Marketing Mondays: In The Ghetto

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Stuck in a ghetto? Artists don't have to be

Ghetto is an Italian word—probably from borghetto, meaning “neighborhood” or “enclave”—to describe the area of Venice where the city’s Jews were forced to live in the 16th Century. Given that unjust beginning, ghetto has always had a negative connotation, one of confinement, where enclave has not. Beverly Hills, for instance, is an enclave but nobody calls it a ghetto.

So, a ghetto is not where you want position yourself if you want a larger place in the world.

And yet, artists create ghettos for themselves all the time. I’m not talking about the physical neighborhoods that can be very helpful for us in terms of critical mass for living, working or both (until the developers move in, jack up the rents and drive us out). No, I’m talking categories into which we willingly jump—or into which we allow ourselves to be pushed: women artists, black artists, fiber artists, paper artists, encaustic artists and the like.

I’m not  for a moment suggesting we deny our sex or race or the medium we work with. And I'm not suggesting we never participate in exhibitions or events in which a particular element of our identity is a unifying theme; indeed, the embrace of a community can be nurturing and safe. But a community can be as constrictive as it is supportive. So I'm suggesting we think about how we identify ourselves or allow ourselves to be identified. I’ve talked about the issue at greater length here and here but I think it’s worth mentioning again because artists continue to limit their options by a simple adjective.
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Ask any "fiber artist" how many exhibitions s/he has participated in outside of the fiber world. Often, it's not many. On the other hand, I don't see the any of the artists in Textility straining under the yoke of such a label. Why? Because they don't use it. They employ or reference fiber and fabric in their work--indeed, that's why Mary Birmingham and I selected them for the exhibition--but they are painters and sculptors. And make no mistake, there's a longstanding tradition of painters and sculptors using fiber, from Robert Rauschenberg and Lucio Fontana to Sam Gilliam, Fred Sandback and Louise Bourgeois. 

Textility at the Visual Art Center of New Jersey: No "fiber at" here. The medium is fiber, the result is art

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I deal with this issue regularly. When someone introduces me as an “encaustic artist,” I counter that my esthetic, which embraces lush color, rich surface and a reductive sensibility, translates into the work I do in other mediums as well. Recently, digital prints). I love the materiality of wax paint, but I'm a painter, not an "encaustic artist." I myself am not made of pigmented beeswax; that would be Madame Tussaud’s Joanne Mattera.  And to my knowledge that Joanne does not exist.

Now here's an encaustic artist: wax Picasso at Mme. Tussaud's

I'm writing this as I work on the Sixth International Encaustic Conference, which I founded and direct and now produce in cooperation with the Truro Center of the Arts at Castle Hill on Cape Cod in June. It’s a fabulous experience for artists who work in the medium—not “encaustic artists” but painters, sculptors and printmakers who have found their voice largely through a demanding but richly rewarding material. This is a professonal gathering—an enclave—where we get together once a year to hear from dealers, critics, curators and conservators, as well as artists at the top of their field, to learn, share, show our work, and have a great, tax-deductible time. This year our keynote is Edward Winkleman, owner of the Chelsea gallery that bears his name. He neither shows nor is made of wax, but I expect he will offer much for our conferees to consider.

I modeled the multi-event structure of the Encaustic Conference on that of the the annual College Art Association Conference, which took place recently in Los Angeles. We all need places to convene and confabulate, to talk shop, to hang out with those who get what we do, to show to and with one another. We just don't want to be stuck there. As with the CAA, we want to be able to go back into the larger art world, invigorated, to participate in a broader forum--no adjective, all noun.

Now, over to you:
. Have you found yourself in an art ghetto?

. What kind of art ghetto were you in?

. How have you gotten out?
. Was it / is it a problem to find opportunities "outside"?
. Have you/do you continue to enter and leave the ghetto at will?

. If you're happy there, what does it do for you?


