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The buses are back. The galleries are ready. Art Week Tokyo (AWT) returns for a third edition this week with greater ambition. The number of participating institutions and galleries remains more or less the same as that last year, but with the launch of a curated sales platform, thoughtful gallery exhibitions, and a symposium focusing on curators, the annual event is aiming much higher than just luring high-net-worth international visitors.
“Art Week Tokyo is a great occasion to introduce Japanese art to visitors coming from abroad,” noted Hozu Yamamoto of Tokyo Gallery + BTAP, which returned to AWT this year as one of the 50 participating institutions and galleries.
The gallery sold out all the works on show and gained many new customers during a very successful iteration of AWT in 2022. This year, the gallery presents a solo exhibition of Japanese-American photographer Yasuhiro Ishimoto. Yamamoto conceded that sales of photography work can be challenging (works are priced at five-digit or less in dollars), but he was still adamant about staging the show, as Ishimoto brought new perspective to Japanese aesthetics and beauty.
At Art Week Tokyo 2023’s video program curated by Chus Martínez. Photo: Vivienne Chow.
“At normal art fairs, it is difficult for people to understand Japanese art history. Here at AWT, we can take more time to explain and discuss these topics in detail,” Yamamoto added. “We want to show important works to the audience.”
Organized in collaboration with Art Basel, AWT was set out as an alternative to the traditional art fair model. By bussing art exhibition-goers and international visitors around galleries scattered across the Japanese capital, the gallery weekend model was intended to stimulate locals’ interest in contemporary art and introduce foreign visitors to Japanese contemporary art, which has long been undervalued.
This year, however, it’s not just about Japanese contemporary art. Many participating institutions and galleries have presented contemporary art from the country alongside works by global artists. Besides the ambitious institution exhibitions, galleries are also making bold moves.
Take Ninagawa opened a stunning exhibition of the late British artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman at its new space. The show features not just Jarman’s films, Electric Fairy (1971), the artist’s first, and Imagining October (1984), but also includes a selection of rarely seen dark walled works known as Black Paintings created between 1986 and 1991. SCAI The Bathhouse, located at a 200-year-old former public bathhouse, is holding an elegant show of textured paintings and sculptures by the New York-based Mexican artist Bosco Sodi in the exhibition “Galaxy.”
Gallerist Yuuki Imai of Kayokoyuki introduces the paintings of legendary painter Nobuya Hitsuda to a visiting crowd. Photo: Vivienne Chow
Other galleries have opted to show homegrown heroes. Waiting Room gallery is presenting a solo show of the Kyoto-based, 1975-born Saori Miyake, featuring a new series of cyanotypes and video works. Kana Kawanishi Gallery is staging a solo exhibition of Akira Fujimoto’s walled works created out of marine plastics found along Japan’s coastline. Works by the legendary Nobuya Hitsuda (b. 1941), who has taught artists such as Yoshitomo Nara and Kyoko Murase, can be found at his solo show at Kayokoyuki gallery.
Among the most delightful (re)discoveries was Yoko Terauchi (b. 1954), whose philosophical practice is vividly introduced in a solo show at Hagiwara Projects, which has quickly earned her a new fan base. Terauchi moved to London in 1979 and lived there for 20 years before returning to her native Japan. She exhibited at Victoria Miro and Chisenhale Gallery during her London years, an unusual achievement for an Asian woman artist in the west at the time.
“With each edition of Art Week Tokyo, I am reminded of the breadth, depth, and quality of contemporary art in Japan,” Atsuko Ninagawa Art Week Tokyo director and owner of Take Ninagawa, said in a statement. This year’s AWT also features a moving-image program curated by Chus Martínez. “I believe Art Week Tokyo is only scratching the surface of its potential to be a transformative art event for the city and beyond.”
Japanese artist Yoko Terauchi introduces her artistic practice to exhibition-goers at her solo show at Hagiwara Projects.
As the world’s third biggest economy, Japan’s global art market share by value accounts for only one percent of the total, according to the Art Basel UBS 2023 art market report. But this percentage should be higher, according to Hayashi Yasuta, director of the arts and culture division of Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs.
