Bigeyes

Bigears couldn’t be at the Auckland Art fair this year so Bigeyes read what people had to say.

‘I think we are near the entrance which gives us two bites of the cherry, get them on the way in get them on the way out!’ -Instagram

‘… pulsing crackling energy.’ -EyeContact

‘… glad I couldn't attend!‘ -EyeContact

‘I am pro gold jewelry.’ -Instagram

‘Auckland Art Fair – brilliant ‘ -Twitter

‘Don’t be afraid to talk to the dealers.… Most of them are genuinely enthusiastic about the work they show, and want you to be as excited by it as they are.’ – Metro

‘Stallholders smile warmly; you’ll have the full focus of their attention for five seconds’. -EyeContact

‘…utterly mesmerising.’ -Facebook

‘Disjointed art and unbridled commerce.’ -The Spinoff

‘Each work available individually.’ -Instagram

‘Auckland Art Fair, in association with money.’ -Twitter

‘My bronze rat infested walnuts made it into @nzhouseandgarden...’ -Instagram

'...it's the art that's important.' -The Gisborne Herald

Fair enough

The Auckland Art Fair has announced the dealer galleries that will be participating in the 2016 fair opening on 25 May. The dealers have also named the artists they'll show. As you'd expect, it’s mainly an Auckland affair with nearly seventy percent of the galleries based there. Fifteen galleries are coming in from overseas of which 10 are from Australia and three from the South Island.

The male female ratio varies greatly between dealers with overall 63 percent being male. Just three galleries are exhibiting only women artists and they are all one person presentations. Eight galleries have only male artists on show.

This year you can also take advantage of My Art to grow your collection. The offer is that with a $2,500 deposit you can get a loan to buy up to $25,000 worth of art. Of course you have to pay it back at $2,500 per month over nine months. Nothing's perfect, but the payments are interest free. You can see the full list of galleries and artists here.

After the fall

Art Fairs can be pretty tough on dealer galleries. The galleries have to apply to be included and at many fairs there are more dealers than slots. Primo Australian Gallery Rosylyn Oxley9 had the ignominy a few years back of being dropped by Art Basel after more than a decade of regular attendance. They're back in Art Basel Hong Kong but still it stings. The Art Fairs of course say the culling is in the interests of standards. We only have the best of the best is the usual claim, but what if the Best of the Best don’t want to play?

Ask the Melbourne Art Fair. Once an unstoppable force on the Australian art scene, it has just been announced that the 2016 Fair is a no go. Why? Turns out three of the big names in Australian art dealing - Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Tolarno Galleries, and Anna Schwartz Gallery - have all said thanks but no thanks. The idea that three galleries could bring down a well-established art fair (there were 90 other applicants for slots) is astonishing. Of course the Melbourne Art Fair has taken some hits. They’ve struggled to attract top end international galleries, there’s been criticism of standards and the launch of the Sydney Art Fair a couple of years back didn’t help. The alternate art fair Spring 1883 which might have been seen as a sign of symbiotic energy instead felt like a flesh wound to an impala already showing a pronounced limp. With that sort of pressure together with an increasingly crowded art fair calendar it’s either going to make you strong or bring you to your knees. The question now is whether Spring 1883 will go it alone. So far there is nothing on their web site to suggest otherwise.

None of this will be going unnoticed in the Auckland art world with an art fair slated for late May. Galleries are currently being selected with the Auckland Art Fair looking for dealers who, ‘show great art that actively contributes in some way to the current art conversation of the wider Pacific’. The selectors haven’t exactly got their hands tied. The number of galleries is, as usual, restricted to around 40 and it sounds as though about 25 of them will be NZ-based. In a recent interview in the Australian Art Collector mag, Hayley White and Stephanie Post (who run the rejigged AAF) were careful to mention the main NZ dealers and their artists: Gow Langsford (3 times), Hopkinson Mossman (4), Michael Lett (5), Starkwhite (3) and Jonathan Smart (1). A be-nice policy is probably being implemented at this very moment. Hey, maybe the dealers should have their own VIP lounge like the collectors do? Ok ... on reflection ... maybe not.

Image: the Melbourne Art Fair, not looking on top form for a quite a while (Thanks for the head’s up T)

By the numbers

1   the average number of statements per month the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage has released relating to the arts so far this year

3  the amount in millions of dollars per year that Te Papa gets from the Government for ‘collection development’

6  the number of Billy Apple reviews in EyeContact since his survey exhibition opened at the Auckland Art Gallery

10  the number in thousands of visitors who attended the last Auckland Art Fair

12.5  the percentage of male exhibition attendants at the Simon Denny Venice Biennale exhibition

58   the percentage of women selected as finalists for the Waikato National Contemporary Art Award by Aaron Kreisler, Head of the Ilam School of Fine Arts in Christchurch

70  the percentage of Creative NZ funding that comes from money New Zealander's lose gambling

77.5  the amount in thousands of dollars that the Govett-Brewster paid Saatchi & Saatchi to deliver its new brand

143  the number in thousands of visitors to the exhibition Gottfried Lindauer. The Māori portraits at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin this year

700 the value in thousands of dollars of the sales and commissions disputed in the Bambury / Jensen court case

1585  the number of exhibitions held at the Auckland Art Gallery since it opened on 23 June, 1927

The village voice

Former dealer Marshall Seifert calls the Auckland Art Fair a “hyped up tap dance" and Venice Commissioner Heather Galbraith says she was there  “more for conversation than looking.” Artist Scott Eady admits that “you have to work a lot harder to be visible” when you're based in Dunedin and Sue Gardiner of the Chartwell Trust explains how Trust founder Rob Gardiner looked to Denmark's Louisiana Museum of Modern Art for his public/ private model. And not to forget, Auckland Art Gallery curator Ron Brownson reminding us that the Auckland Art Gallery is “not a contemporary art museum”.

All this is from a smart set of video interviews conducted by Letting Space’s Sophie Jerram and Mark Amery at the Auckland Art Fair. The number of videos available on their Studio Channel Art Fair is still growing but as we post there are eight (there are now 16) which you can watch here.