A reminder: Anonymous comments are OK if they add to the conversation. But if you have something negative to say—to me, about the topic, to a commenter—have the courage of your convictions and identify yourself. I’m not providing a forum to cowards

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A Conceptual Connection

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Let the complainers whine about the fairs. I love them. Aside from having the world come to my doorstep, one of the pleasures for me is making momentary conceptual connections like the one I'm sharing with you here: Mona Hatoum and Susan Hefuna, both at the Armory Fair. Working in different mediums, they capture something of the space of personal architecture.

At Galleria Continua, San Giminiano, Italy: Mona Hatoun, Static II, 2008, steel chair, glass beads, fishing wire

At Pi Artworks, Istanbul: Susan Hefuna, Cityscape Tracing, 2011, ink on tracing paper

Some Armory Week Installations

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At Scope: Here's a booth that stood out even from a distance

One thing about seeing so many fairs in a short time is that after a while it become less about individual works and more about how they are set into the larger context of an installation. I'm showing a few booths and walls that jarred me out of my art-fair trance.

Above and below: Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York

Artists  on left wall include Altoon Sultan and Shawn White, top row; Meghan Brady and Matt Philips, center and center right 

Big like here! Andrea Bergart painted the mural--reminiscent of South African Ndebele murals, but with a softer palette--and dealer Steven Harvey placed geometric abstractions theatrically within the composition. I loved the way each painting informed the others, and the way the walls embraced them all.

View of back wall with two large paintings, by Margrit Lewczuk and Joe Ballweg

Above Harvey, in black jacket: Matt Phillips; past his right shoulder, Shawn White, I think

Detail below: Ken Kewley, Matt Phillips, Altoon Sultan

At Volta: Andrew Masullo at Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston

Volta is a solo-projects fair, and Zevitas chose Andrew Masullo, who's having a major moment. His work is included in the Whitney Biennial, and during fair week it was also shown with Feature Inc, the Lower East Side gallery, at The Independent. Not only do I love Masullo's brand of abstraction--idiosyncratic and throbbingly saturated--but I appreciate that he hasn't capitulated to size. These works are meant to be viewed on an intimate scale.
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View inside the booth, and an intimate view, below, of one of the works (my favorite)

At Armory Modern: Betty Parsons at Spanierman Modern, New York City

Spanierman Modern placed this installation of Betty Parsons assemblages on the outside wall of its booth. Parsons is famous as the 57th Street dealer who championed Abstract Expressionism, but she was also an accomplished sculptor.

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Also at Armory Modern: Karl Benjamin paintings and Harry Bertoia sculpture at Louis Sterne Fine Arts, West Hollywood

One of the California Cool abstractionists from the Sixties, Benjamin is still painting. Read a fabulous interview with him on Geoform, where he chats with the site's editor, Julie Karabenick. And how much do I love the Bertoia against the Benjamins? 

Below: a view of the paintings with some distance between them and the Bertoia.  (Would someody please get rid of that wastebasket?)

At ADAA: Pavel Zoubok, New York City

Zoubok's program is focused on collage and assemblage, and his booths are always curated to reflect that same esthetic. (He had another booth at Armory Modern.) A find for this gallery: Lisa Nilsson, who makes rolled-paper collages of cross sections of body parts, like the head and chest, below left, and the slice of chest on the table. "A thoracic surgeon bought it," said Zoubok of the chest slice. 

Lisa Nilsson, mulberry paper collages

At Armory: the "wood" floor at Cardi Black Box, Milan

At Armory: Arlene Shechet at Jack Shainman, New York City

This large corner of Shainman's booth holds Shechet's clay sculptures and two cast-paper wall pieces.  The works are just radiating power.

Closer view, below

At Armory: Jennifer Dalton at Winkleman Gallery

There's Jennifer Dalton, socializing with the art fair hoi polloi. She really knows how to party. Wait! That's her caftaned doppelganger. The real Dalton is shown below. And her Mega Art Fair Dos & Don'ts is shown at the bottom.

