You know you've made it when ...

WTF

You know you’ve made it when bad copies of your work start showing up on Instagram.

And not just bad, but embarrassingly bad.

One of the distinguishing features of my work is the level of realism at scale. I go to great lengths to make these works super-real with fine detail and careful finishes that range from matte to high gloss on the same piece.

Dog Orange detail

Each of my paint tubes has a clearly defined concept and multiple layers of context. I’m using the language of Pop Art to talk about the nature of art. Here is a real installation of paint tubes:

And it’s not just my Artist's’ Color Series that paint tubes that have been copied. Some jackass in Italy copied my matchbooks and even had the audacity to put my business name on them.

Woo Hoo - I’ve finally made it! <sigh>

A better indicator of success might be this new exhibition at the Bradbury Art Museum - my first museum show.

For me the real measure of success us twofold. First, the satisfaction of creating a vision, like this Art Tool Paint Set.

When things come together - maybe an especially difficult fabrication, or when I hang the work to be photographed - I invariably have a wide grin. Just as good - or maybe even better - is when someone else has the same reaction.

That’s when I know that I’ve made it (no pun intended).

The Triumph of Hucksterism

At $195m, Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. This puts Andy firmly in the pantheon of the greatest artists of all time, surpassing all contemporary, modern, impressionist, and classical artists except Leonardo da Vinci, whose Salvator Mundi (a much reworked painting, supposedly but not certainly by the master) sold for the staggering sum of $450m. 

Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Monet, Rodin, Van Gogh, DuChamp, Picasso, and the rest - stand aside!

With this auction sale Warhol’s status has surpassed even the fawning adoration of the Netflix documentary (The Andy Warhol Diaries) that labeled him “the most important artist of the 20th century”. Andy’s most important works? The Marilyn portraits and his Campbell’s Soup cans, mass produced in studio he called “The Factory”.

The soup cans propelled Warhol to fame by provoking outrage among critics. Yet this had been done 45 years earlier by Marcel DuChamp’s Fountain, a urinal lying on its back.

Fountain was a political statement aimed squarely at the Society of Independent Artists, of which DuChamp was a member. It is the most notable example of the avant-garde Dada movement that rejected the ideals of capitalism and bourgeois aesthetics in reaction to the horrors of WWI.

Warhol’s soup cans are by comparison completely empty. There is no political statement, no criticism, no humor. They don’t even hold soup.

“The Soup Can effect was not to rescue American banalities from banality but to give banality itself value.” - Gary Indiana

The Marilyn portraits, like the soup cans and everything else, were produced ad nauseum in huge editions by subcontractors.

“most of his works from around 1970 onwards were made in off-site studios that he never visited. He simply sent templates for the paintings and prints to be made from, and signed the finished works when they were sent to him.” - Jonathon Jones, The Guardian

This is now the definition of high art - but only if money is the gauge. If you are looking for meaning in Warhol’s work you will only find economics: a combination of public relations, celebrity culture, and mass production. The Warhol estate had a collection of some 100,000 pieces.

Warhol was the adored enfant terrible of the elite, rubbing shoulders with and making Marilyn-style portraits, often commissioned, of musicians, actors, socialites, sports figures - anyone and everyone notable in one sense or another. In this way he became - in more ways than one - a celebrity artist.

“[Warhol] is the last of the truly successful social portraitists, climbing from face to face in a silent delirium of snobbery, a man so interested in elites that he has his own society magazine.” - Robert Hughes

This was a marketing campaign tuned to perfection, based on education in commercial art and experience in advertising and promotion.

“Good business is the best art.” - Andy Warhol

Which brings us back to the fundamental question that is the basis of my work: If art is business, is it still art?

Divide and Conquer

Expanding on the art world’s latest scam, a former Christie’s executive has jumped on the NFT bandwagon and created PARTICLE, an online marketplace for “fine art masterpiece” NFTs.

The first item for sale is 10,000 shares of Banksy’s Love Is In The Air. The original Love Is In The Air (also known as The Flower Thrower ) adorns a wall in Bethlehem, Palestine.

But what exactly is being sold here? Is it Banksy’s 2005 painting of the same name?

No - what’s being sold is a digital certificate that bestows ownership of a randomly selected virtual cell from a 100 x 100 grid overlaid on an digital image of the painting.