“Japan has indeed come a bit late to promote contemporary art,” Hayashi noted in an interview. “It’s not just about the art fairs. We want to be a part of the global discourse, including museums, academics, in addition to art fairs.”
The hope is for AWT and Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK), both government-backed initiatives, to rectify this by fostering an ecosystem where museums and art patrons can work closer with each other. The aim is also to interest more people in buying art in the future by giving them more benefits, Hayashi noted. He added that bridging the local art world with the global one remains the government’s ambition: “We are thinking about the next 50, 100 years.”
Gallerist Kana Kawanishi (right), introduces the work made of marine garbage by artist Akira Fujimoto during Art Week Tokyo 2023. Photo: Vivienne Chow.
As there are more contemporary art activities in the country, particularly the commercial ones, Hayashi hopes that industry players will be more active in responding to the art market report’s requests for data so that the team can have more accurate data to work with.
The Kyoto-based Japanese artist Kohei Nawa recalled that when he graduated from art school in the late 1990s, he was devastated. He did not know how to get into the art scene as it was very quiet at the time. But dramatic changes were observed over the past 20 years in the country and he is now more hopeful than before. As a professor at Kyoto University of Arts and Design, he has spotted a lot of young, talented artists.
“There are a lot of good artists in their 20s and 30s now. However, there aren’t so many young curators in Japan. New initiatives and platforms can be helpful to artists by bringing people in,” said Nawa.
Installation view of AWT Focus at Okura Museum of Art, Art Week Tokyo 2023. Photo: Vivienne Chow.
While AWT is billed as an alternative to traditional art fairs, the art fair still appears to be necessary. The newly launched AWT Focus, curated by Kenjiro Hosaka, director of Shiga Museum of Art, Otsu, is perhaps closest to what an art fair could be.
This selling platform curated under the theme, “Worlds in Balance: Art in Japan from the Postwar to the Present,” at the century-old privately owned Okura Museum of Art features more than 100 works from 64 Japanese and Japan-based artists from across generations, each contributed by an AWT participating gallery. Some galleries said sales have been made at AWT Focus.
“This is the third year of AWT and it has already established its presence. It needs to keep evolving. AWT Focus shows how this initiative can evolve,” said Vincenzo de Bellis, Art Basel’s director of fairs and exhibition platforms. Rather than simply staging another fair in another city, AWT’s success can be referenced by cities outside of the locations of the four current Art Basel fairs. He revealed that new events may take place in 2025 or beyond.
“This is a very interesting model. By spotlighting a specific culture, it sheds light for international visitors coming in. It’s interesting for us to see how it will play out for other projects in the future. Asia is major market for us. We want to show our presence,” he said.
To gallerists, traveling to art fairs will still be necessary. Kayokoyuki has exhibited at Paris Internationale and Nada Miami. Waiting Room has also shown at Nada Miami. “AWT is a great opportunity but we still need to go to fairs. We just need to be very strategic,” noted Tomoko Ashikawa, director of Waiting Room.
Yamamoto of Tokyo Gallery + BTAP said that exhibiting at art fairs overseas are still necessary as selling expensive works domestically is very difficult. “We need to go abroad to sell works at higher price points,” he noted.
Art Week Tokyo 2023 runs through November 5.
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Amid fears that a new war could threaten the world economy, New York’s coming auctions will test a growing consensus that the $60 billion art market is headed toward a down cycle.
Major auction houses are hedging their bets in the fall season of sales that begins Monday, offering fat guarantees to sellers to secure their works — and pricing some of their top items more conservatively after the spring season demonstrated weakness in the blazing-hot $60 billion art market. And now, sellers are trying to anticipate how the uncertainty of a new war in the Middle East will affect them.
Auctioneers at the three rival companies, Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips, have been digging deeper into private collections for one-off paintings that might spice up their modern and contemporary art sales, given the thinning availability of estates to draw from (typically driven by deaths and divorces).
“We have built the sale in a very old-school way,” said Alex Rotter, chairman of Christie’s departments overseeing 20th- and 21st-century art, who said that his team shopped around individual collectors to acquire works by Joan Mitchell ($25 million to 35 million), Claude Monet ($65 million) and Francis Bacon ($50 million). “We went for paintings that would create the most buzz.”