Click pic to see the image larger

Men in Pink

Visitor at Armory Modern standing in front of  Jason Martin painting (yes, it really is that color), at Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm

As I was snapping pics of men in pink at Armory Modern on Pier 92, I saw legendary fashion photographer Bill Cunningham with his camera. I can't imagine he got a better photo op than the homme rose, above. Yeah, yeah, you want to see Armory pictures, not fashion. I'll disperse them slowly over the next few weeks. I'm committed to the studio as I prepare for several upcoming shows. (One color I'm not using? You guessed it.)

More Armory Modern

Below:  Hotfooting at Volta 

Core Values

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What’s with the apples? This well-eaten Granny Smith, carefully placed on a tree railing outside of 531 W. 24th Street, would have meant nothing except for what came after. Here’s what I spotted in Chelsea on Saturday afternoon:

Above and below: Tom Friedman at Luhring Augustine

Untitled (apples), 2012, styrofoam and paint

At the Independent fair: Nicholas Party painted rocks, about 16 inches at their longest dimension; at The Modern Institute, Glasgow

At the Independent fair: Mac Adams installation, Crimes of Perception, with detail below, at gb agency, Paris

Marketing Mondays: Editorial Coverage, Part 2

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Part 1: Art Magazines

Beyond the Art Magazines

In last week’s Marketing Mondays I talked about the ways images of your art might be included in an art magazine. In this installment I’d like to broaden the scope. Let’s look at some options.
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Shelter Magazines
These are the magazines focusing on home, garden, cottage and apartment, whether urban or rustic, national or regional, high-tech or haimish. Usually it’s the decorator or architect who courts the editors, with the result that one of their projects gets featured. If your work is shown and identified, the visibility could lead to gallery or collector interest. Often, however, everything but the art gets identified. An example: The New York Magazine annual home issue last year. The cover showed a large painting over a mantel with some furniture on either side of it. The painting dominated the room and the magazine cover. The "On the cover" info on the inside page identified the architect and designer, the furnishings, and all the objects. Appallingly there was no mention of the painting or its artist.
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But  if your work is shown and identified, you never know what might result.
. A consultant in charge of securing 200 works for a new hotel might see and love your work, contact you, and buy out half your studio, or commission you for a project. (Make sure you're Google-able.)
. A dealer, seeing editorial interest in your work, may express interest in showing (or even representing) representing you.
. The magazine might be the guilty pleasure of a museum curator you've been trying to show your work to. Your name rings a bell as he's reading, the result of the postcards you've sent. You receive an email. You never know.

Editors from shelter magazines visit galleries and art fairs such as the SOFA (Sculptural Objects and Fine Art) Show looking for unique pieces to feature in the front of the book, magazine speak for the usually single-page articles leading up to the well, where the main multi-page stories are. Objects, art, artists—whatever and whomever strike an editor’s fancy could be featured.

If you’re interested in tossing your hat into this ring, find out who the editors are (look on the masthead) and put them on your postcard mailing list. If you think your work might appeal to the esthetic of a particular magazine, put a small selection of images together, much as you would for a gallery, and send them in the manner the magazine prefers to receive submissions. As with the art magazines, regional publications may offer an easier entrée.
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Women’s Magazines
While most of these glossies focus on high-priced fashion, impossibly thin models, celebrity features, and beauty tips, they may also do
front-of-the-book stories on "real women," the idea being to balance the unattainable with the reasonably achievable. Sometimes artists are among those inspirational real women. If you feel you are doing something of interest to the readers of that magazine, contact the features editor; you’ll find her/his name on the masthead. Your work could be seen by millions of readers. But know that unless the readership is interested in art—and in your work specifically—nothing may come of it.
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My work was featured in just such a magazine a few years ago (I used to work with one of the editors on a different publication.) There was a nice little interview and a half-page image of my work. Michelle Obama was on the cover that issue. While it makes a great tear sheet, I have to be honest and say that the visibility led nowhere professionally. First I got an email from a professional woman on the West Coast complimenting me on the work. She loved the painting…and…and…and…would I be willing to donate it to an auction she runs to support women in need? Madam, that painting took me three months to create. I appreciate the plight of women in need, but surely you see the irony here. I also heard from an art dealer in a town so small it was off a county road. You may have a different experience. Beyoncé may see your work in Vogue and commission you to do something enormous for her next penthouse.

