Ridgefield Farmers Market is BACK at Jesse Lee Commons this Saturday, September 9 from 10am to 2pm! The Market has been wildly successful with hundreds of locals enjoying farm-fresh goodies as well as a whole lot of camaraderie!

Only 4 markets remain, so get out there and enjoy the best of local farm fresh!

A big “thank you” to Farmers Market founder Corrin Arasa and founding sponsors Fairfield County Bank and Karla Murtaugh Homes.

Here, Corrin provides her Market pics and a sneak peek of this week’s happenings.

This week marks the beginning of fall sports for so many families here in Ridgefield, I think we’ll see lots of hungry families coming before and after practice.

Backyard Pizza,  Badass Bagels and Quartertone

I’d recommend grabbing a picnic blanket from the blanket basket (see image #2)  and a Breakfast Pizza from Backyard Pizza. They use local farm fresh eggs and it’s perfect for hungry kiddos.  Or if you want to go the bagel route instead, be sure to pre-order to make sure you get exactly what you want, cream cheese and all. Quartertone will be serving hot and iced coffee for your pre or post-game caffeine fix. 

Link to pre-order bagels: https://www.badassbagels.com/shopbagels

CT Grown Apples from Sunset Farms

It’s the beginning of Apple Season and Sunset Farms will be bringing CT Grown Apples this week.   

Wild Iris Flower Vintage Truck is Blooming

It’s also Dahlia season which means the blooms will be outrageous, to celebrate, Wild Iris Flower Truck will have her adorable vintage VW on site- it’s a great spot to snap a pic too.  

Bring Home the Bacon

Henny Penny Farm has fresh bacon this week which I’ll be hitting up right away before the run out.  

Cross Culture Kombucha – Final Market

Cross Culture Kombucha is back again for their second and final time so be sure to grab some right off the tap-  I have my fingers crossed that they will be bringing the Hopped Peach- the flavor that turned me onto Kombucha in the first place. 

Art

Ridgefield-born artist,  Eliza Kingsbury will be popping up this week back in her hometown with some really unique offerings,  and Sha Sha has a refill of her body butter. 

Yoga

This week marks the beginning of a Free Mindful Movement series led by Lauren Chiarello. It’s a 30-minute Pilates Fusion class appropriate for all levels and ages.  She’ll be on the lawn in front of Jesse Lee. Check in at the membership table to sign up. 

For the Kids

And lastly-  the kids will be planting Radish this week!  They can come decorate the container and plant radishes that will be ready to eat in just a few weeks. 

Remember, the market is Rain or Shine.  Come hang out with us, we’ll be here either way and thrilled to see you. 

See you at the Market!  

Corrin 

The Farmers Market takes place at Jesse Lee Commons, 207 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT

Every other Saturday 10:00-2:00

Aug 26, Sep 9, Sep 23, Oct 7, Oct 22

Learn more www.ridgefieldfarmersmarket.org and follow along on Instagram @ridgefieldfarmersmarket

Yen Jui-Lui instills a growing group of characters with playful wiles and whimsy in an ongoing series of wooden toys (previously). Just a few of the artist’s recent creations portray pudgy bears that double as receptacles for spare change or fruit, a downcast rabbit enduring an inner tube, and birds that sprout dried flowers from the tops of their heads. Using a variety of wood types local to his home in Taiwan, he repurposes segments of cypress, cinnamon, and beech, among others.

Yen is currently working on a series inspired by the zoo, which has been in progress for more than two years. “This series is not imitating real animals; it’s more reshaping the imagination of the animals in cute and interesting shapes,” he says. You can find more of the artist’s work on Instagram.

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 It’s a Zoo in Here! A Diverse Cast of Whimsical Animals by Yen Jui-Lin Emerge From Wood appeared first on Colossal.

Julie Cohn has been creating her art jewelry collections in her studio in Dallas, Texas, since 2011, a space she describes as an “artistic collective,” staffed with young artists she mentors as they take their first steps into creative careers.

Inspired by the natural forms she can see from her window, with its view on gardens landscaped by her husband David Rolston, even her boldest jewels feel easy and familiar, thanks in no small part to the bronze that she favors for its warmth and luster.

With a background in multidisciplinary fine art – she describes herself as an artist rather than a jeweler – she has grown a solid U.S. following, with collectors seeking out Cohn’s organic forms and eye-catching use of color.

“My goal is to craft what I want to wear, I begin my design process there,” she says. “All my pieces are an affordable price point for handmade jewelry. Sometimes there is so much labor that it is impossible not to reflect that in the price, but if a more expensive piece adds something special to the collection, I’ll make it anyway.”

