Category: Discussion with artists

When we visit the gallery, James Fuentes, the direcor of the gallery as its name, were discussing Recent development of the gallery and his own experience.

James mention a really interesting thing is the opinion of online gallery. He didn’t focus too much in online galleries at the beginning, because it makes gallery too commercial.However, the situation force him to create online program and the gallery decided to open the online program but it must be special and distinctive. For example, the website use a CAD drawing of like our facade and the street that the gallery located. Right now, James believes that online and physical spaces are both really important to the gallery.They are reciprocal.

Taking about how to successfully operate a gallery, james said that keeping up with the times is really significant since the art world in NYC are growing really fast. For operating a gallery, james suggest that being an art advisor or museum curator will be a good way to start, because it’s a important way to understand how people is showing there work and consider if it is relevant to our own show. You can get most information from the gallery instead of artist or digital media.

Spencer Brownstone is a contemporary art gallery located in New York. Jay Cho, the director at Spencer Brownstone, took us and visit to the gallery. He showed us Ariel Orozco’s Have a Seat and Let Me Tell You. After entering the main room, you will encounter a series of circular lights. The lights embedded in the four separate panels flash slowly in a familiar pattern.

Jay mentioned the preparations for this exhibit, which tooks two days and three nights to make everything Including independent lighting fixtures embedded in lamps and a control panel behind the paint of the house.Jay told us that it’s not just as simple as putting on the drawing board, everything needs careful planning.

Jay also mention that the gallery didn’t put all investments on digital. Unlike Other galleries more focusing on sales, Spencer Brownstone focus on  specialty and programming and having strong exhibition. However, Spencer Brownstone still have website for exhibition because the whole industry is tend to have digital resource.

Brie Ruais combines sculpture and abstract concepts to compose her work, most of the works are inspired by natural landscapes and interestingly, the weight of the sculpture are considered to matches the artist’s own weight which is 132 lbs.

This is the artwork we saw in Brie’s studio which is called Desiccated. She made this work on the floor and let the clay dry naturally as dry sand in the desert. This work is like depicting a bird’s-eye view in the desert. The segmentation and grid also refers to the pattern of the dessert.

In order to obtain references to the natural landscape, brie needs to go to the field to work. She use drone to take this beautiful picture in 500 to 1000 feet heigh. She also need to investigate the relationship between land and resources, and study how the pictures match the proportions of her works.

Most of brie’s works were completed on the ground first, and then be put on the wall. However, transporting clay from floor to the wall is not a simple process. Brie needs to drill holes in the clay when it is hard or even wet and use different styles of screws to make it almost transparent in the work.

Kenny Schachter Collector, curator, art dealer, artist, and of course his most famous identity: art critic.Kenny Schachter, who was originally a lawyer, realized that he had to do something creative before entering the art world. In the past thirty years, he has tried various roles in the contemporary art industry.

Kenny Schachter mentions that nowadays, there are more and more art fairs around the world, which indeed provides a very good way for people to choose their favorite artworks, which meets the needs of the market. In the past, people may spend three hours to see an exhibition in a city, but in the end it is not what they like. However, these art fairs show more and more similar appearances. You go to every place and find that the works on display are the same.

He also discrbe the process of auction for art and how to determine the value of an artwork. There’s many association when judge a piece of artwork. First, the process of making artwork is import.For example, Do you spend time and money to make the art for profit. Second, galleries are more important than the artists themselves. Have you already spent money on group shows in community. Has worked and seen before, has worked in collective before as you’re just selling it on their own. Auctions are one of the biggest resources for understanding artworks and the market we are about to auction and deciding the value of the artwork

Saisha Grayson is a curator, writer, art historian and teacher focused on the intersections of contemporary art, performance, film, video, feminist politics, and cultural activism. In March 2018, she became the curator of time based media at Smithsonian American Art Museum(SMMA) in Washington D.C., where she is working on exhibitions, collection-building and performance art and moving image programming.

Before Saisha Grayson became the curator of time based media, she never thought she would participate in this career. Her first job was in a non government organization which focus on Eastern European politics and trying to make a nuclear disarmament. Then she got a job doing fundraising development for a dance company and starting to learn about art curation. Then she was working for a company that did communication strategy and public relations for art museums so that she can touching and working with artisits. She focused on exhibitions supporting the main curator for Brooklyn Museum. And she finally become the curator of SMMA.

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Many people are not familiar with time based media. And Saisha Grayson explained that time-based media is the fine art with duration built into its form, such as film, vedio , slide show and so on. She metioned that time-based media is the work that need to spend time on and change over the time , something that is not physically but can be showed in space. The electronic superhighway continental US one of the most iconic works at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. it’s also a great example of the way that media art really brings us into new spaces of understanding about both who we are and what country we live in.

by zeyi huang

Holly Shen is deputy director of the San Jose Museum of art. She is a leader proficient in art and culture with multidisciplinary experience in production of shows and exhibitions, strategic thinking, audience participation and creative marketing, social impact, and digital content and storytelling. Be inspired by art, technology and new perspectives to promote fair access to artistic and creative learning opportunities.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, the city’s income has dropped significantly which directly affected the normal operation of the museum. The museum chooses to close and open digital program. However, SJMA is located in Silicon Valley and take the advantage of that. The digital catalog of the museum was opened in advance by using resource from Silicon Valley.

Comparing virtual museums and physical museums, Holly Shen thinks that no virtual product can replace people and things，but they will become an integral part of our museum. She mention that Virtual projects should be used to make people love museums more instead of losing interest in it. SJMA will open a virtual gallery tour which might be a program that exist after reopening the museum. This is for the people who can come to the museum.