Francisco Tito Rovira of Galeria Comercial Forced to Close Gallery

Rovira in the Stray Show, his first Art Fair.

Finally ! Closure!

"The gallery closed at the end of 2007 after failing to participate in December at 07 Art Basel/Miami Beach in Florida. During 2007 Galeria Comercial reportedly lost several artworks while on consignment to the gallery, forcing the affected artists to go public after Comercial failed to resolve the matter. As reported by Juan C. Pérez-Duthie in the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia, Galería Comercial, although scheduled to take part and even appearing in the international fair's map, in the end was not included among the participating galleries. The gallery owner did not reply to the inquiries from the newspaper."

As of today Galeria Comercial still owes...

Se entroniza Art Basel Miami

La segunda feria de arte más importante del mundo demuestra en estos días que llegó para quedarse y que su poder de convocatoria no tiene parangón en nuestro continente.

Por Juan C. Pérez-Duthie / Especial El Nuevo Día

Miami Beach - ¿Demasiado arte? Para las cientos de miles de personas que han acudido a Art Basel Miami Beach desde el 2002, la respuesta parece ser siempre… no.

Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB), la segunda feria de arte contemporáneo más importante del mundo (después de la versión original que le dio origen, la suiza Art Basel), sigue expandiéndose como pintura derramada sobre lienzo. Y este año no ha sido la excepción. Para la sexta celebración de ABMB (desde el pasado jueves y hasta mañana domingo), efectuada como de costumbre en el Centro de Convenciones de Miami Beach, los organizadores recibieron la cifra récord de más de 850 solicitudes de admisión. Se escogieron 200, que incluyen 27 nuevos expositores y un total de más de 2,000 piezas de arte.

La fiebre de Art Basel Miami Beach 2007 contagió al mundo artístico de tal manera, que por primera vez la más antigua y más modesta Art Miami se movió para la misma semana, formando parte de 20 ferias paralelas de menor tamaño. En total, más de 1,155 galerías de todo el mundo han plantado bandera en el sur de la Florida estos días.

Entre las galerías que participan en ABMB, en un sector de estreno llamado Art Supernova, se encuentra la puertorriqueña Punto Gris, que durante los pasados dos años tuvo presencia en un pabellón exterior junto al Collins Park en la sección Art Positions. “Art Supernova es una sección nueva de la feria en donde hay un curador que recopila galerías jóvenes que tienen una propuesta interesante”, dice la tarde del jueves Mariely López Bermúdez, directora de Punto Gris. Le acompaña su mano derecha, Luis Agosto-Leduc, y juntos han traído obras de tres artistas: Dzine (puertorriqueño), Katie Holten (irlandesa) y Mamiko Otsubo (japonesa).

Para la galerista y abogada López Bermúdez, haber entrado a Art Supernova es un avance, ya que Punto Gris fue invitada a integrar este “show” en grupo. Eso de por sí ya marca diferencia de dónde había exhibido anteriormente.
“Comenzando por la fisicalidad (sic), aquellos son contenedores (Art Positions) y aquí estamos dentro del centro de convenciones. Allá son cubículos herméticamente sellados, aquí la idea es que sea más como un colectivo”, señala López Bermúdez. “Todos los espacios abren”.

¿Por qué participar otra vez?
“Porque la propuesta de la feria es promover el arte contemporáneo y buscar que la presentación vaya más allá de lo que normalmente se ve en una feria de arte”, explica la galerista. “Cada vez es más grande, hay más personas, y cada año la mejoran”.

Cada año se ve de todo, y no sólo como arte. Esta vez desfilaron desde centuriones romanos hasta el colorido binomio de artistas Eva & Adele (él y ella vestidos exactamente igual, a manera de clon), quienes arrancaban las miradas de cualquiera que estuviese embelesado con las pinturas, esculturas, fotografías, vídeos e instalaciones de este faraónico bazar. A las afueras de Art Basel, Alfred Pérez, pintor cubanoamericano, promocionaba su arte exhibido en un estudio no muy lejano de ABMB.

Otra representación de Puerto Rico, Galería Comercial, estaba programada para participar en la sección Art Nova, que ofrece una plataforma a trabajos nuevos de hasta tres artistas, pero en el espacio que le correspondía lo ocupaba en vez la galería I-20 de Nueva York. Las galeristas neoyorquinas dijeron desconocer qué había sucedido con los boricuas. El Nuevo Día intentó averiguar con la oficina de prensa y la oficina administrativa de ABMB, pero no pudo obtener respuesta al cierre de esta edición. Tampoco se logró contactar a los representantes de Galería Comercial.