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Regional Magazines
Regional or city magazines may be interested in the achievements of an artist in the area of its readership. Here, the inclusion could be immediately helpful. Sales aside, if you are looking for regional representation, or a teaching job, a feature in such a magazine provides an ideal platform for visibility and credibility--to say nothing of the kvell factor for your family. If you're already represented, a feature gives your gallery something to send to clients who have expressed interest in your work.

It helps to have an angle. Do you have an upcoming solo? Are you giving a talk somewhere? Editors like to peg the story to an event their readers can access. Both regional and national magazines have a two- or three-month lead time, so if you want to be timely, plan ahead. Contact the editor in chief (or the features editor), and make sure the editors are on your postcard mailing list.

Another consideration: Newspapers, particularly the Sunday magazine section, typically includes a home or style feature each week. This is where you see art in context. It's also where writers, who may be knowledgeable about furniture and home accessories, are attempting to write about art. If the picture is good, don't sweat the copy, which is likely to be brief. Or perhaps they would be interested in a feature about you and your work. Since such a story may be assigned to a general-assignment reporter, or maybe a cultural reporter who is more familiar with music or dance, be clear during the visit/interview about who you are and what you're doing, and send the reporter off with a small packet of supporting materials. If you're a sculptor who works with clay, for instance, identify yourself that way lest you be defined as a "clay artist" or a "potter." (Nothing wrong with those terms if they are how you identify yourself.)

Find out who the editors and writers of the weekly magazine sections are and put them on your mailing list. A Sunday magazine is a weekly publication, which means that the editor and writers have a lot of pages to fill in the course of a year.

One thing to bear in mind about publishing in general is that the masthead changes frequently, so update your mailing list every six months..

Special-interest Magazines
Magazines in this category embrace a range of topics, and art isn't one of them--gardening, mechanics, yoga, parenting, you name it. Still, most magazines include artwork in their pages. If you’re early in your career, having your work featured prominently on a page or a spread can be a nice visual boost, but it's unusual for anything to come of it. A couple of examples: My work was featured prominently in two sequential issues of a mind-body magazine. The work looked great. One month it was a two-page spread, which looked really impressive, if I say so myself. I was credited, the gallery was credited. Nothing. Happened. Whatsoever. Not an email query, not a phone call. Zip.  But I didn't have to do anything except send in images at the request of the editor (via my dealer) and the tear sheets have served me well as supporting material.
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More recently the design director of an Italian American academic publisher expressed interest in using my work for the covers of her various projects. I knew these covers wouldn't make a ripple in the art world. But I like being part of something of personal interest to me, so seeing my work on the glossy cover of a bolletino--a newsletter--and more recently on the glossy paperback cover of a digest of Italian-American literature, brought me pleasure. There was even an honorarium for the use of the work.

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My only stipulation was that the image not be altered. I learned the hard way to ask for this. Some years ago, the publisher of a feminist book company invited me to submit images of my paintings for consideration as a book cover. One was chosen. “The cover looks great,” said the publisher over the phone. (This was before PDFs and email.) When I received the book I almost passed out from the shock. The designer had cut up the image and turned it into a mosaic.
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What are your experiences in the world of magazine publishing?

If you have found this or other Marketing Mondays posts useful, please consider supporting this blog with a donation. A PayPal Donate button is located on the Sidebar at right. Thank you. (Or click here and scroll down the sidebar.)

Taking "Weave"

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During the past 10 days I posted an image almost every day day (except for Marketing Mondays) from a new series of unique digital prints, produced in collaboration with a depleting ink cartridge, my office and photography printers, and some trade secrets I've been developing. What distinguishes Weave from a concurrent series, Silk Trail, is the vertical image overlaid onto the horizontal. No thread or fabric is involved in the making of these prints, but I like the conceptual thread that connects grids, weaves and plaids. This series, which currently numbers 70 prints, is not yet available for sale.

