hashtagclass

First Reflections

2010-03-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

"Never before in my 15 years of living and making art in New York City, have I felt so connected to a group of intellectually engaged and caring artists. The experienced has totally changed my approach to art making in that I take "communty" into account like never before, and I mean all kinds of communities, social networked, chelsea art crowd, my neighborhood, and the institutionalized art world. Also, I have been able to network and gain new art opportunities as a result of #class." -Alan Lupiani

#Class Reflection by Sarah Smizz (Will re-post a high-res image soon)
www.sarahsmizz.com

Joanie Gagnon San Chirico has been reflecting on her blog. Her latest is titled "Working the System and Withdrawal from #class." So, if you have also been writing about #class please send us your links.

Jerry Saltz on #class via Facebook

2010-03-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

Since I didn't get a chance to write about #Class I'll share one or two thoughts here.

When I first heard about #Class I imagined an insular group of people all telling one another that they're right and everyone else is impure.
As a paranoid I also imagined that I would be branded as "uncool" and that if I even dared to appreciate what was going on or Dalton's work or Powhida's work, that the show, or the artists would be labeled as "sell outs" or "playing to the man."
So I was hesitant going in.

I never saw or felt that once in the show itself or form anyone around it (although I did read some terrible things said about me on blogs to the effect of "If HE'S there you know there must be something WRONG about it.")

As I returned to #Class, in fact, I felt that Dalton/Powhida had created a structure that was actually able to grow and was growing in ways that they or we could not predict.

That, to me is one of the definitions of VERY GOOD ART. Can you create something that then creates ITSELF.

I was surprised every time I went in #Class.
That is another sign of very good art: The art was generating more energy than was being put into it. It felt alive.

At first I thought that Dalton/Powhida should get back to their art and families as soon as #Class ended. The more I went to the show, however, the more I was reminded of a free-forming rangy messy energy that I had felt once-unpon-a-time in places like the early Nature Morte, International With Monument, American Fine Arts, Gavin Brown, The Project, Orhcard, Michelle MAcarone, and lately at The Independent, Harris Leiberman, Lisa Cooley, Miguel Abrau, rental, and many others.
Something is happening here.
What it is ain't exactly clear.
But it's good. And it's growing.
On the last day of #Class I was wishing that Dalton/Powhida might take this structure on the road and see what happens ... ... ... OUT THERE.

(I am sorry if it costs them studio and family time.)

Disconnected impressions ...

#Class Reflections

2010-03-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

Sadly, #class is out for an extended recess, but that doesn't mean it's over. We would like to invite all the participants of #class to submit personal reflections on your experiences. It has been said that there is no organized thought without writing. While #class was an amazing, immersive, and exhausting experience, the chalkboards never achieved what one might call 'organized thought' in response to our thesis statement. So, we would like to extend #class back into your think/work spaces to organize your thoughts.

I don't think there's any single way to approach this reflection, but we would ask you to respond in your own way to our original thesis, “art is a luxury commodity for the wealthy that limits the possibility of ownership, understanding, and access based on class, education and geography." We'd also encourage you to see if your experiences lead you to any solutions for helping "art make friends" because we realize that if we want public funding, support, and understanding for contemporary art then we need to earn it. It may not be enough to simply work hard in our studios and demand respect and support from others. We may have to, as Ben Davis argues, see ourselves as activists and artists. I don't know exactly what that looks like, but perhaps it begins with arts education for me, as a public school teacher. Maybe it is taking the awkward step of asking non-profits and museums if they have a budget that includes paying the artists as W.A.G.E suggests we all do. However you decide to approach your reflection, please keep in mind that we would like to post them on the blog (keep it brief!) If your reflection involves pictures or video that's also welcome as we'd love visual documentation of #class as well. Also, please reach out to anyone who might not be on our mailing list or contributed to #class in a spontaneous manner.

As of now, Jen and I also need to reflect on our experience and give ourselves some time to recover emotionally and physically from the marathon #class turned into. Believe me when I say we didn't understand what #class would require from us or what an amazing space it would become with all of your participation. While we figure out what's next for #class, we will continue the dialogue here. Please send your reflections to hashtagclass@gmail.com

Apparently, school is never out.

