Tammy Garcia’s collaborations with Preston Singletary entranced collectors who gathered at the display of Santa Fe’s Blue Rain Gallery.
With SOFA CHICAGO 2009 a wrap, it’s time to take a moment to reflect on the meaning of the frenzied three-day art extravaganza. While it’s impossible to fully digest the experience only a day after, there are a few thoughts and observations to share as a starting point.
The most apparent shift is how galleries that have survived the downturn in good enough condition to afford the expensive trip to Chicago clearly understand that business-as-usual doesn’t work any longer. This was a different SOFA in size (68 exhibitors instead of the 100-plus from years past), in assortment (the selection of works on display seemed more carefully considered and offered a wider variety), and in tone (“guardedly optimistic” would best describe the mood of collectors and, by the last day of the expo, the dealers).
Some further thoughts to share follow. If you attended SOFA, please feel free to share your own comments and observations at the end of this posting.
1. Buyers Came Back: After a difficult year that saw galleries change names, go virtual, or, in rare cases, shut their doors, SOFA CHICAGO 2009 offered a glimmer of light through the storm clouds. While it wasn’t anything like the buying spree of 2007 all over again, it also wasn’t the shell-shocked atmosphere of 2008, when nobody was buying and dealers’ faces betrayed deep anxiety by Sunday. This year was different, for many, though not all. Those dealers with long-established relationships with buyers seemed to fare best.
2. Galleries are Experimenting: The galleries that have survived the downturn clearly understand that the days of predictability in the market are over. Some went with the “more is more” approach, loading up their exhibition spaces with more artists and work than ever in hopes that a wider assortment would increase the odds of finding a match with a collector. Others went the opposite route, concentrating on their most bankable artists (Schantz Galleries showed only Lino Tagliapietra’s work, for example).
3. The new Europeans are coming, but are American collectors ready: Several galleries showcased the work of award-winning European artists working in glass who had received little attention in the United States until now. Case in point was the extensive display of Josepha Gasch-Muche’s soft abstract wall pieces made using very sharp glass shards that were a focus of the display at Forré & Co of Aspen, Colorado. By Saturday, one had sold, despite a very reasonable pricetag for the winner of the prestigious 2006 Coberger Prize. On the other end of Festival Hall, Litvak Gallery of Tel Aviv, Israel, showed new work by Slovak glass legend Vaclav Cigler in a museum quality, black-box gallery display with steady crowd of viewers but very little sales activity. Litvak did much better with the work of Germany’s Julius Weiland who has won a handful of major international awards.
4. Collaboration finds an audience: The hottest booth from the Opening Night Preview onward was arguably Blue Rain Gallery‘s display, where collectors were calling in to try to buy one of Tammy Garcia’s collaborations with Preston Singletary. Producing far less than can satisfy collector demand, Garcia was deluged with buyers in person as well as by telephone. Wherever her name appeared, so did red dots. A very different kind of collaboration was evident at the Ken Saunders Gallery display where Jon Kuhn and Paul Stankard’s work were mashed-up in a piece called StanKuhn #12. Will we be seeing more of these pairings in an effort to freshen up established artist offerings?
5. Ambition remains undimmed for two dealers: Two dealers at SOFA, neither based in the U.S., are powerful champions for the use of glass as an artistic medium. Adriano Berengo of Berengo Fine Arts, having completed his widely publicized GlassStress exhibition during the 53rd Venice Biennale last summer, spoke about the crowds of visitors who came to view the glass works by well-known artists he displayed. Buoyed by all the attention, Berengo is planning another epic exhibition broadening his perspective to include design in glass.
Andrea Salvador’s stone and glass mosaic rendering of a Chicago street scene (rumored to possibly be headed to the White House) is unique in its non-grid arrangement to capture the unique qualities of light through delicate handwork. courtesy: berengo fine arts
Meanwhile, Muly Litvak of Litvak Gallery, is preparing to take the wraps off his epic 9,000-square-foot gallery space with 20-foot-high ceilings in downtown Tel Aviv in December. A group exhibition showcasing some of the most important glass artists will be followed by a solo exhibition of the work of Vaclav Cigler in March 2010.
Did you attend SOFA CHICAGO 2009? Have something to add about the state of the arts? Feel free to add your own thoughts and observations in our comments section below.