However, the company lost one of the season’s biggest bounties to rivals at Sotheby’s, which is presenting 31 artworks from the estate of Emily Fisher Landau, a philanthropist who died earlier this year, on the evening of Nov. 8 (there is also a day sale). That collection is estimated at more than $400 million and carries a Sotheby’s house guarantee — a minimum price guaranteed to the family. It contains one of the most expensive Picasso paintings to reach the market, carrying an estimate over $120 million: “Femme à la montre,” a portrait from 1932 of the artist’s mistress, the young Marie-Thérèse Walter. (The current auction high for a Picasso painting, set in 2015: $179.3 million.) Other lots include a 1958 Mark Rothko painting that was completed in preparation for his famous commission at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York’s Seagram Building and a 1964 Ed Ruscha painting whose appearance at auction coincides with a lauded exhibition on the artist at the Museum of Modern Art. Both artworks carry estimates that hover above $30 million.
“We have to go out there and get our supply,” said Brooke Lampley, Sotheby’s chairman and worldwide head of global fine art sales. “Season to season, people are evermore interested in what the big collection of the season will be.”
Sotheby’s and Christie’s expect that the November auction season could bring their companies upward of $1 billion each. But despite the claims of some auctioneers who said there are masterpieces around every corner, art advisers and market experts have noted the broader market’s lack of stellar inventory and buyer focus.
“We are experiencing a recalibration in the market after the comeback that we saw in 2021 reached its peak last fall,” said Drew Watson, head of art services for Bank of America’s private bank, who was referring to the $1.5 billion sale of artworks collected by Paul G. Allen, the Microsoft co-founder. “We were already seeing signs of the market softening at this time a year ago, if you looked at day and evening sales. There was less depth of bidding.”
During the spring auction season in May, three paintings by Jasper Johns offered at Christie’s failed to reach their low estimate. Paintings by other artists were withdrawn before the auctions started, signaling a lack of confidence in the market or inflated prices. Celebrity auctions have helped attract crowds in the meantime, with consignments from Barbara Walters and Freddie Mercury drawing collectors willing to spend thousands of dollars on mementos.
Watson said there was a noticeable uptick in guarantees from auction houses and third parties, which provide consignors with a confirmed minimum sales price.
“It has become an increasingly important tool for auction houses to coax high-value properties into the market,” Watson said. “For buyers, it is also an important signal of confidence. It gives potential bidders something to bid against. And it only takes two bidders to create an auction.”
Robert Manley, deputy chairman at Phillips, said that his auction house has guaranteed the 30 artworks from the Triton Collection Foundation in the Netherlands, which includes pieces by Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso. The entire collection, to be auctioned Nov. 14, has a high estimate of $100 million.
In another noticeable downshift, Manley said that rampant speculation in the ultracontemporary market for young artists born since 1975 — many without a museum provenance — had decreased.
“I hate to use the word sanity, but people are more measured,” he said. “It is still not unusual for young artists to rocket up to $200,000 or $300,000. But over the last few years, artists were quickly going to $800,000 and $1 million.”
What is behind this more cautious market? Magnus Resch, an art market economist, said that higher interest rates and the global uncertainty of two major wars, in Europe and the Middle East, could dampen next week’s sales.
“People are just less active in times like these,” Resch said. “There is a large group of buyers who have Israeli connections. It is understandable that buying luxury items is not on their minds right now.”
For major collections, auction houses often set their estimates about six months in advance, although regular evening sales have more flexibility; nowadays, they are finalized a few weeks ahead of the sale. But the economic volatility of global conflicts might widen the gap between expectations and reality, some auctioneers fear.
“I am not painting you an elephant in every corner,” said Rotter, the Christie’s executive. “To say anything that happened this year will have no impact would be irresponsible.”
In southeast Ohio, toxic drainage from abandoned coal mines has devastated streams and rivers. The acidic sludge, which is filled with heavy metals, leaches into waterways, destroying ecosystems and turning what should be clear, bluish waters into murky, rust-colored runs. In Athens, home of Ohio University, a Hocking River tributary known as Sunday Creek is a prime example of mining’s harmful effects, with more than two million pounds of iron oxide pouring into the stream each year A new documentary directed by Jason Whalen visits the area and the team vowing to clean it up.
