UGALLERY BLOG

Here is a short news story via ARTINFO to make you smile for the weekend. I love to hear about young artists being daring, creative, and adding a sense of humor to the sometimes buttoned-up art world. Enjoy!

Last Friday evening four students from New York’s School of Visual Arts snuck their artwork into the Museum of Modern Art and installed it in the museum’s bathrooms, reports the New York Times. One, Jonathan Hartshorn, put on a performance-art piece in which he sat on the men’s room floor draped with a shower curtain and strewing flowers around the room. The exhibition was interrupted about 20 minutes in when security guards responded to a call that there was “a mental patient” in the lavatory.

MoMA officials seemed amused by the prank, reports the Times. “We knew that something different was going on on Friday when the lines to the restroom were longer than usual,” said Kim Mitchell, the director of communications, advertising and graphics.

“There was a really great energy in there that night,” said Brendan Carney, another of the artists. “We’re talking about doing this at some other museums around town.”

To complete the prank, the group posted images of the installation on momaexhibitions.org, a precise replica they created of MoMA’s Web site, moma.org.

Last Sunday evening marked the close of Art Now Fair in New York, and life is just now beginning to return to normal. The fair was a great success for Ugallery and an incredibly interesting experience personally. As a newcomer to the art fair circuit, it was amazing to see the sheer quantity of artwork; there were 11 fairs in New York this past weekend.

From a personal standpoint, these fairs may be the best way to see what is happening in art today. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of galleries from around the world showing everything from the superstars (Picasso, Warhol, Hirst) to those just starting out (Ugallery, of course). Each fair specializes in a particular period or type of art. I would say that only the most brave, dedicated art lover could manage all 11 fairs in the four days, but even visiting a fraction of the event gives one the opportunity to see much more (and a range of) art than they could anywhere else.

As a gallery owner, I think these fairs are equally valuable. We made excellent connections, and hopefully some new customers. And as an online gallery, I think it is even more important that Ugallery has a physical presence at these types of events so that people can see in person the quality of the work that we show. I realize my bias, but the art we presented at Art Now Fair was seriously good, and some of the least expensive in the whole building. Here is the work that we exhibited.

So, if you are in New York and missed us at Art Now, we will be exhibiting at the Affordable Art Fair in the city June 12th through the 15th. And for those of you who are interested, here is a linkto ARTINFO’s review of the 11 fairs.