March 30, 2007
Lisa Melandri, Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs, Santa Monica Museum of Art, and Dr. Josh Kun, Associate Professor, Annenberg School of Communications, University of Southern California, 3-30-07
Lisa Melandri is the Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Ms. Melandri organizes exhibitions and manages oversight of the museum’s infrastructure and exhibition/education program. She was curator for Enigma Variations: Philip Guston and Giorgio de Chirico, and the upcoming Art After White People: Time, Trees, and Celluloid. Ms. Melandri also curates the Project Series at the museum and serves as an independent curator for projects such as Painted Faces.
Dr. Josh Kun is Associate Professor in the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California. Professor Kun directs The Popular Music Project at The Norman Lear Center at USC. A former Arts Writers Fellow with The Sundance Institute, Professor Kun is the author of Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America, which won a 2006 American Book Award. As a critic and journalist, Professor Kun is a regular contributor to The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. He is currently at work on a new book project: The World Begins Here: California Myths, American Dreams, and the Making of Tijuana.
Posted by David Lemberg at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2007
Elisabeth Sussman, Curator and Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography. Whitney Museum of American Art, 3-9-07
Elisabeth Sussman is Curator and Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art where Gordon Matta-Clark: “You Are the Measure” opened in February 2007, and where she will be co-curating an upcoming exhibition on the work of William Eggleston. She has organized a number of other Whitney exhibitions including Mike Kelley: Catholic Tastes (1991); Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror (1996), with David Armstrong; Keith Haring (1997); and the Museum’s 1993 Biennial Exhibition.
Ms. Sussman has recently co-curated two exhibitions on the work of Eva Hesse: one of her drawings with The Drawing Center and another of her sculpture with the Jewish Museum, both in New York. For the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Ms. Sussman co-organized, with Renate Petzinger of the Museum Wiesbaden, a full retrospective on the work of Eva Hesse. The exhibition received the International Art Critics Association First Prize for the best monographic exhibition outside of New York in 2001 and 2002.
For SFMOMA, Elisabeth Sussman also organized, with Sandra Phillips, a retrospective of the work of Diane Arbus. The catalogue for the Arbus exhibition has received the 2004 Infinity Award for Publication of the International Center of Photography.
Elisabeth Sussman was a Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation at the Rockefeller Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, in 1999. She was a fellow at the Getty Research Institute in 2003. She is the author of many publications, including Lisette Model (Phaidon, 2001) and will be contributing essays on Robert Gober for the Schaulager and Lee Bontecou for another upcoming exhibition catalogue.
The first full-scale retrospective in twenty years of the work of Gordon Matta-Clark opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art on February 22, 2007. Gordon Matta-Clark: “You Are the Measure” – which travels subsequently to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles – includes Matta-Clark’s major works and presents numerous projects.
During the brief but highly productive decade that he worked as an artist – and even more so since his early death – Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) has exerted a powerful influence on artists and architects and has emerged as a key figure of the generation that came after Minimalism. This retrospective celebrates the brilliance and radical nature of his work in a number of different mediums: the sculptural objects (most notably from building cuts), drawings, films, photographs, notebooks and documentary material.
"Matta-Clark's engagement as an artist was integral with his ideas of community,” notes curator Elisabeth Sussman. “As a founder and participant in the earliest performance spaces and an originator of the now-famed artist’s restaurant, Food, he was a pioneer in the transformation of lower New York into the artist's neighborhood SoHo. His extraordinary career also developed in an international context. His major cuts in buildings in Europe in Genoa, Antwerp, and Paris were truly memorable as events and as unforgettable spatial experiences, as were his comparable projects in New York and its environs: on the Hudson piers, in tenements, beneath the city’s bridges, streets, and in suburban New Jersey.”