From Texas to France, and one hot summer’s day in Paris, I was introduced to her jewelry at the Objet d’Emotion showroom, by jewelry consultant Valery Demure. The showcase was the first time in 12 years of her business that Cohn had shown outside of the U.S., and a chance for a discerning new market to meet her jewels; and European press and buyers responded with enthusiasm.

As she takes her first steps outside of the U.S. the celebrated jewelry artist opens up about the interplay between her different creative practices, and the genesis of her singular jewelry.

What initially drew you to jewelry as an art form?

I sort of backed into jewelry as a business. I was looking for a way to prototype natural forms in metal and I was introduced to metal clay. It required no traditional bench skills or casting, and I found the immediacy of the process very gratifying. It was a method of sketching ideas three- dimensionally and I quickly became obsessed with the jewelry I was making for myself. I have been an artist and designer throughout my career and began to see this emerging into my new art form.

Tell me a little about your creative process. Do you start by sketching or sculpting? Is CAD involved or is it a completely analogue process?

I was educated as a painter and printmaker and studied the craft of bookbinding and box-making to house my prints. This lead me down a diverse design path that included rugs, textiles, hardware, tabletop, collaborations with architects and public art.

I am self-taught. My approach to creating jewelry is unconventional in process and begins by working directly with materials rather than sketching a preconceived idea.

I find inspiration in nature, primitive ethnic forms, indigenous crafts, and old-world processes. My pieces are about possibilities for layering and stacking to create personal collages that uniquely juxtapose disparate elements with simple elegance.

Your material of predilection is bronze, why is this?

I follow in the tradition of handcrafted jewelry made by sculptors Harry Bertoia, Alexander Calder, and others who transformed their fine art inspiration into bronze and silver jewelry. Bronze has a beautiful luster that resembles gold and can be worn seamlessly with fine jewelry.

Do you have a favorite stone?

I am a sucker for London Blue Topaz and Tourmaline but there are so many other semi-precious stones I love juxtaposed together. I love Obsidian Cameos, Intaglio Engraved Crystal, rough cut stones next to polished stones. Alexander Calder wire wrapped blue glass in a necklace. That material, in that context was just as beautiful as a flawless diamond.

Is form or theme most important to you?

I would say form dictates theme, but they are not mutually exclusive. They both inform each other like words and music. My designs do tend to reference reoccurring themes of nature, modern art, and primitive craft.

What have been inspired by recently?

The book, “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin explores the ephemeral and spiritual nature of inspiration. Rubin’s musings about why we create really resonate, with me and has had a big impact on my confidence as an artist.

You showed in Paris for the first-time during Couture Week in July. Why did you choose to show outside the US now?

After showing in the U.S. for years, Objet d’Emotion, our agency in Europe, approached us about expanding outside the U.S. market. Valery Demure believed that I would be well-received at the Paris show. She has an incredible intuition about the market and a strong curatorial point of view. I was very proud to be showing with them in Paris.

How do you think your surroundings influence your work?

I am married to a Landscape Architect. My studio overlooks our garden and there is an endless view of nature to draw upon for inspiration. I step outside the door and there could be a cluster of leaves or a blossom laying on the ground and I bring it in to pin on my wall. My studio is my sanctuary. It is an ongoing art project for me. How I display objects on a table, in relationship to each other is not dissimilar to how I might create that same juxtaposition of shapes in a piece of jewelry. There is no separation between my life and art.

Mixed-media pieces by two dozen artists take flight in Birds Rising at Brassworks Gallery in Portland, Oregon, this month. Curated by artist Heiko Müller, a vibrant selection of works take feathered creatures as a starting point, showcasing a range of styles that reference mythology, fairytales, and quickly-changing habitats. Works by Diana Sudyka, El Gato Chimney, and Caitlin McCormack—among many others—highlight a variety of media almost as diverse as the avian world itself.

Birds Rising opens with a preview on September 9, and you can find more information on the gallery’s website and Instagram.

Richard Ahnert

Alexandra Lukaschewitz

Eiko Borcherdin

Ki Sung Koh

Ana Juan

El Gato Chimney

Mario Klingemann

Ryan Heshka

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 Two Dozen Artists Gather a Diverse Flock of Avians at Brassworks Gallery for ‘Birds Rising’ appeared first on Colossal.

TISHOMINGO – Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby’s vision of showcasing Southeastern Indian artists will celebrate its 18th anniversary Oct. 6-7 during Chickasaw Annual Meeting and Festival.

A bevy of artists representing the Five Civilized Tribes – Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee and Seminole – along with other Southeastern Indian tribes will showcase authentic Southeastern Indian art.

Jewelry, fashion, weapons, painting, sculpture and much more will be on display at the Southeastern Art Show and Market (SEASAM) 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 6 and from 11 a.m. onward Oct. 7 after Governor Anoatubby delivers his annual State of the Nation Address.