Bansky, Love Is In The Air, 2003

PARTICLE purchased this piece for $12.9m at auction and is now trying to turn a profit on this by selling shares in the ownership. So much for the quaint idea of holding a portfolio of art assets and patiently waiting for them to appreciate. No time for that - gotta make bank NOW!

Judging by the amount of white background, odds are at least 8 to 1 that a buyer of a random 1/10,000the share will get virtual “ownership” of blank space.

PARTICLE claims that the work itself will not be destroyed (even though it will be particalized), and that PARTICLE will retain 9% ownership to prevent anyone from claiming “possession of the physical piece”. Except for PARTICLE, of course, which will maintain possession and hold the work in trust. Likely in the PARTICLE Museum, where admission fees will be charged for entry.

So act now and you can own a digital certificate that says you own some tiny portion of a painting that you will never actually own or likely to ever see in person.

WTF is NFT?

Would you pay $999,000 for this? Image: Cryptokitties.co

The Newest Financial Twist in art is the promotion of financial products, in this case the crypto-currency known as Ethereum. The art is irrelevant, the only thing that matters is money.

Beeple is an ideal vehicle for investors (those with No Fucking Taste). His endless regurgitation of lowbrow images in digital collages recalls critic Robert Hughes, who pointed out that “What strip-mining is to nature, the art market has become to culture.” The self-named Beeple-Crap (https://www.beeple-crap.com/) “art shit for yer facehole”, is undoubtedly the most honest part of the whole affair.

In the final minutes of the Christie’s auction, bidding suddenly accelerated in increments of $10 million. Bid manipulation is an old game in the auction world, where artists and dealers buy their own work to boost prices. The secrecy surrounding the identity of buyers lends an additional air of illegitimacy to an already cloudy activity.

Damien Hirst was reportedly among the “consortium of businessmen” that bought his £50 million skull “as an investment”. Among the many things we will never know is whether there really was a consortium and what the actual price was, as the appearance of huge sales benefits both the artist and the auction house.

Art at the high end has always been an investment vehicle. In the good old days dealers guided collectors in building diversified investment portfolios of art. Collectors were expected to support the dealer with regular purchases, and if they didn’t they were out. Now most galleries are busy slugging it out for sales at art fairs and online platforms, and investors (formerly known as “collectors’) are only interested in the best (lowest) possible price.

Enter the NFT, short for Non Fungible Token. One cannot help buy enjoy the obvious contradiction of the name.

fungible adj. law: of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind

What’s really for sale here is not the art but the crypto-currency. Nobody is talking about what a magnificent piece of work this is, or the artist’s purpose in creating it, or the cultural relevance of the work (see Robert Hughes’ quote above). It’s all about the astounding amount of money - the third-highest auction price for a living artist - and the crypto. Which, unfortunately, is for some the very definition of cultural relevance.

This is simply a promotional event publicizing the new currency. NFT trading volume in Ethereum increased 2,850% between December 2020 and February 2021. What better way to boost it than with a controversial, record-setting, and highly publicized transaction?

What else do you have?

Last year a Potential Client emailed about buying some work. I replied with a list of galleries that represent me and advised that I also had studio inventory. He asked for studio inventory, specifically paint tubes.

I don’t recall what it was that tipped me off, but I had the feeling he was trying to back door one of my galleries. I directed him to the gallery. He replied that he had already been there, so I informed the gallery and asked them to deal with him.

Sketch for Artists’ Pencil Set (stubby)

Through the gallery I responded to a slew of questions: is this still available, what about that, how much for this, can you make something like that, and so on. I even made a sketch for a commission based on the Artists Color Pencil Set.

After a week of furious churning the gallery advised that the client wanted something to go with a blue sofa being delivered in January and was going to wait before making a purchase. Needless to say, nothing happened.

Members Only

Fast forward one year, almost to the day. The Poser (based on prior experience he’s no longer a Potential Client) inquires about the piece Members Only, including in the email a picture of it from my website. The piece is in my inventory.

Ruefully recalling the previous year’s charade I him offer it to him at full price with the intention of cutting a check to the gallery if it sells. I’m going to nip this back-door discount bullshit in the bud right away.

The Poser replies “Do you still work with ________ Gallery? Do they have any matchbooks?”

I send him pictures of the galley’s inventory. Then I call the gallery. “What? He was in here last weekend looking at your work!”

