Tag Archives: artomatic

ARTpool

I think St. Pete, Florida would be a good place for an Artomatic. I just read about ARTpool in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune and it sounds to me like these folks would make good artomatic organizers :-)

At the tender age of 23, Marina Williams is already a successful landlord. Her available rental properties do not come with utilities, however. Nor are they fully furnished.

Rather, for the last four months, the St. Petersburg native has been renting wall space to a spate of local artists. Her tenants now number 20.

“I know a lot of other galleries probably think we’re nuts,” she says with a laugh. “But that’s OK.”

The wall-space parcels are housed in her new warehouse gallery called ARTpool on First Avenue North in St. Petersburg. The venue’s unique rental system is something she says she came up with “to form an organic and evolving cooperative” of artists.

At monthly rates ranging from $50 for a 4×4-foot space high off the floor to $150 for 4×6 at eye level, the new art space grants artists the autonomy to decide for themselves what they want to display.

[read the whole article]

I don’t have time to check it out this trip, maybe next time…

BritishInk at Artomatic

Yes, this impinges upon my self-declared Artomatic-free day ever-so slightly, but I can’t resist sharing. Plus, I wanted to try embedding a flickr video so this kills many birds with one stone: video embedding experiment, a chance to show off BritishInk’s fab Artomatic space, and images of Paul in Victorian Drag on the day he ended up chasing a guy down the street (after the guy hit a volunteer, long story).


Thanks for the video, Jack!

"Collector Capers, Part II Artomatic Prankster Returns, And So Does an 'Impostor."

The Washington Post’s Reliable Source (Amy Argetsinger) reports today on the anti-climatic events surrounding the so-called Real Collector and the copycat, who apparently left the trunk that turned up last week. The trunk contained random junk and a box representing what the copycat thought of as “good” art.

It’s complicated, you should go read the article so I don’t have to recap the whole thing here. I’m still on my first cup of coffee.

The Artomatic folks, whose five-week run ends Sunday, were decidedly unpsyched. For most of their nine years, they’ve been hit by critics who think the show’s open-door policy to all artists encourages too much . . . well, schlock. Later, our mysterious correspondent e-mailed us to say that the message of the trunk was meant to support, not attack, Artomatic artists. Still, groaned co-chairman Rebecca Gordon, “It’s not a sophisticated argument.”

I think it’s a good piece, and I think I can speak for my Steering Committee Co-Chair Tracy Lee when I say we’d like to move on now, forget the whole thing, and enjoy the final weekend of the show without all the distractions. But first, more coffee…

The Collector Strikes

I turned my back for a few minutes today while I was doing some work on the otherwise lonely 12th floor early today. I didn’t hear anything, I didn’t see anything, but when I walked back around the corner I nearly walked into this:

The mystery trunk

The trunk was locked and it was addressed to the Reliable Source at the Washington Post.

Locked!

The note taped to the top reads:

“Leave this box on the 12th floor.

It is for Amy Argetsinger – she has been sent the key. Call her so she’ll know the box has been delivered.

The Collector”

I called Amy up. When I talked to her she hadn’t received the key yet but she said she was going to go check around. We’ve set a time to meet tomorrow and in the meantime I’ve put the trunk in a safe location.

The Collector, or someone claiming to be The Collector, recently contacted the Reliable Source and promised something would happen soon. Last year, the Collector demanded a ransom of $10,000 in Monopoly money for the return of one of Tim Tate’s pieces.

No one knows what The Collector is up to this year. No one even knows who The Collector really is. (Except, presumably, his faithful manservant, because, really, how could someone who calls themself The Collector, not have a manservant?) Is this even The Collector, or is it a copycat? And how will we know?

It’s been pointed out to me that I was the only one around when it was delivered and my fingerprints are all over it. I’m just going to point out, in my defense, that Paul Roe arrived on the scene about the same time I did. I don’t know what that proves, but it’s the best I’ve got.

Tune in again tomorrow to find out what’s in the box…

update: in case you missed it, the trunk was a poor imitation of a tired hoax, and to even describe it wouldn’t be worth the time. Frankly, we were all a bit embarrassed for the hoaxster.