Attending Art Fairs and Manning the Gallery Simultaneously

This weekend is the NEXT Chicago Art Fair, along with a handful of other art fairs.  NEXT is dedicated to emerging artists, meaning artists that haven't attracted a strong following yet.  We rented space at the fair for a fairly large amount of money and packed up a crate of art from Michael Tole, Justin Quinn, Lars Theuerkauff, Jason Dunda, Will Marino, Owen Schuh, Daniel Ochoa, and others a couple weeks ago.


These are often "juried shows", where we submit the artists we'd like to bring, their bios, and information about our gallery.  We've been thrilled to be accepted to these respected art fairs, and look forward to participating in more fairs in the coming year.  


Marina and Andre flew out there on Tuesday, leaving me here to man the gallery myself.  The foot-traffic has  been steady, although there is still lots of busy work with the data bases, advertising, planning for new shows and openings, etc.


It's a lot of work to set up a booth.  I helped Marina with it in December at SCOPE Miami last year, despite having sworn off booth duty after years of silicon valley trade shows!  Our show in Miami was works on paper -- easy to transport, easy to install, and easy to take down.  And very successful!


This time it's real paintings, and three-dimensional art.  Here are some photos that Andre sent from his mobile phone.  The top one shows two portraits by Daniel Ochoa in the foreground and sculptures by Owen Schuh in the background above the table.  (Click the pictures for bigger views.)



The photo below shows some new paintings by Michael Tole in the foreground, three drawings by Patrick Gabler above the table, and three of my favorite Justin Quinn "Moby Dick" drawings on the far wall. I can see hints of other pictures in the corners, but not enough to tell what they are.


Anyway, last night was the preview for press and serious collectors.  Today was the first day of the show.  So Marina and Andre will be hawking our wares in Chicago while I woo the visitors here in San Francisco.


Wish us all luck!


Cheers!


[Updated May 2, 2010]