Michael Leis photographs landscapes “that tell a story.” That means when he’s flying his EVO II Pro drone, trying to find the right shot, he’s looking for two or three striking points of interest. Leis captured this study of light and shadow over Timber Coulee in Vernon County during the late evening – “the golden five minutes,” he calls it. The scene has at least three of those points of interest: the red farm buildings, the meander of Coon Creek (renowned for fly fishing) and the five “rolling contours” in the fields above the barn that “give that hillside character,” Leis says.
The photo was taken during the evening. When I left our home, I told my wife, ‘I don’t know where I’m going and I won’t be home till after dark.’ I drove to Timber Coulee in Vernon County and kept driving until the shadows were just right. I pulled off on a side road and launched the Evo. From there I could see three points of interest. First, the farm. Each farm has its own farming practices. Note the hay in the lower right, corn in the center and strip cropping to the top near the tree line. Second, Coon Creek. Fly fishermen love this picture, because they can see the beauty of the area that they might fish one day. Third, God the artist. Above the red barn, in the sun, are five rolling contours which give that hillside character. Then, add the 400+ foot hills with shadows in each coulee. Most coulees have a creek or stream that feeds into Coon Creek, which is the creek in the photo.
I have always loved aerial photography. I wanted to be more than a guy with a drone. I practiced on the farm for one year but quickly realized that you need to know four things; topography, FAA laws, photography, and the tech part of droning. Early morning or late evening are when most of my photos are taken. In most landscapes, I try to have two to three points of interest in the photo with none of them in the middle of the picture.
My wife and I live on our farm on St. Mary’s Ridge near Cashton. Next year we hope to roll out “Leisurefarm Images.” We will provide drone services and sell various landscape prints. My wife takes rural landscape and wildlife pics as well. As for now, we sell prints through Instagram by direct message. I do drone projects for real estate, insurance inspections, and gifts for private individuals, videography and photography. My wife rides shotgun with me once in a while but she says she needs a cup of ‘good coffee’ in order to come with.
Submit your photos to cmamerow@milwaukeemag.com
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A powerful piece of indigenous art is on display in Washington, D.C., but it’s making its way back to Montana for visitors to view at Tippet Rise Art Center near Fishtail in Stillwater County.
The beautiful mountain setting in the Beartooth Mountains near Fishtail was land the Crow people once called home, so it’s fitting the area will soon be home to an art piece with historical significance to the Crow people.
“The piece is called ‘The Soil You See.’ It’s really exciting for us,” says Peter Hinmon, co-director of Tippet Rise Art Center. “Even more so, it’s truly an honor and quite humbling to have this sculpture coming to Tippet Rise.”
The piece was commissioned by Apsaalooke artist Wendy Red Star, niece of famous artist Kevin Red Star, as part of an exhibition on display at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It depicts a very important piece of untold American history.
“‘The Soil You See’ is a large thumbprint. It’s my thumbprint coming out of a glass boulder,” says Wendy Red Star.
Throughout Crow history, dating back to the 1800s, Native American leaders would often sign treaties with an x, a symbol or a thumbprint.
“I think what people don’t really realize is that there is a really deep and rich history, a long history of native leaders coming to Washington, D.C. to sit with U.S. presidents and negotiate on behalf of their communities,” says Red Star.
The names of Apsaalooke chiefs are inscribed on the lines of Red Star’s thumbprint in a font created from her handwriting. There’s also a quote from Curly, a Crow scout during The Battle of the Little Bighorn, who traveled to D.C. in the early 1900s to defend Crow land from non-native settlers.
“Crow land is basically our ancestors,” says Red Star, paraphrasing Curly. “Several layers are the blood and dust of our ancestors, and if you want to find nature’s earth, you’ll have to dig down really far before you can find it because the top portion is Crow.”
The sculpture is on display in D.C. on Signer’s Island, next to a memorial dedicated to the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Red Star is one of six artists the nonprofit Monument Lab invited to commission this temporary exhibit. Its next and permanent stop: Tippet Rise Art Center, where you can see it starting in 2024.
