I'll be taking the next two weeks off from blogging. I'm not taking a vacation (I wish!) but need more time to prepare for a busy fall season at Offramp Gallery. I'll be back on September 6.
I want to leave you with this video of Hans Silvester's photographs of the painted people of the Surma and Mursi tribes in Southern Ethiopia. The images transport me to a beautiful dream of summer which will have to suffice for a vacation for now. Enjoy!
September 11 - October 9, 2011
Opening Reception, Sunday, September 11, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk, Vicissitude of Circumstance Book Signing & Closing Reception, Sunday, October 9, 2-5pm
September 2-4: Offramp Gallery at FLAG STOP 2011: an alternative contemporary art event
October 9:
Closing Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm
Book Signing for Lisa Adams's Monograph: Vicissitude of Circumstance, 2-3pm
Artist's Talk by Lisa Adams, 3pm
Thanks to everyone who participated in the Art Fairs: Love Them or Hate Them? survey. 81% of the respondents identified themselves as artists; many wearing more than one art-related hat. Only one respondent claimed to know nothing about art.
I asked respondents to rank how they felt about different kinds of art venues on a scale of 1 to 4, 1 being "Hate them," 4 being "Love them." As you can see from the figures below, "Museums and Not-for-Profits" came in the highest, with an overall ranking of 3.53. "International Art Fairs" didn't do nearly as well, coming in second to the last in popularity with an overall ranking of 2.21. The least popular choice was "Internet Shows and Fairs" which had a ranking of 1.77
3.53 Museums & Not-for-Profits
3.31 Alternative Spaces
2.91 Commercial Galleries
2.44 Pop-up Shows and Fairs
2.26 Auctions
2.21 International Art Fairs
1.77 Internet Shows and Fairs
When I asked if a small gallery like Offramp Gallery should participate in international art fairs, 62.5% picked the common sense answer "Try one and see how it goes." Only 8.9 percent chose "Go for it," with 28.6% telling me to "Stay home."
When I asked for comments, I got some great advice, warnings, opinions and everything in between. One respondent who identified him/herself as an Art Dealer/Gallerist lamented:
"I can not afford to do the fairs. They are destroying my business, but I would participate if I had the money."
Another Art Dealer/ Gallerist was more enthusiastic: "I was the co-director of a fair and had a booth as a result. It was a fantastic, exhausting experience and I added 500 folks to my mailing list. It's not for everybody; but is it is an important model. Don't expect big sales immediately."
And then there was this from an artist:
"Since much art has become a commodity, such as cars, fur coats and jewelry, and art fair is the right place for it. It doesn't deserve any better. A fine gallery showing great works shouldn't resort to join the trash."
A respondent who identified him/herself as an Art Buyer gave the following advice:
"I think you should investigate the return on your investment before plunging in. Why go if these events are not profitable?"
That last bit of advice goes straight to the heart of my dilemma. Are there figures available for average ROI (return on investment) for Art Fairs? I haven't been able to find any. What about the non-sales advantages like exposure and building the gallery's reputation and email list? How do you measure the more intangible returns?
Thanks again for your help. You've given me a lot to chew on! I don't see any major fairs in the budget for Offramp this year, but I'll keep you posted.
You may have heard about this weekend's heist of a Rembrandt drawing valued at $250,000 from a hotel in the Los Angeles area. You can read about it here and here. Thieves, probably working in tandem, distracted the curator and simply took the drawing off the easel where it was being displayed. Easy work if you can get it. Fencing it is another matter.
According to author Ulrich Boser's 2009 bestseller The Gardner Heist, famous stolen paintings are almost impossible to sell. Instead they are used as a type of underworld cash or bond, traded for guns, drugs or jewels.
The Gardner Heist is a fascinating true-crime whodunit about the largest art heist in history is a wild ride through the underbelly of the art world -- a dangerous place described by experts as the "Lost Museum" where enough stolen artworks exist to make the "Louvre seem like a small-town art gallery in comparison."
Click here to read my review of The Gardner Heist, first published in February.
Update: According to Forbes, the stolen Rembrandt has been recovered in a church in Encino, CA after an anonymous tip. Click here to read the story.