Two Last-minute Cancellations!!

2010-03-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry to say...

Kimberly Wright's Collector Preferences Presentation 3/19 at 6pm is canceled.

Dr. Kristin's and Dr. Gloria's Writing Workshop 3/20 at 2pm is canceled.

We have only two more days of #class. But there are still more fun events, check the calendar! Our last event on Saturday 3/20 at 6pm is Rant Night. Come let it rip!

Phil Buehler's Advertising Methods Canceled!

2010-03-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

Formerly scheduled for 2pm on Wednesday, March 17th. Sorry!

Sarah Schmerler "The Writer is: IN"

2010-03-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, March 17th, at 6:30pm Sarah Schmerler will talk about artist's statements and then write your artist statement for you - as fast as she can.

First come; first served. 15 minutes, tops.

6:30-7:00pm: Intro to Statement Writing
7:00-8:00pm: Schmerler writes in 'real time.'

Bring pencil and paper, a CD or URL address for your work, and an open mind.

Visit www.sarahschmerler.com
for more information!

Nocation, Nocation, Nocation Canceled

2010-03-12T13:04:00.001-08:00

Due to an non-existent response for panelists, we are canceling the discussion in favor of work time.

Labor Class and the Critic's Panel

2010-03-12T05:38:00.000-08:00

Labor Class
What is involved in making a Koons sculpture? Or building six 30 foot tall Louise Bourgeois spiders? If you are interested in seeing and hearing how sculpture from these and many other established artists is made come to Labor class presented by Bernard Klevickas on Friday at 4 pm. If you work with or for another artist, please come and share your experience too.

From 2000 to 2005 Mr. Klevickas worked as a metal fabricator at an art foundry which constructed sculpture for Jeff Koons, Louise Bourgeois, Carroll Dunham, Rona Pondick, Anish Kapoor, Tom Otterness, Charles Ray, Eric Fischl, Kiki Smith, Frank Stella, Magdalena Abakanowicz, and others. Labor class will be an opportunity to hear and see what life is like from a worker's perspective.

The Critic's Panel
Please join Martha Schweneder, Jonathan T.D. Neil, Thomas Micchelli, and Christian Viveros-Faune tonight at 6pm to discuss the role of art criticism in relation to the art market. We hope our central thesis "Art is luxury commodity for the wealthy that limits access to ownership, understanding, and participation..." will function more as a question and a departure point for our participating critics.

Leigh Waldron-Taylor's Kaprow Reading Saturday Canceled!

2010-03-05T04:21:00.000-08:00

We are going to try to reschedule if we can!

Here is the event info:
I will read a written response to Allan Kaprow's essay Should the artist become a man of the world? published in ARTnews, October, 1964. Please read the essay and consider whether it has any significance for today's artist and the questions posed by #class. Skip what is obviously dated. The text is available online here in Kaprow's collected essays, Essays on the blurring of art and life (1993). Please note that the original essay, with the original question title, Thomas Hess' editorial, and December 1964 response letters make for more interesting reading.

This is a Think exercise, one offered as idea conduit to Ben Davis' 9.5 Theses on Art and Class discussion on March 19. Any questions can be left in the comment section below.

Thank you.

Background, Identity and the Straight White Male Discussion

2010-03-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

Here is more info on this discussion and speaker biographies. This will take place at #class next Saturday the 6th at 4pm! RSVP is recommended to hashtagclass (at) gmail (dot) com.

Background, Identity and the Straight White Male - (Suggested by An Xiao )
As William Powhida wrote, "The complexion of the art world is a lighter shade of pale, and despite the Whitney Biennial's gender parity all is not well in the market." Artist An Xiao would like to invite an open table discussion about how artists' identities and backgrounds influence the perception, reception and display of their work. How do factors like perceived race, gender, age, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation affect our experience of the art world? To what extent *should* an artist's background be considered? We welcome those of all backgrounds with open arms to talk about your art, which could be worth making the implicit explicit. This panel will be moderated by writer Joanne McNeil.