Posted by David Lemberg at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
February 16, 2007
Art Greco, Producer, and Ned Davies, Co-Producer, RED DOT, 2-16-07
RED DOT is a new, vetted, hotel-based art fair in New York where approximately 49 galleries will show and sell works to the public on three adjacent floors of the elegant Park South Hotel, located at 122 East 28th Street, NY. RED DOT will run from Friday, February 23 through Monday, February 26, 2007, with a Gala Opening Reception to be held on Friday, February 23 from 6 to 8PM. The reception will benefit New York’s Friends In Deed, The Crisis Center for Life-Threatening Illness.
Galleries participating in RED DOT come from across the U.S. and abroad, with an important representation of young West Coast dealers, including DEN Contemporary, Patricia Faure, and Taylor de Cordoba from Los Angeles, and Andrea Schwartz, Bucheon, and Toomey-Tourell from San Francisco. Prestigious established galleries, such as Nancy Hoffman, Elizabeth Harris and Littlejohn Contemporary are also participating. RED DOT is also pleased to have galleries from Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, London and Paris showing a wide variety of new works by their artists.
RED DOT’s aim is to increase awareness and exposure of the work of unknown or lesser known artists who do not necessarily have access to the mainstream art gallery world represented at established NYC art fairs. In keeping costs as low as possible, RED DOT is a return to the roots of most U.S. art fairs, to a time when young, forward-looking galleries had to rely on innovation, surprise and whimsy to show and sell exciting new works instead of showing only safe bets in order to meet expenses. RED DOT works because it allows dealers to take real risks and show work they really believe in.
RED DOT is scheduled to take full advantage of art fairs occurring simultaneously throughout New York, including The Art Show, The Armory Show and Pulse at the nearby 26th Street Armory. RED DOT is encouraging New York and out-of-town visitors to these established fairs to include RED DOT in their art itineraries.
In addition to the selection of galleries, RED DOT is organizing a series of talks and seminars to take place during the fair, including “Contemporary Art: Currency or Culture?”, a panel discussion to be hosted by critic Maureen Mullarkey. Panelists include Laurie Fendrich, Lance Esplund, Lori Bookstein and Michael Walls.
Posted by David Lemberg at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)
February 09, 2007
Hope McMath, Director of Education at The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, Jacksonville, FL, 2-9-07
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is presenting Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art from The British Museum, on view until March 18, 2007. The Cummer is one of only five stops in the United States for this exhibition, which is organized by the American Federation of Arts and The British Museum. Temples and Tombs is made possible, in part, by the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation Fund for Collection-Based Exhibitions at the American Federation of Arts.
The exhibition comprises nearly 85 pieces from shortly before the Third Dynasty, about 2686 B.C., to the Roman occupation of the fourth century A.D. The collection explores four aspects of ancient Egypt: the king and the temple, which represents the divine in everyday Egyptian life; objects preserved from the lives of artists and nobles; statuary from temples and tombs; and finally the tomb and the significance of death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt. This stunning collection showcases a variety of items, including sculpture, relief, papyri, ostraca, jewelry, and an assortment of funerary items.
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, located on the St. Johns River in the Riverside Avondale historic district in Jacksonville, FL, is the second largest art museum in Florida and is noted for its collection of more than 6000 masterworks of American and European paintings, beautiful historic gardens in the European style and an outstanding collection of Meissen porcelain. Art Connections is the museum’s nationally renowned interactive learning center where visitors experience art through all senses.
Hope McMath is Director of Education at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens and has 11 years of experience in museum education. During her time at the Cummer, she has designed and implemented programs that bring arts opportunities to over 50,000 students and adults annually. She is the Site Director for the local VSA Arts affiliate. In this role she has been responsible for creating a nationally recognized art festival for over 2000 students with profound disabilities and Women of Vision, a program bringing art making and literacy to a group of women who are blind and visually impaired.
Hope has written successful grants to support programs in arts infusion, school partnerships, youth and family initiatives, arts in healthcare, and disability projects. Due to her efforts, the Cummer was awarded the first Disability Access award from the city of Jacksonville, and has been recognized by the Council for Exceptional Children. She was named Museum Educator of the Year for the state of Florida in 2003 by the Florida Art Education Association and the Art Educator of the Year by the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville in 2005. In addition, she was recognized with the National Community Service Award by VSA Arts in 2005.