Entre los trabajos de artistas puertorriqueños, o con alguna conexión a Puerto Rico, presentes en ABMB: José Lerma, Félix González-Torres, Melvin Martínez y la pareja de Jennifer Allora y Guillermo Calzadilla.
Para más información sobre Art Basel Miami Beach 2007, visite www.artbasel.com.

Llorando Arte Perdido (muestras de apoyo)

http://www.myspace.com/jackhowe

crying lost art, sorry it took sooooo long ...i was trying too lose art in LA!!!!!!!! great site ,i love it..........and YES ...i have a few stories!!!! thank da lord...i finally only show with friends....so if i'm ever fucked ,well at least i fucked a friend!!!!!!!!!!! thanks for finding me
jack howe low-life,lower-brow "ottist"

El Punto...es...

Arte perdido en Galerias (Comercial y otros)

Ed Winkleman es el director de Plus Ultra, una galeria de muy buen prestigio en Chelsea, que antes estaba localizada en Williamsburg. Ed también es reconocido por tener uno de los "art blogs" mas leidos en la ciudad de NY.

http://edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com/

busca el thread " Sleazebag Dealers"

aquí un buen consejo de parte de Ed:

" That's why the best advice I can offer if you're faced with what you believe is a sleazebag dealer is to meet individually with other artists who have shown in that gallery and subtlety probe about their experience. If you find others in the same boat then approach them about acting together. One artist complaining about a dealer might be (mis)interpreted as a Prima Donna, but several with the same story will turn the tide and convince other artists and dealers that there's a problem there, if they go public. But approaching the dealer with plans to go public together might make that last step unnecessary. A dealer's reputation is the most valuable asset they have. If that doesn't work, then at least the funds from several artists will go a lot further in court costs than those of one.

Other sites for Lost Art by Sleazebag dealers

great piece of advice from a friend:

" ...that's why the best advice I can offer if you're faced with what you believe is a sleazebag dealer is to meet individually with other artists who have shown in that gallery and subtlety probe about their experience. If you find others in the same boat then approach them about acting together. One artist complaining about a dealer might be (mis)interpreted as a Prima Donna, but several with the same story will turn the tide and convince other artists and dealers that there's a problem there, if they go public."


Just in case you are being persecuted or bullied by a sleazebag dealer who can't take some heat, know your rights:

cyberbulling

Related Sites:

1. Gallery Owe from Vancouver
gallery owe

2. Art Watch Dog
art watch dog

3.Bad Galleries
bad galleries

Bad Galleries is dedicated to all the people who cannot live any other way. They are blessed and cursed with who they are. They live in their studio's or offices and work at odd jobs as the art handlers, the teachers, and whatever creative solution they have imagied for the moment. Parents did everything they could to keep them from a 3rd world life in the land of dreams, and yet they live cloak and dagger in concrete bunkers without running water or heat, with only sometimes a trusty dog. Lovers often charmed by their life come and go, and with them go the promise of daily showers and kitchen luxuries like pancakes and steamed vegetables. They give up everything for what they need to be healthy, a studio practice and a safe place to do it.

This site was not made with Sunday Painters, or "artist's" who make what looks like art they think will get them a dealer. It was made for those without a choice, who have lived other lives and could never, be content. Those with vision and a need to share it. And that deserves respect.

Idealistic. Yes. Romantic...you bet ya. And perhaps that is what is missing form art today. Perhaps that is a part of the reason why it is impossible for artists to gain the stature of a DeKooning ever again. But don't patronize that attitude as stupidity, or even hopeful. It is simply an attempt for something else, as what we have doesn't seem to work.

Disgust with the current system of galleries and how both art and artists are treated fuels this. Art Fairs are atrocious displays of what art shouldn't be. Who thought it would be a good idea to rip the context from an object place it in a room with a million other such rapped ideas, and sell them to people who have never taken even one art, anthropology or philosophy class and are mostly collecting them as a way to potentially fund a beach house a few years down the road and one up there friends. And the dealers seem more concerned with finding the next hip thing, unconcerned with the longevity or quality of voice. Why, because they can sell that, it’s fresh. But young wine is never the best wine; it’s just the quickest sell, especially if you put it in a drink box for convience. Couple that with the fact that artist often will not get paid promptly or at all, or are completely treated as the little dancing monkey of the dealer, or patronized into the bar to play with their little friends while the grown ups do business. Three years later, that artist used up by the system disillusioned and confused sells fish prints in the park on Sunday's and drinks 40's of malt liquor for breakfast.