“We intend to put it in a location where probably every visitor will see it, which isn’t necessarily the case with the way people move through Tippet Rise,” says Hinmon.
Tippet Rise has about 15 miles of trail and nearly 15 large outdoor art installations scattered throughout the 12,500-acre property. Many people bike, walk, or reserve a shuttle tour and soon, they’ll be able to see ‘The Soil You See,’ an 8-by-6-by-3 foot sculpture made of glass and granite, weighing in at 6,000 pounds.
“The work I think will help inform people of more of the history of the land at Tippet Rise,” says Hinmon.
That land near Fishtail was on the second Crow Agency, the first being near Livingston and the current at its location today near Hardin, where the Apsaalooke people were eventually moved.
We are thrilled to announce that the Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber was recently awarded a Rural Video and Photography Grant from The Tennessee Department of Tourism Development (TDTD). This significant grant, amounting to $16,500, is set to elevate our tourism outreach efforts.
Producing high-quality video and photography assets can be resource-intensive, especially in rural areas like ours. Recognizing this need, TDTD partnered with Designsensory to provide DeKalb County with these invaluable assets.
With this generous funding, we were equipped to produce compelling video content that will not only resonate with our target audience but also broaden our appeal to a wider range of tourists. Chamber Director Suzanne Williams, expressed her gratitude, stating, “We are truly excited to have secured this photography and video funding, as it empowers us to convey our story in a more engaging and impactful manner. Video content holds the incredible power to engage, educate, and inspire, and we firmly believe that it will transform our outreach endeavors.”
Gaining acceptance for this initiative required meticulous planning, scheduling, and collaboration with numerous individuals. Chamber Director Williams shared, “Our initial steps involved selecting locations and determining which areas needed to be scouted in person.” After organizing a two-day scouting schedule, designed with the assistance of Jen Sherwood, the Designsensory team joined forces with Williams to embark on the scouting tour. The first day of scouting included visits to Center Hill Lake and Dam, campgrounds, Edgar Evins State Park, marinas, and marina restaurants, Caney Fork River, Appalachian Center for Craft, Ace’s Restaurant, and The Retreat at Center Hill Lake. Day 2 commenced at Evins Mill, Your Glamping Adventure, Webb’s Soda Fountain, Downtown Smithville businesses and murals, Harmony Lane Farm & Creamery, Bert Driver Nursery/The Burlap Room, Twisted Oaks, and New Frontiers Camp.
Following the scouting phase, the Chamber assumed responsibility for organizing a three-day filming schedule, as well as identifying and scheduling talent, including families, fishermen, shoppers, hikers, kayakers, business owners, musicians, artists, customers, wake surfer, and anyone necessary to breathe life into the photography and video, authentically representing our unique locales. Williams emphasized, “This project demanded an extensive investment of time, but the end result was more rewarding than we could have imagined. The photography was breathtaking, and the video exceeded all our expectations.”
Williams expressed profound gratitude to the many individuals who made this project possible. Special thanks go to Center Hill Lake Resource Manager Kevin Savilla and staff, U.S. Corps of Engineers, Edgar Evins State Park Manager Brad Halfacre, park rangers, and the hiking family, Fly Fisherman and Park Ranger Lee Chadwell, Billie Davis and staff from Canoe the Caney, Harrison, Ansley & Renee of Hurricane Marina/Restaurant, William Cochran and Sharon Evans at Evins Mill, Matt and Dawn Bragstad of Your Glamping Adventure, along with models Jon and Emilee, Karyn Walker of The Arts Garage for organizing an art class, Melissa Miller and her daughters for modeling during shopping scenes, Bert Driver of The Burlap Room/Harvester, Julie David of Harmony Lane Farm, Larry and Lorie Nellist and staff at New Frontiers, Kimberly Winkle at Appalachian Center for Craft, Joe and Angela and staff at Button Willow General Store and Coffee Shop, Lori and Alan and staff at Webb’s Soda Shop, Downtown Smithville Business Owners, and Tina Crips of The Retreat at Center Hill Lake.