Posted 3.10.12

Weave 69, 2012, app. 8x8 image on paper 11 x 8.5"

Posted 3.8.12

Weave 8, 2012, app. 8x8 image on paper 11 x 8.5"

Posted 3.7.12

Weave 35, 2012, app. 8x8 image on paper 11 x 8.5"

Posted 3.4.12

Weave 64, 2012, app. 8x8 image on paper 11 x 8.5"

   Posted 3.3.12

Weave 17, 2012, app. 8x8 image on paper 11 x 8.5"

Posted 3.2.12

Weave 24, 2012, app. 8x8 image on paper 11 x 8.5"

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Posted 3.1.12

Weave 7, 2012, app. 8x8 image on paper 11 x 8.5"

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Posted 2.29.12

Weave 28, 2012, app. 8x8 image on paper 11 x 8.5"

Marketing Mondays: Editorial Coverage, Part 1

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Q: How do I get my art featured in magazines?

That was the question asked by a reader of this column. The short answer is that it’s a long answer with a number of corollary questions: Which magazine? What kind of coverage? Under what circumstances? Today in Part One we consider art magazines.

Art magazines
It's a rare artist who would not like to be the subject of a feature in Art in America, Art Forum or Art News. While I don't have the inside scoop on these three magazines, I have worked as a senior or chief editor for a daily newspaper and a range of periodicals, as well as freelanced as a writer or editor for a great number of magazines and books, so I have some idea of how the business works.
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You or your work are the subject of a feature
If you’re well-known, if you’ve got a well-connected dealer, if you are on the radar of the editor in chief or senior editors, or if a feature writer who knows your work goes to bat for a story about you, you may be the subject of a feature in an art magazine. Typically there’s a hook: a current show, an upcoming retrospective, something that makes the editor decide to include a feature about you at that particular time.
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The bigger the art magazine, the harder it is for an unrepresented or unconnected artist to be considered for inclusion. In other words, it’s the print version of getting into a gallery. But there are many specialty publications with a national or even international focus for which your work might be a good fit: discipline specific (like Sculpture Magazine or Plein Air); medium specific (like Ceramics Monthly), craft or technique oriented (like American Craft or Fine Woodworking); or published by a non-profit as part of organizational membership (like Surface Design Journal). 
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There are also regional art magazines, which have better odds for inclusion, since geography is a defining factor. Indeed, in the smaller magazines, whether regional or topic specific, editors are actively looking for the best of the best to feature. Examples here might be Art Ltd., which focuses on the West Coast; Chicago Gallery News, Art New England or even more specifically, Provincetown Arts.

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As for getting the cover, any editor will tell you that it has to be the best image of all the good images relating to that month’s issue. But don’t take my word for it. About a year ago, I went to a panel discussion in which David Ebony, the managing editor of Art in America, was participating. That month’s issue featured a virtually unknown artist. Of course artists were buzzing about the choice. I asked him: “How is it that Artist A came to be on the cover?” He replied in more or less these words: “We felt is was the best image we had for the issue.” You can't argue with that.

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Covers have their own special requirements. If the issue is sold primarily on the newsstand, the cover has to stand out, with cover lines that pull the reader in (and you wonder why the women’s magazines all promise flatter abs, better hair, more orgasms and 25 tips for just about everything). If the issue is sent to a subscriber base, it already has the reader’s attention, so there’s more latitude for the image and less hype in the cover lines.

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Your work is included in a feature
Whether it’s an article about a topic such as an art trend--Provisional Painting, say--or a biennial exhibition or art fair, or artists in their studios, the writer will assemble images that underscore the story in visual terms. Indeed, sometimes the images are the basis of the story, introduced by an opening paragraph, and completed by captions and a pullquote or two. A writer needs to know about your work for you to be considered. In this regard, getting included in a round-up article is much like being curated into an invitational exhibition or invited to participate in a group show. And the same advice applies: show, show, show so that you and your work are visible and known to the people in a position to do something about it.

