How Art Met Your Mother

So I LOVE HIMYM and was excited when Lily became a cool art consultant. I felt even more cool as art is my field of work. Now people could see what art professionals do is fun and important at the same time. Although with the latest episode (although HILARIOUS) kind of let me down. The episode made Lily seem full of crap, so “la di da” with her new fashionable clothes (why is THAT bad?! Are people who dress well and in the art business full of crap? Why would you want to look like a hobo?) and the hats (ok that’s a bit extreme for me too, but hey – she could pull it off). And whenever the Captain called her at night she would have to just take off to purchase the next hot artist. Let’s get some facts straight to the MILLIONS of people watching HIMYM (because it’s just an amazing show and totally different from FRIENDS. Kind of.)

• If your client who is an art collector calls you every night to take off, you can’t just take off for ANY artist. Not every artist has “investment potential” (sorry :S)
• Okay it’s NY city so there probably are A LOT of openings. However, most of the openings happen during the weekends, with few exceptions. I don’t see how she’s going out every night from Monday to Sunday
• Art professionals (esp ones starting out) actually do NOT get paid as much as people might think they do. It’s a thankless job and should really be paying more. But there’s a lot of factors involved so I won’t get into it.
• Art is AWESOME and not all of it is random uncomfortable sculptures that look like crap. A lot of it is inspiring and for social causes as well, not only for private investments.
• Yes you can get drunk at openings… I guess I can’t say anything else to that.
• If you would like to find a consultant for your art, email me separately 🙂

Can’t wait for the next episode!

 

True Story

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/11/15/walkable-city-jeff-speck/

Because he has a horse.

So I just interviewed this one Thai artist on the phone for an article / external exhibition.

He speaks English but the Thai accent sometimes makes it sound like he’s speaking Thai. And mine is not as good as I dream it to be. So half the time he’s just LAUGHING randomly, talking about his horse and saying how he is crazy but serious when it comes to art. And how he is out of control and although I might think he’s out of control but he really is not so I REALLY shouldn’t think he’s out of control. And I swear half the time, I asked him a question about the theme/concept but instead he started talking about the past, electronic music, the horse and god knows what. What an awesome end of the day. I’m still laughing at everything I didn’t understand. This is going to be an interesting article.

Hello, ‘inner soul’ – Review of opening

So what happened during the opening?

• Sold lots of artworks (yay commission!)
• Gave discount on most of the artworks (yay.. at least a bit of commission…)
• Met new people (cool artists, wanna-be artists, pretty girls, pretty boys, old men, cool older experienced art professionals, random bozos looking for free food)
• Took LOTS of pics (new FB profile pic material, how lovely!)
• White wine (no comment needed)
• Had a violin player for the opening which was… cute.

All in all, pretty normal. The good thing was that the artworks on the wall were really amazing so being in the same room with them day in day out, and talking about it constantly was not a boring, fake thing to do. That’s an important part of enjoying any art exhibition.

But I’m on the lookout of a refreshing exhibition that is different, meaningful, refreshing. There are quite a few coming up and I hope one of them really brings it! Please do recommend any exhibitions you think is or will be worth a trip.

Till then, enjoy the works! Xx

Gotta watch what you say.

So we’ve got an opening tonight for our exhibition which I can’t wait for! Everything’s going pretty well so far – all the artworks have been completed, the installation is done, the food is going to come at the right time, the wine’s ready, and the artist is here waiting for some magazines/tv channels to come for interviews…

BUT about an hour ago.. these two people came in with an appointment to see the artist. I thought they were collectors who have followed the artist and hence want to see his works, but instead they were gallerists from up north who have exhibited this artist since 2008. So I guess you guys are friends and all.. but I ain’t friends with YOU! Generally I am a friendly person and was pretty open to them about the works. But I should’ve been more careful. The guy (sporting a white hat, white jacket coat, and a whiter mustache) just picked up a piece of paper from my desk. First of all, I was getting him and his wife water  so I couldn’t see what it was. But it was the PRICE LIST! Or so he assumed. It was the list of artworks with all info, other than the price. He wanted to ‘follow it’ so that he could make it the same for his gallery – or some lame excuse as that. I mean, I get it.. it makes sense to me, but he should know as a gallerist that there are certain MANNERS that are supposed to be followed as a civilized human being. You do not just march in, look at the office desk as if it’s an installation to be studied and deciphered, and then touch my things without asking. There’s already enough drama as it is with this artist, I don’t need more of it. I get my fill of drama from series instead.

Anyway, they are gone and the space seems much more serene now. It’s interesting to see that the artist doesn’t take that much time actually creating the artworks as it takes just drying or thinking about the concept. Sculptures are another story altogether though. The process, concept and execution – everything takes time!

Oh the media is here – time to go take care of them.

Later