We also extend our appreciation to Cheryl’s Beau Bees, who provided lunch on one of the filming days, Evins Mill for breakfast, Hurricane Marina for the use of their watercraft, and The Retreat at Center Hill Lake for their generous provision of accommodations during the photography and video production.
To explore our new tourism website and view the captivating tourism video, please visit www.visitdekalbtn.com.
Successful art dealing often comes down to astute management of real estate and supply. So, it was doubly shocking when news broke that David Zwirner, one of the most prominent dealers in history, lost both a long-planned, multimillion-dollar Manhattan expansion as well as a major artist to a rival within the space of six weeks.
These are unusual blows to one of the largest and most smoothly run art businesses in the world, and they have incited plenty of trade gossip. But more interesting are the insights they offer into the high costs and higher stakes of competing at the top of the private art market.
In late July, Zwirner told the New York Times he was abandoning long-held plans for a new five-storey, $50m headquarters in a Renzo Piano-designed residential tower being built at 540 West 21st Street. The tower project, originally announced by Zwirner in 2018 and scheduled to open by 2020, was delayed at first because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and again when developer Uri Chaitchik of Casco Development failed to secure additional financing. The limited liability company controlling the property filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 2 August, as reported by Katya Kazakina at Artnet News, transforming the $28.8m “put option” paid by a Zwirner company for the new gallery into a line item on a list of developer debts unlikely to ever be repaid.
Then on 5 September, it was announced that the acclaimed American sculptor Carol Bove had moved from Zwirner to Gagosian gallery.
Some dealers might panic in these circumstances, given the ongoing disquiet and deceleration in the broader art market that has defined 2023. But David Zwirner says he takes things on balance.
“The market has definitely slowed down in the last 12 months, which is the bad news,” he says. “The good news is that we’re having much more rational discussions when it comes to values in the secondary market, and we have seen some promising transactions, even in the middle of summer.”
Carol Bove, Dressing Room, 2017. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
What went wrong between Zwirner and Bove? Sources say the gallery struggled to build a secondary market for the artist. Asked for comment, a Zwirner gallery spokesperson said: “We loved working with Carol for over a decade, and we wish her the best in her next chapter.”
Defections from Zwirner’s programme are rare. His 2013 profile in the New Yorker noted just one, the Austrian sculptor Franz West, who left for Gagosian in 2001. But Bove’s departure marks the third in the past two years, following the Donald Judd Foundation (which oversees the artist’s estate) in 2021, and painter Harold Ancart in 2022.
“The Judd Estate left the gallery because they were hoping that a change would positively impact the sagging Judd market, and unfortunately it hasn’t,” a Zwirner spokesperson said. “Harold Ancart left for reasons that are entirely personal.”
(It is worth noting that two major artists have recently joined Zwirner: Gerhard Richter in 2022, and Elizabeth Peyton this summer.)
The three artists to recently leave Zwirner are now represented by Gagosian. The rivalry between the two mega-galleries is well documented. In his 2019 book Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art, the author Michael Shnayerson described it as “an art-world cold war that has helped shape the entire marketplace”.
The loss of West proved catalytic for Zwirner. Understanding the stakes of the competition, he realised the need for gallery growth, moving from Soho to Chelsea the following year, a real estate decision that helped fuel Zwirner’s rise into one of the few truly mega gallery brands in the world. By 2019, Zwirner had won West’s work back.
Installation view of the Richard Serra exhibition installed at Gagosian’s Britannia Street space in London in 2016. Courtesy of Gagosian
Art sales and real estate have only become more intertwined for dealers in the decades since. As the market has ballooned, so too has the bitter competition among dealers for the best supply of work. Sought-after artists are routinely offered opportunities by rivals for more space and more frequent exhibition opportunities, as well as better access to different international markets—and therefore, potentially, more money and career momentum. Knowing this, many dealers feel compelled to expand their empires, taking on more building space to protect their programmes from poaching (or to better position themselves as the poachers).