The Poser emails again: “What else do you have available?”

I reply (with a CC to the gallery) “please contact the gallery.” The Poser responds that he prefers the piece in my inventory that he originally inquired about. I ignore him. Then he emails me and the gallery, “Who should I deal with regarding the Members Only piece?”

The rest of the exchange went like this:

Gallery: With the gallery please.

Poser: Thank you. I wasn’t sure if that piece was in your possession. Do you have time to discuss this week? [He knew I had the piece]

Gallery: The work is not in our possession. We can obtain it from the artist if you’re interested. It is always the preference of the gallery and the artist that you deal with us directly; attempting to circumvent that relationship will not get you a better price or endear you to either party.

Poser: Let me be clear. I reached out to ______ who is no longer employed by your gallery. I then reached out to _____ who did not respond to me for a week. That is why I contacted Miles directly. Pointing an accusatory finger at me is does not endear yourself to me either. I own a lot of art and work with many galleries and artists. If you are not happy with the way I went about purchasing this piece, then I can find something else. Thanks again.

Gallery: I’m sorry if the gallery did not immediately respond to you. Going directly to our artists is unacceptable. If that’s a problem for you, that’s totally OK feel free to shop elsewhere.

Poser: It is not a problem for me but understand, if your team is unresponsive then there is nothing that prohibits me from reaching out to the artist directly. Mr. Jaffe has a website with contact details. There is nothing that says I can not send him a message. I am happy to work with a gallery but my hope is that they would be responsive and respectful. 

Gallery: Let’s not pretend like that’s what happening here; you have been in and out of the gallery for years. You have my contact information, the Gallery‘s phone number, and ____ was certainly not the issue. You saw what you believed was an opportunity to get yourself a better price and you took it. I get it. But I don’t need it.

I’m in full ignore mode now, I don’t want anything to do with this guy. In the meantime the piece has gone on hold for a REAL client. Then I get a call from another gallery, they’ve got somebody hot for Members Only.

“Is his name Poser?” Of course.

The Poser is raising the gallery’s hopes for a non-existent sale during a raging pandemic that has shattered normal economic activity. Now I have to burst the gallery’s bubble and explain the situation to them. The very last thing I need is some idiot screwing up my gallery relationships.

What other mischief can this fool cause? Just as I am reaching out to another of my galleries with a warning, they contact me about a guy named Poser who is looking for Members Only.

WTF is wrong with this jackass? He didn’t take the piece he wanted when it was offered to him. How do I stop this nonsense? Maybe if I offer to make him a variation of the piece he didn’t take (at a higher price, of course) and now so desperately wants he’ll bugger off. So I send him a polite note, apologizing that the piece is no longer available and offering him the opportunity to commission a unique variation of it.

His reply? “Thank you for your note. What else do you have?”

tire kicker

The Politics of Color

LINE TAN (detail)

Last year I produced my first figurative work - if you can call a paint tube figurative. LINE TAN references Pop painter Tom Wesselmann, whose signature works typically include a female nude with tan lines.

I didn’t get to enjoy the piece for very long - a few days after it was finished a collector visiting the studio snapped it up. <sigh> Don’t get me wrong, sales are good as they allow me to keep making things, and making things makes me happy. But I do like to enjoy the things I make, too, at least for a bit. Especially in a case like this, where the piece breaks into new territory (the human figure).

So damn you BG for running off with this … and thank you for your support!

In developing these works I often start with a color idiom that I then reference to an artist. One that had been in mind for while was ‘brown sugar’. Sugar led to sweet, sweet led to Marvin Gaye’s How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You), a celebration of love. It also led to a more controversial song written by Mick Jagger and his girlfriend of the time, Marsha Hunt (who is black), to a street name for heroin, and to Jackie Gleason’s character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners.

work in process, paint drip for Sugar Brown

Multiple references makes Brown Sugar a delightful pun. The one I chose to highlight - with a quote on the label - was Marvin Gaye’s love song.

Reworking the original digital model, I 3D printed a new paint drip. Using Golden Paint’s virtual color mixing tool I mixed up a nice chocolaty brown and began painting the model. It was at this point that things took a hard left (right?) turn.

My daughter - an intelligent, articulate, politically engaged, and righteous 25 - was less than happy when she saw the work in process. “You can’t do that,” she said. “You’re a privileged white male, you’re going to commit career suicide!”