And Academia is often no better. Often academic galleries are run without budgets, or by student workers who don't have the common sense to actually do the job. Often the facilities are so understaffed and cared for that the same beige rug has covered the walls since 1970. So who gets screwed but the artist trying to show there, often finding out way too late and hundreds of shipping dollars later that spackle cannot fix this one. The artist becomes responsible for the cost. Wouldn't it be better if the large supposedly professional institution charged with enabling the next generation of our countries leaders could seem to muster even a morsel of finacial humanity for those who struggle to share their ideas. When did everything become the responsibility of the artist? Shipping, cards even the supposed privilege of the application.... charged to the artist...who I might remind you is living without their own bathroom in a old storage locker in a bad part of town.

Which brings me to vanity galleries. Galleries you can buy yourself into, despite quality of idea or craftsmanship. I have only one thing to say about that. If you have to buy your way in, you don't belong.

That having been said, artists need galleries to show there work and they need people to sell that stuff they make so that they can make more. Because we have galleries, and museums we are not simply crazy homeless people running around with tiny bits of colored mud on our clothes. They are a necessary evil. Dealers to can come in handy when all we want to do is pee in the fireplaces of collectors and have random sex with their sons and daughters. They can not only sell your stuff so you can make more, they can make you look respectable and get people to notice your contribution and not your weaknesses. A really good gallery will make your weaknesses seem like strengths.

That is why I started this site. So we can find those galleries that are the least evil. Those galleries who will treat you with the respect you deserve and take advantage of you the least. So as a professional you can make a professional and informed judgement.

And finally I asked myself why so many artists get caught up with bad galleries, we all have at least one story of a gallery that you wouldn't send your worst enemy too. WHY DO GALLERIES GET AWAY WITH IT. The answer was simple. Because we let them. We are not organized as a group, nor did we have a format.

Welcome, my friends to Bad Galleries........ this is all for you.

Creator / Editor
Wendy DesChene

Crying Lost Art

famous quote:

"I'd love to find the fucker who lost it and who's hiding away in his momas lap."
by anonymous

LOST WORKS:


**This is from Pedro Velez, a stryrofoam and yarn sculpture from 1999. It was last reported to be seen at Galeria Comercial, Puerto Rico. And a painting in collaboration with artist Jorge Zeno, from the Beat Up Girl series.

**Also lost in Comercial: Work on Paper from a series of 4 collages, by Javier Cambre. Status: all four-missing in action.







**Since March an 8'x8' version of this banner by Rogelio Báez, installed at the entrance of the library of Universidad del Sagrado Corazón campus, was taken down without permission by academic officials. The institution, Catholic , labeled the piece as obscene, (the dean thought it was a picture of two girls kissing and resident nuns complained). After months of lobbying with University officials the academic council promised to return ASAP it to the artist or refund the production costs. The banner was never found but security officials, off the record, say the piece was last seen at a dumpster in the begining of March. To this date the artist has not recieved compensation or an apology.







Hello,

**This painting was used for an exhibition at the Contemporary Artist Center in North Adams, MA. I am not sure if this show actually even went up but they still haven't given it back. The show ended in November and they haven't replied to 10 of my emails. I have heard from others in the show that they also haven't received their work. I still have to make a phone call to them, maybe tomorrow? If they don't respond after a call and email what do I do?
Thanks,
Taylor Franklin
Portland, Maine







**by Walter from collective W&N: "Cuando comencé en la escena de arte, tuve varias experiencias espeluznantes. La primera fue que el galerista con el que estaba trabajando intercambio alrededor de 3 piezas en pequeños formatos a un tipo que enmarca y vende arte, por marcos para piezas de otros artistas. Nunca recibí mi pago. Luego cambie de galero por otro peor. Este es el tipo de galero que paga por sus reseñas y intercambia tus obras por catálogos y se inventa subastas para vender su propias colección. En una de esas famosas subasta vendió una de mis pinturas en menos de la mita de el precio original y me dio el 50% de ese precio sin autorización ninguna." (Walter's painting was used by his ex- gallerist to buy frames for another artist show, without his permission of course).

"Her Favorite Color" 48X48