“Toxic Art” follows an unconventional pairing of two Ohio University professors who have teamed up on a project that turns sludge from the stream into pigments for oil paint. A project of the global conservation organization Rivers are Life, the short film shares the story of artist John Sabraw and Guy Riefler, the chair of the Civil Engineering department, who have spent six years developing pigments using iron oxide they collected from the creek.
Riefler explains that conventional treatments are often cost-prohibitive, and so the pair decided that if they could create and sell a commercial product, they could fund clean-up efforts on their own. From there, they helped develop True Pigments, a collaborative project with Gamblin Artist Colors that uses proprietary technology to create vibrant pigments from the toxic material.
“We’ve been refining a process that can continuously treat acid mine drainage, restore a stream for aquatic life, and collect sustainably sourced iron pigment that can be sold offsetting operational costs,” Sabraw told Hyperallergic. “Based on our best estimates, we should be able to create jobs and produce a small profit, while eliminating a perpetual pollution source.”
While primarily comprised of volunteers manually harvesting and processing the materials, the multi-pronged project has now secured $3.5 million in funding to construct a True Pigments facility on the Appalachian site. Once that plant is running, Sabraw estimates that his team will be able to completely restore Sunday Creek, “remove over 6,000 lbs of iron… and theoretically produce 75,000 tubes of paint,” every day. Because that’s a staggering amount of material that would overwhelm the consumer market, the team plans to sell much of their future stock to industrial sources.
Watch “Toxic Art” above to see the innovative pollution-to-pigment pipeline in action, and purchase your own set of reclaimed materials from True Pigments.
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 A New Documentary Follows the Ohio Environmentalists Making Paint from Toxic Mining Runoff appeared first on Colossal.
Delaware Division of the Arts presents “Encaustic Constructions” by Ron Meick – Opens November 3 – State of Delaware News
Wilmington, Del. (November 1, 2023) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents 2023 Established Fellow Ron Meicks’s exhibition, “Encaustic Constructions,” on view between November 3-24, 2023. Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception on Friday, November 3 from 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Meick’s latest series of artworks, abstract wooden sculptures called “constructions,” are painted with encaustic (wax) pigments. The work is informed by both Russian constructivist art of the 1920s and the natural world. “I was a beekeeper for over ten years, which is how I got interested in encaustic sculpture/painting,” finding that the accumulation of wax provided him with “an enticing material.”
Meick creates wooden constructions that range in size from miniscule (8 inches) to monumental, some as tall as 6 feet. After they’re built, he paints them with a veneer of hot encaustic paint composed of beeswax, damar resin and infused with pigments. This wax application softens the hard-edge structures and presents color references to connection points, elements in the composition, ending points, weighting of mass, balance, and reflection of color. The counterpoint of color and space increase the layers of meaning and emotional content.
His recent work is strongly guided by contemporary current events or relevant political issues. The war in Ukraine, a country “being dismantled by destruction,” is the visual basis for this latest sculptural series. Meick finds his biggest challenge to be “making objects that are relevant in concept, visual, and emotional terms.” As well, he finds challenges in “the physical effort of making objects.”
Originally born in Sidney, Nebraska, Ron Meick received his BFA in sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design. Ron Meick is currently an artist with the Washington Printmakers Gallery, Washington, DC, and in October 2023 he had a solo show featuring large scale prints. He has also shown his work throughout the U.S. and is in many private collections along with The Library of Congress. He currently resides and works in Arden, Delaware.
The Mezzanine Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington.
###
Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications
302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov
The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.
Related Topics: “Delaware Division of the Arts”, Encaustic Constructions, Individual Artist Fellowship, Ron Meick, The Mezzanine Gallery
Keep up to date by receiving a daily digest email, around noon, of current news release posts from state agencies on news.delaware.gov.
Here you can subscribe to future news updates.
Wilmington, Del. (November 1, 2023) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents 2023 Established Fellow Ron Meicks’s exhibition, “Encaustic Constructions,” on view between November 3-24, 2023. Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception on Friday, November 3 from 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Meick’s latest series of artworks, abstract wooden sculptures called “constructions,” are painted with encaustic (wax) pigments. The work is informed by both Russian constructivist art of the 1920s and the natural world. “I was a beekeeper for over ten years, which is how I got interested in encaustic sculpture/painting,” finding that the accumulation of wax provided him with “an enticing material.”
