Investment For The Soul article on POP Gallery written by former BBC reporter now Santa Fe freelance writer Anya Sebastian. Thank you for your time & energy Anya.
Investment for the soul
Home decorating
By Anya Sebastian |
10/28/2007
A new kind of art gallery has opened up downtown and it's attracting quite a buzz. It's also encouraging people to think differently about the kind of art they may want to have in their homes.
Pop Gallery on West Water Street — six months old and growing fast — brings the opportunity to explore what is going on in the alternative art scene of today's popular culture to the Santa Fe mix.
Anyone who thought pop art was a thing of the past — something to do with Andy Warhol and Campbell's soup cans — is in for a surprise.
Pop Gallery is positively bursting at the seams with a vibrant display of artworks that are whimsical, weird, wacky, thought-provoking, amusing or just plain different. The gallery also carries a selection of animation art from the likes of Dr. Seuss and Charles Schulz, mostly from the private collection of owners Michael and Sharla McDowell.
"Both Sharla and I worked for the Chuck Jones Gallery as art consultants for a number of years and animation was always one of our passions," Michael McDowell said. "We've been collectors for a long time now."
Michael, a native Santa Fean, also worked for Seret & amp; Sons and spent time as a consultant with the Mountain Trails Gallery downtown before deciding to open a place of his own.
"I know Santa Fe," he said. "I was born and raised here, and, after 17 years in the business, I think I know the art market pretty well, too. There was definitely a gap in the art scene here and I felt Santa Fe was ready to accept something new and different. It was time," he said.
Pop Gallery's latest show, which opened Oct. 13 and runs through Nov. 31, is called "Double Dare You." It features 10 emerging artists, who, to quote the gallery, "dare to be serious about committing to their art."
What's the second dare? "We dare to feature art as a much needed breath of fresh air in the Santa Fe art climate," the gallerists said.
Several of the artists selected to take part in the show are from the local art community. They include Christopher Merlyn (whose work was featured in the Gerald Peters Gallery's "Future of Fine Art" exhibition in 2005), Laura Tarnoff, Brice Tahyi and American Indian artist Cougar Vigil.
Names from further afield include Dean Moran, a graffiti artist and magazine publisher from New York, and Dennis Larkins, a veteran designer of Disney theme parks, now turned artist.
"We have a very strong commitment to the community," Sharla said. "We really want to support local artists; there's so much talent here and the best of it definitely deserves to be showcased in a gallery setting rather than in a coffee shop or restaurant. But we also have to pay the rent — we are in business, after all — which is why we mix more established names with the up-and-coming ones."
A different kind of art
Pop Gallery opened in March with a half-dozen local artists and five nationally known names. Now the stable of artists has grown large enough to warrant taking on a storage unit up the road. Because business has been gratifyingly brisk, the McDowells believe they have tapped into a market hungry for a different kind of art.
"Our clients range from young professionals, all the way to baby boomers," Sharla said. "Some are serious collectors and some have never been into an art gallery, never thought they could afford to have good, original art in their home; those are particularly gratifying.
"But, bottom line, this is art people can relate to; it's immediate. And when they decide to take a piece home to hang on the wall, it's not a status symbol or a future college fund; it expresses something about themselves and it enriches their environment."
Pop Gallery demonstrates its commitment to the community by donating part of the proceeds from every show to a local nonprofit organization. The beneficiary for the "Double Dare You" show is the Santa Fe Children's Museum.
Each artist hanging in the show is asked to donate one piece of artwork for a silent auction held in the gallery's back room. Bidding remains open for an extended period of time; for "Double Dare You," it closes Nov. 2.
Other organizations that have benefited from this gesture include Aid and Comfort, Assistance Dogs of the West and the Buckaroo Ball.
Another gallery feature is Pop Saturdays — a weekly event in which part of the gallery becomes a studio for one of the artists. The public is invited to meet with the people behind the artwork and watch their creative process in action. For the artists, it's an opportunity to become better acquainted with the gallery and its visitors.
Pop Saturdays for 2007 ended in September. They will resume again in June 2008.
Unfamiliar concept
The art market, the McDowells believe, is undergoing some radical changes. New technological developments and sophisticated computer software have resulted in entirely new ways of reproducing images. High-quality reproductions are now available for very affordable prices. And, while much of the market has reluctantly accepted the gicl & eacute;e/print business, it is still an unfamiliar concept to many people.
"If you fall in love with something you can't possibly afford, then a gicl & eacute;e — (a continuous-color image generated by an ink-jet printer) — can be a good option," Michael said. "But we make a point of explaining to people exactly what it is they're buying, which is a sophisticated, computer-generated copy, not an original. Original works of art are different."
To make buying a piece of art feel less risky, Pop Gallery will take back any purchased piece — in good condition, of course — for its original selling price.
Michael believes that Santa Fe has finally succeeded in becoming a serious, major art market.
"For the longest time, it's been associated primarily with Western art — and we needed more than that," he said. "Thanks to Linda Durham and others who laid the groundwork for (all of us) to build on, we're now seeing a much wider range of top-quality art becoming available.
"Pop Gallery," he said, "would never have succeeded in Santa Fe 10 years ago."
Feeling at home
"A gallery is about connecting with people, building relationships," Michael said. "Most conventional galleries have no magic. They're austere, even intimidating, places where customers are sized up, qualified as they walk through the door. I wanted a place where people could feel at home, bring the kids and just hang out."
The desire to do things differently is partly the result of Michael's own experience as a child. "I never went into galleries when I was a kid; it was no fun. You were told to keep quiet and not touch anything — that was the most important thing — (keeping) your hands behind your back.
"The message was: 'Art isn't something you live with and interact with; it should be respected.' Here we believe the opposite."
Both Sharla and Michael regret the fact that the art market has become so focused on money. Record-breaking auction prices make headlines, and the notion of art as an investment is promoted by dealers, auctioneers and galleries alike.
The McDowells believe that explains the sterile environment in which so-called serious collections are often displayed — more reminiscent of a museum than a home.
"Art should be an investment for the soul," Michael said. "That's it." |
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