The Bad at Sports Art Explosion rolls on.
This week: Duncan and Britton Bertran talk to Kavi Gupta and Christian Viveros-Faune from Next Art Fair.
Much fun is had by all.
Art Chicago
Merchandise Mart
Armory Show
Next
Kavi Gupta
Christian Viveros-Faune
Version 08
Imperfect Articles
David Zwirner
Volta
Roebling Hall
Milwaukee International Art Fair
Dark Fair
Old Gold
Chris Wool
Eli Broad
Stop Smiling
Sonotheque
MCA
Pit Er Pat
Paul Morris
Matthew Brannon
Direct download: Bad_at_Sports_Episode_138-Next.mp3
Operations Manager at Bad at Sports
Christopher Hudgens is the Operations Manager for BaS and works in various other capacities for other organizations in the Chicago Art & Culture scene. Most recently as Business Operations Manager for the Bridge Art Fair and currently an advocate for all things art & technology.
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Carrying my cvomments about fairs over from the last podcast/blog ….
Now that I have listened to whole podcast, I am a bit more optimistic..I think the Next structure sounds like a good try at the very least. I am surprised, Duncan, that you could do the whole interview without even alluding the international scandal/battle centered on CVF’s involvement. At least KG and CVF are ATTEMPTING a new model. I think, reflecting on what they said, that theirs is one centered on curators, rather than trade-fair. I have mixed feelings about this, as the entire REST of the artworld has been converted from ARTworld to CURATORworld anyway. Is it then necessary to service them further — what about putting ARTist back into the equation. I wish them good luck, though, anyway. I think it could at least hint at further creative possibilities.
Rumor has it that his conflict of interest issue got CVF ousted from the Village Voice. Ouch. There hasn’t been a ton of reporting on this.
Ball Z– This has actually been widely reported– particularly on the Blogs– many feel that CVF was hosed in the process– though I find it hard to ethically square being an art-critic for a major publication AND a director of an international art-fair– it is regrettable because CVF was a nimble and interesting thinker — I liked his writing in the Voice– he also ran a wonderful gallery called Roebling Hall– he’s a smart guy– many feel that he was lynched by Tyler Green of the Modern Art Notes blog– though I feel like Green asked him a perfectly fair question– How do you square being in both roles?– CVF said most of what happens in the art world and art for that matter was a conflict of interest– which was an interesting answer that really didn’t wash — even in the art-world — which is quickly becoming( or always was) the last bastion of laissez-faire capitalism and elastic ethical conceits. The Voice, I think rightly, saw his position as a conflict of interest, and let him go.
It begs some questions of the Mart guys though– at any point , did any of them think about asking CVF about the potential conflict position?– and why hasn’t anyone asked them about this?– If you have an employee or a partner in a potential conflict position ; don’t you remedy that before someone asks the inevitable questions?
That struck me as odd in the story. I can’t imagine the dual career thing came up unexpectedly? Was he warned? Was he doing it on the sly? Was this about something unrelated?
It might be that if the dual nature of his roles as critic and art fair director were in plain sight– maybe no questions would be asked– there is no evidence that CVF ever lied or tried to hide the facts — he was straight-up about having both positions– What’s weird is why he didn’t get that many would, rightly, view this as a conflict — Did the Mart guys want a well regarded critic in their hip-pocket?– a cynical person might think this — my guess is they didn’t really think about it –as has been said a lot on this blog– the Mart guys are business guys — not art-guys, I’m guessing they didn’t think much about his critic job at all– He’s a smart guy who ran a well regarded gallery. Once it became a story — and started circulating — nobody from the Mart was even quoted as far as I know. It is curious. You can read whole screeds about this story over on Modern Art Notes and Edward Winkelman’s blog had a long back and forth with CVF and some of his detractors and supporters last week …. in the big picture Ballz… the whole thing was an art-world popcorn-fart that nobody will care about in a month.
Link:
http://edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com/2008/04/juicy-feud-friday.html
I too think the affair is not much really, as was obvious in my post and comments at Sharkforum, but I found it strange to not at least mention it. Maybe CVF asked Duncan for that?
More important is the “new models” idea for art fairs anyway, and the fact that no one seems to even consider one serving artists.
That’s weird, my comment went up then disappeared.
Anyway, here’s the link:
http://edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com/2008/04/juicy-feud-friday.html
It is apparent what I think about it, from my Sharkforum blog and comment argument, I don’t think it is of much significance — there are bigger double-dippers to fry. But I just thought it was weird that it didn’t appear at all, even in a side comment, since it is such a major part of the media around NEXT.
More important to me is the idea of alternate models for art fairs, and why no one (except Tony) seems to even passingly think about one that does service to artists .
And then it came back up again. Is there an echo in here?
Random comments from last night.
Art Chicago looked horrible. I find it hard to believe that was the best they could do with the space with all of the lead time they had. I was incredibly claustrophobic and reminded me of a mall from the 80’s. Wow. A step down from last year.
Next look better, but how on earth can they claim that show was “curated” there was a real everything but the kitchen sink approach.
I think a lot of the good, alternative dealers/etc. from Chicago (Bertran Projects, Green Lantern, Old Gold, and the mysteriously included Thrill Jockey record label) should have revolted in violent protest for the horrible presentation they were saddled with. At least they were included.
Next, at least, was interesting. Art Chicago was a step down from last year, it was the garage sale of art. Why they run Intuit and the Antique show at the same time is a mystery to me as well.
Also, you would think that the mart, expecting that much of a crowd for opening night, would have come up with a plan for the elevator problem, also worse than last year. Nothing like waiting for 30 minutes once you are in the building to cram into an overloaded elevator.
The “Black Pass” room was a mess, no one knew what was going on and there was a seeming lack of management. They were nice enough to give me a catalog (what, no bag for the catalog?).
The overall impression was that despite having done the show in this space two times prior to this, there was still a lack of signage and organization on the part of the mart. On the plus side, they had oodles of help in the lobby to guide people, which was nice.
It was odd that there was some weird “dream homes” event going on in the north lobby that had nothing to do with the show and it was right in front of the VIP registration area, I watched for a few minutes as baffled folks wandered into the middle of someone elses event, there was much anxiety from that group.
Anyway, heading back today and will comment further,
Emma
Emma, I’m confused:
“Bertran Projects, Green Lantern, Old Gold, Thrill Jockey record label…. At least they were included.”
Included how? I don’t see them on any floorplan.
Kathryn
They are there. In the Next Fair.
Darn. They are in it? Those are some of the art spaces I wanted to see! Too bad I couldn’t make it this year — but then again, since AP was what it was ….
Next seemed too academic
“Next” was terrible. I’ve never walked through an art exhibit so quickly. Actually, calling it an art exhibit is difficult. This shite is what the art schools are churning out by the bushel. How very sad.
I thought Next was a hell of a lot more interesting and cohesive than Art Chicago which looked like Art News threw up.
There was a serious lack of editing and curatorial anything.