Meick creates wooden constructions that range in size from miniscule (8 inches) to monumental, some as tall as 6 feet. After they’re built, he paints them with a veneer of hot encaustic paint composed of beeswax, damar resin and infused with pigments. This wax application softens the hard-edge structures and presents color references to connection points, elements in the composition, ending points, weighting of mass, balance, and reflection of color. The counterpoint of color and space increase the layers of meaning and emotional content.
His recent work is strongly guided by contemporary current events or relevant political issues. The war in Ukraine, a country “being dismantled by destruction,” is the visual basis for this latest sculptural series. Meick finds his biggest challenge to be “making objects that are relevant in concept, visual, and emotional terms.” As well, he finds challenges in “the physical effort of making objects.”
Originally born in Sidney, Nebraska, Ron Meick received his BFA in sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design. Ron Meick is currently an artist with the Washington Printmakers Gallery, Washington, DC, and in October 2023 he had a solo show featuring large scale prints. He has also shown his work throughout the U.S. and is in many private collections along with The Library of Congress. He currently resides and works in Arden, Delaware.
The Mezzanine Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington.
###
Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications
302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov
The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.
Related Topics: “Delaware Division of the Arts”, Encaustic Constructions, Individual Artist Fellowship, Ron Meick, The Mezzanine Gallery
Keep up to date by receiving a daily digest email, around noon, of current news release posts from state agencies on news.delaware.gov.
Here you can subscribe to future news updates.
All images courtesy of the Bargello Museums, Florence
In 1530, Michelangelo went into hiding after receiving a death sentence from Pope Clement VII. The iconic Renaissance artist had been caught in the political strife of his patrons, the Medici family, who had just returned to Florence after being overthrown by a populist revolt in 1527. During their exile, Michelangelo worked with the short-lived republican government to help secure the city’s defense walls and so became an enemy of his powerful supporters.
It is believed he spent two months stowed away in a tiny vault stretching just 32 feet long and 6.5 feet wide, with 8-foot ceilings at their highest points and a single window to the street, before the pope rescinded the sentence. Tucked into the Medici Chapels in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the claustrophobic room also became a canvas for the artist, who’s thought to have sketched dozens of drawings on the walls. Using carbonized wood and red chalk, the artist rendered several figurative works, including the head of the ancient Laocoön sculpture and iterations of his own masterpieces, including his Leda and the Swan painting and iterations of his David statue.
The drawings were hidden until 1975 when the then-director of the Medici Chapels, Paolo Dal Poggetto, was trying to find a new space for the museum exit. A trapdoor under a cabinet led to the room, which was filthy from housing slack coal for two decades. When the walls were finally stripped of two layers of plaster, the museum discovered the artworks.
Given its small dimensions, the space has previously been restricted to visitors for fear of damaging the drawings, although on November 15, it will open to the public for the first time. The decision comes after security renovations that will allow four visitors inside at a time, with only 100 tickets available per week through March 30, 2024. (via The History Blog)
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High-net-worth (HNW) women outpaced men’s spending on art in the first half of 2023, following a trend of the past two years. Women collectors spent a median of $72,500 compared with $59,400 by men, according to The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting in 2023 released on Thursday.
However, HNW men reported higher average spending, with values driven up by a few extravagant male spenders, including twice as many men shelling out $1 million in each period, the survey found.
Still, spending by women continues to grow in value, already reaching a higher level than in 2022.
The survey of HNW collectors is primarily based on survey data gathered and analyzed directly by Arts Economics (a research and consulting firm focused exclusively on the art economy founded in 2005 by Dr. Clare McAndrew, a cultural economist specializing in the arts, antiques and collectibles markets) in collaboration with UBS.
This year’s survey is the largest to date, with participation from 2,828 HNW collectors from 11 key regions around the world.
Women collectors outpaced men in the first half of 2023.