Whoa. A bit taken aback, I described the piece as a celebration. To no effect, as I don’t have the right to ‘appropriate black culture’. “It’s not appropriation, it’s appreciation,” I said. “I like to think that I’m colorblind” (obviously in a racial sense, as the irony of the paint tubes is … well, you understand).

“That word is a trigger and there are a list of automatic responses to it.” Responses based on my race: privileged white male.

“So I can make a white girl dripping out of a paint tube but I can’t make a black girl dripping out of a paint tube? Now that’s racist.”

“No, you can’t. Women are sexualized in art, especially black women.”

For the purpose of this essay I’m going to leave the issue of sexualization and several millennia of the history of art out of this and focus on the issue of race.

I had to consider the very real issue here: a world of insanely over-the-top political correctness that can only be described as intolerant absolutism. [As an aside I have watched this building up for decades with the practice of scorched-earth politics and monopolized, sensationalized, profit-hungry corporate media.] I also remembered my idealistic youth and a tendency to see things as extremes rather than shades of grey.

I discussed this with an artist friend (white male, and it annoys me to no end that I have to qualify race for the purpose of this essay). His immediate response was “you can’t do that” and he reminded me of (white) painter Dana Schutz, who had been severely criticized for the exhibition of an abstract painting of Emmett Til at the Whitney Biennial. Reactions to Schutz’s work ranged from “It is not acceptable for a white person to transmute Black suffering into profit and fun” (somebody please tell me where the ‘fun’ is in this) to “A white person showing empathy toward blacks is now racist?”.

Another (white male) friend related the story of artist Donald Newman, who in 1979 abruptly ended an otherwise promising career with a poorly chosen title for a series of work. It looks to me like he chose the title to get attention, and that it worked a bit better than he anticipated. The title was grossly inappropriate and will not be repeated here.

A (white male) art dealer in NYC loved the idea of Sugar Brown until I told him of my daughter’s reaction. Then he said, “I hadn’t thought about it like that at all. But if a young person has that kind of response maybe you should put it off for a year until things settle down.” Another (white male) art dealer, high level secondary market, just shook his head, and then showed me pieces by Alexander Calder that he had removed from display.

Another friend (black male) said he loved the concept and was shocked by my daughter’s reaction. “Brown sugar, brown sugar, that’s sweet! Marvin Gaye! I’ve never heard that used in a negative way.”

Banksy via Instagram

So now I am at an impasse.

This is dangerous territory - especially in the current political climate. While I am really excited about this new work and think it would be a great piece - a celebration of love, beauty, and black culture, I am concerned that it will provoke an intolerant response.

Am I not allowed to be influenced by Soul, Funk, Jazz, or the beauty of a woman without regard for the color of her skin? Am I being overcautious and forsaking my responsibility to address the issues of my time? Am I being politically correct to the point of being intolerant of my own work?

Banksy, attached to a piece posted on Instagram, wrote:

“People of colour are being failed by the system. The White system. Like a broken pipe flooding the apartment of people living downstairs. This faulty system is making their life misery, but it's not their job to fix it. They can't, no-one will let them in the apartment upstairs. This is a white problem. And if white people don’t fix it, someone will have to come upstairs and kick the door in.”

addendum: Banksy bought a retired French naval ship and repurposed it to rescue immigrants at sea that the EU ignores and leaves to drown.

HELP WANTED

JOB DESCRIPTION: Artist

We are currently seeking an individual with the following skills and qualifications. If you have all of these abilities and are interested in a difficult, poorly paid job with no benefits please contact us immediately.

Fabrication Skills:

· woodworking
· welding & metalworking
· plastic fabrication
· industrial spray painting

Technical Skills:

· 3D modeling and computer aided design
· digital photography and photo editing
· web and graphic design
· manufacturing research
· shop and machinery maintenance

Administrative Skills:

· procurement management
· production management
· inventory management
· shipping and receiving
· database maintenance
· accounting
· business correspondence
· public relations and advertising
· social media experience

Personal Qualities:

· creative and resourceful
· able to lift heavy objects
· available to work evenings and weekends
· able to work alone or with others
· able to accept direction
· able to accept criticism
· own your own tools
· valid driver’s license
· own a reliable truck

Thank you.

