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Episode 293: The New York Art Fairs 2011

Christopher — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:56:00 +0000

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This week: Amanda and Martin talk to artists and gallerists at differing 2011 NY art fairs. Breaking away from the megahub of the ARMORY, we visit exemplary booths at the Manhattan “satellite” shows, getting a feel for the variety within the ever growing gala.

With Volta’s one-artist-per-booth, we focus on Bradley Castellanos at MARX & ZAVATERRO with his ominous photomontages. Kimberly Johansson of Oakland’s Johansson Projects introduces us to Jennie OTTINGER and her lively novel-inspired pieces before a surprise by a mock art tour.

The SCOPE fair finds interviewing in a bodega cooler typical of the art installed by artist Andrew Ohanesian. At SPINELLO PROJECTS we meet with featured artist Barnaby Whitfield and Paul Bruno of DIRTY MAGAZINE. Bruce Livingstone and Peter Teodoric talk about the SAATCHI ONLINE project.

On the Hudson River’s panhandle barge, Tom Burtonwood of WHAT IT IS captures the boisterous atmosphere of the floating FOUNTAIN fair.

The party continues with Amanda speaking with Hudson of FEATURE INC. at INDEPENDENT fair’s second year after its’ upstart inauguration.

Martin Esteves can be found here… http://thelifeofstmartin.blogspot.com/

There you will also find his textual perceptions of the Armory.

Arianna Huffington’s AOL buys Bad at Sports for over $790,000 in first round of mergers

Christopher — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 11:00:07 +0000

Full press release below:

San Francisco, CA March 31, 2011 – AOL Inc. [NYSE: AOL] today announced that it has agreed to acquire BadatSports.com, one of the nations leading Contemporary Fine Art & Culture commentary/interview programs based out of Chicago, IL. Bad at Sports is well known throught the world for its fresh take on the current Fine Art scene and will make a strong cornerstone to the growing AOL Culture Network while retaining their editorial independence and unique voice that has proven so successful over the years. Further bolstering AOL’s position as one of the world’s leading providers of high-quality & timely commentary and insight into everything from technology & politics to art & culture.

Founded by Duncan MacKenzie and Richard Holland, Bad at Sports which has operated on a minimal budget and office of dedicated staff has over 5 years grown into a site that reaches millions around the world and has archived over 300 hours of one on one interviews with some of the art worlds most notable up in coming art creators, curators, historians, educators, business insiders and collectors.

AOL’s Editor in Chief Arianna Huffington singled this out as one of the main reasons Bad at Sports was one of the first aqqusitions under her direction. “The work that Holland & MacKenzie and everyone at Bad at Sports has done over the years is close to amazing and shows a level of care and dedication that you need to succeed in the long term in both the publication business and Art/Culture world and made bringing them into the larger portfolio an obvious decision.” she said.

“Engagement with thought leaders, tread setters and those that create the culture of tomarrow is as important to AOL’s growth as is the engagement of our established audience and having spoken with Operations Manager Christopher Hudgens at length about the ideas he had for the role Bad at Sports in expanding the art & culture division of AOL under the supportive hand of our new Editor in Chief will only continue to show AOL’s commitment to quality and a greater conversation on the internet. I look forward to what they can produce with the full support and resources of AOL behind them.” said David Eun, President of AOL Media and Studios.

This acquisition will further AOL’s strategy to become the global leader in sourcing, creating, producing and delivering high-quality, trusted, original content to consumers. Bad at Sports will remain headquartered in Chicago,IL, as a wholly owned AOL unit. Deal terms were not disclosed.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding business strategies, market potential, future financial and operational performance and other matters. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the anticipated benefits of the transaction and other statements identified by words such as “may,” “will,” “intend,” “should,” “expect” or similar expressions. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs, and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances, including, but not limited to, the satisfaction of the closing conditions to the transaction and the parties’ performance of their obligations under the agreements; changes in our plans, strategies and intentions; the competitiveness and quality of our products and services; our ability to retain, hire and develop key employees; and the intensity of competition. Any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the statements herein, due to changes in economic, business, competitive, technological, strategic and/or regulatory factors, as well as factors affecting AOL’s operations and businesses. More detailed information about these factors as they relate to AOL may be found in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in AOL’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AOL is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About AOL

AOL Inc. (NYSE:AOL) is a leading global Web services company with an extensive suite of brands and offerings and a substantial worldwide audience. AOL’s business spans online content, products and services that the company offers to consumers, publishers and advertisers. AOL is focused on attracting and engaging consumers and providing valuable online advertising services on both AOL’s owned and operated properties and third-party websites. In addition, AOL operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services in the United States, which serves as a valuable distribution channel for AOL’s consumer offerings.