Hector Canonge is an artist and teacher who lives and works in New York City where he studied literature, film and Integrated Media Arts. His work incorporates the use of various media and commercial technologies, physical environments, cinematic, and performance narratives.

Canonge’s works have been exhibited at the Jersey City Museum, The Bronx Museum of The Arts, Queens Museum of Art, and in various galleries in New York City and New Jersey, and it has been reviewed by the New York Times, ART FORUM and on online publications such as NYRemezcla, and Turbulence. As part of his community initiatives, he started the monthly Queens’ LGBT film program CINEMAROSA. He is also the co-founder of QMAD, Queens Media Arts Development, a non-for profit arts organization that serves various communities of Queens.

...

Susanna Heller is an artist and teacher who paints, draws, and walks the city. Her work has been exhibited at Magnan Projects in New York, Olga Korper in Toronto and others thorugh the east coast, Canada and the Netherlands. Her work has been reviewed in the Brooklyn Rail, Art Info, Art in America, The New York Times, and she has taught at Rutgers, Parsons New School, and Yale.

She spoke recently with Carolina Miranda on WNYC about the Tino Sehgal Show.

...

James Kalm is the pseudonym of a Brooklyn based painter who is a long time contributor to The Brooklyn Rail. He has written hundreds of published art reviews, catalogue essays, and cultural commentaries.

He invented the concept of online streaming video art criticism with the “Kalm Reports” employing YouTube and blip.tv with over 350 programs and has a worldwide following on the internet. His reports have been featured on numerous websites, art blogs, and online magazines like ARTFORUM.com, Art Daily and Saatchi Online TV. He is married, with two adult children, paints and writes in Brooklyn.

...

Raghava KK is one of India's most celebrated emerging artists. His work has spanned genres as widely disparate as painting, sculpture, installation, film, performance, and even his own wedding.

He started his career in 1997 as a cartoonist with Indian national dailies and over the next 10 years, would reinvent himself to use several different mediums. He has lectured and taught at several art institutes, including the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (Nimes, France) and the New Hampshire Institute of Art (Manchester, NH, USA). Recently, he was invited to speak at the TED conference in California.

He lives and works both in the New York and Bangalore, India.

...

Joanne McNeil is a science and technology writer living outside Boston, Mass. She writes the popular blog The Tomorrow Museum, a collection of images and speculative essays exploring how technology, science, and economics are affecting the fine arts.

Instructions for Today's Event in Second Life

2010-02-28T11:03:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone,

If you'd like to join us in Second Life for Debbie Ainscoe's event "Optimists, Pessimists and Skeptics," you can go to Second Life's website to download Second Life. It's free! Then send us an email message at hashtagclass (at) gmail (dot) com and we will make friends with you and help you teleport to the virtual gallery where the event will take place. You can also watch us here via the live stream in the physical real-life gallery.

Here is info about the event:

Optimists, Pessimists and Skeptics seem to revolve around technology. It is relevant to some, but not to others. The creative appeal of spaces like the virtual world of Second Life lies in its visual and social appeal; physical, spatial and creative boundaries can be crossed. It is a giant sandbox where you can create and make art in 3d and experiment without material costs. Can it ever be art? Or is it just an approximation?

Hope to see you there!

"Receta" performance today 2/26 RESCHEDULED!

2010-02-26T07:58:00.001-08:00

Rocio Rodriguez Salceda's performance "Receta" is canceled today because of the snow! It will be rescheduled for next Thursday, March 4, at 6pm.

Stamatina Gregory and Jovana Stokic's "Bad Curating" event is still on for 6pm.

The gallery will be open today from 2-8, we'll be there!

