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Although I was aware that Mother Nature had initiated one of the biggest blizzards in the New York weather record books, as a Florida resident it was still pretty shocking to see the perpetual white blanket of snow covering everything in sight as I looked out the window of the JetBlue aircraft began its descent to a just-cleared landing strip at LaGuardia Airport. I was in town to cover on behalf of The Huffington Post the Picasso Sculpture exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (that The New York Times called “…a once-in-a-lifetime event.”) and the Frank Stella retrospective at the new downtown location of the Whitney, as well as attend a reception for “Open This End: Contemporary Art from the Collection of Blake Byrne” at Columbia University. I was proud to have several vintage collages of mine included in this exhibition, as Byrne is considered one of America’s top collectors. He resides in Los Angeles, where recently he made the largest donation of contemporary art to the permanent collection of the MOCA, LA. It was a fascinating event, and included works by Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Mark Bradford, Marlene Dumas, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Mike Kelly, Martin Kippenberger, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Agnes Martin, Paul McCarthy, Juan Muñoz, Albert Oehlen, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol and Kehinde Wiley, among others.

Rubbing shoulders with curators, critics and the other artists in attendance, I was reminded of the famous lyrics from “Once in a Lifetime” by my friend and fellow RISD classmate, David Byrne of the Talking Heads, who poses the question: “And you may ask yourself—Well …How did I get here? …And you may ask yourself, how do I work this?” And then I did indeed ask myself, how did I get here, and how did all these hotshots make it to the top to become household names in the art world? I once asked Robert Rauschenberg as I was curating a show of his work out of his Captiva Island studio for my gallery, what he considered to be the secret of success for an artist. His reply was that there was no secret, as he and everyone he knew who became famous, worked harder than anyone else, seven days a week, to achieve the polish, maturity, singularity and distinctive voice that are the necessary ingredients for a flourishing career.

I am reminded of the incredible but true story of abstract expressionist Harold Shapinsky, who had the good fortune to study with Motherwell and de Kooning and was included in a show titled “Fifteen Unknowns” at the celebrated Kootz Gallery in New York in 1950. Well-known artists of the gallery, including William Baziotes, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, and Robert Motherwell (who picked Shapinsky), all had their favorites, but of the fifteen emerging artists in the show, only Helen Frankenthaler and Shapinsky would eventually make a name for themselves. After this historic exhibition, Harold Shapinsky simply dropped out of sight, finding the art world to be superficial and competitive and he preferred to work alone in his studio every day, listening to jazz and smoking his pipe while his wife made ends meet by knitting sweaters for Bonwit Teller. But his seven-day work week commitment to his art-making in isolation for the next thirty years finally paid off, when the prominent London dealer James Mayor discovered him by chance, which led to a BBC one hour documentary about his life and his first one-man show at Mayor’s London gallery, which sold 22 works including a painting acquired by the Tate. There also was an article in The Observer by Salman Rushdie, which revealed Shapinsky’s background and extraordinary abstract expressionist painting to the world. Next came a special tribute evening at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in 1985, an ARTnews and Newsday feature that brought even more fame, including a twenty-page story in The New Yorker. When I heard the story, I immediately invited him to have his first one-man show in the U.S. at my Worth Avenue gallery, which was attended by Peter Brant, mega art collector and owner of Art in America, and Henry Ford, to whom I made the first sale of Shapinsky’s work. Obviously, decades of devotion to his craft paid off like so many of the artists listed above.

