1.  Economics – to be blunt and up front.  With today’s financial conditions, it becomes increasing more difficult to mount solo or even two-person exhibitions.  The costs of running a gallery, even a small one, are incredible, even for the basics like rent (fortunately we own our space), electricity, insurance, promotion, etc.  Then if you add the costs of receptions and, for the more fortunate, personnel, it becomes almost prohibitive.  So those entry fees are sometimes just enough to keep the lights on.

2.  Altruism.  Yes, we care.  From the very beginning, Projects Gallery’s main tenet was to put the artists first and to represent them honestly, respectfully and to provide a platform for them to showcase their work, as much as possible, according to their own personal vision.  These call-to-artists shows give artists, who might not otherwise have an opportunity, a chance to get their work out of their studios and to display it in a quality venue.  Most of these artists do not have gallery representation, and this may one of the only ways their works will be seen.

3.  Community Outreach.  All of our call-to-artist exhibitions are thematic.  In the past, we have explored ideas such as guilty pleasures, summer in the city, celebrating a historic presidency.  Currently there’s an exhibition on the walls in Philly discussing masks in today’s society (thought up by a Mexican and an American and juried by a Venezuelan).  Next we’re going to explore contemporary abstract art in its myriad styles.  And the most unusual idea has just been sent out.  In “Square Foot Art Basel Miami,” we have asked artists to stay within a 12″x12″ configuration for a mosaic-style grid to be hung in our Wynwood Lofts Miami gallery.  The first 100 artists to send in their entries are guaranteed a place on the wall.  This is open to anyone in the world so long as the piece is 12″x12″ and can be hung on the wall.  No one is juried, no one is rejected, no one is selected.  Truly a democratic, first-come, first-served opportunity.  After the first 100 artists, subsequent entries will be placed according to space availability on a wall the measures 30′W by 12′H.  That’s 360 sf of space, and we’re not hanging floor to ceiling.

4.  Opportunities.  The opportunity for the gallery to find new artists to represent.  We have in the past and hope to in the future.  The opportunity for someone to find a piece of art that they want to own.   The opportunity for an artist to be seen by another gallery and start a new relationship with them.  This too has happened in the past.  Opportunity for the artist to think about a theme and see how their work might apply or make something brand new and stretch their abilities.

So you see, it’s not about living off the backs of artists.  I’m still driving the same old car, and believe me there’s much more work involved in this type of exhibition than a solo or dual exhibition.  It’s about working together, as artists often do, to think outside the box and to keep things going no matter how tough the going gets.

September 2-24, 2011

A juried exhibition exploring the contemporary use of the mask.  More than 25 artists are featured, with works in a variety of media, including drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, print, sculpture and video.  Everyone wears a mask, whether literally or figurative.  What are we trying to hide or reveal?  Ancient man used the altered human form to represent the mysteries of his world.  Shaman or medicine men wear body paint or crafted objects to transform themselves into forms from the spirit world.  Halloween and Mardi Gras are two of today’s blends of religious and secular celebrations.  What does the mask represent for modern man?  We wear masks of all kinds – as part of religious rituals, in theater, in sports, in entertainment, in combat as well as in the face we present to others.

Juror, Henry Bermudez, has selected an eclectic group of artists to discuss this topic.  Mr. Bermudez is a Venice Biennale Venezuelan artist who has shown throughout the world and has had more than 30 solo exhibitions and has participated in more than 75 group exhibitions.  His works are included in several public and private collections, including National Museum of Catholic Art & History, New York; Museums of Contemporary Art, Caracas, Maracaibo, Merida, and Maracay, Venezuela; Modern Art Museum of Costa Rica; Puebla Cultural House, Puebla, Mexico; Museum of Art Ralli, Punta Del Este, Uruguay.  He currently lives in Philadelphia and has an installation at the Philadelphia International Airport.

What makes a neighborhood?  Certainly it is shaped by its architectural design, both in its buildings and its streets, as well as its businesses and its government.  Most importantly, it is people – those who live there and those who don’t.  Northern Liberties was the first planned suburb in the New World when William Penn scrolled the words Liberty Town on his design for the “City of Brotherly Love.”  From the beginning, the neighborhood attracted artists and innovators, including the studio of one of the greatest artists of the Federal period – William Rush.  Photographs of its storefronts testify to the innovative pottery and craft companies located there in the early 19^th Century.  Well into the 20^th Century, it was home to creative dreamers, such as Larry Fine of The Three Stooges fame and the mercantile family who created processed American cheese, now known as Kraft.  Once the sixth largest town in America, Northern Liberties was home to a wide range of European immigrants, including large Irish, German and Jewish communities.  Then in the 1950’s a great number of people left the neighborhood to move to the suburbs, made accessible by the new interstate highway system.  As they left, so did the businesses and the government’s economic support.  A near deathblow was dealt by the construction of I-95, together with the disaster of Ed Bacon’s planned industrial zone starting at Vine Street.  Northern Liberties was definitely in a decline.  Fortunately, in the 1970’s things started turning around.  The city had no more money for planned renewal.  Artists looking for inexpensive studios and living spaces discovered the empty factories, workshops and row houses.  Left alone, the neighborhood began to attract the same sort of rugged innovators it had started with nearly two hundred years earlier.  In the past four decades Northern Liberties has become “hip, trendy and New York City’s sixth borough.”  Northern Liberties: A Transformation is the pictorial story of this change.