Artists have an allotted area west of the Chickasaw National Capitol Building where they will display their work and visit with patrons, art lovers, tribal citizens and the general public.

SEASAM is a juried show for both youth and adult artists from federally recognized Southeastern Indian tribes. Awards are presented for the very best art at SEASAM representing several differing categories in which artists compete.

In 2022, third-generation Cherokee artist Bryan Waytula took SEASAM Best of Show, following in the footsteps of two master craftsmen and Cherokee Treasures, his grandmother, Betty Scraper-Garner, and mother, Vivian Cottrell.

Many acclaimed Chickasaw artists are expected to show works this year, including master woodworker and artist Richard Thomas who specializes in weaponry; Dustin Mater and his eclectic collection of works that have consistently wowed art lovers; Joanna Underwood Blackburn, a master potter who has also won awards for fashion; Daniel Worcester, whose forged knives and cutlery are in demand from museums to European art collectors, along with many others.

Governor Anoatubby’s vision and determination to see Southeastern Indian art rise to the same level as Southwestern art was enhanced in 2018 when he launched “Visual Voices: Contemporary Chickasaw Art.”

This touring exhibition features 60 works by 15 renowned Chickasaw artists from painters, potters, sculptors, metalsmiths, weavers and more.

Chickasaw artists of “Visual Voices” offer unique, intrinsically Southeastern Indian designs and distinction among today’s contemporary tribal artists, including abstract, experimental, celebratory and thought-provoking art confirming a strong continuation of contemporary Chickasaw art endeavors going into the future.

Chickasaw Annual Meeting and Festival officially kicks off Sept. 29 with a social stickball game and traditional stomp dance at Kullihoma, east of Ada on State Highway 1. A full week of festivities are planned, including the crowning of Chickasaw princesses, the serving of a traditional meal, many cultural demonstrations and, on Oct. 5, the Chickasaw Nation’s cultural evening at the Chickasaw Cultural Center, Sulphur, Oklahoma, where Chickasaws are honored for preserving the tribe’s cultural heritage.

Governor Anoatubby’s State of the Nation Address is set for 9 a.m., Oct. 7, at Aiitafama’ Ishto “large meeting place” on the Chickasaw National Capitol grounds in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.

A complete list of events, locations and schedules will become available online at AnnualMeeting.Chickasaw.net. The event schedule is subject to change.

Follow Chickasaw Nation social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, for updates.

For more information, call (580) 371-2040 or email Kelcey.Upton@Chickasaw.net.

“For foreign galleries wanting to come to Seoul, our main strengths are the purchasing power of our art lovers and our infrastructure,” says Oh Se-hoon, the mayor of Seoul.

Speaking on the opening day of the second edition of Frieze Seoul earlier this week, Oh was quick to point out South Korea’s economic clout as the tenth largest economy in the world, also nodding to the country’s vibrant cultural history and established network of collectors and private museums.

Oh, a member of the country’s conservative People Power Party, cites the biggest difference between the art market in Seoul and others around the world “is that young people are very interested in buying art”. He adds: “Young people in their 20s, 30s and 40s are truly interested in—and invested in—enjoying art in Seoul. That is the real energy behind this trend.”

Hong Kong’s crown

Ten years ago, there was another trend: all eyes were on Hong Kong as the global art market’s “next big thing”. The Swiss franchise Art Basel launched a fair in the city, taking over from the local fair ART Hong Kong, and mega dealers began to eye up the prospect of accessing billionaires based on Mainland China. Since then, the Chinese market (including Hong Kong) has dramatically expanded, not only in terms of value but also its infrastructure of galleries and private museums.

However, dogged in recent years by growing censorship from Beijing and tight Covid restrictions, Hong Kong’s pre-eminent position is said to be slipping. As Won Jae Park, the director of Seoul’s ONE and J Gallery, puts it: “Hong Kong is not what it used to be, but everybody knows that Asia is happening. We need to have an anchor somewhere and it seems like people have found Seoul to be the best place for that—at least for the time being.”

Frieze Seoul sales

Despite Seoul’s clear ascendancy, however, the Korean market is still in its nascent stages, at least in terms of monetary value. Sales at Frieze Seoul this week have largely been made around the $100,000-$200,000 mark. Very few seven-figure sums were reported; those to breach that level include a new Georg Baselitz painting which sold to an Asian collector for €1.2m at Thaddaeus Ropac gallery. The Austrian dealer, who says Frieze Seoul “has moved up a gear since last year”, also sold a 1988 Donald Judd “stack” exhibited at his Seoul gallery to a Korean collector for $3m. A Calder mobile at Pace, valued “in the millions”, and an imposing Jeff Koons Gazing Ball sculpture from 2004 at Robilant + Voena for $3.6m had yet to find homes by the end of the second day.