The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting in 2023
Despite the surge in women collectors, HNW individual’s collections continue to be dominated by works by male artists, with a ratio of 61% men to 39% women, and the share of works by women in collections decreased by 3% year-on-year to 39% in 2023. However, collectors who spend more than $10 million each year both tended to have a higher share of works by women in their collections (54%) and their proportion of spending also increased from 46% in 2021 to 55% in 2023. This may indicate that some of the spending at the very highest levels was on women artists, even if only by very few top collectors.
“Wider studies have shown that female artists are still underrepresented in exhibitions and sales, both in the dealer and auction sectors. Despite being over-(represented) or equally represented at many art schools, there is still well-documented evidence of inequality in terms of career longevity and commercial success. However, some research has found that due to the seemingly more rigorous quality filters and other issues faced by women in their careers as artists, while the number of their works reaching the market is less, the minority that sell do so at a premium rather than a discount for artists at similar levels,” McAndrew wrote.
“This is an important issue to explore, as it implies that some of the biases women face relate to institutions and other aspects of their career paths rather than simply the market itself, with the issue still being the lack of progress in commercial careers rather than only a gender discount for female versus male artists once they are on the market,” McAndrew added.
The market share of women artists is lower, but their pieces tend to sell at a premium rather than a … [+]
The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting in 2023
A considerable plunge last year, in the share of collectors most commonly focused on buying works of art priced at over $1 million, may be rebounding. After tumbling from 12% in 2021 to 4% in 2022, spending at a higher price in the first half of 2023 was 9%.
Despite this year’s rebound, levels were below those of 2021 and previous years, suggesting possible buyer caution and fewer high-end collectors following the strong post-Covid-19 jump in sales.
The average allocation to art in the wealth portfolios of HNW collectors dwindled to 19% in 2023, from a peak of 24% in 2022, another sign of caution amid bolstered focus on more liquid financial assets or less willingness to make discretionary purchases. Nonetheless, the size of the HNW portfolio allocation to art rose positively with collector wealth, ranging from an average of 15% for those with wealth of less than $5 million to nearly 30% for ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) collectors with wealth of more than $50 million.
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Collectors are allocating a lower proportion of their wealth to art, according to this year’s Art Basel and UBS survey of global collecting. Although a “significant majority” (72 per cent) of the 2,828 collectors surveyed still allocate more than 10 per cent to art, their average share has fallen from 24 per cent last year to 19 per cent so far this year. The report finds that the share of those allotting a relatively high proportion of their wealth (more than 30 per cent) fell to its lowest level in four years.
The fall “may be indicative of a more cautious approach to collecting, with a greater focus on the need for more liquid financial or income-producing assets”, writes the report’s author Clare McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics. She notes that high interest rates, which make the cost of borrowing to buy art significantly higher, “could also have a negative effect”. More than 40 per cent of collectors reported using credit or other types of loan to buy art — higher than McAndrew expected — including 30 per cent in 2022 and 2023 to date.
Nevertheless, the report finds overall that median expenditure on art and antiques reached $65,000 for the first half of 2023, the same level as for all of 2022, “indicating a potentially substantial rise for the year if spending continues”. The most popular purchase and highest average spend was on fine art, with paintings still the preferred medium (58 per cent). In-person shopping continues to appeal, with 84 per cent of collectors buying at a gallery in the first half of this year (up from 73 per cent in 2022), though art fair purchases were down from 74 per cent to 58 per cent. Overall event attendance — including exhibitions and biennales — was down from an average of 41 per year in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (including five fairs) to an expected 32 this year (four fairs).
Changes are afoot at Cromwell Place, the Grade II-listed, south-west London gallery hub that opened in 2020. Helen Nisbet, recently appointed chief executive and artistic director, has outlined plans for a £2mn refurbishment that would include the opening of a street-level, 80-seat restaurant and a more accessible and visible entrance. The plans take out two of the hub’s 14 gallery spaces, including its 74 sq m and prized Gallery 11, a sacrifice that “will make the whole building more enticing with all galleries of equal prominence”, says membership and business development director Elizabeth Dellert. Architect Tom Croft likens the impact of the new restaurant on the hub to Spring, which opened in Somerset House in 2014.
The building works, which are still subject to planning approval, are slated for summer 2024, when the hub would close, with an expected reopening in time for next year’s autumn season in London — though to be on the safe side, management is not taking bookings from September 2024.