But, as both Gagosian and Zwirner have discovered, architectural largesse is not necessarily rewarded with artists’ loyalty—even if construction is arranged around specific artists’ needs. Gagosian, for instance, has designed galleries to ensure they can bear the weight of sculptures by Richard Serra, whose multi-tonne steel sculptures often require extraordinary engineering considerations. Yet this has not stopped Serra, whose representation arrangement with Gagosian is non-exclusive, from working with Zwirner on various projects, including most recently a show of the artist’s new works at one of Zwirner’s New York galleries in 2022.
Similarly, when Zwirner bought a space at 537 West 20th street for $8m in 2009, he “effectively… built this building for Judd and Flavin”, its architect, Annabelle Selldorf, told the New Yorker in 2013. But this did not stop the Judd estate from leaving Zwirner for Gagosian 12 years later.
The handful of galleries at the top of the trade has become known for their lavish treatment of the artists they represent (or want to). But amid a market slowdown, there is talk that production budgets are receiving new scrutiny at galleries including Zwirner.
Asked whether certain artist projects’ ambitions and budgets have been reined in, the Zwirner spokesperson said: “This isn’t true for us. We just realised a very ambitious Yayoi Kusama exhibition across all of our spaces on 19th Street, and we’re looking forward to a museum quality Robert Ryman show in November, curated by renowned former museum director Dieter Schwarz.”
Yet a source working on a Zwirner project says that, while discussions began as open-ended and generous in terms of the artists’ ambitions, they have recently become more focused on product. “We need something to sell,” they say the artist was told.
Yayoi Kusama fans lined up outside David Zwirner’s West 20th Street gallery for an exhibition of one of the artist’s Infinity Mirrored Rooms Alex Wroblewski
It is notable that Zwirner, often seen as prudent compared to some mega-rivals, has undertaken an enormous physical expansion over the past decade. In 2013 Zwirner operated three permanent galleries (two in New York and one in London) ); now it controls 12 across Asia, Europe and the US. (Two of the 12 are still under construction; a pair of others in New York and Los Angeles, respectively, are adjacent properties sometimes used to programme a single exhibition.)
Since 2009, the gallery is known to have bought at least $38.4m worth of real estate in the US alone, excluding the now-abandoned $50m tower project with Chaitchik.
Most of this real-estate growth has been compressed into the past five years. “Fortune favours the brave”, Zwirner told the New York Times in 2018, as the gallery unveiled a slew of expansions, from its involvement in the (now-defunct) $50m development at 540 West 21st Street in New York, to a new, leased gallery space in Hong Kong and the acquisition of a $12m warehouse in Queens for art storage and handling.
The gallery opened a branch in Paris in 2019, leasing a space at 108 Rue Vieille-du-Temple. The Covid-19 pandemic put a hold on any further growth in 2020, but Zwirner initiated multiple US expansions starting the following year. It leased and opened the Tribeca property that became 52 Walker, the gallery space programmed and led by Ebony Haynes, in 2021. Zwirner expanded to Los Angeles as well, leasing two spaces at 616 and 612 North Western Avenue in 2021, then spending $6m to buy a third—a purpose-built flagship property at 606 North Western Avenue that is scheduled to open in early 2024. The company also spent $1m on a two-bedroom house around the corner.
Zwirner has recently announced plans for multiple new bricks-and-mortar expansions in New York as well. In February, the gallery acquired an $11.4m property at 533 West 19th street, which will become an 18,000 sq. ft exhibition space renovated by Selldorf. Asked whether the gallery is tailoring the location to any particular artists’ needs, a spokesperson said: “Our new 19th Street gallery is being designed with a focus on ceiling height, natural light, columns and museum-quality services to facilitate institutional loans.”
Zwirner also leased 36,000 sq. ft of office space at 520 West 20th Street in November 2022, when the annual cost of available space in the building was $145/sq. ft, meaning the gallery should be paying slightly more than $5.2m each year in rent. Asked for comment, a gallery spokesperson said: “We can’t comment on our rental agreements, but we can say that David is a good negotiator.” The offices opened this spring.
These expansions were necessary pivots after the Casco project at 540 West 21st Street collapsed. In total the developers’ bankruptcy filing lists $256.7m in creditor claims, including an unsecured claim of $28.8m by DZ 21st Street LLC for a “put option”.
