1708 Gallery

Come early to 1708 Gallery this First Friday for a gallery talk with artist Paul Catanese. Paul will discuss the work in his current exhibit, FORGOTTEN CONSTELLATIONS, including prints and projected installations.

GALLERY TALK 6 PM
FIRST FRIDAY OPENING 7-10 PM

For more information please call 804-643-1708.

Here’s a sneak peek of some of the great work available at the auction!
It’s coming right up! Saturday, April 19th, 7:45pm: bidding starts. Check out the post below!
Contact the gallery at (804) 643-1708 to get your tickets now!
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of an event at VCU. One of my wonderful students, Chris Morgan, wrote about a presentation by the founder of Etsy. I will try to highlight( in italics) some points for everyone at 1708 to consider. Please pass it on. Thanks to Quirk gallery for helping to bring the event. I think the most important point in this long, but great, post is the importance of galleries as a community center. To me this means discourse and dialogue…not simply attempts by a wonderful non-profit gallery to compete with commercial art galleries.

Justin,

I arrived a bit late and missed whatever Arthur Hash said.(This is unfortunate Chris, because Arthur is fantastic.)

The CEO of Etsy, Robert Kalin, had many interesting things to say concerning the role of the gallery in response to Etsy’s existence in the art world, the economics of craft vs. “high art,” and the opportunities available for artists to make their own business and use Etsy as a platform and toolkit for doing so.

Because I missed the introduction, I could only gather that the purpose of the seminar was to discuss the relationship of Etsy and the role of the gallery(Quirk). Etsy’s online marketplace takes advantage of the unlimited real estate and other features exclusive to the Internet (such as blogging, which I’ll get into later). It essentially eliminates the middleman that is the gallery. I gathered that the gallery’s current role was to provide an establishment that could market, distribute and sell the work of the artist to an established community because the artist is not as capable or willing(this is only my assumption). Since the gallery is fairly similar to a music retailer, Etsy is similar to iTunes, but Etsy’s commission is simple and small enough to be most beneficial to the collector and artist.

Robert referenced Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media, where he made an analogy using the idea that McLuhan believed: “it takes a new medium to understand an old one.” He compared the role of the gallery in response to the existence of Etsy to the role of the radio industry in responce to the advent of the television. The radio industry had to recognize what the TV industry could not offer that the radio industry could: broadcasting to cars. With that knowledge of what their audience was doing, they took advantage of the weather and traffic market. He claimed that the gallery needs to do the same and recognize what they can offer that Etsy, as an online existence, cannot- a community center.

Another interesting point made by Mr. Kalin was about the consequences of a current bad economy in the art world when the representative for Quirk gallery gave testimony to the fact that Richmond collectors aren’t buying as much. “High art,” like paintings and sculpture, tends to serve no practical function while selling for very high prices, where as crafts are relatively affordable and will be appealing to collectors and consumers who would like to appreciate art but use it as a tool. Good luck to all the Painting and Sculpture majors.

I think that the most personally relevant information was about the relationship between blogs and Etsy. Kalin has seen successful business stories on Etsy (which are apparently highlighted every month) whose artists have used their blog to merchandise their life. Consumers can follow the life of an artist, whose posts could contribute a personal context and connection to each piece of art, which has the potential to greatly entice certain collectors. He even proposed the idea of making “fictitious blogs” for the very purpose of branding yourself. He also compared particular bloggers to galleries who aim to build reputations of “good taste” and “pockets of affinity.” These are some awesome ideas for using blogs as publications rather than the journal blogging that we’ve been doing in class.

Some other interesting quick notes:

-Manufacturing Landscapes by Edward Burtynsky

A documentary that explores the aesthetic nature of towns and cities in China that are developed for the sole purpose of manufacturing handmade goods for the rest of the world.

-Etsy Statistics

-1 mil. registered members

-11 mil. unique visitors per month (it might actually be per year)

– Average price – $15

-Average age (seller and buyer) – 33

– Out of all 1 mil. members, 96% are female.

http://www.etsy.com/

1708 is planning a homepage redesign. Here are some places that might provide some reference for trends on the Web. You probably already know how useful resources like Google, Youtube, and Wikipedia can be. Here are more online resources, with very short blurb descriptions.. Great content in each link as well.

http://www.tumblr.com/
great blogging and networking site.

http://www.flickr.com/

for all your photo organizing needs.

http://vimeo.com/

video sharing done the right way.

http://ubu.com/

an amazing art historical archive of sounds, words, and visions.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks

amazingly visionary presentations.

http://www.poptech.com/popcasts/

more fantastic talks.

http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/

I only wish that more radio was as good as these shows. Lots of great neuroscience over the last few seasons.

http://www.boingboing.net/

a wonderful geeky small scale (4 main writers) group blog. Quirky, often politically-engaged fun.

http://www.francismckee.com/

brilliant curating of art -related links.

http://creativecommons.org/

this final group has connections to the majority of the other links in this list. For example look at the licenses on TED, or the options for how you can license your pics on Flickr.

3D Multiples: The Object of Production

March 7 – 29, 2008

Come to the special Closing Event March 28th, 6-10 pm

Meet the exhibiting artists and members of Command Print: Southern Graphics Council Conference (being held in Richmond this week)

“Protection”

This piece is an exploration of drawing in three dimensions. I use blown glass tubes to create drawings on the wall that seem to hover above the surface. I am inspired by fungus and growth.

Kathleen Crabill is an undergraduate artist at Virginia Commonwealth University, in the Department of Craft and Material Studies.

I mentioned this site last night during the meeting.
http://www.artreview.com/

Here’s my page. I still need to add pics and videos….but you can see the general idea.
http://www.artreview.com/profile/JustinLincoln

I think that 1708 should join,.(It’s free.) We should get involved, put out calls….especially for InLight, and scout artists that we could even invite specific artists that we find here to send proposals. Scouting expeditions in a sense.

Take a look around and tell me what you think.

3D Multiples: The Object of Production

March 7 – 29, 2008

… With a special Closing Event March 28th, 6-10 pm

Come out and meet the exhibiting artists and the many folks connected to the Command Print: Southern Graphics Council Conference (being held in Richmond that week) …

The first event was the opening on March 3rd – a slightly rainy evening but the gallery had many many folks that came out to see this eclectic mix of art and artists who’s works speak of the manufacturing process within their art practices …

Jack Risley’s biomorphic forms were especially intriguing … and they seemed to come toward you with a need for keeping things clean & tidy …

photo by Nicole Brewer

And Matt King’s Cart Corrals were a great example of the art-piece in multiples and equally interesting from the front of the gallery right up to the pieces themselves …

photo by Nicole Brewer

… Both of these series of multiples realize inovative approaches with the use of the CNC Router …

MORE PHOTOS TO COME ….

Please send your photos of the 3D Multiple exhibit to Jessi Moore, 1708Gallery Exhibiton Coordinator @ jmoore@1708gallery.org we would love to see what you saw!!!