Isabella Icoz, a partner at Lehmann Maupin, which has had a permanent gallery in Cromwell Place since its opening, says that while “there is never an ideal time for disruption”, the plans will “make it much more user-friendly and bring a beautiful and striking building more to life”. She confirms that the gallery is committed to Cromwell Place for next year and has also secured two pop-up exhibition spots on London’s Cork Street in June and September 2024.
Bonhams has started offering the $8mn estate of American broadcaster and journalist Barbara Walters, who died last year, and will host a live sale of 11 pieces of American fine art in New York on the evening of November 6. Top-billing is John Singer Sargent’s 1891 “Egyptian Woman (Coin Necklace)”, $1.2mn-$1.8mn, while the collection also includes Frank W Benson’s glamorous portrait of one of his sisters, “Firelight” (1893). Walters bought this painting for a below-estimate $165,000 in 1988 and it now comes to market for between $400,000 and $600,000.
Walters became the first female co-host of a US network, on NBC’s Today show in 1974, and went on to interview every US president and first lady during her career. Bonhams has nearly 400 items from her estate, including several pieces of designer jewellery, clothes and furniture, the cream of which will also be offered live on November 6. A separate online-only sale, including more furniture, tableware and handbags, started on Sunday and runs until November 7.
London’s Soft Opening gallery will take over Paul Soto’s space in Los Angeles’ Arlington Heights neighbourhood for 10 months, starting on November 19 with a group show organised by its LA-based German artist Maren Karlson and including work by Jasmine Gregory and Sarah Pucci. Soto, who last week opened a 1,500 sq ft space in New York’s Flower District, is taking the opportunity to focus on this second location.
“Smaller galleries in particular try not to spread ourselves too thinly and need to plan things carefully,” says Antonia Marsh, founder of Soft Opening, of the collaboration. She has always been attracted by California and the “intoxicating” art scene around Hollywood, she says, having earned her masters in curating in the Golden State.
She plans about five exhibitions in LA, while maintaining a similar programme in her east London gallery. Marsh will remain UK-based but, she says, will do fewer international fairs to help manage the new project. “It seems a good time for a different rhythm, when the market is a bit more unpredictable,” she says.
The Hong Kong and Shanghai gallery Pearl Lam now represents British artist Maggi Hambling in Asia and will include a recent painting from her Wall of Water series in a mixed booth at next week’s West Bund Art & Design fair in Shanghai (November 9-12). Lam says Hambling will “further enrich” her gallery’s “diverse portfolio of internationally recognised artists” and plans a solo show in her Hong Kong space next year. Hambling had her first museum show in China at Beijing’s CAFA Art Museum in 2019.
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Eugene is filled with color from graffiti and murals to an abundance of local galleries. This weekend the town hosts a number of art-related events. Need new jewelry or just want to admire a craft? Head to the Gem Faire at the Lane Events Center Nov. 3 to 5. Be on the lookout for gemstones, beads, crystals and more. Another artsy market is happening at Lane Events Center with the Willamette Valley Handmade Market Nov. 4 and 5. Shop and support over 60 local artisans and small businesses. The onsite raffle benefits the Oregon Cancer Foundation. But don’t stop there, as The ArtChics 19th annual Art Sale and Benefit is happening Nov. 3 and 4 at the New Zone Gallery. Local women artists will present their art in a sale for different nonprofit organizations focusing on the arts. The artwork is by Georgeanne Cooper, Lin Lundberg, Deborah Dailey, Joanna Lovera, Mari Livie and Terry McIlrath. More fundraising is occurring at Art with Alejandro for the Cancer Awareness Art Fundraiser Nov. 3. The event is for Rachel London, Tawshma Pachito and Auraleigha Reneau. Inspirational art by Chelsea Beaudrie and Sophie Navarro will be on display, and James Garcia will perform live. If you find yourself downtown Nov. 3, stop by the First Friday ArtWalk. Browse the Artist Marketplace at Farmers Market Pavilion and art venues while enjoying music from Sugar Pine. With so much art in this town, it will never get dull. Check out the What’s Happening calendar listings for more artsy events.
