First show down, second show up: Henry Jackson

After 5 weeks, we took down the Inaugural Show on Saturday.  While not a sell-out, we sold a number of works and met our primary goals of 1) selling art; 2) creating a buzz about the space and our artists; and 3) putting ourselves back on the map as an important emerging gallery in San Francisco.  Mission accomplished on all three counts.


Those of you who have seen photos of the gallery on this blog or seen the photo album of our 400-person opening party, know about the "pink wall".  We decided early-on to make the wall behind our reception desk an accent wall that changes color with each season, or each show, depending on the content of those shows.  It's good placement, since it's not the first thing a visitor sees when they walk in the door.  (The first thing they see is a wall of art on a traditional white wall.)  But when they turn around, there it is -- the ever-changing accent wall.  


Bright pink was great for the Inaugural Show, but just doesn't match the palette of the solo show for our next artist, Henry Jackson (you'll see his website is a bit out of date, but you get the idea...).  After brief consultations, we settled on a pale green with a hint of gray for the accent wall.  So my Sunday was spent painting the bright pink wall with layers of white primer so that the pale green would go on in one coat, without the pink blasting through.  It looks great, if I do say so myself.


In the mean time, my partner Andre has been busy building the storage racks for our art.  Up until now, we've been able to get by without it, but now we need real storage.  Our inventory is growing and we need a safe place to store it.  And flat files.  Don't get me started on flat files.  That topic could fill an entire blog entry.  Seriously.


But back to Henry.  Henry has been painting in San Francisco since the 80s.  Marina calls his work "new" Bay Area Figurative.  If you look at the wikipedia entry, you'll see this period was in the 50s and 60s with artists classified into First Generation (like Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, and Wayne Thiebaud), a Bridge Generation (like Nathan Oliveira and Frank Lobdell), and a Second Generation of artists.  I guess this makes Henry a "Third Generation".  


The last sentence in Henry's artist statement explains it all to me:  "By taking the figure and removing all that is familiar to me, seeking the soul -- the true essence -- I'm left with something that has a much deeper grasp of reality -- the human spirit."


I find his work haunting and compelling, forcing me to look deeper into the piece to see what I can find, to see what is missing, to see what should be there.  I understand the book Bay Area Figurative Art: 1950-1965 is a great overview of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, although I haven't had a chance to read it myself.


But back to gallery business.  As I learned in Silicon Valley, "Just in time" (JIT) is all the rage for manufacturing operations -- deliver the required materials just as they are needed -- no sooner and no later.  It appears to be the same in the art world.  Our show of "Henry Jackson: New Works" opens Wednesday evening, but we won't be getting the paintings or even images of the paintings until Tuesday.  So we'll have a bit of a mad dash to get everything put together and ready for the show.  


In the mean time, here's one image Henry was able to share with us a few weeks ago for the flyer that went out.  This piece is "Untitled (#1890)", 2010, oil & cold wax on canvas over panel, 72" x 60”.  Quite impressive in person.  (For my non-US readers, that size is 183 x 152 cm.)

Hope to see you at the opening on Wednesday 5/26 from 5:30-7:30.  Henry will also do an artist talk on Saturday, June 5 at 2:00 PM.  


Cheers!

Focus on Art and Artists

Recently I received feedback that some people would like to read more about my opinions on art, and less about the business of moving and running a gallery.  (For those of my friends interested in the nitty gritty of the business, you'll just have to be satisfied with my occasional Facebook posts on the topic.  :-) 


So, in the next few weeks I'll talk more about some of the art I like and the artists we represent, how we find and discover new artists, and how we work to build a consistent program and stable of artists that demonstrate our vision for the gallery.  


I've also been meaning to review a few books on the art world.  And now I have more motivation to actually sit down and read those books.  The first will be I Bought Andy Warhol, followed by I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon), and then finally The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art.  Let me know if you have other suggestions of books to read.


But for now, I'm going to put down my regular science fiction and get busy reading up on the arts!


Cheers!