As the former editor-in-chief of The Art Economist, I established a column titled “Artists to Watch,” which predicted success based on the overall quality of their work, its uniqueness, the artist’s education and dedication, and the opinion of others. It was the most popular section in the magazine and many of our predictions of financial achievement and fame not only came true, but went through the roof. One of those early picks was Jacob Kassay, who created dynamic silver paintings that later were “cooked,” resulting in shimmering idiosyncratic surfaces. His first show sold out before it opened, and a long waiting list was established due to the buzz on the street. Then one of his paintings went to auction and sold over ten times the low estimate of $8,000. I’ve noticed the same kind of success with Cuban artist Kadir López Nieves, who a few years ago starting getting attention from visiting collectors for his adaptive reuse of classic 1950s American advertising tin signs, which are embellished with photographs and are battered, tattered and on occasion even riddled with bullet holes. The unique vintage imagery somehow caught the notice of The New York Times last year, and the rest is history. The work of Rebecca Warren, the British artist who stuck to her guns by aggressively producing remarkable, exaggerated, figurative, abstracted, oddball clay sculptures preposterously out of proportion but handsomely confident, seems to take a cue from some of the sculptures currently on display at MoMA’s Picasso exhibition. Another remarkable young talent is Kurt Knobelsdorf, to whom my pal the art dealer Gary Blakeslee introduced me. Knobelsdorf has the same genuine and uncommon charismatic imagery that has made stars of most of the artists in the Blake Byrne collection, and won several awards while at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The same winning combination is true with Greg Haberny and Steven Manolis, who I discovered during Art Miami this past December. The work of these artists had an immediate magnetic attraction to me, and I’d bet the farm that each of them soon will become well known. Haberny constructs gritty, spontaneous, obsessive abstract paintings that often have a slight narrative. His art is among the most unusual that I have seen in many moons, and I had my first chance to meet him during this New York visit, and I’m now convinced without a doubt of his eventual fame and fortune. His work, recently discovered and displayed by Banksy in London, cements his rising star. Manolis, who, like Shapinsky, has been refining his painting style over the last thirty years, is about to jump into the big time with his exquisite, large-scale abstract expressionist works that can hold their own next to any brand name non-narrative painter. With a stellar career as a former investment banker, he now has the necessary drive and ambition coupled with an innate aptitude for generating beautiful flowing pictures that have a delightful visual aroma reminiscent of Pollock, de Kooning and Kenneth Noland combined, with an unexpected twist. He was fortunate to study with Wolf Kahn, who had been taught by Hans Hoffmann. Not surprisingly, this studio workaholic already has been invited by a notable museum for a solo show opening later this year, and his paintings are selling like hotcakes. All of the artists mentioned above have experienced the ‘once in a lifetime’ syndrome and seem to share the same characteristics of natural talent and drive, which answers the question: “How did I get here?!”

With his extensive experience in curating public art projects, Marc Pottier shares his insights on the role public art plays in shaping culturally vibrant communities and what must be considered.

What is the process for proposing public art in a location, and what kind of restrictions do you encounter?
With Public Art, creation starts from the pedestal, opening new dialogues and situations, creating a museum without walls or a new artistic vision in the open air. Contemporary creation in public spaces establishes a new and rich conversation between town planners, architects, landscape gardeners, artists, designers, sociologists and the public at large; creation in the open air is done with and for everyone, concerned or not by Art. Today, Public Art is no more an art of statuary put in squares, gardens or parks. Public Art is done site specifically and cannot be sold, becoming, when not linked to a temporary event, part of an indefectible patrimony. Today main restrictions are linked to security and budget.

How long can it take to install a public work of art and how long does it stay on site?
This depends on the scale of the project. It depends on the location. Diversity and openness are also key aspects of this adventure. Artists can work on sidewalks or street lamps; in airports, railway or subway stations; parking lots or rivers; use sounds, lights or video projections; paint on different buildings; create an ephemeral or permanent work. Almost anything is possible or at least imaginable with Public Art.

How are artists advised when creating art in terms of conservation and longevity due to external factors such as weather?
More and more, artists like and want to interact differently, looking for new challenges with nothing to do with “objects” of the art market. With Bauhaus, De Stijl, Land Art and Earth Art, they are regularly concerned with the city and the landscape; they even claim the right of Art to be integrated to the day-to-day life, participating to the urban conception, re-qualification of a site or conception of public’s equipment. All works with Public Art today are dialogues with the client, neighbors, engineers… with the artist. Weather does not appear to be a major problem.

Who is responsible for maintaining the work of art – cleaning / removing dirt and graffiti, repairs, etc. – and how are preservation techniques used?
The client is responsible for maintaining the work. Projects have directions and precise supporting documents, guaranteeing the art’s quality in the future, even after the artists’ death. Nonetheless, this is rarely respected. For example, Daniel Buren wanted to dismantle his famous “Les Deux Plateaux / Colonnes de Buren” at Palais Royal in Paris after 20 years because the work has been 50% destroyed by the state due to a lack of maintenance. This is a key problem, which also exists with architecture. Maintenance techniques depend on the projects.