Most recently Hope received the national Art Education for the Blind Community Service award for her efforts in making art accessible to children and adults who are blind and by Arts for a Complete Education as the Doris Leeper art educator of the year. She is also a working artist whose relief prints, etchings, and monotypes are exhibited and collected throughout the Southeast.
Posted by David Lemberg at 08:37 AM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2007
Kim Martindale, Producer, Los Angeles Art Show, 1-19-07
The acclaimed Los Angeles Art Show, considered one of the most prestigious annual expositions in the United States, is returning for its 12th year, January 24-28, 2007. Presented by FADA (Fine Art Dealers Association), the Los Angeles Art Show is a rare opportunity for both seasoned collectors and the general public to view and purchase works representing “Five Centuries of Fine Art”. More than 80 top domestic and international galleries will display a range of work from Old Masters and Impressionists, to traditional art with a regional flavor (such as Western art, Taos and Hudson River Valley Schools, and California Impressionists), to Abstract Expressionists and contemporary art. Vetting is made possible by sponsorship from FADA.
The LA Art Show began in Pasadena with 16 participating galleries. Fourteen years and 12 shows later the event now holds more than 80 international galleries.
For almost three decades Kim Martindale has been producing some of the country’s most noted historic art shows. In the last ten years, he’s also been involved with contemporary art shows.
Producer of the Marin Indian Art Show which now celebrates 22 years of success, and the Los Angeles Art Show for 11 years on behalf of the Fine Art Dealers Association and in conjunction with Architectural Digest Magazine, Martindale’s credits also include the Native American Art Show, held in association with the Denver Art Museum, the Scottsdale Antiques and Fine Art Show, and ARTscottsdale both in association with the Phoenix Art Museum and Art and Antiques Magazine. He also produces the Santa Monica Indian Art Show, which is sponsored by SouthwestArt Magazine.
Always ready to expand the horizons of American art, Martindale is currently at work on the upcoming Latin American Art Show, 2007, in Los Angeles, which will be held in conjunction with the Museum of Latin American Art.
Posted by David Lemberg at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2007
George Billis, Founder and Owner, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA, 1-12-07
When George Billis first opened his gallery in March of 1997, he was one of a small sprinkling of galleries on what was then a culturally desolate stretch of West 26th Street. Displaying both determination and financial insight, he seized the opportunity to rent an inexpensive space in Chelsea, a neighborhood whose impending popularity he rightfully predicted. After studying at New York University and working at several Soho galleries, Billis felt confident in his ability to curate and direct his own gallery.
Billis knew exactly whose work he wanted to show in his space. He befriended many artists whose work he admired, but who lacked representation. Billis saw the gallery as a way to expose the public to the artists whose work he respected and help jump-start their careers, all while making a name for himself as a reputable dealer. As only the twelfth gallery to open in Chelsea, a neighborhood that currently is host to over 300 galleries, Billis was successful in establishing himself while the Chelsea art scene continued to grow as he predicted. His gallery grew along with the neighborhood, and in 2002, Billis moved to the current location, a larger ground floor space on West 25th St.
Billis’s success as a dealer allowed him to experiment with showing different styles of art. He prefers not to limit himself to one genre, sometimes mixing hyper-realism and abstract works in adjacent shows. When reviewing new work, he prefers to choose artists based on quality, not subject. On any given day, his permanent collection may contain a large abstract work by Michael Rich, with Pollock-like drips of berry hued paint, next to an oil painting of light reflecting off of a glass door, rendered in photographic precision, by Detroit-based artist Stephen Magsig.
George Billis Gallery is an exhibition space located in the heart of the art district of Chelsea. After curating various exhibitions featuring artist Ross Bleckner, Alexis Rockman, Katherine Bowling and Oliver Herring; and publishing feature articles on artists Cindy Sherman, Richard Phillips and Taro Chiezo, George Billis opened his own commercial gallery on April 1, 1997. The gallery features works by emerging artists. On September 10, 2004, a Los Angeles branch was opened in the Culver City arts district.