About Bad at Sports

Bad at Sports located at badatsports.com and based in Chicago, IL is one of the worlds leading contemporary fine art commentary/60 minute art interview programs. Founded in 2005 as a podcast by co-hosts Duncan MacKenzie and Richard Holland, Bad at Sports has grown into a website that is read and listened to by people in every major metropolitan city around the globe. With over 300 60 minute episodes with leading art world over a thousand posts Bad at Sports has and continues to document the Art world from within with a unique and valuable position of insight.

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Update

Art Practical releases a more up to date statement read here

How Many People Do You Really Know?

Christopher — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 05:01:06 +0000

Lets take a short break from news and events in the Art World to ask an important but often misunderstood idea, how many people do you really know?

I don’t mean know their name, or went to the same school, town, program, gallery or even concert with but how many people do you really know? In this day and age of social media/networking/six degrees of Francis Bacon its easy to mistake being linked to someone being equal to knowing them. If I asked you to name a good lawyer, cook, programmer, printer, accountant or Mr/Ms “get the job done no matter what” could you? Do you know someone you could promote for a project and they could not only be relied on to do a job but do it well, on-time and the first time? If so how many, even I admit it isn’t as deep as I would like and thats a shame.

I have worked for or with many companies over the years and what often amazes me is not that there is lack of work/contracts but the amount of time and trial/error that goes into finding good people to do any number of skills.

Wasted time and mispent money.

The Art World in my estimation is the epicenter of “Jack of all Trades” skill sets. I have meet people that have skills so varied and rich that you would be forgiven for thinking they have Multiple Personality Disorder, thats a benefit we have, a asset if you will and we need to leverage it in the 21st Century.

Working in the Arts will always be precarious and fragile but we know change, we know projects, we know guerrilla style zero budget business models and we know people and we need to promote that. I will be doing this myself over time but its high time every blog/website in the art world spent some space helping people know how to contact the best individuals for any skill. It should never be who/what company should I contact to do this job but how do I organize the funds to pay [insert name here] to complete this project for me.

If you don’t know a good cook, caterer, programmer, designer, printer, lawyer, copywriter, editor (in this town who isn’t?), media production, animator, auto repair, public relations, ect then it might be best to start adding to your list since having a team you can rely on is more valuable for you and especially others then the funds it takes to hire them. Who has the time or energy to suffer through multiple bad suppliers to find that right person. The person or company that has that up to date list is the one that will hit the ground running and execute their idea the first time on half the actual budget.

Don’t build your list of friends, acquaintances, followers or warm bodies but your cabinet of professionals for the job of today and more so the one right over the horizon.

Who’s Hot Tonight, Strindberg’s Hot Tonight

Christopher — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:49:55 +0000

Youtube & The Guggenheim have released their short list for the “Play” Biennial and there is a God since my favorite art video not only is back from the dead but has a new work out. Strindberg and Helium at the Beach tell the tale of a fatalistic Swedish playwright and his best friend a bubble gum pink ballon named Helium. Even though Bad at Sports didn’t make the short list if “Play” does nothing more then vault artist Eun-Ha Park and Strindberg & Helium back into production I call it a roaring success.

What is this you say? The Art world has a habit of being delinquent on payments (even more so since October of 2008) and that can have larger ramifications throughout the entire ecosystem? Balderdash I say, pure poppycock; where did I put my monocle. Read more here
A new Art Fair called of all things “VIP” that has no physical location and is 100% virtual on the net, marketing is not discussed nor noticable yet, there is no meet and greet which is the cornerstone of art, you will be expected to buy without ever seeing the work in the flesh & they want to charge $20,000 a booth and be held 22-30 January. If this didn’t have Gagosian, Sadie Coles, Emman uel Perrotin and David Zwirner involved I would be rolling on the floor laughing, oh wait I still am. Laugh more here
Auction house Christie’s has hired, from outside, a former publishing, record company and Disney executive as its new CEO. Read more here
Chuck Close does a public interview at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he discusses his life, art, and the creative process. Watch more here
The Art Institute of Chicago Sues the Engineering Firm that built it’s Modern Wing citing cracks in concrete floors, condensation clouding the main vestibule glass and an air-conditioning system that can’t maintain a safe climate for artwork. The estimated cost of repairs is $10 million. Read more here
Stuart E. Hample, Humorist and Cartoonist, Dies at 84. Read more here Also Howard Brodie, Combat and Courtroom Artist, Dies at 94 Read more here
Deep in us we all love science and have had great joy in the data coming from the Large Hadron Collider and even more in the sillyness surrounding it but it’s interesting to watch scientists fall all over themselves trying to address what would happen if the beam hit anything organic. Watch more here