Why are public art collections important to a city?
When well-done, public art collections become symbols of a city. For example, in Chicago, the Millennium Park is now part of the personality of the city with Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate” or the Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa. The famous “Christ” by Landowski symbolizes Rio de Janeiro. A lot of people are going to Wynwood in Miami to see the Street Art. This attracts a lot of people happy to discover culture. Today, Public Art is a process of thoughts and unlimited experimentation, which is in favor of putting citizens face to face with the art from their generation without any hierarchy between Art and its environment. Participation of the public is more and more often asked, and opportunities of amazing treasure hunting exists at Biennales and events offering temporary installations and experiences.

Marc Pottier, curator and author
Trained as an auctioneer in Paris (Etude Briest, today Artcurial), Marc joined Urban, a Japanese modern and contemporary art collection based both in Nagoya, Tokyo, New-York and Paris. He then spent six years in New York as an independent curator organizing exhibitions in the USA, Europe and Brazil. He joined the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Cultural Attaché in Rio de Janeiro and then Lisbon where he also organized and curated exhibitions and events, such as Picasso’s ceramics or Luzboa the first Biennale of the Art of Light. In 2007, he started his own company developing international curatorship with a focus on community culture and gardens between Europe, Brazil and Middle East. He opened a branch of his company in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 where he is now based. Marc is the author of  “Made by Brazilians” (Enrico Navarra Publishers), which includes accounts by 230 people who represent the Brazilian Contemporary art world, and the curator of various exhibitions, including www.feitoporbrasileiros.com.br 2014. He was the guest curator for the 3a Bienal da Bahia 2014. Today he creates and hosts a weekly TV program on Arte1, the Brazilian cultural channel: ‘Olhar Estrangeiro, cidade Rio de Janeiro’. Contact: marc.pottier.art@gmail.com

Nobody seems to know exactly when the very first murals came about, but there is sound evidence that around 30,000 BC in southern France primitive man began to draw images on cave walls, creatively documenting their lives and aspirations. Many ancient murals in Egyptian tombs from around 3000 BC have survived, as well as Pompeian walls unearthed in nearly mint condition after being hidden for hundreds of years by the eruptive ash of Mount Vesuvius, which allowed scholars and anthropologists a literal field day of exploration. Once humankind realized the communicative power of non-verbal, large-scale painted surfaces, the art of the mural became deeply embedded into our history and ongoing culture of public art statements. In modern times, the term became more well-known with the development of the Mexican muralism art movement of the 1930s, spearheaded by renowned artist Diego Rivera and later by a host of American artists hired by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which spread public art (and money to artists) into urban communities across the United States.

Today, murals are important in that they bring art into the public sphere and generate excitement and visual appeal. Perhaps initiated by the graffiti artists, whose heyday was in the mid-1980s, murals have become a valuable and welcome addition to the metropolitan environment. Street art, fast and furious (and often illegal), played a key role in the acceptability of art on walls, whether commissioned or produced on the fly. Successful and respected artists like Keith Haring or Shepard Fairey started out by transferring their creativity from studio to subway. Due to the size, cost and effort involved in creating a mural, muralists often must be commissioned by a sponsor. Often it’s the local government or a business, but many murals have been paid for by grants of patronage from modern day Medicis. For muralists, their work gets a wide audience that otherwise might not visit an art gallery or museum.

More recently, CANVAS, an event billed as the nation’s largest outdoor museum exhibition, has taken the history and popularity of public art to an entirely different level. Artists from across the globe were invited by West Palm Beach gallerist Nicole Henry to create twenty dramatic, inspiring installations and murals on selected buildings’ bare walls, enhancing the infrastructure throughout the downtown arts district as well as a fascinating mural located under the Royal Park Bridge to Palm Beach. World-renowned artists participating in CANVAS include 2Alas, Bik-Ismo, Case, Cheryl Maeder, Greg Mike, Herakut, Jean-Luc Moerman, Jeremy Penn, José Bedia, Kai, Katja Loher, Kobra; Michael Dweck; Pastel, Registered Artist, Ron English, Sean Yoro (aka Hula), WRDSMTH and Zeus. Nicole Henry’s ambitions and challenging undertaking also was supported by some modern day Medicis, including the West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority and Arts & Entertainment District, Community Redevelopment Agency, Discover the Palm Beaches, Lamborghini Palm Beach, Seminole Casino Coconut Creek, and CANVAS Art Charities, as well as numerous other community-minded sponsors.