Posted by David Lemberg at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2006
Wesley Jessup, Executive Director, Pasadena Museum of California Art, 11-17-06
The Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA) is dedicated to the exhibition of California art, architecture, and design from 1850 to the present. Informed by the state's rich mixture of cultures and inspired by its impressive geography, California art has long been defined by a spirit of freedom and experimentation. PMCA exhibitions and educational programs explore the cultural dynamics and influences unique to California that have shaped and defined art in all media.
Wesley Jessup was appointed Executive Director of the Pasadena Museum of California Art in December 2000. During his time at this new start-up museum, Mr. Jessup has organized several exhibitions including Richard Diebenkorn: The Carey Stanton Collection, Maynard Dixon (summer 2007), Liquid Los Angeles: Currents in Contemporary Watercolor, Wondertoonel: Paintings by Mark Ryden, and the California Design Biennial in 2003 and 2005.
Mr. Jessup previously served as the Manager of Budgeting and Planning for International Programs at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City from (1994–1998), where he helped organize and travel Robert Rauschenberg: a Retrospective, The Art of the Motorcycle, and Picasso and the War Years: 1937 – 1945. He left the Guggenheim in 1998 when he was recruited by the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas to be Assistant Director. Mr. Jessup received his B.A. from California State University in Fullerton and holds a Masters Degree in Art History and Museum Studies from the City University of New York. He and his wife Cynthia live with their children in South Pasadena.
Posted by David Lemberg at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)
November 02, 2006
Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Director/Chief Curator, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation and the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, 11-3-06
Cecilia Fajardo-Hill is a British-Venezuelan art historian and curator of contemporary art. She has been Director/Chief Curator of Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation and the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection since January 2005. Ms. Fajardo-Hill was General Director of the Sala Mendoza, an alternative space for contemporary art in Caracas, Venezuela, from 1997 to 2001. She has curated and organized numerous exhibitions of the work of emerging artists in Venezuela, including Alexander Apóstol, José Antonio Hernández-Diez, and Javier Téllez; as well as solo shows of internationally recognized artists such as Laura Anderson, Candice Breitz, Susan Hiller, Mona Hatoum, and Steve McQueen.
Ms. Fajardo-Hill has written about the work of Hatoum, Anderson, Jimmie Durham, José Bedia, Miguel Angel Ríos, and Carlos Capelán, and on contemporary art and artists from Latin America.
CIFO, the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, is a non-profit organization, established in 2002 by Ella Fontanals-Cisneros and her family to foster cultural and educational exchange within the visual arts.
CIFO has three primary initiatives —
Posted by David Lemberg at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)
Asuka Hisa, Education Director, Santa Monica Museum of Art, 11-3-06
Asuka Hisa is Education Director at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA), where she develops and organizes education programs for the museum’s audience. In addition to organizing programs for SMMoA’s exhibitions, she is the creator of such groundbreaking programs as Wall Works, where acclaimed mid-career artists create large-scale public art projects with K-12 students; and Emerging Artists Family Workshops where one learns and makes projects with L.A.’s fascinating up-and-coming artists.
Ms. Hisa’s programs have featured such artists as Alison Saar, Kim Abeles, Salomón Huerta, Gajin Fujita, Francesca Gabbiani, and Michael C. McMillen. She is a board member of the Museum Educators of Southern California, member of ART TABLE, and sits on the City of Santa Monica Arts Education Commission. In 2003, Ms. Hisa was awarded the distinction of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by France’s Ministry of Culture.
Founded in 1984, the Santa Monica Museum of Art creates dynamic exhibitions of contemporary art in all mediums and across disciplines, complemented by outstanding educational programs for people of all ages. The only non-collecting museum in Southern California, SMMoA devotes its exhibition spaces—the main gallery and two Project Rooms—to exploring and advancing the work of contemporary local, national, and international artists whose unique bodies of work merit sustained inquiry and recognition. SMMoA diversifies its artistic vision by inviting distinguished guest curators to organize selected exhibitions. Opened in 1988, the museum’s exhibitions and programs celebrate the innovative perspectives of artists who profoundly influence contemporary art and culture.