Many lower- and mid-tier galleries are playing a longer game. By the end of the second day, Taipei’s TKG+ gallery had sold five paintings by the Thai artist Mit Jai Inn, two installations by Joyce Ho and five paintings by Chiu Chen-Hung (both from Taiwan) for a total of $150,000.

Director Shelly Wu says the gallery will “definitely not” recoup the cost of doing the fair—her experimental programme focuses on video and photography by emerging and mid-career artists. She adds: “Our intention in doing international fairs is to present talents from the region to international audiences, so we not only look at the sales results, but also exposure of the artists to museums and institutions, which we have been doing quite well. This is the case for many mid-scale galleries.”

There is a distinctly more Asian feel to the makeup of the fair this year; around 40% of galleries are from the region and 58% of galleries have a presence in Asia in the shape of a gallery or office. Several dealers and advisers observed fewer American buyers on the ground and even fewer Europeans than last year, though collectors from Southeast Asia and China are making up for those shortfalls, having been prevented from travelling in 2022 due to Covid restrictions. As Matt Carey-Williams, the director of MCW Fine Arts, puts it: “The fair felt buzzy and animated on the opening day, though there were not as many international visitors as last year. I noticed an adjustment in material: much more primary market than secondary market. The fair has energised the primary market side of things in Korea in a big way.”

Patrick Lee, the director of Frieze Seoul, confirms there are 93 international museum representatives in town this week, including individual curators and directors, though larger patron groups are thinner on the ground compared with last year. US institutions in attendance include the Aspen Art Museum, The Bass, the Hammer Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; while those from China and Hong Kong include M+, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art and the Pingshan Art Museum, in Shenzhen.

Lee is acutely aware of the need to keep attracting such individuals and groups to South Korea. “Frieze Seoul is much smaller than Art Basel Hong Kong, but there’s overlap in terms of the audience, we’re targeting similar people,” he says. “For this fair to succeed, it’s got to be greater than Seoul. It’s got to be global.” As with the other Frieze art fair franchises, the organisation has successfully collaborated with other events taking place during in Seoul this week including Kiaf art fair, Seoul Fashion Week and the Seoul Mediacity Biennale.

One of the perennial problems for the global fair circuit is overcrowding. Lee acknowledges the clash with The Armory Show in New York, which runs concurrently to Frieze Seoul, is “less than ideal”. Now that Frieze has acquired the US fair, the director hopes there is a chance of separating the two events by a few weeks.

In the meantime, Western galleries and auction houses are making their presence felt in Seoul. This month alone sees the arrival of Sotheby’s and White Cube, who join heavyweights such as Lehmann Maupin, one of the first Western galleries to set up shop in the South Korean capital; Thaddaeus Ropac, which this year has expanded its footprint to enable the gallery to show two artists at once; and Pace, which enlarged its space a year ago.

Pace’s president Samantha Rubell declined to comment on rumours that the gallery is looking to leave its H Queens building in Hong Kong, saying: “Despite setbacks, the Hong Kong market is still extremely vibrant. Hong Kong remains the most international city in Asia attracting collectors and curators from all over the world. We are absolutely committed to continuing to operate our gallery in Hong Kong.” According to a spokeswoman, the gallery has a year-long lease on its H Queens space, where “programming continues”.

Gagosian, too, is dipping is toe in the water. Last month, the gallery appointed Jiyoung Lee to lead the gallery’s operations in South Korea. Nick Simunovic, Gagosian’s senior director in Asia, says “all options are being evaluated” when it comes to opening a permanent gallery in Seoul.

At the fair, Gagosian had sold much of its booth in advance, primarily to Asian clients—though not exclusively Korean collectors, according to Simunovic. With a focus on the gallery’s primary market, prices range from $100,000 to “a few million dollars” for a Jonas Wood painting. He describes the market in Korea as “sophisticated and opinionated” and believes pitting Seoul against Hong Kong is a “false dichotomy”. Though he notes there are obvious advantages of doing business in Hong Kong, namely it being a trade free zone and its central location at a cross roads in Asia.

South Korean market slowdown

After a boom year in 2022, during which the South Korean market reached a record 1 trillion won ($782m), according to Korea Arts Management Service, the auction market in the first half of 2023 is reportedly down by 9.9%, with sales of high-end works particularly affected, probably due to increased interest rates.

Dealers say a correction was needed. As Jason Haam of the eponymous Seoul gallery puts it: “2022 was lava, it was way too hot.” He says the beginning of this year was “quiet”, but that “businesses is slowly picking up”. At Frieze Seoul, “there’s been a substantial increase in demand in the market”, with “clients deciding on purchases on the spot”. During the opening day he sold a painting by the 26-year-old Seoul-based artist Moka Lee, which she finished the morning the fair opened, to a Korean collector for $55,000.