The two week experience in mid-November was attended by thousands of visitors, and although the major events are over, the murals are here to stay for you to experience throughout the winter season and hopefully beyond. A chart of the handsomely embellished wall locations can be found at https://canvaswpb.org/, if you wish to go to a specific mural, but if you want a serendipitous scavenger hunt-like adventure you can start at the epicenter of CANVAS, Nicole Henry Fine Art (501 Fern Street, West Palm Beach, 561.714.4262, http://nicolehenryfineart.com/), grab a map and start meandering around downtown block by block on a memorable pictorial treasure hunt. These semi-permanent installations have brought an exciting and new contemporary art experience to the south Florida community as a kind of alfresco museum show, a de facto drive-in movie with 20 wide screens, or huge painted billboards without a commercial message that you can drive by or walk around. As you will see, these striking murals permanently have transformed the look of downtown with no admission ticket needed to boot, and have super-charged the entire inner-city atmosphere into an exciting environment of creativity that continues to enhance the vitality and growth of the West Palm Beach corridor.

A sampling of websites that have featured the CANVAS murals include – Palm Beach Post, Sun Sentinel, WPTV and WPBF.

Upon reports of his ‘passing’ Mark Twain famously announced, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” This observation also might be utilized in reaction to perpetual news items and reviews that contemporary painting, suffering from a lack of quality and uniqueness, is on its way out. This honored craft is thought by many as basically dead in the water. Perhaps the main villain that has smeared the reputation of new narrative painting is the declaration that the time-honored discipline of mastering the basics of academic drawing and classical composition has been pushed aside to make way for alternative “innovation.” At the same time, the desperate search for overnight success pushed one young artist at Gagosian Gallery to cover an entire canvas with chewed up bubble gum. The pressure to attain commercial achievement demands that emerging artists try anything new, even though they may be seriously lacking in a foundation of skills that allows a real visionary artist to achieve an earned measure of success. Abstract painters like Picasso and de Kooning were natural talents at an early age, but both went through rigorous training. Warhol also showed early signs of significant talent and attended Carnegie Institute of Technology before leaving for Manhattan, where his acquired drawing skills made him the most sought after fashion illustrator in the city and was a natural springboard to his ultimate artistic ‘sainthood.’ It’s no accident that some of the most respected and thriving artists of our generation have come out of prestigious institutions like Yale Graduate School or the Rhode Island School of Design, where genuine talent and a strong academic background are prerequisites for admission and graduation. In the last twenty years it’s been alarming to see that many new artists on the scene, naturally talented or not, are producing work with a total lack of elementary expertise. This unfortunate circumstance might label them as a “flash in the pan,” since reality in the art market eventually sets in and thankfully takes its toll.

I recently was encouraged about my position on a proper visual education with the discovery of Italian artist Matteo Massagrande and his superb picture-making, and as my interest in his work got the best of me, I started to do some research on his obvious professional and academic background. To my delight but not my surprise, I learned that he was academically trained and influenced by the Renaissance masters. The artist will open a survey of his recent small-scale paintings at Shine Artists London in December, and from what I could gather these are exceptionally competent works that mix an unusual combination of skills to create magical fictional interior spaces that are not only believable, but possess a charismatic and undeniable handsomeness. In this series, Massagrande cleverly invites the viewer to become an unexpected voyeur, glancing down hallways that lead to more entrances and obscure spaces that are completely empty except for the distant memories and aging secrets they might hold. Literally seduced by the unexpected starkness of bare walls and floors, one is drawn inside, tempted by multiple perspectives that are accented with his remarkable use of light drifting through often open windows, exposing glimpses of lush gardens. His work is reassuring evidence that great narrative painting is alive and well.

These paintings are unusual for their obvious illusionistic invention and enjoyable common denominator of empty, convincingly three-dimensional spaces that take on the challenge of creating complexity from simplicity. Here the artist is a master at articulating illumination where none actually exists and creating authentic textural repeat patterns worn down over time; a formula that works brilliantly. Massagrande’s artwork reassures us that great painting is still here to stay, even though it may take an effort to seek it out.