Posted by David Lemberg at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2006
Anne Strauss, Associate Curator in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art, 10-27-06
Anne L. Strauss is Associate Curator in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art. Ms. Strauss organized the Metropolitan’s presentation of Sean Scully: Wall of Light. Also at the Metropolitan, she curated the recent exhibitions Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates, Central Park, New York (2004) and Andy Goldsworthy on the Roof (2004), and co-curated Cai Guo-Qiang on the Roof: Transparent Monument (2006) and Tony Oursler at the Met: “Studio” and “Climaxed” (2005), among other exhibitions.
Posted by David Lemberg at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2006
Amanda Shore, President, Cambridge Art Gallery, 10-6-06
Cambridge Art Gallery President Amanda E. Shore was born and raised in the idyllic English countryside of Kent. Coming from a family of antique collectors, Shore’s passion for 19th century paintings began early in her life and she has continued to collect privately for the past 11 years. Ms. Shore lives and breathes England. From the time she first walked to school through the countryside and played on the castle grounds of Kent, she immersed herself in the landscapes of what she affectionately calls “her England.” One artist in particular, Benjamin Williams Leader R.A. (1831-1923), one of the most prolific and widely acclaimed of the Victorian Landscape Painters, according to Shore, was an artist that captured the true essence of England. Ms. Shore says, “When I look into his paintings, he takes me home…his works are like windows into England. I enjoy beautiful and meaningful things that have history within its makeup which is why I embrace my life in the art world and the journey it takes me on every day as I enter the gallery doors.”
For the first time in the United States, Cambridge Art Gallery will debut an impressive collection of B. W. Leader’s works. Ms. Shore says, “This exhibition is the largest known collection of Leader’s work in the world, a collection of paintings that define the artist and the subjects he chose.” Most significant about this important landscape artist is that although he was influenced by his lifelong admiration the revered John Constable, Leader’s work established a distinct and independent style. Among Leader’s trademarks was his remarkable ability to capture the amber luminosity of the afternoon sun and the wet lush heaviness of a rain-drenched countryside. Leader’s painting titled “February Fill Dyke” at the Birmingham Museum is said to be one of the “wettest paintings in all of England.”
Located in the quaint village of Brentwood, CA, Cambridge Art Gallery has the finest collection of museum quality 19th century/early 20th paintings and sculptures by noted and historically important artists. The gallery is unique in presenting works by both emerging artists and their stylistic predecessors. The Gallery recently opened CAG, Contemporary Fine Art Gallery, representing artists of the present day from around the world in order to bring awareness to fine artists who have a dream of becoming a part of art history, like those of past centuries. The gallery also holds an exceptional program of lectures and related events throughout the year inviting the most distinguished historians and curators from around the world.
Posted by David Lemberg at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2006
Dr. Jennifer Tonkovich, Associate Curator, Drawings and Prints, The Morgan Library and Museum, NYC, 9-22-06
During the more than eight years she has been at The Morgan Library and Museum, Dr. Jennifer Tonkovich has participated in the organization and mounting of numerous exhibitions, and has served as curator in charge of several shows, including Pierre Matisse and His Artists (2001), Stuart Davis: Art and Theory, 1920-1931(2002); A Love Affair with Line: Drawings by Al Hirschfeld (2002); From Rembrandt to van Gogh: Three Centuries of Dutch Drawings (2006), and Fragonard and the French Tradition (2006).
