I made a foray into Chelsea yesterday and saw several very good exhibits,
a few mediocre ones
and a gallery I found truly puzzling:
the Amsterdam Whitney gallery.
This place has to be seen to be believed.
I was lured in there by a postcard featuring some Hilda af Klimt-esque abstractions using colored foil and plastic inserts.
On the back of the post card was an elaborate coat of arms, which should have set off alarm bells, but in the interest of hunting out intriguing images, I proceeded intrepidly on.
Nothing could have prepared me for what I found:
A dizzying array of elaborate and not-very-nice carved Asian furniture(imports from Hong Kong?) clustered with large Nutcracker dolls filling the table spaces, and large, varied and garish paintings coating the walls. These were, I guess, different "shows" up at the same time- there were artists statements and brochures littered next to the nutcrackers.There must have been a dozen or so artist's work here.
Many of the paintings featured 3-d elements and had elaborate frames. There was an oil portrait of the founder, replete with coat of arms, surrounded by carved objects nailed to the walls, and a series of giant carved wood hearts on stands occupying the scantly remaining floor space.
I was gobsmacked.
Is this a joke?
How do they pay the rent?
Above is a photo of one of the founders of the gallery,"Ambassador Dr. Alton Louis Amsterdam 111" with one of the exhibiting artist from a past show. The gallery is huge with several alcoves, but this gives you some idea of the level of clutter and general weirdness...Here is what they say about themselves:
"AMSTERDAM WHITNEY International Fine Art, Inc. was established as a premier vanguard gallery in direct response to the discerning taste and trends of the sophisticated worldwide collector, searching to discover foremost cutting edge contemporary artists who will be the trailblazer Contemporary Masters into the twenty first century, showcasing them in a museum forum environment. "
A"Museum Forum Environment"?
HUH?
I admit I liked it, in the sense that it was such a nose-thumb at most Chelsea gallery taste, except that they actually seemed so durned EARNEST...
Maybe someone else out there(here) has the answer to this one?
Maybe someone else out there(here) has the answer to this one?
If so, do tell!
For the morbidly curious here is their website : http://www.amsterdamwhitneygallery.com/index.html
from there we sashay over to
the sublime:
The show ended February 14th, but Jus Juchtman's show of minimal color-Field paintings at
Margaret Thatcher Projects was breathtaking!
They photograph poorly, but featured glossy poured and scraped glaze coatings you could fall into!
Yum.
Next:
Above is the painting Microscape 2 by Katsumi Hayakawa , now showing at
Garson Fine Art (511 w 25th st).
These paintings are evocative of views of cities from above and of circuit boards, without being illustrational. They have a thick matte crust of paint that the artist has cut into to reveal a glittering under layer of what appear to be tarnished rhinestones. This means that the works glitter and wink as one moves around them, like lights.
I liked that they are intricate and yet abstract. The materials reference other things while steadfastly remaining obviously recognizable as what they are. This gave the paintings a life of their own.
.jpg)
The Liars and The Moonstruck is an exhibit of Douglas Florian's inspired, witty, and seemingly sentient blobby collage monsters. An example, above though the ones in this show appear to have been painted on paper bags, and have creases and serrated edges. Florian is well-known as a children's book illustrator, but frankly, I prefer these.Showing at BravinLee Projects, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 211, until March 8, 2008
For more information visit: http://bravinlee.com/, or see: http://www.douglasflorian.com/, which is a lovely and very well organized website. His artist's statement is wonderful, which is a rarity unto itself!
Oddly, or perhaps not- gallery directors must know what each other are doing-
Acclaimed children's book illustrator Peter Sis is also showing in Chelsea, at Mary Ryan Gallery,527 w 26th st. Unlike Florian's show, this one really is of works made for kids books. They are intricate and in places, impossibly detailed. I had to remind myself that I was looking at the real thing, and not a reduced printed image. They are really exquisitely wrought, and far more beautiful in real life than they are in print. This is saying something as the books are very high quality, and produced with great love and care. Above is a drawing for his book "Madelenka".
I've decided not to write about the mediocre shows I saw- it's too depressing.
The Amsterdam-Whitney was splendid in it's own way, as were the exhibits listed above.
Each a self-contained whole world unto itself.
Why spoil this with mediocrity?
Posts
6 comments:
This is heart breaking to read, I must say. I know an artist who paid to get into this gallery and, because she's from out of state, doesn't know that this is a pay to show vanity gallery.
You described it perfectly. It looks like a mess, a kind of limbo world for struggling artists who were separated from their hard earned money by the kindly grifters. Each artist pays about $2500 dollars, plus shipping their work and travel expenses, to get in. If you multiply this by the number of artists you saw there, well...! I think they show for a short period of time, but I can't remember if it's a week or two.
Maybe others will find your post and comment about their experiences with the gallery. How sad.
This is heart breaking to read, I must say. I know an artist who paid to get into this gallery and, because she's from out of state, doesn't know that this is a pay to show vanity gallery.
You described it perfectly. It looks like a mess, a kind of limbo world for struggling artists who were separated from their hard earned money by the kindly grifters. Each artist pays about $2500 dollars, plus shipping their work and travel expenses, to get in. If you multiply this by the number of artists you saw there, well...! I think they show for a short period of time, but I can't remember if it's a week or two.
Maybe others will find your post and comment about their experiences with the gallery. How sad.
There are a lot of sub-par ways to exhibit in New York- paying a gallery like that to exhibit your work is one of them. No one will take you seriously, and you tarnish your own reputation as a professional.
IMHO, It is MUCH better to show at local, good venues, non-profit or commercial, where you have a rapport with the dealers and curators, and can control how your work is shown and displayed. A solid record of showing in small, good places is much more likely to impress a good gallery to pick up your work. I think many artists think that the exhibition venue will do everything for them, but in fact being involved with writing the press release, hanging the show, making labels, sending out mailings all add up to the success of an exhibition.
Anyone who is asking for the artist to pay a fee like that, and then expecting them to foot the shipping bill etc. is clearly not working in anyone's best interest but their own.
They are indeed "grifters". I hope your friend is happily showing in more modest but honest places that actually care about her work.
Yes, The Amsterdam Whitney "Gallery" is a Pay to Display venue that pretty much scams the unwitting artist into payin $2500 for a one year "Representation" wherein they will display the work on a 10x10 foot wall space for 3 and a half weeks time. No guarantee is made to show the work or promote it beyond the one "exhibition". I was there and counted at least twelve different artists which means they gross $30,000 per show. Do this once a month and you're talking $360,000 per year less rent for the space, printing of cards, some cheap bubbly, soda, grapes, supermarket cheese and cookies (yes that was the refreshment offered). These two scam artists have no incentive to sell the work as they have already been paid by the poor artist soul who could actually use the money. One also must question if this Alton Louis Amsterdam III character is really an ambassador and if so, of what? to what? And where did he finish his Doctorate?Then there is this "His Excellence" title that is bandied about. The whole thing is very bizarre and suspect to me, and I am from Europe where we actually have people that can be called His Excellence. I am just sorry my friend didn't ask me to check this so called gallery out before she sent them her money.
Well, they are still soliciting artists. I received an email from them today. It was so bizarre that I didn't take it seriously. Beware!
My friend got her confirmation today.. It smelled of scam, so I copied the first paragraph up to the name of the painting and pasted it in google.. Lots of other artist seem to have received exactly the same mail with exactly the same description of their artwork... Glad I persuaded my friend not to pay for it.
Post a Comment