For more information on Massagrande go to: http://www.shineartists.com/artists/matteo-massagrande

OPEN THIS END is the title of an amazing traveling exhibition of artworks from the renowned Blake Byrne collection, which was inaugurated at the Nasher Museum of Art in North Carolina earlier this year and just opened at its second venue, the Ohio State University Urban Arts Space. The show continues on the road during the next two years, stopping at the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University (Manhattan) and finishing up at the Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art at Lewis & Clark College in Portland (Oregon). Mr. Byrne recently was labeled by Blouin Artinfo as “The Good Collector,” and there’s an excellent reason for that: Byrne’s serendipitous journey towards building one of America’s great private art collections began in Providence, near the campus of the Rhode Island School of Design, which may have been his first introduction to art and artists. Eventually, he arrived in New York City, where he started collecting seriously in 1988, and with what little money he had he would peruse the galleries of 57^th Street, where he met Jack Tilton, the influential dealer who talked Blake into attending Art Basel in Switzerland, and the rest is history. After selling his broadcasting company, Byrne had the ability to pursue collecting art, and with a modest amount of professional advice he set off on his own, responding to objects that he liked personally, and before long he had built a museum worthy-collection that he felt was incredibly rewarding.

As a graduate student at RISD, I naturally became interested in saving found items that had an anonymous aesthetic quality after being introduced to the joys of flea markets by my colleague, glass artist Dale Chihuly, who went on to amass abundant, fascinating collections of utilitarian objects that surpassed those of Andy Warhol. This type of activity was a normal extension of an artist’s curiosity in a variety of things, begun initially without knowing much about them. This passion developed into an interest in collecting small works of art, which most of my fellow artists felt was a valuable intuitive activity that brought wonderful, non-monetary rewards on a regular basis. Ironically, some of those early works originally purchased for a few hundred dollars became worth much more, and were donated to museums decades later. I always had a particularly strong opinion about collecting, appreciating and understanding art, figuring that an artist knows best and has the eye and incentive to make decisions without advice. When I was first introduced to Martin Margulies in Miami by the late Ivan Karp, Leo Castelli’s former gallery director and founder of O.K. Harris, I wondered just how a real estate developer would have an accurate idea about how to evaluate a work of art, much less be able to talk about it. Boy, was I wrong. I will never forget the first time I heard him speak about his collection, and I had never heard such an insightful, intelligent overview presented with such passion and descriptive analysis. Listening to Blake Byrne’s in-depth recorded interview (http://theskylarkfoundation.org) about his current show offered the same conclusive evidence that if you are serious about what you collect, this addiction becomes a pleasant part of your life, and with any measure of aptitude, research and analytical skills you also can become an enthusiastic expert with a polished, informed perspective.

So the moral of this short story and perspective on collecting is that anyone who takes up the challenge of accumulating contemporary art, with the right attitude, intelligence, motivation and some good advice from the get-go can assemble a terrific collection that can continue to expand and appreciate in value (although Byrne generally does not “de-acquisition” works from his collection). Those who do buy just to flip the artworks as soon as possible are just as interested in potential profits of pork belly futures as the art that is often just hidden away in storage, just waiting for the right opportunity to be sold. This is one negative side to the art world, especially now that financial advisors are recommending a portion of one’s investment portfolio be devoted to contemporary art as an exotic commodity, which has outdistanced many other conventional investment commodities.

Space limitations here preclude me from elaborating on the extent of the Byrne collection or details of his current traveling show, but you can get a very accurate perspective by looking it up here: http://theskylarkfoundation.org/#open-end-exhibition-preview, as well as making a note of the upcoming venues that shouldn’t be missed. Despite his remarkable donations to institutions like MOCA LA (which received about 123 artworks, the largest private gift ever for that institution) and works out on loan to “Open This End,” Byrne’s home is packed with art, including recent purchases that he always is proud to talk about. Like many great collectors, he likes to keep his art in constant rotation so that he has the opportunity for a constant, personal dialogue with them. “They are always speaking to me,” Byrne said, and that is the best example of a thoughtful collector who truly loves living with art. For one thing, even if you’re alone, there always is ‘someone’ with whom to strike up a stimulating conversation!

Of all the many wonders to be beheld at the inaugural Art Silicon Valley/San Francisco, the symposia programming put together by the great good folks from One Art Nation has gotta be one of the most comprehensively wondrous. ASV/SF got 1AN’s Julia Wehkamp and Amanda Dunn to give us the lowdown. 

For those who don’t yet know just what is One Art Nation?

Well, please allow us to introduce ourselves. We’re an online art community where collectors, enthusiasts, professionals and experts from across the globe can connect through live art symposia, online education, social discussions, exhibitions and fairs, and art services.

If you had but a single sentence to sum up 1AN’s mission, what would it be?