Dr. Tonkovich is currently preparing an exhibition of Vincent van Gogh’s letters to his young protégé Emile Bernard for fall 2007. She frequently gives lectures at the Morgan in support of drawings exhibitions, and is active at conferences in her field of 18th-century French drawings, where she most recently presented a paper at Oxford University on drawings for architectural decoration and ornament by Gillot. Among Dr. Tonkovich’s most recent publications are “Claude Gillot’s Designs for Turkish Costumes: Some New Sources”, The Burlington Magazine (April 2005); “Rymsdyk’s Museum: Jan van Rymsdyk as a Collector of Old Master Drawings”, Journal of the History of Collections (December 2005); with Dr. Victoria Kirkham, “How Petrarca Became Boccaccio: A Bronze Portrait Bust from the Morgan Library,” Studi sul Boccaccio (2005); and “A New Album of Theater Drawings by Claude Gillot,” Master Drawings (Winter 2006).
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the birth of Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606–1669), The Morgan Library & Museum presents highlights from its exceptional collection of Rembrandt etchings. Pierpont Morgan laid the foundation for this collection—the finest in North America—when he acquired his first Rembrandt etchings from Theodore Irwin, Sr., in 1900 and George W. Vanderbilt in 1906. Today the Morgan holds impressions of most of the 300 or so known etchings by Rembrandt as well as multiple, often exceedingly rare impressions of various states. The exhibition showcases some of the most celebrated etchings from the collection along with a few lesser-known and rarely exhibited examples.
Renowned in the history of printmaking, Rembrandt’s etchings are famous for their dramatic intensity, penetrating psychology, and touching humanity. Celebrating his unsurpassed skill and inventiveness as a master storyteller, the exhibition addresses some of the central and often recurring themes of the master’s work, including portraiture, the Bible, scenes from everyday life, the nude, and landscape.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 20-page illustrated publication, Collecting Rembrandt: Etchings from the Morgan, by Dr. Anne Varick Lauder. The essay traces the history of the Morgan’s Rembrandt collection, relating some of the stories behind Pierpont Morgan’s first purchases during the American Gilded Age while also showcasing the institution’s important holdings of Rembrandt etchings.
Posted by David Lemberg at 06:54 PM | Comments (0)
Colleene Fesko, Vice President, and Director of American & European Paintings & Prints, Skinner Inc., 9-22-06
As Director of Skinner's American & European Paintings & Prints department, Colleene Fesko is responsible for four major auctions per year, overseeing sales that include American and European paintings, prints, works on paper and sculpture from the 16th through 21st centuries. Her particular area of specialization is American art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Since joining the auction house in 1987, Colleene has been instrumental in shaping significant events at the company, thereby establishing Skinner as a major player in the American and European paintings markets. Under her auspices, Skinner once again made auction history in November 2004 by establishing a new world record price of $5.5 million for a previously undiscovered Fitz Hugh Lane painting, Manchester Harbor. This new record surpassed the previous one by over $1.5 million, and the sale of this work marked the third time that Skinner has achieved this important milestone.
Colleene lectures extensively for groups including the Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The American Society of Appraisers, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University and the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, MA. She has served on discussion panels and conducted workshops for The American Society of Appraisers, and the Rockport Art Association and Harvard University among others. A familiar face on the PBS series Antiques Roadshow, Colleene is also a member of Art Table, a professional organization of women in the arts, and has been a featured guest on NPR's Talk of the Nation.
Posted by David Lemberg at 06:20 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2006
Anne-Brigitte Sirois, Director of Real Estate Development for the Arts, Lerner Group, New York City, 9-15-06
In 1995, Anne-Brigitte Sirois joined the Lerner Group, Inc., a commercial real estate firm in New York City. As Director of Real Estate Development for the Arts, Anne-Brigitte initiated an ongoing project to market the then-isolated area of Chelsea West to a group of influential art galleries located in SoHo. She formally advocated the creation of a new art gallery community in that area. Chelsea West offered more affordable spaces and a potentially fresh alternative to the fatigued post-nineties Soho art scene.
Twelve months later, her efforts culminated in the first conversion of a large storage warehouse located on West 20th Street into an art gallery building. It provided 110,000 square feet of gallery space and caused the art gallery population of Chelsea West to grow from six to 30 galleries during 1996. Today, Chelsea is home to almost 300 art galleries and hosts a vital scene for contemporary art in New York City.
