The Guest List at Your Opening

A story of savvy art-biz strategy (on behalf of the exhibiting artist)

Back in the springtime, while I was being briefed by Dov and Chris on the progress with arranging and promoting our 5th Painting in New York exhibit, they shared a few stories. I heard about the results from the numerous drop-ins they made around NYC galleries and studios, having conversations with people in the art business.

One of these conversations touched on the subject of our opening reception turnout. Painting in New York were speaking with an artist who was well-seasoned with exhibiting in the New York gallery scene. Upon hearing of our plans to rent a space in Chelsea for a two-week group exhibition, the established artist asked us:

"Well, how many people do you want at the opening?"

"LOTS," we said, picturing a whole herd of visitors trailing in through the doors.

The inquisitive artist grinned and fell silent. For a moment, Chris and Dov thought about the question again.

"How many people would you want at your opening, then?"

"Eight", said the artist.

I was laughing when I heard this, and instantly imagined what it was the artist was thinking when he said "8".

An art exhibit could have twice the impact - at least - on his/her own professional prestige with an audience of 8 rather than with an audience of 800. It could be, this artist learned how to raise the distinction of his work by cutting his exhibition guest list right down to a core group of influential critics and collectors. (So is it just careering?)

As a result of our direction and promotion, the number of attendees for our opening reception in May fell somewhere in the middle of the above-mentioned. Nevertheless, collectors and a handful of critics (The New Criterion, artcritical.com) were among them.

Peter Bonner & his work, "At Service..."

Visit to Peter Bonner's studio - Brooklyn, N.Y.

The last time I had been to Peter's ("PB", for short) studio was New Year's Day, 2008. Last week I stopped by again for what must have been my third visit (and the first since PB got a fine arts Masters degree through the University of Melbourne, which is very near to where he's from).

For this post I wanted to show some pictures of his recent, plentiful work. The above oil on canvas is a portrait of one of his friends that he said took him a few years to resolve. It's stunning. He mentioned to me at least once, as I strolled about and took photographs, that for the past two years his process of creating and finishing paintings has found its connection to their raison d'etre. In the case of PB, their reason for being is usually the resolution of actual experiences via memory, many of them from the desert in Australia. I heard him say this about the new stage of his work: "at service to something" (that sounds a bit like a golden award for painters). What each piece is specifying (in terms of the experiences that PB is getting at) may not be instantly evident upon first view. They take some good looking. I hope we get to see them in person sometime soon.

PB creates enough space in his life to lead a sizable amount of inter-disciplinary activities, let alone managing to be a full-time painter. He has a choir to sing in. He meditates. He's a new daddy.

By the way, it's possible for people like you and I to be written about on Wikipedia.
See the wiki page on Peter.

'Painting in New York'

It started somewhere around 2005. I remember hearing the conversation around then, about the idea of an exhibiting group of painters. I was talking to Tyler from from my apartment in Washington DC. He said that the first showing had taken place a year before. Subsequently the name was christened. I was invited to join along with a few others. Three exhibits, tagged Painting in New York, followed. An article in the New York Times, the gutting of an old catering kitchen space, along with visitor counts into the hundreds - these were among the things it yielded in the same Tribeca section of Manhattan. The work of more or less the same seven painters has been the nucleus of it.

The collective features the following artists: Chris Protas, Jason Williamson, Jason Eisner, Tyler Loftis, Mariangela Fremura, Dov Talpaz, Joren Lindholm. Just about all of us met when we were enrolled at The New York Studio School, some ice-age ago. Our intention is to be ourselves, and be seen.



There have been four shows in NYC between 2004 and 2007. The fifth exhibition is intended to feature twice the amount of works from each artist, and be backed by a friendly patron. Conversations are underway to have it organized for winter/spring 2011.

More images by Painting in New York can be seen at their website #1 and website #2.

Here are some photos of the group from the summer, 2010, when Chris Protas and Tyler Loftis joined Dov Talpaz in Italy for Mariangela Fremura's wedding.

Chris Protas and Mariangela Fremura

Dov Talpaz, Tyler Loftis and guest

Chris Protas and Tyler Loftis

Chris Protas and Dov Talpaz

Contact:
Facebook: 'Painting Innewyork'
paintinginnewyork@walla.com; paintinginnewyork@gmail.com

Nicolas Caroni dies

(Post fed as reference to wikipedia.org page on Nicolas Carone)

Lohin Geduld Gallery in Chelsea made the following statement today:

"Nicolas Carone, 1917 - 2010. It is with sadness that we tell you of the death of Nicolas Carone. Nick died at his home in Hudson, NY on July 15. Nick touched many lives as an inspiring teacher and brilliant artist."

According to wikipedia, Nicolas Carone was "an Italian-American painter and sculptor, born June 4, 1917 in New York City and raised in Hoboken, New Jersey. Carone belonged to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionist artists, whose artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized across the Atlantic, including Paris."

I find there to be a humorous stroke of irony in the way Nick Carone and his work gets tied to the subject of Abstract Expressionism. As far as I can see, there's seldom any mention that Carone's pictures were most often figurative throughout the span of his life. An example is this work done when he was eighty-six.

Untitled, 2003, mixed media on paper, 10 3/4 x 11 inches (private collection)

New York Exhibition entry selected by Sean Scully

This is a thumbnail of the piece that was a selected entry to the New York Studio School Alumni Show, 2009. The juror for that show was Sean Scully. I drove up to attend the mid-May opening reception. The attendance that night packed the whole house; it was fun. This piece, acrylic on paper from 2007, was acquired by Mike Zimberg of New York, New York.