Ben Davis's 9.5 Theses on Art and Class

2010-02-25T12:34:00.000-08:00

Ben's much talked about text "9.5 Theses on Art and Class" is now publicly available here. Please read and share with everyone you know who is concerned about art's relation to class and society. The art world is not isolated or removed from the world, and we will be discussing Ben's text during the course of the show when we finalize the guest speakers and set a date. Also, share this link to the Google Doc: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dhrh47t8_231gx653bd9

Notes on RSVP, Calendar & Chalkboards

2010-02-24T08:12:00.000-08:00

First, please RSVP for events to hashtagclass (at) gmail.com, NOT to Winkleman Gallery.

Second, please check the calendar here on the blog before heading to events - things sometimes change and this calendar will be updated as that happens!

Third, we want to be as clear as possible about what we're doing on the chalkboards. It's a messy process by definition (Freedom is Untidy = unofficial #class motto!), but our basic goal with #class is to foster productive discussion about the intersection of art and the market, and the conversation on the chalkboards has an integral function towards that goal. Jen and Bill will be interacting with the chalkboards to try to shape the discussion towards the subjects we most hope to explore, in the way that seems most productive to us. You are welcome to do this too! Anyone is free to write and to erase, but we hope that people will use this privilege thoughtfully to react to, explicate, and refute what has come before, not to obliterate it for no reason. The chalkboards will be photographed first thing when the gallery opens each day to keep a record of the conversations.

RSVP?

2010-02-23T08:01:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the crowds at our participant meet n' greet on Friday and the opening on Sunday, we would like to invite people to RSVP for events, performances, or discussions that they are most interested in. Right now, we can realistically accommodate seating for about 40 guests and standing room for 20 more and the events are first come first serve. At this point, we aren't looking to change that, but we are trying to gauge the level of interest in events so we can prepare. If a lot of people RSVP for an event, we will ask the participant if they want to reserve those seats in the order they came to us.

Certain events such as William's gallery walk and Carolina's Art Yoga also cannot accommodate a lot of people. If you would like to RSVP for William's gallery walk or Art Yoga or any of the events listed on the calendar, please send the EVENT NAME in the subject line of your email and your name.

In the spirit of chaos and anarchy we'd love to leave it all to chance, but we love Donald Rumsfeld's quote "Freedom is untidy," and it seems fair to offer those who have been following the blog and paying attention the possibility of getting a seat for their favorite event. The Artnewspaper already declared their excitement about experiencing Rod Verplanck, CSP.

Thoughts in the Final Stretch

2010-02-18T06:54:00.000-08:00

#class is already making me do, and think about, a lot of things I usually try to avoid. I do not normally seek out conflict but I have already had heated discussions about it and I anticipate more, particularly with artists who do not enjoy obsessing about the "art world," a term that is more a litmus test than anything else. For a long time the business of art (and I do not just mean commerce) has been one of the subjects of my work. Anyone who rents a studio, who spends time there instead of working somewhere a paycheck is certain, who buys art materials (whether at the art supply store or the thrift store or Home Depot), who stares at a blank canvas (or wall, or floor) for hours, who hopes to exhibit her work where someone will see it, is engaged in the business of art. Why do we keep going, when the sacrifices are so obvious and the rewards so uncertain?

When I attempt to make sense of this endeavor in which we are all engaged, the shorthand phrase is "the art world," which does not to me mean Miami/Basel penthouse parties where collectors lick large chocolate sculptures (thank you for the mental image Bill Powhida), I mean informal crit groups gathered in a friend's studio, reading all the way to the end of the comments on art blogs, having conversations with people you only see at Williamsburg gallery openings but you always love to see, bubble-wrapping unsold sculptures in my 4-foot-high crawlspace because they're too heavy to carry out and carry back in (as my dear friends Jennifer and Kevin McCoy like to call chores like that, "living the dream"), and finding excuses such as this show to gather people together.

I belatedly read the Adam Gopnik piece in the New Yorker about the idea that it was actually Gauguin who cut off Van Gogh's ear with his sword. Apparently, what Van Gogh longed for most throughout his short artistic life was to live and work communally with other artists. However, it ended badly for him and, Gopnik argues rather romantically, it has and will for every artist before and since: "You always begin with a dream of community - Braque and Picasso in the bohemian hermitage Bateau Lavoir; the handful of painters brave enough to go abstract in the Cedar Tavern - and end with a reality of competitiveness and assault, suspicion and estrangement."