One more video from the “Play” Biennial, this is fun lol.

Met Director Talks About How To Position Museum In This New Art Paradigm

Christopher — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 05:10:54 +0000

Director Thomas P Campbell who took over as Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York 18 months ago speaks out in an interesting interview on how he sees the new landscape of Art and the public’s relationship to it and how he is looking to position the Met to best fit in that world.

The Met has long had a distant relationship with Contemporary Art for half a centurty now almost and Campbell talks about that shifting possibly since he feels there is more of an audience for it then before and there is enough context to properly align it with the 5000 years or more of collected art under the Met roof.

Most interestingly Campbell talks about Contemporary Art as being the first step in a “fundamental shift” in the Met’s operation and presentation of displays. The goal in making them more accessible and a less steep knowledge prerequisite to even simply engage shows. Saying such things as:

“We assume people know who Rembrandt is, for example. We have wonderful, thoughtful labels next to each Rembrandt painting, but there’s no overview of who he was and, frankly, considering our international audience, I doubt whether many of them do know who [he] was, or the significance of a particular period room, in a broader context.

“What I’m trying to do is to get the museum rethinking the visitor experience from the moment that people arrive at the museum: the signage they encounter, the bits of paper they pick up, all the way through to the way we deliver information in the galleries. And obviously that’s an enormous task. We’ve got a million square feet of gallery space and tens of thousands of objects on display, so nothing’s going to change overnight.”

Thomas Campbell who is not looking to do anything radical with the Met’s conversation and was largely apointed for that reason among others is also someone who sees the writing on the wall a bit it seems when after trying to describe a Titian bacchanal to a Italian teacher at Christie’s to no success with typical termiology shifted gears to saying:

“It is a drunken orgy and they are all having sex!”

To which the point hit home and Campbell said his lesson from that was:

“Academia at its best embraces and speaks to a broad audience”

It will be interesting to see where he takes the self described “inward-looking” culture that permiates the Met currently and many organizations in the Art world.

Chicago Artists Coalition Needs Your Help To Clarify Chicago Artist Business Licenses

Christopher — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:45:59 +0000

The Chicago Artists Coalition is working to gather information about Business Licenses for artists. It has come to their attention that the issue of whether or not working artists need to obtain a license is rather convoluted and unclear.

Some are told yes, others no.

Also, some artists have received surprise visits from city inspectors and were cited for not having a license.

The CAC is working with a few others and a city Alderman to find out how many artists have run into problems with this issue and gauge what artist’s needs are in terms of licensing so that they can work to clear up any confusion.

To do that they need artist to please circulate this short (11 question) survey to for artists to to fill out so that when they go before the Aldermen on July 1st they can have clear survey data on how many
artists have encountered problems and how best to clarify this.

If you have any questions feel free to contact:

Elissa Papendick
Media & Marketing Intern
Chicago Artist’s Coalition

Design Miami/Basel: The Blog

Christopher — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:29:27 +0000

Design Miami/Basel: The Blog

This is the week the design world heads to Basel, Switzerland for Design Miami/Basel which opened in Basel, Switzerland Tuesday, a day ahead of Art Basel is closer then ever before if your curious about the design worlds activities. This year they are starting their own blog, the cleverly titled Design Miami/Basel Blog.

Posting images, quotes, news and other updates from participants in the fair like designers and gallery owners for fans and journalists alike. They even went as far as publicizing a RSS feed so nice to see someone is listening to the youthful techie in the group since the larger art world seems allergic to RSS feeds on a whole.

