video that plays in that middle window...

And below you can see several images of the finished piece with various parts of the video playing where the painting develops... some shot inside studio and one outside in bright sunhine... but behold "Channeling Jackson Pollock"

Channeling Jackson Pollock
Oil and embedded video on Gessoed Paper. 2013. 30x60 inches.