Meditations on a Banana

Dave Datuna eats Maurizo Cattelan’s lunch

Maurizio Cattelan - whose duct-taped banana has become the latest virulent meme - was one-upped at Art Basel Miami by hungry artist David Datuna, who calmly pulled the banana off the wall and ate it.

According to Gallerie Perrotin, who represents Cattelan, the banana lampoons "popular culture and offers a wry commentary on society, power, and authority".

Cattelan's banana is just the latest iteration of a long-running joke that goes back at least as far Michangelo, who painted the people he had to deal with while working on the Sistine Chapel as characters in the frescos he painted there.

Comedian

Marcel DuChamp's 1917 Fountain (a urinal) was aimed squarely at the Society of Independent Artists, which had set up an exhibition without a jury that would accept all submissions (and from which Fountain was rejected). DuChamp's 'readymades' were products.

Jean Tinguely's 1960 performance Homage to New York was a machine that self-destructed. With performance art there is nothing to buy except perhaps a ticket. Most of the remains of Homage to New York were thrown away, with a few small pieces kept as mementos.

Part performance and part product, Piero Manzoni created Artist's Shit in 1961 by canning his own (fortunately we have been spared the performance part). Merda d'artista last sold at auction for £182,500.

Wim Delvoye took the concept to another level with Cloaca, a series of machines that transformed food into feces and then vacuum-packaged it - a striking metaphor for art, consumerism, life, and just about everything, especially if you subscribe to Sturgeon's Law*. Delvoy's Cloaca is part performance - the machines digest food in front of the audience - and part product, as shrink-wrapped poop is available for purchase.

Finally we get to Banksy, whose painting Girl with Balloon partially self-destructed at auction. Banksy is without doubt the most socially and culturally relevant artist alive today. The remote-controlled destruction of an artwork that had just sold for £1 million was a deliberate act of class warfare - which with exquisite irony made the work even more valuable.

So yes - Cattelan's banana (title: Comedian) is a joke. But on who?

Certainly not on Perrotin, the high-end French art gallery that is basking in the global publicity. It is most certainly a joke on the buyers - if indeed there really are any. Perrotin's claim that three were sold at $120,000 to $150,000 each remains just that - a claim. Like many such claims (such as some of the red dots posted at art fairs) they should be taken with some large grains of salt.

For those attending the fairs it is - like almost all "culture" - just more entertainment. Few are educated enough to view this in historical perspective or even get past the obvious one-liners. Most are busier looking at each other ("Miami is more fun if you speak Spanish. And are very rich. And skinny too.") than they are at art. In this respect Cattelan's banana is well-placed, a spectacle (neither product nor performance) that adds to the experience of Art Basel ("I was there when ..."). This leads us to art fairs as the lowest level of commercialism, venues profiting on galleries, artists, advertising, and sponsorships without regard for the quality product or concern for the profitability of those providing the draw. This is the only relevant interpretation of Comedian.

In the end the joke is on those of us struggling to survive by navigating the cesspool of art dealers who make used car salesmen look like Mother Teresa and art fairs that strive to be the Amazon of Art with a business model based on Uber. We are the butt of the joke.

Thus kudos to David Datuna, who in a brilliant performance accelerated the transition of Cattelan's banana into pure shit, completing the metaphor and stealing the show.

Performance art is an act, an event encapsulated in a moment of time. It can only be experienced - it cannot be owned. You can buy the photograph of the event, the catalog and the book, and even a copy of the film made about it, but you cannot buy the experience.

* Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crap"

Art Fairs and The Economics of Art

[The Economics of Art]

For the most part, the art at art fairs reflects the changing whims of the ravenous hordes of investors banging on the door of the contemporary art world, looking to “flip” works of art like stocks. — Hyperallergic

I’m not sure if this was written out of hope or ignorance, but in either case it is dead wrong.

The “ravenous hordes” are those cashing in on artists who remain - as the foundation of the entire industry - at the bottom of the food chain. Some of the most egregious offenders are the Art Fairs themselves, which have found a way to insert themselves as yet another middleman into sales - or the hope of sales, to be more accurate.

Art fairs are highly profitable affairs - for the fairs, not necessarily for artists and galleries. Exhibition fees are steep and the additional costs for transport, travel, staffing, and lodging can make participation a dubious venture at best. It’s gotten so bad that many galleries have abandoned the fairs altogether or are charging artists to participate in them. Some formerly brick and mortar galleries now exist only on paper, having traded their rental overhead for the costs of participation in the fairs. Some artists have gone so far as to represent themselves as galleries, trading the art dealer’s commission for the art fair attendance fees (and the hope of sales).

