[eltdf_highlight background_color=”#001af5″ color=””]Reconsidering the Local[/eltdf_highlight]
[eltdf_highlight background_color=”#001af5″ color=””]Learning to be local[/eltdf_highlight]
What does it take to build smaller, multiple, connected art markets?
Patricia Fleming and Thalia Spyridou challenge us to reconsider the values that drive two interdependent but not always compatible pillars of the contemporary art sector – communities of artists and the art market.
Watch the recording of the discussion in full via the video below.
Panel discussion on 27 October 2020
Convened by Patricia Fleming and Thalia Spyridou
Panellists:
Rose Lejeune, Curator; Zain Dada, Programme Manager at Maslaha & Co-founder of Khidr Collective; Elisa Carollo, Art Advisor & Curatorial Board for The Others Art Fair and Francisco Correa Cordero, Founder and Director of Lubov, Executive coordinator at Independent Curators International (ICI) in New York
The contemporary art market as we know it is bound to international art centres – London, Paris, Hong Kong, New York to name a few – the high concentration of galleries, art fairs and auction houses in these locations offer visitors the experience of an assured global network.
As the market continues to evolve amid the Covid-19 crisis, its dependence on ‘economies of presence’ has been challenged. Travel, the economic fall-out of the pandemic and the rise in digital experiences has seen the international calendar of biennials and fairs, private views and pre-private views, exclusive dinners and parties paused, for the meantime at least.
With the physical, economic and environmental sustainability of this system in the spotlight more than ever before, new models could emerge to replace the dominance of international art centres, to create space for other value systems in a more open, locally connected and fairer Global Marketplace.
For this event, curator and gallerist Patricia Fleming challenged us to reconsider the values that drive two interdependent but not always compatible pillars of the contemporary art sector – communities of artists and the art market.
Bringing together voices from within and outside of the sector, contributors share their knowledge of working within local networks and different economies. The panel explores the value of the artistic communities operating outside of international art centres, often economically poor but critically rich centres of artistic production.
Fleming asks contributors and audiences to consider the value of the authentic experiences of these locations and communities where art is made, the barriers to the marketplace and the impact the distance to the marketplace has on these communities. posing the question:
What does it take to build smaller, multiple, connected art markets? What values must we reconsider or compromise in being local and building global, or can we have it all?
Share your reflections
Use #FOTAMUK to view or share in the discussions around this subject on social media.
About Patricia Fleming
Patricia Fleming is Director and curator at Patricia Fleming, Glasgow. The gallery represents some of the UK’s leading contemporary artists.
Fleming studied Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. After graduating in 1990, she moved to Glasgow and established the groundbreaking arts initiative Fuse, a charity providing free studios, exhibitions and a monthly stipend to support contemporary artists living and working in Scotland. The studios ran from 1991-2000, supporting over 500 artists including many names we now associate with the success of the scene; Martin Boyce, Jacqueline Donachie, Douglas Gordon, Jim Lambie to name a few. In 1996, Fleming started her first gallery space Fly, in the City’s East End (now Market Gallery). She moved to the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow 1999-2002, delivering a permanent commission for the new centre with LA based artist Jorge Pardo, and brought the highly prized Beck’s Futures Award to the city. In 2003, She was the first curator for Wales at the Venice Biennale with the critically acclaimed exhibition Further; Cerith Wyn Evans, Bethan Huws, Paul Seawright and Simon Pope. In 2006, Fleming was commissioned by Channel 4 to develop a Public Art programme for the series The Big Art Project, working with Berlin based artist Jeppe Hein on the Scottish Island of Mull. Over the past 30 years, Fleming has curated over 120 local, national and international exhibitions, all have been free for the public. In 2013, she stepped down from the board of Directors at Wasps (the UK’s largest studio network) after 23 years.
Fleming is founder and curator of Art Car Boot Sale at SWG3, Glasgow. An annual social event, where visitors can buy art directly from over 100 of the city’s most exciting emerging and established contemporary artists.
About Thalia Spyridou
Thalia Spyridou has worked with Patricia Fleming, Glasgow for over 5 years, where she was recently appointed Sales Director. Since its foundation in 2017, Thalia has been involved in the coordination of Art Car Boot Sale, an annual event that hosts over 100 contemporary artists selling work directly to the public and generates a significant revenue for the creative community in Glasgow. In 2016 she co-founded Cake Journal, a project that involves creative practitioners in a conversation around social, economic and cultural issues.
Thalia currently lives between her hometown, Nicosia and Glasgow while researching new models of working as an arts professional to support the financial sustainability of artists and aid the collecting of contemporary art, especially in countries with limited access to established art markets.
Speakers
Elisa Carollo is an art advisor and writer, with a special focus on the 20th century and ultra-contemporary art. After her experience with the art world in New York and working for an international advisory and appraisal firm Gurr Johns, she’s currently back in Milan working at a family office, as well as a freelance advisor for collectors, galleries, art fairs, and artists. With 5+ years of experiences in the art business between art brokerage, fairs, auctions and cultural organizations in both the US and Europe, her insatiable appetite and passion for the latest trends of art will never stop her from seeing exhibitions and being engaged with new projects worldwide. She’s currently serving on the advisory board of an independent art fair, The Others, which will run in Turin November.
Francisco Correa Cordero is the founder and director of the contemporary art space Lubov in Lower Manhattan and the executive coordinator at Independent Curators International (ICI) in New York. Lubov is a contemporary art gallery established in 2016 that supports the production and exhibition of new work by emerging artists through commissions and solo exhibitions working collaboratively with writers and curators. In January 2019 the gallery consolidated a roster of artists working in painting, video and photography to reiterate its commitment to advancing the careers of exceptional emerging artists. The gallery exhibitions have been featured and reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, Art in America, New York Magazine, Cultured Magazine, V Magazine, Garage, and Bloomberg among more publications.
Zain Dada is a writer, researcher, and cultural producer. He is currently Programme Manager at the charity, Maslaha and is the co-founder of Khidr Collective – a platform for British Muslim artists. Zain has worked at the intersection of arts, community and research. From co-programming events at community centres due to be demolished to turning facts about obscure council redevelopment plans into powerful, human stories that stir people’s imaginations. He is inspired by projects, initiatives and movements which are accessible, creative and broad in their approach to provoke social change. Zain recently published research on community arts organisations called ‘State, Survival and Sustainability: The future of community arts’ as a Winston Churchill Travel Fellow.
Rose Lejeune is a London-based curator and researcher focused on creating sustainable cross-sector mechanisms to support the production and collection of contemporary art across the range of materials and mediums that artists today use. In addition to regular writing and public speaking on these topics, she is currently working towards Performance Exchange, a UK-wide project working to embed performance within collections and highlight the work commercial galleries do to support artists across the spectrum of contemporary art materials and practices. Rose is also the Associate Curator for the Delfina Foundation’s Collecting as Practice programme where she developed the groundbreaking programme that looks at the politics and economics of global collections. Rose’s current curatorial activities have developed following a decade of experience working with public organisations throughout the UK and in particular working closely with artists to commission for non-gallery situations. This includes as Curator at Art on the Underground and Education Projects Curator at the Serpentine Gallery. Rose holds a BA in Philosophy and Art History, and an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art. Finally, Rose is currently a PhD candidate in Curating at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where her research focuses on curatorial frameworks for performance art in, and out, of the art market.