pay to play

Biennale di Venezia

Can’t I just get a Publisher’s Clearinghouse Entry instead?

I'm Viola Persico, Project Coordinator of ITSLIQUID GROUP. We have visited your website and we are very interested in showing your artworks, during the next exhibition:

ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL, international exhibition of photography, painting, video art, installation/sculpture and performance art, that will be held in Venice, at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space and in other prestigious venues and historical buildings, in the months between May and November 2019, during the same period of the 58th Biennale di Venezia. ANIMA MUNDI consists of 3 main events, RITUALS, CONSCIOUSNESS and VISIONS. The deadline for the submission is April 7, 2019.

To confirm your participation please:
- read terms and conditions on the official website of ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL;
- send us a proposal about the artworks you would like to present (with names, dimensions, technique - you may show as many works as you want, including existing and new ones);

The application proposal is completely free. If selected, there is a participation fee related to the number and dimensions of the artworks selected. The fee covers the venues’ renting, the global and local press office, the design and the printing of invitation cards, posters, the realization of the exhibition website and dedicated articles, mounting, dismounting and packaging service, opening organization and ceremony, hostess service and collaborators during the whole festival, the publication of a printed catalogue that will include all the participants.

All artists, architects and designers interested in taking part in our shows are free to be sponsored and supported by institutions, organizations, private sponsors and their delegates; the logos of their sponsors will be included in all the communication (digital and printed) of the events. If you are planning to visit our locations in Venice, contact us by email at
lucacurci@lucacurci.com or by phone at +39.3387574098

Looking forward to hearing your response, we are at disposal to give you all detailed information.

Best regards,
Viola Persico
Project Coordinator

viola.itsliquid@gmail.com

At first read - WOW, the Venice Biennale! Oh, wait a minute, they’re just showing at the same time. OK, let’s check the terms and conditions on the official website of ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL (no link supplied). A search returned https://www.itsliquid.com/, which has (of course) no “terms and conditions”. More searching turned up this:

Luca Curci and the ArtExpo Scam
Liquid Group

Apparently after you send them your work at your own expense, they start charging you exhibition fees.

PAK it up

If there is an opening line to be wary of, it is “Our curator team …”:

Dear Miles Jaffe,
Our curator team has seen your artworks and find these wonderful.
We invite you to participate in our exhibition, Art Fairs and Biennials in Cannes, Basel, Carrousel du Louvre Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna as also to be published in the Art Book and with an interview in Art Magazine.
If You have an interest, please contact us:
management@paks-gallery.com
best regards,
Curator team
PAKS Gallery
www.paks-gallery.com

Heinz with Melanie Griffith

Heinz with Melanie Griffith

A google search for PAKS Gallery returns an embarrassment of riches starting with an artist's website featuring a work "never returned and declared stolen" by PAKS Gallery. Others cite PAKS as a pay-to-play gallery.

Heinz Playner's B-grade website features photobombs of him with a who's who of celebs, sports stars and museum directors. His gallery's featured artist (and wife) is Tanja Playner (who?). According to her website, trendsetting Tanja is ranked number 11 of over 320,000 artists worldwide, ahead of Marc Chagall, Roy Lichtenstein, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons (who just broke another living artist auction price record at $91m), Erwin Wurm, and others.

Tanja with Travolta

Tanja with Travolta

According to her bio, Tanja’s amazing career started in 2015 with a Solo Show at PAKS

that was followed by a string of museum exhibitions including the Louvre.

If you wish to venture further down this rabbit hole there is a long way to go. But please stop by Tanja’s website and see for yourself what all the fuss is about.