Ode to Art Supplies
Even though I haven’t been a practicing artist for a long time, my pulse still quickens when I walk into an art supply store or get the Utrect catalog in the mail. Remember the excitement of getting that first box of 64 Crayola crayons? Or the first set of colored pencils in the box that stood up like an easel? Or sketchbooks, brushes, paint, ink, linoleum cutters, markers, vine charcoal, pastels (oh, the pastels -- so yummy!), damar varnish, turpentine, clay, palette knives, pristine white stretched canvases, and on and on and on?
I've put together a series of videos showing how some of these art supplies are made. Seeing the raw materials -- mounds of powdered pigments, vats of gooey bright yellow, cotton rag chopped and beaten to a pulp to make paper -- is as exciting to me as walking into Pearl or Blick. Enjoy!
(Ok, technically not art supplies, but too yummy not to post)
September 11 - October 9, 2011
Opening Reception, Sunday, September 11, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk, Vicissitude of Circumstance Book Signing & Closing Reception, Sunday, October 9, 2-5pm
September 2-4:
Offramp Gallery at FLAG STOP 2011: an alternative contemporary art event
October 9:
Closing Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm
Book Signing for Lisa Adams's Monograph: Vicissitude of Circumstance, 2-3pm
Artist's Talk by Lisa Adams, 3pm
November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation December 4-11:ArtZone 2011 Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm
Survey: To Fair or Not to Fair? As the director of a commercial art gallery, I was slightly disturbed by this article on The Art Newspaper's website last week: Gallery System is Structurally Weak. According to the article: "a new report by the non-profit dealers’ federation Cinoa finds that fair-led and online business is taking over as the main source of revenue. . . . Gallery visits are declining as the art market expands to new international centres served better by art fairs or electronic media."
And that's where my ideals come crashing headlong into economic reality. If there's one thing I've learned in the three years since I opened Offramp Gallery, it's that selling art is not easy. The idea of taking our show on the road to a larger audience by participating in art fairs is very tempting, even though I find attending the fairs a sterile and depressing experience. (One artist told me that the only time she ever stopped off at a bar by herself on the way home from anything was after visiting an art fair at the LA Convention Center.)
Using the same branding/marketing models for art that we use for cars, appliances and pharmaceuticals really bothers me. Isn't art supposed to operate on a higher plane and be the antithesis of, say, a gun show? Commodification of art is certainly not a new topic for debate, but I think it's as relevant now as it has ever been.
Participation in the fairs is also very expensive. I looked at the costs of booths at three of the upcoming fairs in LA. The least expensive was a 144 sq. ft. booth for $5,500, the most expensive, a 940 sq. ft. booth for $37,600. If you need more space, you are encouraged to inquire.
That's a lot of money for a small gallery like Offramp to risk in these volatile economic times. So -- I'd like to know how you feel about art fairs. Love them? Hate them? If you're a dealer or a gallerist, I'd love to hear your experiences and welcome your advice -- is it worth the risk? Should I dive in or stay away?
I've put together a short survey to get your feedback. Thank you in advance for participating. I will share the results with you soon.
I wanted to share this deliciously dark YouTube video which was filmed in Belgian painter James Ensor's (1860-1949) house in Ostend and set to the music of Siouxsie Sioux.
Chinese Mask Changing
Speaking of masks, my YouTube meanderings led me to discover this video about the 300-year-old tradition of mask changing performed in Chinese Sichuan opera.
Face Painting
On a lighter face-changing note, I found this video, the "Amazing Face Paint Art of James Kuhn." I love the pineapple guy at 0:34, the Lichtenstein lady at 1:08 and the guy eating the hot dog at 2:57.
Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery
Lisa Adams: Born This Way September 11 - October 9, 2011
Opening Reception, Sunday, September 11, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk, Vicissitude of Circumstance Book Signing & Closing Reception, Sunday, October 9, 2-5pm
On a recent sunny summer afternoon, with the demands of running an art gallery and writing a weekly blog weighing heavily on me, all I wanted to do was sit in the garden and watch the figs ripen. What I didn't want to do was read another dry, didactic book about art. Much to my delight, Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's recently released Rebels in Paradise: the Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, is the opposite of that -- entertaining, informative and fun to read. It was the perfect escape.
