Whenever I determine not to read (or write) another top ten list, Glasstire: Texas Visual Art Online publishes one more great one. Beneath the absurdity of Beth Secor’s 10 tips for navigating the Ins and Outs of Openings is bedrock good sense.
Take Secor’s #6, Location, Location, Location. Last night at Heide Hinrichs and Debra Baxter’s opening at Howard House (more later), I found myself talking to a woman who wants to open a gallery in Post Alley (Pike Place Market.)
“Nobody will come,” I told her. “There’s no place to park and nothing that amounts to any kind of art density already in place.” Yes, in a better world, we’d all hoof it far and wide. Neither rain nor sleet nor hail nor snow and so forth. In this world, to misquote Bob Dylan, the dealer will die out there and be another accident statistic.
Or, as Secor put it:
6. Location, Location, Location.
Think twice about the gallery you have chosen. Is it off the beaten path, perhaps in a sewage pipe or demolished building? Is it easily accessible? (For example, does it have a door, or do you have to crawl through a window?) Is it surrounded by barbed wire? Once a patron enters, is he ever heard from again? Is the gallery owner reputable or does he have a name like Louie the Lip?
The dealer doesn’t have to stress his lip to be unreliable. Call it the kick the dog theory. A guy has a bad day at the office, comes homes and yells at his partner. His partner yells at the kid who kick the dog who defecates in the shoe of the guy who had a bad day at the office.
In a bad economy, dealers struggling to stay afloat too frequently fail to pay artists in a timely fashion if at all, thinking as dealers they need the money to make frayed ends meet. (Isn’t this the reasoning of bank robbers?)
It’s the untold story. I keep hearing it, always with a don’t-tell caveat. If desperate, artists might yell at the kid, but they protect the dealer till there’s absolutely no reason to do so. That’s why it’s important to have a dealer who doesn’t think of artists’ money as back-up stash.
Secor’s # 7 is titled, What Should I Serve? Is this a regional difference? With the exception of Garde Rail, one of whose owners is Southern, and Francine Seders, who’s French, Seattle galleries serve nothing. If you need water, somebody might spit down your throat.
In Texas, however, refreshments are expected.
It’s really important to serve some sort of refreshment at your
opening, as it creates ambience and draws people to the show in ways
that your art never will. Seriously. Typically, galleries and museums
serve wine and beer, and on occasion hard liquor and finger foods.
I love her examples of refreshments gone awry. Here’s one:
In 2000, an employee at the American Visionary Art Museum was sent to purchase food for an art opening and was told to, “buy on the cheap.” She returned with the following items: A slab of butter, hamburger buns and Craisins. Guests mistook the Craisins for salsa gone bad, and kept going outside thinking they might find hamburgers cooking on a grill, but to no avail.
Whatcho mean, Nothing?
We, at Punch, always serve food and drink, and not just wine in a box, either.
At recent Punch openings, in Seattle, we have served Wasabi Peas, Home baked goods, Jello Salad, fresh fruit, Mens Pocky, cheese and crackers, peanuts in the shell, chips, dips, cashews, deviled eggs, and lots more.
Plus cases and cases of Busch beer, various other brands of beer, juice, sodas, bubbly water, whiskey, and once even some champagne.
At other Seattle galleries, I have eaten too- at Larrimore Projects, I have had some dainty dessert products, some quiche, and gourmet cookies. And upstairs, at Ohge, I have had a whole smorgasbord of Uwajimaya delicacies. I have had great homemade brownies at Soil. In fact, Soil always has a spread, usually quite good.
Now maybe it wasnt open to the public, but I have snuck in to Western Bridge and eaten sushi, too.
My favorite art opening food, however, is a tie, between Therman Statom making hot dogs on the sidewalk, and Toi Sennhauser making edible underpants, male or female, your choice, freshlly fried with honey, berries, or chocolate sauce.
If you arent eating at Seattle openings, you are either late, or not hungry enough.
I was hoping somebody would defend him/her self. Ok, Punch, but the other galleries you so casually cite? Maybe for special parties. Invite parties. When the front door is wide open, Seattle’s skimpy on the give-aways.
OK, so my art only gets shown in out-of-the-loop venues with the closest thing to legitimacy was my show with Lynn Schirmer at the Corridor Gallery. But let me say that my New York/from the projects cultural upbringing would not allow me to give a party without treating the guests with appreciation. I’ve always provided wine and snacks and Ries can attest to the bottle of scotch we shared. My only regret is that we didn’t have an appropriate moment to knock off the whole bottle.
As to dishonest dealers, I do have a tale. Back in 1976 or so, I participated in a rotary show in the affluent suburb of Tenefly NJ. The auction was orchestrated by a gallery which operated out of Philladelphia Pa. I did a painting of horn players which fetched the highest price of all the work at this show. Needless to say, the gallerist crook failed to pay me my share and after repeated phone calls I took a trip to Philly and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He cut me a check immediately and I returned to New York replete with my money and an art education that they probably don’t tell you about in school.
OMG . . . thank you for this . . . all of you. I am ‘producing’ my own art show, and I do use the term ‘producing’ loosely – in my back yard no less and was looking for ideas on what sort of refreshments to serve. I’m currently leaning towards uncrustables (for the more sophisticated, this is a product from a box, that is pb&j sandwiches, without crust on the bread. they come frozen and when placed in a lunch box, by mid day they are ready to eat). In any event, this site made me laugh and cry all at the same time. I don’t have a degree in art of any kind, and I am an artist trying to make her way and sell some work and I do truly appreciate what I have read today.