Won Jae Park thinks South Korea’s market slowdown can be attributed to the poor health of the global economy. “Everything is slowing down,” he says. “It was a similar situation in 2008, right before Lehman Brothers collapsed. Everything was happening, and then all of a sudden, everything was gone. What I find different this time is people are really interested in learning what contemporary art is. There are many smaller collector groups organising art talks and educational programmes, they are really trying to learn the Western narrative of how we are where we are now, and also trying to figure out what we should do as Koreans—to either adapt or participate in this global event.”

As Mayor Oh Se-hoon notes, younger buyers are certainly fuelling the excitement in the contemporary art scene. According to Jane Yoon, Sotheby’s managing director in Korea, collectors under the age of 50 now account for around 80% of sales at the Seoul outpost of the auction house. Whether they will stay the course is another question. As Park puts it: “Things are changing fast. I’m sure some of them will fall away and lose interest. It’s a long process becoming a collector, but the growing interest is a good step.”

Carey-Williams also points out that South Korea’s market still remains largely domestic and in the hands of a few. “It’s a local market that has become very big and confident. But that handful of big collectors who can spend $10m on a painting is still a handful.”

Gossip about recent art fair-industry consolidation was a major focus at the VIP opening day of The Armory Show, as art world denizens debated the impact of the Frieze acquisition of both Armory and EXPO Chicago earlier this summer.

For the near-term, and amid a buzzy opening that seemed to only be gathering momentum as the the day wound on (the fair runs until September 10), Armory Show executive director Nicole Berry was laser-focused. “I feel like this is just such a strong fair. And the response has been wonderful and supportive of that,” Berry told Artnet News a few hours into the opening.

Berry said that everything was already very much in-motion for this year’s edition when the Frieze acquisition was announced in mid-July. “My team has been focused on creating a great fair. A lot of the discussions about what happens in the future will be post-fair,” she said. For now Frieze New York, which takes place just a few blocks south of the Javits Center in the multi-level venue of the Shed, at Hudson Yards, is scheduled to take place as usual, as is the 2024 edition of Armory, again at the Javits.

However, this year’s fair, the Armory’s third appearance at the Javits Center, was a tonal downshift from 2022. The 225 exhibitors marked a drop from last year’s 240, and on day 1 there was a sense among fairgoers that attendance was light.

The broader art market correction that saw tepid at best (and disastrous at worst) auction results in New York this spring may now be manifesting in the primary market. Dealers at the VIP preview told Artnet News that sales were slower than last year. Sales figures are still trickling in, but beyond what works sell and for how much is the matter of what is for sale—some might characterize the bevy of figurative paintings on offer as evidence dealers are playing it safe.

To be sure, enthusiasm for art fairs practically piqued in 2022. It’s hard to compare to the mood of a year marked by jubilation that Covid lockdowns and travel restrictions were for the most part behind us—enthusiasm that surely juiced sales and attendance. Perhaps in anticipation of that, organizers purposefully shrunk the fair slightly this year, according to Berry.

“The fair is about nine percent smaller based on our own decision,” she said. “We felt like we wanted to bring it in a little bit. When we first started here at the Javits, we had really wide aisles and big spacious areas because of Covid. And now the beauty of this venue as opposed to the piers is…it’s not cramped and crowded. But we sill wanted good energy and I think we found the right balance.”

And there were still standouts. The special Armory section “Platform,” which features large-scale works and was curated by Eva Respini, deputy director at the Vancouver Art Gallery, was particularly compelling, with star pieces like Woody De Othello’s large-scale patinated bronze sculpture, presented by Jessica Silverman, that sold for $400,000.

Also on view was Yinka Shonibare, Agnes Denes, and Teresita Fernandez, among others. Organized under the theme of “Rewriting Histories,” it featured a mix of new works alongside iterations of previously seen hits, like Barthélémy Toguo’s latest version of the massive Urban Requiem (2015), shown at the Venice Biennale last year.

Installation view of Nara Roesler booth at The Armory Show. Image courtesy Nara Roesler.

Beyond this, there was a massive amount of figurative paintings on display across all sections of the fair—a fact that many visitors couldn’t help but notice and comment on throughout the day. And business seemed brisk.

Dealer Ben Brown, one of only a handful of gallerists that simultaneously exhibited at both Armory and Frieze Seoul in South Korea, told Artnet News that the energy at Armory was decidedly better, especially with more confirmed sales. The booth, which had striking works on display by Yoan Capote, Candida Höfer, Vik Muniz, José Parlá, Enoc Perez, and Ena Swansea, was hard to miss within feet of the fair entrance.