Feature writers don't work in a vacuum. Writers talk to dealers, curators, critics and other journalists; they visit galleries, attend openings, read the art blogs, talk to their artist friends, listen to the buzz. Desk-bound editors depend on their network of writers to bring the art world to them but they, too, get out as time and work load allow. 

Still, when you consider the number of artists who are seeking editorial coverage, then narrow that number down to artists whose work is ready to be featured, then further whittle that number to the limited amount of articles in any given magazine in a month, and then whittle that number down to the particular mix of articles an editor is considering (because every reader's taste or interest has to be satisfied with each issue) you realize just how talented, connected, timely and just plain lucky you have to make it onto the pages of an issue.
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Your exhibition is the subject of a review
There’s  a  trend in contemporary art magazines to run a review while the show is still up. Typically that means the review takes place before the actual show. “I don’t feel entirely comfortable reviewing a show in advance, but that’s the way my editor wants to work. If I want to keep writing for the magazine, that’s what I do,” confides a critic who writes for a regional art magazine.
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And if you want your work to be considered for review? Some months in advance of your exhibition, you or your gallery should send a press release and several images to the editor in chief of the magazine. Include a postcard for the show (if you have one already), and maybe a couple of tear sheets or printouts from other publications. Don't expect them to be returned. You can send a press release directly to the critics, too, but skip the supporting material. “What are you, a museum?” says my critic friend, only partially in jest.  Follow up the online press release with the hard-copy version closer to the exhibition and after that, the exhibition postcard.
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Several critics have mentioned casually that they appreciate receiving a (legible) handwritten note on the postcard announcement--a reminder of a conversation they might have had with you, a group exhibition they reviewed that you were in, something that jogs their memory of you, or a few words to let them know you're not robo-mailing but really interested in them seeing your work. Critics get paid peanuts for their reviews; they do it because they love what they do. That's why a personal connection is so important.
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Who makes the decision to review your work? Sometimes the critic pitches the idea to the editor. Sometimes the editor (there may be several at a magazine, so it would be the one directly responsible for the review section) assigns the review. For his part, the critic I quoted earlier says, "There are many reasons I might be interested in reviewing a particular show: I have been following the artist's work for a while; or a previous review didn't run for lack of space and I want to make it up to the artist; or I was seduced by the postcard and when I got to the gallery, I loved what  saw; or I might walk into a gallery, see work that blows me away, and want to write about it."
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Some critics make their rounds while the show is up. This would certainly be the case with critics who write for daily newspapers, or art bloggers whose turnaround time can be close to instantaneous. Galleries make it their business to know who the critics and writers are, so they're aware when one is in the gallery. Moreover, the galleries make a point of knowing which critics like to be left alone, which like to chat, which routinely request additional information about the artist and the art. Critics view a lot of exhibitions, so a visit ensures nothing but that you're now on one's radar (for better or worse). Even if a review is written and set for inclusion in the next issue of a publication, there are no guarantees until it's actually in print. At the last moment an editor may decide to run a different review, or make a picture larger in another review thus bumping yours, or maybe a big ad comes in, taking up the space that had been allotted for you. By the next issue, a review of your show would be too late; besides, another crop of reviews is ready to be published. Writers understand this, but such an omission can be crushing to an artist.

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The difference between advertising and editorial

You probably know this, but it’s worth mentioning just to be clear: You pay for an ad. The space that’s left over, after ads, is what’s given over to editorial. You do not pay for editorial coverge. Ads keep a magazine in the black. The editorial gives it color. Just as galleries have their programs, magazines have their editorial points of view, which create the mood and tone of each publication. Ideally the editorial and advertising have a relation to one another. But sometimes you'll see an ad so egregiously out of character with the editorial esthetic of the magazine you find yourself thinking, “What’s that doing here?” Paid advertising, that’s what.
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Some artists and galleries feel that if they take out an ad they should be entitled to a review or even a feature.  Usually  there’s a separation of church and state between the publishing side and the editorial side, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes the publisher is also the editor. Galleries that advertise regularly expect editorial coverage, and they eventually they get it; publishers don't like to lose a good advertiser, and editors don't like to lose their jobs. Things get sticky when the editor’s boyfriend is the owner of a high-profile gallery whose artists are regularly featured, when a staff writer's husband is an artist who is featured regularly, or when a dependable freelancer pitches hard for story about someone she’s dating. There’s a lot of gray.

