Lindsay Pollock covers money manager and art collector Glenn Fuhrman’s Flag Foundation show of artists whose galleries have just closed. Held in the Chelsea Arts buiding, the show was more of networking event because the Flag Foundation did not become involved in the transactions. Instead, artists email addresses were on display to facilitate the sales.
The show features 31 artists, among them those formerly associated with galleries including Roebling Hall, Merge and Moeller Snow — spaces that are now defunct. Some artists had been dropped or otherwise lost gallery representation as dealers have trimmed rosters. Others had ridden out the art boom without ever landing a dealer. […]
The crowd was a blend of blue-jeaned artists and moneyed collectors, including Glenn August, president of Oak Hill Advisors, real-estate heiress Denise LeFrak Calicchio and Whitney Museum trustee Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo.
Several pieces specifically addressed the sputtering economy. Artist Matt Tackett, who holds down a day job installing artworks for an auction house, is showing a 10-foot- tall, red-white-and-blue banner with the text, “We Finance Lottery Tickets.” Conrad Bakker’s painted panel reads, “Liquidation Sale/Going Out of Business/Everything Must Go.”
Other pieces aren’t as topical. Jay Davis’s “You Can’t Stop Paddling,” is a layered painting featuring an inelegant ex-girlfriend’s foot and a green swamp. Asking price: $24,000.
Davis, sporting a surfing tan, isn’t suffering. Though he is currently without a New York dealer, he sells paintings directly from his studio and is represented by galleries in Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago.
Dell’s Money Manager Boosts Orphaned Artists with Summer Show (Bloomberg)