Sales of works included those by Capote and Muniz; prices of sold works ranged from $75,000 to $100,000.

New York gallery Berry Campbell had a standout booth, a curated presentation of 12 postwar women artists. The gallery has a distinct focus on re-examining underrepresented women artists of the 20th-century. Gallery owner Christine Berry called it “an incredible day,” noting high demand for artists including Alice Baber, Bernice Bing, and Lynne Drexler.

Lynne Drexler, Burst Blue (1969). © Estate of Lynne Drexler. Image courtesy Berry Campbell, New York

Works by Drexler sold for $885,000 and $200,000; the artist, who has been drawing intense interest, will likely be the subject of a traveling institutional retrospective at some point in the near future. A work by Baber went for $200,000—Berry Campbell hopes to mount a solo show of the artist next year.

Later on in the day, the gallery let Artnet News know that a painting by Ethel Schwabacher had been sold for $195,000.  

A range of dealers appeared upbeat about VIP day, including Daniel Roesler, partner and senior director of Nara Roesler, which has branches in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, and Chelsea in New York. “We had an energetic first day with a steady flow of thoughtful engagement about our artists with New York and Brazilian collectors,” said Roesler.

The gallery sold Heinz Mack’s The painter’s garden (chromatic constellation), (2001), for €240,000 ($258,000) and two Fabio Miguez mixed-media works for $15,000 each.

Miles McEnery Gallery, which has been drawing buzz with a string of adjoining ground-level galleries in Chelsea, found success with contemporary favorites, including Inka Essenhigh, Jacob Hashimoto, Tom LaDuke, and James Siena. “There is a palpable electricity to the fair this year with robust sales from longtime friends and new collectors from across the U.S.,” said Miles McEnery.

Los Angeles dealer Anat Ebgi told Artnet News that the first day response was “amazing,” and that their two booths nearly sold out. The main booth featured artists including Greg Ito, Faith Wilding, and Robert Russell while another booth was a solo presentation highlighting works by Alec Egan. Sales included nearly all of the works in the solo presentation of Egan’s oil paintings at prices between $45,000 to $55,000.

In the group presentation, sales included works by Ito, as well as Jordan Nassar, Caleb Hahne Quintana, and Alejandro Cardenas and priced between $35,000 and $55,000. Additional sold artworks were those by Karyn Lyons Ming Ying, Janet Werner, and Amie Dicke, all priced between $20,000 and $30,000. Works by Fabian Treiber, Tammi Campbell, Krzysztof Strzelecki, Ryan Driscoll, and Angela Lane sold at prices between $6,0000 and $16,000.

San Francisco gallerist Jessica Silverman, who is celebrating her 15th anniversary this year, said the gallery artists’ “sustained presence in world-class museums demonstrates the high quality of our roster.”

Woody De Othello, thought in mind (2023). Image courtesy the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery. Photo by Lance Brewer.

“The positive reception from institutions on the East Coast shows how our artists’ material and conceptual rigor is timely and timeless,” she added. Sales during opening hours included five table-top bronze sculptures titled I Need You (2023) by Rose B. Simpson—one to the Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, Rollins Museum of Art in Winter Park, Florida, and four others with important American collections.

Other first-day sales and an oil painting by Julie Buffalohead for $50,000 to a Texas foundation. Several works on paper by Clare Rojas and Rupy C. Tut sold in the range of $12,000 to $20,000 and a weaving by Margo Wolowiec sold for $38,000.

Paris gallery Templon, which opened an outpost in Chelsea last fall, sold work by Will Cotton for $150 000, as well as works by Chiharu Shiota, priced from €60 000 to €100,000 ($64,000 to $107,000). All Philippe Cognée works on the booth for €30 000 to €75,000 ($32,000 to $80,000) were also sold.

Anne-Claudie Coric, executive director of Templon, noted a lot of interest from American collectors in international artists. “The first hour was extremely busy and it felt like we were back in the pre-Covid times.”

The Armory Show is on view at the Javits Center from September 8 through 10.

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Step Inside Artist Dale Chihuly’s Stunning Seattle Studio, Filled With an Epic Antiques Collection and His Otherworldly Glass Forms 

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Your Go-To Guide to All the Art Fairs Taking Place in New York During the 2023 Edition of Armory Week 

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Some say that in the very near future, we’ll need to either adopt artificial intelligence (AI) or be made redundant by it – or by others using it. If this is true, artists, designers and other creatives are more at stake than most.

So, it’s interesting to see big companies like Coca-Cola choosing to kickstart their own generative AI journey with projects directed at including and enabling creatives.