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And then there’s the advertorial, a.k.a. the “Special Advertising Section," in which advertising and editorial combine into a unique shade of gray. A publisher makes a financial decision to focus on a particular city or region, say. Sometimes the advertorial is produced on the publishing side of the enterprise, but in small publications like most art magazines, it may be treated like a regular feature. In that case the editor assigns a staff or freelance writer to cover that city and its art scene, and the art department designs it. This is an opportunity for the publisher to repay the advertising galleries from that region by seeing they are mentioned in the article, as well as to sell ads to additional galleries or even to artists--the latter sometimes grouped in a "studio" section--all of which will then be placed in a way that appears as editorial-friendly as possible. 
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Guidelines put out by the American Society of Magazine Editors urge that special sections be clearly identified. Often a typeface different from the regular magazine font is used. Magazine people understand that advertorial coverage is a bit of a vanity undertaking (though nothing like the magazine put out by a pay-to-show gallery that features, at an additional charge, the artists it shows).

But for most people, hey, it's an article and you're in it.

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Art magazines are not the only publications to offer artists much-desired editorial visibility and credibility. I'll talk about others in Part Two next week.

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Marketing Mondays: Generosities Received

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Consider this a P.S. from last week's Marketing Mondays. In that post I talked about Giving and Taking--how much can you give professionally without feeling ripped off, and how much can you take without ripping off--but this week I'd like to focus on the positive.

What  advice or opportunity have you  received from another  art professional that has  helped you  immeasurably in your  career?   Sometimes   you   don't   realize   until   time  has  passed  just  how  much  that good turn   has  done   for   you;   other   times   you   know   immediately   that   you   have  been given  a  treasure.

I'll tell you my story. I hope to hear yours.

In the early eighties I had been contributing articles to Fiberarts Magazine. I'd developed a good working relationship with the editor, Jane Luddecke, and when she decided to leave the position to focus more deeply on her creative activities, she urged me to apply for the job. She could have recommended a working editor--she knew plenty of them in New York City where she had worked previously--but she recommended me. Though I didn't know anything about editing, I had some writing skills and a ton of ideas, and was (even then) nothing if not organized. Long story short, the publisher and owner, Rob Pulleyn, hired me, and I moved to Asheville, North Carolina, to learn to be an editor. It was on-the-job training. The magazine was a staff of one (moi) with in-house clerical help and a network of freelancers--a huge job of 12-hour days, seven days a week. Pretty much the only other thing I remember doing besides working was my laundry. But it was a gift, that job, because it allowed me to focus on a topic I love, textiles and the artists who make them, and it gave me a skill that would get me to New York. Twelve solid bimonthly issues later I moved to Manhattan--working first at Women's Wear Daily, then for Conde Nast Publications--and I was able to support myself and my art editorially until art was able to take over and do the heavy lifting. 

Luddecke's kindness in suggesting to me, a financially strapped young artist--emphasis on financially strapped and young artist--that I had a skill worth using in a larger way,made a huge difference in my career, one I continue to realize over time. And her gift to me is one of the reasons I have been able to produce Marketing Mondays each week for you.

Tell me about a generosity you have received.

A reminder: Anonymous comments are OK if they add to the conversation. But if you have something negative to say—to me, about the topic, to a commenter—have the courage of your convictions and identify yourself. I’m not providing a forum to cowards.

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Hold the Color

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Harry Roseman, Enfold at Nancy Margolis Gallery, Chelsea; ended January 14

Continuing with the black-and-white theme from last week’s story on the photographs of  Vivian Maier, I’d like to show you work from several recent and current exhibitions. The unifying element is their achromatic palette.