Drohojowska-Philp introduces all the major players of the 60's Los Angeles art scene in straight-forward prose that makes you feel you are a guest at a very interesting dinner party. Anecdotal information about who knew whom, who hung out together, where they grew up, how they came to Los Angeles, their romances, their battles, their relationships with galleries and collectors, tell as much or more about the spirit and free-wheeling creativity of this period than any academic analysis.
Central to the early development of the LA art scene is curator and museum director Walter Hopps, who along with artist Ed Kienholz founded Ferus Gallery in 1957. The suave Irving Blum replaced Kienholz when he left the gallery a year later to concentrate on making art. Hopps and Blum famously took a chance on a young Andy Warhol, giving him his first gallery showing of his Campbell's Soup can paintings.
Andy Warhol, Campbell Soup I, 1968, courtesy of Wikipedia
The night before the opening of the Warhol exhibition, actor Dennis Hopper threw a party for the Ferus crowd in his West Hollywood home, where Warhol met movie stars and actors including Robert Dean Stockwell, Sal Mineo, Suzanne Pleshette, Peter Fonda and Troy Donohue. The party prompted Warhol to say that it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him. "Vacant, vacuous Hollywood was everything I ever wanted to mold my life into. Plastic. White-on-white. I wanted to live my life at the level of the script of The Carpetbaggers."
Warhol's Ferus exhibition was followed a week later by the opening of a Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum (PAM). After the opening and a quick trip to Las Vegas, Duchamp returned to PAM to play chess on the board set up in his exhibition. Walter Hopps' nineteen-year-old girlfriend, Eve Babitz, was invited by photographer Julian Wasser to be photographed playing chess with Duchamp. Babitz stripped naked and sat down at the table with Duchamp, Wasser photographing the surreal scene using Duchamp's famous The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even as a backdrop. The event prompted Man Ray to say that "there was more Surrealism rampant in Hollywood than all the Surrealists could invent in a lifetime."
And that's just Chapter One.
As the decade progressed and Pop, Mininmal and Conceptual art movements began to define the LA scene, Barney's Beanery became the de facto clubhouse for Ferus Gallery artists Ed Kienholz, Robert Irwin, John Altoon, Ed Moses, Craig Kauffman, Ken Price and Billy Al Bengston. Kienholz reminisced: "We didn't talk the art out . . . If we sat around in the Beanery, we talked about who was a good fuck and where we were going to get six dollars so we could buy gas for a car to go to the Valley and get drunk. . . . I don't know that I've ever talked to Bob Irwin about art in my life."
We learn how a young David Hockney, never having driven a car when he first arrived in LA, got his license and bought a Ford Falcon for $1,000. "He managed to get on the Santa Monica Freeway, but, not knowing how to get off, wound up driving all the way to Las Vegas, where he won some money at a casino and then drove home the same night."
We hear the disturbing story about wealthy art collector Frederick Weisman's encounter with Frank Sinatra in the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills hotel:
"Frank Sinatra was hosting a dinner party for Dean Martin at a nearby table. Weisman complained that Sinatra's party was making too much noise and making anti-Semitic remarks. . . . Accounts differ about what happened next. Marcia, who was not there, said that her husband was hit with a blackjack by Sinatra's bodyguard. An eyewitness claimed that Sinatra threw one of the telephones kept in the Polo lounge booths at Weisman's head. Weisman was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with a fractured skull and remained in a coma for months. The LAPD wanted to make an arrest but Marcia received anonymous threatening phone calls warning her not to press charges."
Architect Frank Gehry sums up the spirit of the time saying of the Ferus artists: "I was in awe of what they were doing. . .California was about freedom because it wasn't burdened with history. The economy was booming because of the aircraft industry and movie business, and things were going up quickly. Everybody could make whatever they wanted. . . . That's what democracy is about. Democracy didn't say everybody has to have taste."
Update on Jade Bemiller Benefit at Offramp Gallery
I want to personally thank all the artists, buyers, donors and volunteers who came out to help Jade Bemiller in her fight to beat leukemia. I'm happy to announce that we raised over $9,000 for Jade.
Upcoming at Offramp Gallery
(Offramp Gallery will be closed for the month of August.)
Lisa Adams: Born This Way September 11 - October 9, 2011
Opening Reception, Sunday, September 11, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk, Vicissitude of Circumstance Book Signing & Closing Reception, Sunday, October 9, 2-5pm