Between 1996 and 2006, Anne-Brigitte has directly represented transactions totaling a value of over $250 million on behalf of various art organizations in the Chelsea district. She is currently writing a book telling the story of the Chelsea art gallery district, and remains actively involved with Chelsea’s future development phase.
Anne-Brigitte received her M.F.A. from Pratt Institute.
Posted by David Lemberg at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)
Sage Tucker-Ketcham, Founder, Director, and President, Studio STK, 9-15-06
Sage Tucker-Ketcham is the Founder, Director and President of Studio STK in Burlington, VT. Her namesake studio combines an art center and gallery for the community with the mission of supporting and showing emerging artists, as well as creating a space that encourages creativity and promotes the growth of art in the community,
For the past eight years Sage has shown her own work throughout New England, in Florida and Idaho, as well as in several international private art collections. Her work has been reviewed in art publications such as Art New England and ArtRevolutionaries.com.
Since its inception in April 2005, Studio STK has been providing essential art services in the community. To date, Sage has curated over 120 different artists at Studio STK’s Gallery, which is fully booked through August 2007. In addition to her business and curatorial responsibilities, Sage is currently expanding her body of paintings to be submitted to galleries in New York, Boston, and London. Sage has her B.F.A. from the Maine College of Art and currently lives and paints in Burlington, VT.
The mission of Studio STK is to have a space where creativity of all standards can be released in a professional, safe and encouraging artist environment, promote the arts nationally and internationally, develop future personal teaching goals, and promote individualism, self-respect and community through the visual arts.
Posted by David Lemberg at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2006
Peter Mays, Executive Director, Los Angeles Art Association, 9-8-06
Peter Mays, Executive Director, brings his vast experience with creative and nonprofit management to the Los Angeles Art Association (LAAA). Mr. Mays believes LAAA is now poised to launch the next phase of the 80-year old organization’s expansion and commitment to Los Angeles’ artistic development. Overseeing all LAAA programs and galleries, including the newest satellite exhibition space in the South Bay, Mr. Mays sees the opening of LAAA South as an opportunity to reintroduce LAAA’s work and mission to existing supporters, as well as new constituencies in the art world and greater Los Angeles community.
Mr. Mays is also an experienced painter, printmaker, book illustrator and graphic designer whose artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums.
LAAA was founded in 1925 to provide the Los Angeles community with the opportunity to view fine art as well as establish a collection of European and American art "for the people of Los Angeles." At the time of its inception, there were very few public venues in L.A. dedicated to the exhibition of art. LAAA's founders included esteemed civic leaders such as Harry Chandler, Rufus Von Kleinsmid, William May Garland and Edward A. Dickson. Many of the LAAA's founders went on to play key roles in the founding of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as well as Otis Art Institute.
Originally named the Museum Patrons' Association, the organization had over 3000 members in its inaugural year. One of LAAA's first triumphs was an exhibition on loan from the Louvre, which featured Whistler's portrait of his mother. In 1934, LAAA hosted a landmark "All-California Art Exhibition" at the Biltmore Salon and featured the work of over 1500 California artists. Many celebrated names have led LAAA throughout its rich history. Lorser Feitelson, internationally renowned artist and host of the 1960s NBC series, "Art in Our Times," served as the LAAA's Director for many years.
Posted by David Lemberg at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2006
Dr. Lawrence Wheeler, Director, North Carolina Museum of Art, 8-25-06
Dr. Lawrence J. Wheeler was named director of the North Carolina Museum of Art in October 1994. Since then, the Museum has become one of the region’s and the nation’s most popular and dynamic centers for the visual and performing arts.
During his tenure, Dr. Wheeler has presided over the completion of the landmark Museum Park on the Museum grounds, and has greatly enhanced the Museum’s collection of contemporary art while continuing to build on what is considered one of the finest collections of European old master paintings in the Southeast. In 1999 and 2000, Dr. Wheeler ushered in the “era of the blockbuster shows” at the Museum with record-breaking back-to-back exhibitions, Monet to Moore: The Millennium Gift of Sara Lee Corporation and Rodin: Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection. The Rodin exhibition, which attracted over 300,000 people to the Museum, was the cornerstone of Festival Rodin, another of Dr. Wheeler’s initiatives, which became the largest marketing effort for the arts in the history of North Carolina. From October 2004–January 2005, the Museum hosted another blockbuster exhibition: Matisse, Picasso and the School of Paris.