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We start with an installation at Nancy Margolis Gallery in Chelsea by Harry Roseman. His show, Enfold, touched on themes of particular interest to me right now: the illusion of cloth, or the use textiles to create painting and sculpture. (This is the theme of Textility, my current curatorial effort, and when I saw Roseman’s work, all I could think was, “Damn, I wish I’d known about this work for the show.”) Roseman created a theatrical site-specific wall drawing, which is what you see in the opening photo above and from a different angle below, as well as a plywood sheet carved to suggest draped fabric, and draped fabric printed to look like plywood.
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Another view of Enfold

Next, in Dialogue with Light, we have what look to be large-scale photographs by the Norwegian artist Anne-Karin Furunes at Barry Friedman Ltd., also in Chelsea. They’re not photographs. Nor are they paintings, drawings, prints or tapestries in any conventional sense, though perhaps they touch on each of these disciplines. Furunes perforates black canvas with holes of various sizes. What’s not there creates the images as much as what is. So if anything, they’re like reverse rotogravure or halftone printing, with the white wall becoming part of the image. Their darkness, and the direct gaze of her subjects are compelling in equal measure.

Anne-Karin Furunes, Dialogue with Light, at Barry Friedman Ltd., Chelsea; ended January 14

Detail below

Extreme closeup: This geometry of dots creates a small section where hair meets cheek in the full image below

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 More installation views .

Below: Portraits of Archive Pictures IV/V, 2011, acrylic-painted canvas, perforated; 78 x 63 inches and 78 x 44 inches, respectively

I'm going to continue now without narrative, just showing you a range of work I found interesting:

Matt Duffin, Bright Ideas, 2010, encaustic on panel, 22 x 20 inches; at Arden Gallery, Boston; through February 28

Connie Goldman at OK Harris, SoHo; ended January 21

The small middle gallery provided a meditative space for this is quiet show of reductive paintings, geometrically shaped with planar dimension

Arena XIV, 26 x 26 x two depths

Detail of top right, below.

Margaret Evangeline, Cry Baby,  2011, oil on canvas, 90 x 114 inches, at Kim Foster Gallery, Chelsea; ended February 4. Click here for gallery info about the show

Detail below

Tom Burr, Sentimental Suture, 2011, wool blankets and steel tacks on wood, 71.5 x 71.5 inches; in December, group show organized by Howie Chen for Mitchell-Innes and Nach; ended January 21. Click here for images from the show

Detail below

Nancy Natale, The Black One, 2011; tar paper, book parts, treated aluminum, oilstick, tacks, encaustic on panel; 36 x 36 x 1.75 inches; at the Bing Arts Center, Springfield, Mass., through April 7

Installation view below

Gerald Ferguson, Work, a career survey, at Canada, Lower East Side; ended February 19. Click here for gallery images of the show

Above: Untitled, 1969, enamel on canvas, 57 x 68 inches

Detail below

Peter Liversidge, Where We Begin, at Sean Kelly Gallery, Chelsea; through January 28

Ai Weiwei, Sunflower Seeds, at Mary Boone Gallery, Chelsea; ended February 5

Related to the exhibition at the Tate modern in 2010, Sunflower Seeds was a five-ton field of tiny porcelain sculptures, each hand painted. There was no walking on the seeds here, however; it was strictly view-from-the-perimeter. As with most of Ai's work, this installation was political in nature. Let me quote from the press release:

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"The sunflower, with its destiny to follow the sun, became a common metaphor for The People during China’s Cultural Revolution. At the same time, the seeds of the flower provided sustenance at all levels of society, and the ubiquitous discarded husks provided evidence of an individual’s existence. Ai Weiwei demonstrates that a staggering quantity of individual seeds may produce a deceptively unified field. The work is a commentary on social, political and economic issues pertinent to contemporary China: the role of the individual versus the masses, and China’s long history of labor-intensive production and export."  Click here for additional info about the show.

Detail below