Pomp & Zoom

Spring usually heralds a spate of art-school grad ceremonies and shows—the equivalent of debutante balls for young artists and designers trained at our august art schools.  This year with shelter-at-home and social-distancing mandates in place, there will be no crowds gathering in an auditorium or on a sun-speckled lawn, no mounting the dais as your name is called out, no booze-fueled grad bash before or after.  

However, with current technologies, there will be Virtual Ceremonies, and Art Center College of Design, CalArts, and the Roski School of Art & Design at the USC have jumped on that bandwagon.  Roski is calling it a “celebration,” since they’re inviting grads to a future RL graduation—though it looks like others are, too.  As of this writing, Otis is not having commencement this spring, virtual or otherwise, also inviting grads to come back for a later ceremony with a future class, and no one from UCLA responded to this query.  

So how is it going to work?  This morning, May 2, I watched the first ceremony on the calendar—that of Art Center, and it ran remarkably smoothly.  (Disclosure:  I’m an adjunct prof there.)  It opened with President Lorne Buchman giving a pithy but so very pertinent speech, calling on the graduating class to rise up to the challenges ahead—and such challenges they are.  As he said, “The space of uncertainty is the space of creative engagement.” 

Then department chairs introduced their department and graduates, with sample work shown.  The final half hour was a kind of Zoom-in bash, showing clips of attending grads from homes and personal spaces, some with families and friends celebrating with them, several holding up their pets.  They were waving, they made “peace” and “heart” signs with their fingers, they were dancing to the beat of the background music.  So unexpectedly, this was the most personal and moving grad ceremony I’ve ever attended.  It’s the courage of youthful optimism in the face of this pandemic,  it’s the power of Zoom—the power of being able to see people in individual environments, and in closeup.  

 

 

 

Venice Family Clinic Art Auction

The Venice Family Clinic’s popular annual auction will go on.  This year they’ll dispense with the art walk and go directly online—May 3–19 on Artsy https://www.artsy.net/auction/venice-art-walk-benefit-auction-2020—to sell art to raise funds for the clinic’s COVID-19 response.  Over 150 artists have contributed work for the auction—you’ll recognize many names on the list.  This includes prints by Renee Petropoulous and Ed Ruscha, paintings by Kelly Berg, Astrid Preston and Kim Shoenstadt, and sculpture by the Haas Brothers and Ramona Otto.  There are also several art talks scheduled.  Check out the auction catalog and programs at https://venicefamilyclinic.org/annual-events/venice-art-walk/

The clinic serves an area which, despite its groovy reputation, has a population with 75% at or below the poverty level and 16% homeless.  Yes, sadly, you see the street by street homeless encampments when you drive through Venice these days.  The clinic provides much–needed medical and mental health care services, and also helps with access to food and housing, regardless of patient income, insurance, or immigration status.  It’s a worthy cause, ladies and gents!

 

 

Gallery Platform LA

You’d think there would already be an LA gallery association, and over the years I’ve heard of galleries at Bergamot Station and Culver City coordinating to time openings, publicity, etc.  However, the dire conditions brought about by what I’ve called Q-Time has prompted galleries to band together to promote themselves and the art they represent.  Initiated by NY/LA art dealer Jeffrey Deitch, 60 Los Angeles art galleries are coming together for an online platform — Gallery Platform Los Angeles (or GALA) to be found on galleryplatform.la.  Every week starting mid-May they will be presenting “viewing rooms” from 12 galleries.  These will offer works for sale, along with videos on artists, collectors and gallerists—basically what many galleries are now doing, except individually on their own website.  While the “viewing rooms” will rotate, editorial material will remain.

“I think there’s a great sense of community in Los Angeles,” says Elizabeth East of L. A. Louver, “and we’re now in this new reality of working with our audience over a variety of platforms.  We are disperse, but in some ways this is a way of bringing us together in cyberland.”

Later the group will also produce joint programming, gallery maps and other projects.  Currently, membership is free, although it’s vetted through a coordinating committee, which includes big galleries such as Deitch, Blum & Poe, Gagosian, Matthew Marks, and Regen Projects, as well as smaller ones such as Bel Ami, Jenny’s, and Various Small Fires. Platform coordinator Nicoletta Beyer says that designing and maintaining the website will be funded through “fundraising internally.”

Authors Note: By the way, this is not to be confused with a website sponsored by David Zwirner called “Platform: Los Angeles.”  That’s featuring 13 galleries, and is part three of their “Platform” series, the first two featured New York and London galleries.

 

Goings & Comings

Sadly, this will be the year of far more goings than comings.  An April survey of art galleries by the LA Times culled 35 respondents, with nine of them saying they faced permanent closure unless a fast recovery is around the corner.  Not surprisingly, since 89% of them reported reduced sales since the shutdown.  Frankly, I am surprised the figures aren’t 100% —perhaps something to do with sales already underway?  Remember, we just came off the high of Frieze LA 2020 and the other fairs taking place the same weekend, when a number of galleries reported excellent sales.  According to the LAT survey, over half the galleries have retained their staff, although we know that many galleries operate on shoestring staffs—the owner and maybe one or two employees.  

Some good news:  museums in other parts of the world are reopening, such as those in South Korea and Germany.  Germany has some 170 state, municipal, and private museums, and a number reopened end of April and many more will by early May, with precautions in place.  I’m not in a rush for SoCal museums to do the same, but suggesting looking at what happens in Germany for a way to go forward.  Another place to look is Hong Kong International Airport, where they’re testing cleaning robots and disinfection booths.  

Bye for now—look forward to seeing everyone in RL soon, soon!