Eyebrows have been raised by the put option, since these agreements can limit buyers’ usual ability to pull out of deals under certain conditions by locking in the sell price in advance. Put options are typically used as tools to hedge against future price decrease and can indicate potentially negative sentiments about the future value of the underlying asset, mostly benefiting sellers more than buyers. They are more commonly bought and sold in the securities markets, particularly the stock market and the foreign currency market, than in real estate.
The presence of the put option is a reminder of the difficulty dealers were facing in finding decent gallery real estate in Chelsea by the mid-2010s. Prices in the neighbourhood had escalated so wildly that a gallery exodus to Tribeca was underway. Few of Zwirner’s rivals who announced Chelsea expansions were able to buy: Hauser & Wirth took a 42-year lease on its new flagship space at 542 West 22nd Street, signing for the property in 2015 and opening after a five-year renovation in 2020. Pace signed a 20-year lease on its new headquarters at 540 West 25th Street in a move that could cost the gallery a staggering $300 million by the time the lease is scheduled to expire in 2038.
Zwirner is unlikely to recoup his investment in 540 West 21st Street, given how rare it is for unsecured creditors to receive even a small fraction of the amounts owed by a bankrupt entity. Asked for an update, a gallery spokesperson said: “The project is working through bankruptcy proceedings and while this is ongoing, we were advised not to comment.”
It is unclear how much of the publicised $50m budget Zwirner had spent before the tower project entered bankruptcy. (The $28.8m for the property would not include related expenditures these past five years). Given the steep rise in interest rates since spring 2022, speculation in the trade has been growing over the true scale of the gallery’s loss, which would depend on how leveraged the deal was. But the gallery spokesperson says this is irrelevant: “DZ 21st Street LLC is the holding company for the gallery’s investment on 21st Street and, of course, doesn’t hold any additional leverage. DZ 21st Street LLC has no bank loans nor does it hold a mortgage.”
For context, Zwirner’s London gallery posted annual artwork sales of £40.8m ($50.9m) and a net profit after tax of roughly £2.1m ($2.6m) in 2022, according to regulatory filings of the UK company David Zwirner Limited.
However, the UK figures, and the sums at stake in the 21st Street development, pale in comparison with Zwirner’s global revenues, which have reportedly tripled over the past decade. In 2013 David Zwirner told the New Yorker that a $225m estimate of the gallery’s revenues by Forbes was low. By 2019, the Robb Report relayed that revenues had increased to $800m. Despite the pandemic outbreak in 2020, the gallery “did over three-quarters of a billion in sales”, according to a Freakonomics podcast interview with Zwirner in 2021.
But we are now in a different moment. There is anxiety in the trade about what is to come both short-term and long-term, given the ongoing slowdown in the art market, generational shifts in taste and broader economic changes. Trade sentiment about the future of the market runs from calm concern to latent panic, depending on who you talk to and how leveraged they are. Many are wondering to what extent the phenomenal gains in the art market these past 10 years were an anomaly.
Zwirner remains positive. “We’re in the midst of an art market that has to absorb higher interest rates, something that we have not seen in a very long time,” he says. “I feel we’re halfway through this process. Given the strengths that we witnessed in Basel in June, I am cautiously optimistic for the fall.”
“Amethyst Deceiver.” All images © Nicole Gustafsson, shared with permission
Nestled in the stalks of toadstools and fans of turkey tails, illuminated doors and windows invite us in to Nicole Gustafsson’s growing collection of mushroom dwellings. The artist, also known as Nimasprout, creates vibrant paintings and illustrations of fantastical worlds (previously), and she recently returned to a theme recurring in her practice since the beginning: home.
During the past few years, this theme spurred a series of small paintings featuring houses nestled into the forest floor. When Nucleus Portland supplied Gustafsson with a couple of basic wooden mushroom shapes earlier this year for an exhibition titled Clusters, she created 3D pieces for the first time. She says:
I found smaller wood mushroom shapes that I could keep trying out different ways to alter and make even tinier little houses from. The smaller size also allowed me to make more of an environment to nestle the mushroom sculpture into…It was around here that I started thinking of the project as ‘mushroom summer,’ and I was going to keep working on mushrooms until I tried everything I wanted to.
