Small town context, big city gallery models, & 1000 true fans

In an article by Laura van Straaten in Vulture in November 2018 titled ‘Ten Galleries Whose founders Quit the Big City To Become Cultural Trailblazers in the Heartland’, gallery owners from a range of cities in the Midwest and South talk about operating a gallery outside metropolitan art capitals, nevertheless, traveling to art fairs in major cities to sell work. We get into the purpose of art fairs, platforms for selling art, and marketing methods, including a vivid description of the art market as a shapeshifter from a horror movie and the DIY tactic of "a thousand true fans."

We wonder how the two aspects of online presence and real life interactions work together. People don’t go to galleries as much, and there has been a decline in being physically present in the same space with your peers and the public, while at the same time we have seen the rise of the art “experience” and blockbuster shows made for visitors to Instagram.

"Radical Localism” from Chris Kraus’s book Social Practices has us reflecting on making political art vs making art that is inherently political by virtue of being embedded in a small, local community. The artist as worker, much like the postman, the grocer, or the hairdresser, integrated into the life of the town. (A correction to this part of the episode: Pueblo Nuevo is a neighborhood in the town of Mexicali, not the name of the town itself.)

Thinking about context, and the meaning of artwork lead us to cat paintings - again - and the difference human connection makes to the experience of an artwork. It is often discouraged in contemporary art discourse as there is an understanding that the work has to be able to speak for itself and be self-contained, but identity politics is making a difference to this attitude, questioning that stance. The response to Dana Schutz’s painting “Open Casket” at the Whitney Biennial in 2017 is an example of this shift. There is a trap of the artist becoming the artwork and losing the freedom of art to go beyond what already exists, but there are layers of meaning and multiple levels of analysis possible within a single artwork.

Living in a small arts community there is no choice but to be supportive of each other’s work, and that persistence instead of dismissal, can open up entirely new ways of seeing art. So, how do we act as critical support for each other? There are different modes of engagement like asking questions, encouraging the things that are successful about someone’s work, and different responses that are appropriate depending on context, be it show openings or studio visits.

Links:

‘Ten Galleries Whose founders Quit the Big City To Become Cultural Trailblazers in the Heartland’

"Social Practice" by Chris Kraus

"A Thousand True Fans” by Kevin Kelly.

Dan Carlin’s "Hardcore History”

Kelli Thompson’s cat painting “Anna and Cat” 2012.

Dana Schutz’s painting “Open Casket” at the Whitney Biennial

Further reading on Dana Schutz's painting:

"Should Art That Infuriates Be Removed?" by Roberta Smith

"The Problem With the Whitney Biennial’s Emmett Till Painting Isn’t That the Artist Is White" by Lisa Larson-Walker