Announcing "Summer Sexy" : Bringing Hot Art to Where You Summer
When I first moved to New York, July and August were impossible months in which to go gallery hopping. Not only were many of the galleries closed for the summer, but of those that stayed open, few had AC, and so unless sauna-like conditions were your ideal art viewing experience, it made little sense. With the migration from Soho lofts to Chelsea warehouses, though, many spaces installed air conditioning and (with the art boom on and all) stayed open right through the entire season.
Even then, though, most dealers would see a precipitous drop in traffic by their best collectors, most of whom summered in much cooler climes (like Aspen or the Hamptons). It wasn't that they weren't interested in what was going on in the galleries as much as the logistics of it all were too cumbersome.
Therefore, in an experiment born out of a cocktail hour (where we sometimes do our very best thinking), Winkleman Gallery and Schroeder Romero are jointly launching a temporary online exhibition called "Summer Sexy." Over the next seven weeks, we'll continually present artwork selected by a wide range of collectors, curators, and artists who have their fingers on the pulse of what's "sizzling" in contemporary art. Because we can, and it's the season, we're building the online exhibition around the theme of Sun and Surf and Sensuality.
Because we're well aware that times are tough for many people and organizations, though, we've also asked each of the participating collectors, curators and artists to select a charity to whom proceeds from any sale of the work in the exhibition will go in their name. After the year we've all had, we certainly deserve a bit of fun in the sun, but there's no reason we can't also help others at the same time.
You can follow the online exhibition as it grows at the Summer Sexy site. This week, New York collector Michael Hoeh has selected a truly sultry photograph of hot young men playing strip poker by Adam Raphael, and New York art adviser Candace Worth presents a "bodacious babes on the beach" painting by Jeanette Mundt. Enjoy the show!
Labels: Summer Sexy
posted by Edward_ at
9:49 AM
3 Comments:
Salve, ho avuto modo di visionare alcuni suoi lavori, trovandoli
interessanti.
Il suo contatto è stato preso dalla rivista Art Diary
2009.
Le vorrei segnalare il premio OpenArt 2010 giunto alla VII
edizione.
Il premio OpenArt si svolgerà nel mese di gennaio 2010 presso
le sale del bramante a piazza del Popolo a Roma.
In allegato troverà il
bando del concorso e la scheda di adesione.
Inoltre la invito a
visitare il sito www.marguttarte.com all'interno del quale troverà
anche foto e video della scorsa edizione
Grazie
Gianluca Morabito per
OpenArt 2010
3480537611
gianlucamorabito@virgilio.it
I have to admit, the logic of Saturday closings escapes me somewhat, as it means that people who work through the week or come into the city from out of town have less opportunity to see the exhibits or for that matter buy. But I suppose if the assumption is that most folks wandering around Chelsea on a Saturday are just treating the area as a big free museum, or if the main business of a gallery is conducted during the week and the public visiting the spaces is at best secondary, then the Saturday closings make more sense. As is was, a walk around the area this past Saturday was basically a waste, only a few places being open, and some that were closed not even posting their summer hours on their websites or phone messages.
Still, the whole “best collector summering in Aspen” thing rubs me somewhat the wrong way, suggesting as it does that collecting art is solely the domain of the very rich, and those of us with more limited budgets might as well stay away. And I have to question whether in today’s economy that is the most productive attitude for a gallerist to take. In various ways some dealers are starting to realize that encouraging the more impecunious collector may be one way to survive in difficult times. For example, there is Jen Bekman’s 20x200 program and Matthew Langley‘s 246Editions, where inexpensive but high quality prints are sold for very little money. Or I’m thinking of a Chelsea exhibit this past winter where some work was listed at $15,000 or so, but there were also some fine drawings by the same artist for about $200. I stopped in at Ed’s after picking up one of these on an April Saturday and I think he was similarly impressed, both by the quality of the work and the price I paid for it.
If a gallerist incurs $20-40K of expenses putting up a show, a piece listing for $200 is like selling a stick of gum. But sticks of gum add up, and, when I bought a very nice $350 etching at Affordable Art a couple of months ago, the dealer said they had sold 25 similar pieces in one day, or close to $9K. And I assume the same kind of thinking is behind EW/S-R’s Compound Editions, where if 100 copies + 10 AP’s of a piece sell for $100 each, the venture pulls in $11K.
Walking past a couple of dozen locked galleries this past Saturday, however, I don’t know how many other dealers are thinking in terms of the less well-heeled individual who might be encouraged to build a modest collection if he could buy a piece or two that isn’t listed at 1-2 months of his annual salary. Instead, the message remains more like, "we're interested only in our 'best collectors' who are summering in the Hamptons, and anyone less affluent is just not worth our bother."
oooh great images...I can almost feel the heat with my eyes. When people talk about art having the power to transport you, this is what they're talking about.
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