Beginning October 2006, the North Carolina Museum of Art will present Monet in Normandy. The exhibition presents 50 paintings, including some of Monet's most celebrated works -- his paintings of Normandy's fields and coast, his garden and water lily pond at Giverny, and Rouen's cathedral.
Posted by David Lemberg at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)
Mitzi Lizárraga, Director of Development Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA — 7-21-06
The mission of the Museum of Photographic Arts, located in San Diego, CA, is to inspire, educate and engage the broadest possible audience through the presentation, collection, and preservation of photography, film and video. MoPA officially opened its doors on May 1, 1983 as one of the few museum facilities in the United States designed exclusively to collect and present the world's finest examples of photographic art. The appointment of nationally renowned curator/photographer Arthur Ollman as Executive Director brought visionary leadership and instant credibility to the nascent museum.
MoPA’s permanent collection currently includes more than 7000 photographs that span the history of photography. The museum's permanent collection was richly enhanced in 1992 with a bequest from the estate of the late photographer and Academy Award–winning filmmaker Lou Stoumen. In July 2002, the collection was again enhanced with the gift of the entire Nagasaki Journey: The Photographs of Yosuke Yamahata, August 10, 1945 archive. MoPA has produced 15 exhibitions that have traveled to museums around the globe and has published 16 exhibition catalogues.
After a one-year renovation and expansion project that quadrupled the museum's size, MoPA reopened March 4, 2000. The expansion included additional galleries, a classroom, print-viewing room, and a 20,000-volume library, as well as augmented archival facilities and support areas. In addition, the expansion includes a 226-seat state-of-the-art theater that fulfills the museum's mandate of presenting the arts of photography, video and film. In April 2006, founding Director Ollman retired from his position at the museum. In June, Deborah Klochko was appointed Executive Director.
Mitzi Lizárraga, Director of Development, joined MoPA in February 2006. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Lizárraga was the principal and CEO of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, an arts-focused school in partnership with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The George Washington University, and The District of Columbia Public Schools in Washington, D.C. In 2003, Ms. Lizárraga was a Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholar to Japan.
Posted by David Lemberg at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)
Pam Crowe-Weisberg, Executive Director, Kimball Art Center, Park City, UT — 7-21-06
The Kimball Art Center is a nonprofit community art center celebrating its 30th anniversary. It all began in 1976 when philanthropist Bill Kimball, along with support from members of the Park City community, renovated an abandoned garage to create a nonprofit community art center. Now, under the direction of Pam Crowe-Weisberg, the Kimball is expanding its community outreach and developing into one of the best art centers in the West.
Year-round, the center’s three galleries offer a variety of exhibitions. The Kimball plays host to significant national exhibitions, as well as to shows featuring up-and-coming local artists. In conjunction with each exhibition, regional schools tour the galleries and participate in art education and hands-on creative projects. The art center also offers art classes year round to both children and adults, and gives members access to ceramics, photography and painting studios.
The Kimball Art Center is the cultural hub of Park City. In addition to the annual Park City Kimball Arts Festival and the Kimball Art Auction & Gala, other special events include opening receptions for exhibitions, the annual Arte Latino, Art Talks, and Park City’s monthly Gallery Stroll with live jazz showcasing 23 of Park City’s galleries. The Kimball is open to the public and admission is free.
Pam Crowe-Weisberg is the Executive Director of the Kimball Art Center, located in Park City, UT. Pam Moved to Park City from New York City five years ago, after working in the fashion industry for 30 years. Pam received her undergraduate education in business at New York University and received her Masters degree in costume and textile design from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology.
Posted by David Lemberg at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)