To develop the emerging, as well as stimulate the established art market through new and innovative online art education.

What’s your role at 1AN?

I’m Julia Wehkamp and I head up the educational component at 1AN, including curating the Symposia programs and creating our online education. I co-founded the company with Amanda Dunn.

What other principal players need we cite?

Amanda heads up our marketing initiatives and develops strategic partnerships, while supporting me in creating our educational content.

Who’s bright idea was it to team with Art Silicon Valley/San Francisco?

We actually started our relationship with Art Miami Productions at CONTEXT in 2013. We were looking for a partner who was forward thinking and had a keen interest in educating the art market. The fairs put on by Art Miami Productions are a great meeting place for collectors, enthusiasts, and professionals seeking and representing some of the most important works at the forefront of the international art movement. The team were open to the idea of bringing together industry experts to speak on a range of topics as an additional benefit for fair attendees and to strengthen the market.

What’s the name and main thrust of the programming you’re bringing to the Fair?

The 1AN Symposium offers a program that is both diverse and engaging, equally for first time buyers, established collectors, industry professional and generally, those with a passion for art. At Art Silicon Valley, visitors can learn about everything from Building an Art Collection Like a Pro to Art and Cross-Border Taxes to Art Appraisal: Why, When and How?

Of all the many splendors, are there any particular highlights you’d care to cite?

Seeing as we are in Silicon Valley where the digital revolution took place, we have included tech leaders eBay, Google, Facebook, Autodesk and Innovation Endeavors in the program to share their art expertise.

Do you see the collaboration expanding 1AN’s presence throughout the entire Art Miami Family of Fairs?

We are working with Art Miami LLC Productions at all of their fairs and are already well on the way to developing a “cannot miss” program at Art Miami in December.

For the full program of One Art Nation’s offerings at the inaugural Art Silicon Valley/San Francisco log on here.

by Art Silicon Valley

Article source.

If you thought art collectors were intimidating professors with white sofas and inherited wealth, you haven’t met Amanda Dunn and Julia Wehkamp.

“There is a whole new generation of collectors. Whether they’re coming from emerging markets in the Middle East, Asia, or whether they’re young professionals looking to invest,” explains Wehkamp.

And with good reason. The art market is strong and growing as an investment option.

The pair – who have been best friends since bonding over horses on the first day of Grade 9 – have made it their mission to bring art collection to a chequebook near you. They are demystifying the process through talks and webinars that make global experts accessible to laypeople.

One Art Nation has accomplished a lot in just under a year.

They have hosted symposia at Art Miami, Art Southampton and Art Silicon Valley, built a comprehensive website and have developed partnerships with experts around the world to provide free webinars. Also on the site are event listings and marketplace news.

The pair’s journey has been a long one. Their original ambitions couldn’t contrast more with their work today: Dunn, to go to medical school and Wehkamp, to become a lawyer. Instead, Wehkamp completed an MBA in Germany and was working in Zurich in healthcare before moving to Toronto for love (it worked out).

Dunn, on the other hand, was recruited out of university with an ad agency that took her around the world, training her on marketing and sales. She spent five years in Dubai before moving to London to work with Christie’s Auction House as global marketing manager.

While at Christie’s, Dunn said she noticed that the art world was not speaking to the new generation of collectors. “They’re very intimidated to ask basic questions like ‘What should I be investing in right now? If I like a piece is it worth buying just ‘cause I like it? … Can I take a piece off the wall and try it in my house?’”

The pair met to brainstorm and two bottles of wine later, they were starting a business, applying a web platform Wehkamp was familiar with to art collection. Conscious of the impact a business could have on a friendship, they outlined expectations around time, financing, risk and exit strategies.

“We balance each other out,” says Wehkamp. “We’re friends for a reason; we have the same taste … we’re on the same page.”

Recognizing they could use help on developing their business plan, they visited Enterprise Toronto. They say their consultant, Sandi, was “very open, never intimidating…. She had a genuine interest.”

Sandi suggested they create two business plans – one for investors, one for grants – and helped “seal the deal” with a silent partner in Berlin. Dunn says they will likely continue to seek advice as they develop.

And how are the pair’s own collections coming along? They are inviting the public to find out, as they undergo the process of purchasing their very own, and their very first, art investment.

If they had it their way, Wehkamp’s would be a Lawren Harris and Dunn’s, a Kandinksy or Vlaminick.