LA Times Gives Advice to Jeffrey Deitch For His First Day On The Job

Christopher — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:00:12 +0000

Christopher Knight, the Los Angeles Times Art Critic has written up an interesting article on Jeffrey Deitch’s start as Director (the fourth in 30 years) and gives his point of view on where the reality of life in LA can begin to match the goals of the Museum. Numbers mater in the Art world even if we don’t want to talk about it and MOCA’s attendance has been dropping steadily for years. Couple that with the fiscal mismanagement gamble back in 2008 where they created a budget that relied on donor money to cover around 80% of the cost (money that evaporated with the crash) and things were pretty bleak.

The consensus & expectation is that Jeffrey Deitch will bring the kind of shows and energy that will rally the general population of LA and raise attendance above it’s current 600 people a day. Think about that, 600 people, more people visit this site then MOCA in a given day and MOCA is spending $20 Million a year. MOCA has a wonderful collection and this isn’t a referendum by the people of LA on Art but on the growing disconnect between Art Tastemakers and the general population. A rift that has been growing for years with little to no abatement.

It’s not just LA, we have had the same debates on hours of operation & marketing of events in Chicago for over 5 years. Christopher Knight goes on to offer his advice on what Mr. Deitch might want to examine as Director and the second I can agree with aspects of, the first not so much:

1. General admission: take it from $10 to free

I have always questioned why everything needs to be free. In my experience people have a habit of discounting what they don’t pay for and it effects the overall opinion. Work at a bar (or the music industry these days) and you can see that in action, lines and a small cover even if they are annoying increase the overall pleasure of the experience as long as guests expectations are met once they enter. Also even if the door charge is less then 10% of the budget that is still a valuable/usefull daily cash flow even for an institution of that size. Art like any other business lives and breathes on cash flow.

I would suggest price pointing it at $5 a person and make it free to seniors, students & active military (for many solid reasons not worth rehashing here). At that price it has a real value, is proportioned correctly to films, concerts & other nightlife activities and doesn’t nullify the whole selling point of yearly membership.

2. Hours of Operation: take it from closing at 5-6pm & 8pm on Thursday to more befitting late nights.

No argument but very tricky and might not be as useful as even I thought years ago. This just might be a tourist/weekday local/weekend world we live in.

The one thing that Mr. Knight doesn’t tackle is the one thing that everyone is so afraid of about Jeffrey Dietch as Director, the “curatorial” focus of the exhibits and I think more so “how they are marketed to the world”. Everyone is waiting on baited breath since it seems no one has faith that an intelligent discussion on Art can be molded into a form of interest to the general public. That is the great experiment going on in LA and if it is successful could echo throughout the American Art World as a whole and faster then you might think.

NEA Offers Free Summer Admission For Military To 700 Museums

Christopher — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:00:03 +0000

Starting Memorial Day, May 31, 2010, through Labor Day, September 6, 2010 over 700 Museums will offer free admission to active military personnel and their families. This list organized by the National Endowment for the Arts & Blue Star Families (a non-partisan, non-profit organization, created by military families for military families) includes The Met, The MOMA, The Whitney, The Guggenheim, not to mention Chicago’s Art Institute & MCA. The complete museum list broken down by state can be found here.

This is a wonderful program that is both good politics, good business & good karma. I would love to see the Art Institute & MCA get together and lead the way by extending it to not only the summer but year round and for as long as America is at war. Our museums in all 50 states have a sum collection of history and culture that is unrivaled throughout the world. A treasure that every military personnel should be welcomed and encouraged to see with open arms.

Chicago is the city of tomorrow, lets have Chicago lead the way.

UPDATE: After speaking with Erin Hogan Director of Public Affairs with the Art Institute to clarify what the difference/change was in ongoing policy she explained that the established policy was active military were free but with Blue Star for the summer families of active military would be free as well. Also the website would be updated to better reflect this policy.

This is great to hear and hope it is a big success.

Episode 246: Steven Rand

Christopher — Mon, 17 May 2010 06:43:51 +0000

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This week, Duncan, Amanda and Tom talk to artist Steven Rand, who is the founder and Executive Director of apexart in New York.

If you are in or around NYC this is the last week of “Don’t Piss On Me and Tell Me It’s Raining” the Bad at Sports organized show, go check it out while you still can!

Bad at Sports » Art Business

Episode 293: The New York Art Fairs 2011

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