In touch

It's Awards week on OTN and this month's winner of Best signage designed to stop people touching sculpture goes to the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles

Sign of the times II

The new art history. A bunch of students looking for art.

Sign of the times I

A guard at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis doubles up as signage

Not a good sign

In Grand Junction, Colorado an object lesson in caution for any public sculptor contemplating fountain action. Along with this visual litany of don’t icons on one of the five signs surrounding a fountain sculpture other warnings included instructions not to climb, wash diapers, sit, loiter, smoke, spit or bathe (with or without a dog). And the fountain? It was was turned off - water restrictions.

tipekanS

If you’ve followed OTN over the years you'll know that we have had a bit of an obsession over dealer gallery signs. The infamous axe attack on the Barry Lett sign, the holiday Dane Mitchell awarded the sign from Artspace and the various iterations of Peter McLeavey’s shingle. So if an exhibition were ever made to feature on this blog it has got to be Fuzzy Vibe's display of 13 dealer and artist run gallery signs. The roster includes a photo of the Teststrip sign (the original must have gone walkabout – it should really be in a public collection) plus signs from Auckland spaces Ferrari, Gambia Castle, s/f and Newcall. Top billing has to go to remnants of the Snakepit sign shown back on but a work of art in any direction. Not sure if the show’s still running but if so, it’s got to be a good sign.

OTN dealer gallery sign stories
New Vision I
New Vision II
Johnathan Smart
Peter McLeavey
Peter McLeavey II
Barry Lett
Teststrip

And the best sign...

...on Cockatoo Island at the Biennale of Sydney

The weirdest sign we saw at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Signs of the times

“The works of art presented in this room may hurt people’s feelings, especially those of children”

Signage at the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. (Thanks J)

Signs on Saturday

Thanks P, thanks and thanks again

Art heist

As you know any news about art gallery signs are right up OTN’s alley and you should check your own alleys to see if this one has been dumped there. This particular art sign has been reported stolen from Hugh Brading’s Warkworth Gallery at 160 Matakana Road (scene-of-the-crime map here). We’re figuring it’s tucked up next to that missing horse in a millionaire’s secret art collection somewhere in Argentina. Could be wrong.

Photo: Hugh Brading

Sign of the times

Party time at a dealer gallery

Symbolic

The institution formally known as the Manawatu Art Gallery

Noteworthy

OTN has always been interested in the signs that galleries display. A note pinned to the door can often reveal as much about the style, history and trials of a gallery as any news report. So here is the first of a series devoted to the notes and signs that galleries use to tell the world what is going on or, as in this case, not going on. Great examples from readers will be lavishly rewarded.
Image: Enjoy Gallery Saturday

Visionary

As you know if you have been with us for a while, we have an intense (some might say creepy) interest in art dealer signs. Two years ago, almost to the day, we were wondering what would happen to the New Vision Gallery sign that Julian Dashper had saved from a skip. This was the gallery that showed Gordon Walters' koru paintings for the first time among many other firsts, but Julian couldn’t find an institutional home for it. We saw the sign at work in the weekend outside the exhibition of Julian’s work wisely curated by Ariane Craig-Smith for the Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland. The sign served as a telling reminder of Julian’s love of New Zealand’s art history, and it was great to find it displayed on the steps of the Gus Fisher still doing its job.

Other gallery sign posts from OTN:
Jonathan Smart
Barry Lett
Peter McLeavey

Smart post

We’ve always had a soft spot for dealer gallery signs as you can see here, here and here. Now this addition from the Jonathan Smart Gallery in Christchurch.

Signed up

Since we last posted on a Dick Frizzell painting in Moore Wilson’s store in Wellington, another huge work has appeared as a feature in the new supermarket. This is the scale of work you could imagine Frizzell putting into a Big Painting show, like that one back in 1971 that featured McCahon’s monster Gate III. Like McCahon, Frizzell has taken as a starting point the handmade signs you see on roadsides selling fruit and veg to passing motorists. A nice twist for the Frizzell painting is the way it has been seamlessly integrated into Moore Wilson’s own signage systems. A perfect storm of sign and signifier (we've always wanted to say that).
Images: Frizzell art at work in Moore Wilson, Wellington. Roadside inspiration.

Things you thought you'd never see

A Peter McLeavey Website

When art goes to the movies?

Sign seen on door at the University of Auckland Art School

Sale ahoy

There was a story, possibly apocryphal, that Colin McCahon’s Murawai letter box, with the number painted on by McCahon himself, was stolen not once but a couple of times. Not that we encourage theft, but you can see the attraction. These signs were painted by artist Julian Schnabel (or if they weren’t by a skillful copy cat) on his apartment building in New York. The building has been the subject of intense local debate and complaint. Schnabel has added a number of floors onto a standard brick apartment and has leased some of them out (Richard Gere bought a floor but it’s back on the market). The penthouse is apparently still available and, given the current market, maybe will be for some time. Locals should perhaps be on the look-out for a Schnabel ‘For sale’ sign.

Good sign

Signs of wildlife at the entrance to Peter McLeavey and Enjoy Galleries in Wellington.