By Deena Douara

Photo taken at Katzman Contemporary

Article source.

Online art network One Art Nation (1AN), and Art Southampton, a contemporary art fair taking place at the peak of the social and cultural season in the Hamptons, are partnering to present the 1AN Art Symposium. This can’t-miss educational event offers an expertly curated program for emerging and established collectors, enthusiasts and professionals. From July 25-27, fair visitors can attend daily education sessions offered by leading industry experts covering a range of art topics.

Jointly developed and designed by 1AN and Art Southampton, the 1AN Art Symposium has assembled a team of world-class professionals, including Deloitte Art & Finance, Dewitt Stern, Berkley Asset Protection, Winston Art Group, Crozier Fine Arts, Ross School, Appraisers Association of America, Artdex, and Skate’s Art Market Research. Highlights include a panel discussion on mediums used by artists and how they affect aspects of valuation, security, shipping, storage, restoration, and authenticity, and sessions on the importance of integrated arts education programs, the current structure of global art market and an overview of the current statistics of online art sales.

“With the vibrant development of the North American art market, more and more people are collecting and investing in art. As a result, there is an increasing need for art education. The Art Symposium will provide attendees with the skills required to improve their reputation as serious art collectors, maximize the efficiency of their overall asset portfolio and cultivate their taste for the finer things in life,” Pamela Cohen, Head of VIP Relations, Marketing, Sponsorships and Partnerships of Art Miami LLC Productions.

Julia Wehkamp, Managing Director of 1AN, expressed her excitement around the collaboration, “We are thrilled to be working with Art Southampton and combining our expertise to offer the 1AN Art Symposium. We understand that it can be intimidating approaching established galleries and auction houses. Therefore, we’re providing education so buyers can make confident purchasing decisions, whether at the fair or in the future.”

The event will take place July 25-27 at Art Southampton, located in Southampton, NY, and is free for attendees.  The sessions will be recorded by Workshop Media Inc., a full-service creative video production company, and can be viewed on www.oneartnation.com following the event.

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About One Art Nation

One Art Nation (1AN) is an online international art network connecting galleries and art businesses with art enthusiast, collectors and professionals through a focused, fresh and interactive education, marketing and events platform. The online art industry is experiencing rapid growth due to new collectors and enthusiasts who are more tech savvy and pragmatic. Through modern technology, 1AN is eliminating borders and, along with its network, aims to be the single most influential source of information for this new generation of art collectors, the most desirable yet difficult to reach art buyer today. For more information, visit www.oneartnation.com .

Press and Media Contacts:
Amanda Dunn
T: + 1 647 972 7977
E: amanda@oneartnation.com

ONE ART NATION AND ART MIAMI LLC PRODUCTIONS COLLABORATE TO EVOLVE THE ART MARKET THROUGH EXPERT EDUCATION

Online art network One Art Nation (1AN), and Art Miami LLC Productions, one of the leading organizers of contemporary art fairs in the US, have partnered for the North American Art Symposia series including Art Southampton, July 24 – 28; Art Silicon Valley, October 9 – 12; and Art Miami, December 3 – 8.

1AN has scoured North America to find world-class Art Fairs that focus on the latest trends and topics affecting the art world globally. In our quest for specific meeting places for motivated collectors, curators, museum professionals and art enthusiasts, we selected those with a proven platform for showcasing the most important artworks in collaboration with a selection of the world’s most respected galleries.

Jointly developed and designed by 1AN and Art Miami LLC Productions, a team of world-class professionals have been assembled to present on varying art-related topics. Sessions focus on topics that will help build confidence in purchasing decisions and are free for fair visitors. “With the vibrant development of the North American art market, more and more people are collecting and investing in art. As a result, there is an increasing need for art education,” Pamela Cohen, Head of VIP Relations, Marketing, Sponsorships & Partnerships of Art Miami LLC Productions.

This was proven by the fantastic turn out at the inaugural 1AN Art Symposium at CONTEXT, with the audience seeking the skills required to improve their reputation as serious art collectors, maximize the efficiency of their overall asset portfolio and cultivate their taste for the finer things in life. “The Art Symposium was interesting, timely and a great way to find out what is trending in the art market, not just in the United States, but across the globe”, claims J.R., 1AN Symposium at CONTEXT attendee.

For details on how you can participate, contact Julia Wehkamp at julia@oneartnation.com or fill in the form below.