Jennifer Baker’s Northern Liberties studio was established in 1978.  Since that time, her paintings have documented the events in this gutsy neighborhood.  She has chronicled the destruction and the resurrection, the traditions and the people and the urban life of a city neighborhood going through a rebirth.   Baker’s and the works of nine other Northern Liberties artists present an exhibition that tells the story and hope of this unique place and the people who have been changed by it.  Participating artists include Joe Brenman, Tanya Murphy Dodd, Anda Dubinskis, Ray King, Rob Matthews, Ray Metzker, Bruce Pollock, Ruth Thorne-Thomsen and Ira Upin, with works in a variety of media.  During the opening, short readings will be given by Nathaniel Popkin, author of Song of the City: An Intimate History of the American Urban Landscape and The Possible City: Exercises in Dreaming Philadelphia; Inga Saffron, Architecture Critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer; Stephan Salisbury, senior Culture Writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer and author of Mohamed’s Ghosts: An American Story of Love and Fear in the Homeland; and Jennifer Baker.  A commissioned John Thornton (aka Rusty Scupperton) “Northern Liberties” video will also be shown.

Frank Hyder’s solo exhibition “Changing States” – May 6-28, 2011

Projects Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Frank Hyder featuring a selection of paintings and three-dimensional drawings.  Utilizing a diverse mixture of materials, including CPVC tubing, prints, lights, Plexiglas and wood, Hyder continues his dialogue with man’s relationship to nature.

Frank Hyder has made a career out of translating simple images into personal inventions.  His images are known for their simple nature and complex construction, engaging the viewer in multilayered processes which hint at the natural complexity one finds in nature. Using archetypal simple forms such as boats, fish and even the human figure, he continues to engage the viewer in his very personal vision.

Hyder, one of the initial artists of Philadelphia’s legendary More Gallery where he had 22 shows, has participated in more than 150 group shows and over 80 solo exhibitions throughout North, South and Central America, including 9 individual exhibitions in New York City.  He has been one of the few North Americans to have solo exhibitions in 5 major Venezuelan museums.  Other solo museum exhibitions include the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art’s Museum of American Art, the Carnegie Museum in California, the La Salle Museum of Art in Philadelphia, and the National Museum of Catholic Art and History in New York City.  For the past three years, he has participated in “Giants in the City,” whose heroic inflatables exhibited during the Art Basel Miami.  In the past year, he has had solo exhibitions in Miami; Portland, OR; Sarasota and Toronto.  In June he will be a featured artist at the Caracas FIA, followed by a solo exhibition at the Galeria Medicci.

His works are in the collections of art museums in Philadelphia, Grand Rapids, Ontario, Caracas and Maracaibo, Venezuela, as well as the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Library of Congress and innumerable corporate and private collectors.  Major awards include a Senior Fulbright Research Grant to Venezuela, U.S. Embassy Cultural Grants, MidAtlantic NEA, two Pennsylvania State Council Grants and an International Art Programming Network Partners Grant.  Public commissions include the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program “Hanging Garden of I-95”, “Honey’s” and “Bell’s Pond” wall murals; Terminal Freezer, Oxnard, CA, ceramic wall mural; and the Museo Jacobo Borges “Bridge of Life” ceramic walkway in Caracas, Venezuela.  iPics-Gold Class Entertainment recently commissioned his work for their new Scottsdale, Arizona theater.

Artist walks through the front door, makes a beeline for the front desk as though they have blinders on, “Hi, I’m so and so. How do I get a show here?” They don’t even take a few minutes to look at what’s on the walls. Never have they done their research and looked up the gallery’s website to even see what type of work I represent. Clue…I don’t show photo realism. There’s nothing wrong with photo realism. Some of my favorite works are photo realistic. I just don’t show it.

Working with a gallery, especially a commercial one, is like building a relationship. You don’t ask someone on a date by saying, “Hi, I’m so and so. Would you like to sleep with me?”

Artists, please do your homework!!!

1. Deliver the work on the assigned day and time
2. Make sure everything is signed…some where…back, front.  I don’t care.  Sign on the work itself, not on the canvas bars and not on the frame.
3. Have it ready to hang…hooks and/or wire, Plexiglas if that’s how it’s going to be protected, framed if necessary, etc.  If you do video work, ask if you need to supply the video equipment.  Not all galleries have such hardware.  Don’t assume the gallery has the equipment or the time to finish your work.
4. Provide a list of works, including titles, sizes, media, dates, prices, etc.
5. Provide an updated resume and artist statement
6. A word on pricing – don’t wait until the last minute to talk about pricing.  If you’re not sure how to price your work, talk this over with the gallery long before you’re ready to hang.
7. During the actual installation, some galleries will want your input, others won’t.  Follow their lead.
8. Don’t bring your friends, your spouse or your children to “help” with the installation without asking the gallery first.  Your voice and the gallery’s voice are the only ones that need to be heard.  The rest is just noise, sometimes annoying noise.
9. Communicate your thoughts and ideas but also LISTEN!  You may know your work, but let’s assume the gallery knows their space and their audience.
10. Finally – TALK UP YOUR SHOW.  Tell your public, your friends, your relatives, your acquaintances and anyone who has ever expressed the slightest bit of interest in your work. Your job is not over just because your show is installed.  Continue to get the word out and get people to come see the work.

Oh yeah, one last thing.  Every once in a while, say “thank you”.  Most galleries work really hard for their artists.  They appreciate a simple thank you.  I know I do.