Art fairs are the Uber of the art world, and the galleries are the drivers. The fairs provide (in theory at least) high volumes of traffic for the centralized shopping of curated art. In reality the curation is largely based on which galleries can afford to buy in. The vast majority of traffic is there for entertainment, not buying, and volume is subject to weather. Attendance figures are like box office receipts; a fair’s success is measured by the number of visitors.

The shift in the marketing of art from galleries to art fairs has most obviously come at the financial expense of the galleries. But the negative effects go far beyond the cost. The vast quantity of work displayed - often of questionable merit - is overwhelming and dulls the senses, and is multiplied by the sheer number of often simultaneous art fairs.

Art galleries face enormous competition at the fairs: rather than having an identity and place within a local community, galleries are placed in stall in what amounts to an international flea market. For quality galleries collector relationships are critical and client lists are fiercely guarded. Personal relationships are typically not built at fairs, except maybe with the art fair staff. Some galleries try to poach artists from other galleries - they look for what is selling (or supposedly selling, as not all Red Dots are genuine).

The artwork itself is at risk not just from shipping damage but also from excessive handling under high pressure in ridiculously small time frames. The necessity of a gallery to sell anything to help recoup the costs can have a negative effect on the artists in the form of high discounts - which not only can mean less for the artist but devalues the work as well (note to artists: have a clear consignment agreement that specifies the maximum allowable discount).

In the end it comes down to separating hype (as quoted in the Hyperallergic article above) from reality.

The second-worst thing that can happen to your work ...

[Artists’ Color Series paint tubes individually wrapped in preparation for shipping.]

The second worst thing that can happen to an artist’s work is damage (we won’t go into the worst thing here). Sculpture in particularly is difficult to ship - bulky, heavy, often fragile - and requires careful packing to protect it.

Art handlers generally do not have insurance for damage to the work, which is typically covered by the policy of the gallery or the artist (if they can afford it). Regardless, it is far better to be over-packed than to have to deal with damage. Accordingly I pack my work carefully with an eye to surviving everything up to getting stabbed with a forklift.

Each of my paint tubes is quadruple wrapped in 1/2” bubble wrap with extra protection at the ends. For domestic shipping the tubes are solidly packed (to prevent movement) inside a foam-cushioned, plywood-lined extra-heavy duty double-wall cardboard box. This may sound like overkill but I have yet to have any significant damage to work shipped this way despite evidence of serious mishandling such as shipped standing on end (despite clearly labeled arrows pointing UP) and holes bashed through the plywood(!).

[A typical plywood-lined, solidly-packed box waiting for pickup at my studio.]

Now you would think that a gallery receiving work packed this way would take note and document the packing method. You would also think that the gallery would save the packing material to reuse when sending the work to a buyer or returning it to the artist. Alas. Such simple, logical, responsible behavior is beyond the New York gallery that returned 4 paint tubes to me like this:

[How I received the work back.]

[Nice packing job.]

The work was damaged, of course. And the response of gallery owner, who claimed to have personally packed the work and instructed the art mover to transport it standing on end? “That’s impossible. I’m not paying out of pocket for that!”

Look - shit happens, I get it. The question is not whether you made a mistake, but how you deal with it. This particular gallery owner blamed the damage on “defective work” despite the repeated shipping of 23 works between galleries in NY and LA and art fairs from Miami to Chicago, Syracuse to Palm Springs, all without damage.

Imagine how different this would have been if the gallery owner had said “I’m sorry. What can we do to make this right?”

---

ARTIST TIP: Make sure your consignment agreement specifies that the gallery insures the work and is responsible for all damages while in their care, including during shipping. Carefully document everything with paperwork such as shipping / delivery receipts and photographs. Also research state law where you exhibit as many states have laws designed to protect artists from the egregious behavior of galleries like this one. New York for example describes the gallery as a fiduciary, with the same level of legal responsibility as the executor of an estate.

Lesson of the Day

Before you shake paint, check to see that the lid on the container is secure. Don’t ask me how I know.

I am not posting an actual picture because some things are better left to the imagination. I will say that it was black paint.

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

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

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.