The company has recently appointed a global head of generative AI, Pratik Thakar – becoming one of the first major multinationals to do so. It’s a sure sign of how important it thinks the technology will be.

In addition, it’s won acclaim with a stunning AI-generated advertising campaign that really shows how AI, combined with human talent, can bring the wow factor.

Running through its other initiatives is a theme of empowering independent creators and small studios with the opportunities of generative AI.

The message seems to be that artists have nothing to fear from AI and should instead embrace its power to enhance their own skills.

Which sounds great – but does it actually hold water?

Here’s an overview of some of the ways that the world’s most famous soft drink company is using (or planning to use) generative AI. These are use cases that, while technically excellent, raise interesting questions about how AI will change the relationship between technology, artists and the corporations that put the money on the table.

Head of Generative AI

This year, Coca-Cola appointed Pratik Thakar as the global head of generative AI. Speaking to The Drum, he said that he believes AI will bridge the gap between human creativity and brand identity.

He said, “Coca-Cola has always bridged the divide … how do we make it more approachable … more palatable and something which is useful to everyone?”

Thakar believes that the democratization of AI means the democratization of Coca-Cola – or its brand identity, at least. The plan is to achieve this by making tools that let anyone play around with new ways of communicating that identity.

Ethics are an important aspect of AI, and you’d hope they would be a concern for the man in charge of it across operations as huge as Coca-Cola’s. So it’s reassuring that he’s made a commitment to ensuring his company carefully selects its technology partners based on knowing that their models are trained “in the right way.”

Generative Video Advertising

Among the first fruits of Coca-Cola’s move into generative AI is the advert Masterpiece. This critically acclaimed video brings to life some of the world’s most famous works of art, seamlessly integrating AI-augmented animation with live action.

It was created in collaboration with OpenAI, using their DALL-E2 generative image model and ChatGPT.

It’s a result of a partnership formed earlier in 2023 when Coca-Cola announced it was working with the agency Bain and Company to find innovative generative AI use cases in marketing and advertising.

The drinks manufacturer’s involvement with AI is long-standing, though, with predictive and prescriptive AI already in use for localized and personalized marketing initiatives.

Masterpiece works on several levels. It’s a visually impressive piece of content that communicates brand identity. It’s also a signal that Coca-Cola is looking for people who can use generative AI to do amazing things. Finally, it serves as an announcement that generative AI has arrived in the advertising industry, and it’s about to shake things up.

Empowering Creativity?

In line with Thakar’s stated belief in helping creatives to unlock the power of AI, Coca-Cola held its first Real Magic Creative Academy this year.

The event helped it to build connections with the independent art and design community. By fostering these relationships, it hopes to unearth the talent and inspiration it needs to follow up Masterpiece.

It’s an extension of the brand’s Create Real Magic campaign, which invited artists to use its digital platform to create images using Coke’s platform and assets, with the winning images going on display on billboards in New York and London.

Staying on the theme of empowering creatives, there’s also Coke Studio. This is a free music-making platform, now augmented with generative AI capabilities.

Hosted at various festivals around the US, visitors are able to create songs, music videos and even album covers by answering questions posed by a ChatGPT-powered bot.

Once they’ve completed the process, which involves being filmed in a green room studio and inserted into their video, their creations can be downloaded and shared.

It’s clear that the brand wants to be associated with AI and the upcoming generation of artists and creators that it believes will use it. Of course, it probably isn’t a coincidence that many of them, because of what they do, are likely to be identified by marketers as influencers.

Is this really good for human creatives?

As generative AI becomes commonplace in advertising, we can’t ignore the implications for broader society, and in particular for human creatives working in this fast-changing field.

Appointing a head of generative AI is a big statement from any company that they understand the power that the technology has to transform their business. But when a company like Coca-Cola does it, it means they know it’s going to transform an entire industry. If you’re a working artist or other creative, reliant on businesses and enterprises to hire and commission you, is it a transformation that’s in your best interests?

We’ve seen that generative AI enables opportunities to create and express ideas in new and amazing ways. It also democratizes the creative process, meaning independent artists and small studios can create work that can compete with that of large agencies.

But there are very real fears that industries that have always paid creatives for everything from company logos and packaging design to cinematic adverts will divert that money into AI art. So, some creatives might see this as being given the tools to dig their own graves!

Another concern is that the growing closeness between industrial and tech giants like Coca-Cola and OpenAI, fostered by the AI boom, demonstrates that not everyone has equal access to these world-changing tools. We commonly see AI providers offering superior access to enterprise users. By securing access to the newest and most powerful models and algorithms, could we be heading for a future where corporations have even greater influence than they do now on the world of art and design?