“Cozy Turkey Tail”
Gustafsson often draws on other peoples’ interests, which inspire miniature circle paintings customized to their favorite species. “Part of the fun of talking about nature with others is finding out what types of mushrooms people really enjoy imagery-wise, cooking with, foraging, etc.,” she says. The commissions are determined using prompts, such as mushroom types, colors, time of day, and weather.
“The idea of being immersed under leaves and tucked away in a cozy space is really appealing,” the artist says. “At a small size, every little leaf and turn around a log can be a whole new world to explore.”
While commissions for new custom paintings are currently on hold, Gustafsson has a range of small works, prints, and stickers available in her shop, and you can follow her on Instagram for updates.
“Dew Drop Glade”
“Lighthouse Mushie”
“Mushroom Grove”
“Mushroom Marsh House”
“Pixie Mushroom”
“Tropical Mushroom House”
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Roomy Toadstool With a View: Nicole Gustafsson’s Vibrant Mushrooms Are Move-In Ready appeared first on Colossal.
Compared to the energetic buzz of Tokyo, the city of Kyoto still operates at a satisfyingly measured hum, retaining much more than a veneer of the country’s deep seated traditions, crafts, and history. It is a city where heritage still survives in spite of the encroachment of contemporary conveniences and technologies, and where the history of many businesses can be measured in decades…or even more than a century.
MAKHNO Studio, a Ukrainian studio dedicated to contemporary Ukrainian architecture, interior design, and ceramics, was tasked to thoughtfully update a section of a century-old house in Kyoto in respect to this enduring spirit of ancient Japanese culture – to carefully add “a drop of Ukrainian color to the Japanese context.”
Owned by a family with children, the century-old KYOTO HOUSE still wears a discernible degree of its traditional heritage as exhibited by the rooms’ textured clay wall surfaces, original tatami mats, shoji screens, and a floor plan optimized for furnishings situated closer to the ground. The family uses this section of the home to stage traditional tea ceremonies and accommodate for overnight guests. The challenge presented to MAKHNO Studio was finding the gentlest path toward restoration, utilizing only touches of modernity with a conscientious care to maintain its historic ambience.
A pair of Wassily Chairs by Marcel Breuer for Knoll on paper may seem incongruous with the traditional Japanese elements, but placed thoughtfully as visual bookends, the seamless tubular frame and black leather blends pleasantly into its introduced setting.
The interior is characterized by its “shoin-zukuri” or “study style” detailing with origins spanning back to the dwellings of Zen monks and samurai of the 15th to 16th centuries, an architectural modus vivendi identified by rooms incorporating rice paper partitions and shoji sliding doors.
New elements of Ukrainian aesthetics were introduced to interplay with the original elements, including Ukrainian zoomorphic ceramics, plates, and earthenware by MAKNO Studio’s own Slavko Odarchenko, paintings by artist Oleksandr Babak, as well as traditional and modern Japanese graphics. The additions are subtle, with the sum of its effect upon the entirety of the space communicating the home operates not as a museum, but as a usable space aware of the present.
The waves of time left traces on [the home], making it unique. Therefore, when reconstructing it, it was important not to destroy these feelings, but rather to refine and enhance them by adding a drop of Ukrainian color to the Japanese context.
A minimalist ikebana arrangement of seasonal plants is placed as an embodiment of the principles of wabi and sabi: an appreciation of the beauty inherent in the transience of time.
A “roji,” or small tea garden, welcomes guests with poetic landscaping decorated with Japanese ritual stones and Ukrainian DIDO art sculptures from the MAKHNO workshop. The small pieces are placed as protective totems, shielding occupants from bad vibes and unwanted guests.
The KYOTO HOUSE embodies the harmonious convergence of two distinct cultures, inviting individuals to immerse themselves in the serene simplicity of savoring tea, connecting with our senses, and in appreciation of Japanese heritage. Or as succinctly stated by MAKHNO Studio’s founder, Serhii Makhno: “This is a home for tea and life.”
Photography by Naoki Miyashita.