Personally, though, I don’t believe any of these are predetermined outcomes. The steps we take in coming years to ensure the responsible and ethical rollout of AI into society managing its impact on human lives, will determine the world we end up with.

I think it will be a long time before human creativity can be completely simulated. The Masterpiece advert wouldn’t have been possible to make without human input. And I don’t think it would be able to come up with something that could become as iconic as the Coca-Cola logo itself. Or of Santa Claus in a red coat.

Of course, that doesn’t mean businesses won’t try to use it to save money where they can, particularly on repetitive work – such as mass personalization, for example. But in the near term, as a commercial artist or designer, being able to augment your skills with AI is likely to open doors to new and interesting opportunities.

Read more about these topics in my new book, The Future Internet: How the Metaverse, Web 3.0, and Blockchain Will Transform Business and Society and and ‘Business Trends in Practice, which won the 2022 Business Book of the Year award. And don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube for more on the future trends in business and technology.

While many major collectors want a Picasso, say, or a George Condo, the first step, usually, is to score something else: a broker with the access to help them actually buy one. 

The role of the art advisor has changed over the years, and with it a new underclass has emerged: the Gmail art advisor. These artful gatherers of commissions have been chronicled by Katya Kazakina in Artnet News once before. They were defined as “a pestilence.” They are often “young and related to an art dealer or collector (i.e., nepo babies),” and work in ill-defined ways, sometimes unscrupulously gathering commissions from both buyers and sellers (a major, if not existential, faux pas in among traditional art advisors). Perhaps they use hyphenates, like “advisor-dealer,” Kazakina wrote.

Suzanne Gyorgy, the global head of art advisory and finance at Citi bank—as traditional an advisor as it gets—noted that a key part of her trade’s’ ethics involves a fiduciary duty to the client. “That means no acting as a go-between or intermediary between a gallery and client, no collecting of introduction fees,” she said. “Everything we do is very transparent.” 

To some, Gmail art advisors are the bottom feeders of the art market. The term was coined in 2019 by art-meme maker Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, aka Jerry Gogosian. “Back when I was working in a gallery, I noticed that a lot of these half-drunk chardonnay-sipping housewives would come in from Malibu or whatever and ask for discounts,” she told Artnet News. “They would give me their card and it would always say ‘whoever’ at Gmail dot com.” 

But some Gmail art advisors are now making a case for themselves as bold new upstarts, who can often be found perusing sales floors and attending big-ticket biennale openings. 

Andrea Lledo, head of her own private art advisory service, which she founded in 2019, says that she understands criticism of the so-called Gmail art advisor, but adds that “the term is being used to disparagingly refer to any girl out here hustling. We all start somewhere, but in time you learn the rules and who you can trust in the shark filled waters of the art game.”

Lledo may be independent, but she said she’s on the scene just like any other advisor, attending art fairs and auctions, and gathering as much intel as possible in person. She combs through opaque price points, and finds out if there are third-party guarantees on works that her clients may not be aware of. “If you’re not physically at the auction or on the sale floor,” she told me from the sale floor of Art Basel earlier this summer, “it’s difficult to get information, and this is what makes the difference between a so-called ‘gmail art advisor’ and a seasoned vet.”

Daniel Oglander is a New York-based art advisor who got his start not as the nepo baby of a collector or celebrity, but rather as an art handler working for Phillips. “I got my start in the art game by virtue of the loading dock,” he told Artnet News.

Daniel Oglander attends The New York Ball: The 20th Anniversary Benefit for the European School Of Economics at Trump Tower in 2014. Photo by Monica Schipper/FilmMagic.

“I think that when it comes to the nature of art advisory, it’s about building trust through scrupulous and trustworthy relationships, which have to be constructed over time.” Since 2014, Oglander has been advising clients and taking commissions as a percentage of the retail price. He deals primarily in contemporary art, on the secondary market, charging his client a 10 percent fee on the final sale price. 

Independent advisors today may take to a Telegram group to try to match buyers with sellers, or there may be young art historians or curators flipping the occasional artwork to supplement their income. These hustlers may actually perform an essential function of the mid-level art market; not everyone can—or wants—to be Sandy Heller or Philip Hoffman. There are plenty of art advisors content to work with close family and a small network of collectors within their social network.

Oglander sees his role as more of an educator and connector of dots, creating dialogues about what his clients are interested, or organizing trips and studio excursions for collectors to meet and congregate with the artists and galleries in his network. 

What separates a Gmail art advisor from a traditional one, to him, is not necessarily pedigree, but rather industry access and the upholding of accepted standards in terms of fees and transparency. “You’re not going to get anyone to admit to being a Gmail art advisor,” he said, “but what I can say is that there are gatekeepers who patrol access to the market for art, and our role as young and more ambitious advisors is to help our clients navigate that.”

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