#class would like to prove you wrong, Mr. Gopnik. Here's to that!

Still More Events (and updated descriptions)

2010-02-17T09:14:00.000-08:00

First off, WE WILL BE LIVE STREAMING all the goings-on in the gallery right here to this blog. God knows how the image/sound quality will be, but we're giving it a shot. Tune in wherever you are!

And here are a few more events that have been added and/or elaborations of the descriptions of existing events:

2/26 at 2pm
Rocio Rodriguez Salceda presents "Receta," a one-hour performance from a symbolic "kitchen" where women from four different generations in Spain will discuss, plot and reveal secrets about how they were getting by during their time. Their voices will be represented by Rocio Rodriguez Salceda alone. Images, music, text and other ingredients from this "kitchen" will accompany the artist on this historic trip.

2/26 at 6pm
Stamatina Gregory and Jovana Stokic will present “Bad Curating” a presentation and open platform for discussion. More humorous than hypercritical, it takes on the roots, criteria, and typologies of this practice in its various incarnations.

2/28 at 2pm
Amanda Browder presents FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! You sunk my Battleship!
Up with the Anchor yo ole Matey! This trip is all about BATTLESHIP!
For this discussion we are going to embrace our inner art competitor! Plan for a day of actual Battleship gaming where two sides go head to head in an art conversation battle. Refereed by podcast/artist correspondent Amanda Browder, people should be ready man your ships.
Battle One: Formalists vs. Conceptualists.
Battle Two: Painters vs. The World.
Battle Three: Artist vs. Dealer

All are welcome and encouraged to choose your weapon. At the end we will tally up the points and see who really reigns supreme. It's a WAR ON THE SHORE!

3/3 at 2pm
ART SHRED is an on-site shredding service that will help artists and other participants liberate themselves of important works of art, meaningful love letters and one-of-a-kind photographs – and other significant material created, printed, or written on paper. After being sliced and diced, all works will be scattered on the gallery floor. If you have something of consequence that you would like to have shredded, e-mail Celso (at) elcelso (dot) com. Walk-ins welcome.

3/5 at 2pm
Bow to the Art Industry: Get body and mind ready to navigate the spiritual and physical hazards of working in the art world with this 75 minute yoga class geared at those who want to re-contextualize the nature of luminal space while doing core-strengthening exercises that will keep you lithe enough to be considered for any possible art/fashion spreads in T Magazine. The class will be led by Carolina A. Miranda, a certified yoga teacher (Om Yoga Center, 2003) and art blogger (C-Monster.net). Bring your own mat and an open mind. Class capacity 18; first come first serve.

3/17 at 6pm
In "My Sweatshop, My Sweet," Mary Walling Blackburn examines the art world's unregulated romance with the factory. Kisses to the workers and warm hugs to the product!

Ongoing event on Facebook!
(Day)Job--the very name is a qualifier--implying that it isn’t one’s “job” per se--though, in the case of many (most?) cultural producers, it may be the only income generating job. (Day)Job is a photo-archive of cultural producers and their “dayjobs,” self-posted using the social networking reach of Facebook. Artists Tara Fracalossi and Thomas Lail ask: How do we define ourselves? How do we want to be defined? What’s your (Day)Job? Join the Facebook Group (Day)Job and post your photographic answer.

#class Schedule!

2010-02-13T15:26:00.000-08:00

There are still more events in development that will be added, and some shifting will occur as we deal with changes. But this is how it stands now. When things change we will update the calendar so it should always be up-to-date.

Table Discussions are in yellow and Event/Performances are in green. Where it says Work Space, we will be in the gallery working on drawings, writing on the wall, and talking with whomever stops by.

This calendar represents the last month of our lives. We did not curate this list and the participants got involved through our requests on the blog, Twitter and Facebook, articles, and word of mouth. While we know some of the participants, we've never met many of them. We scheduled the events as they came in with our only criterion being that the proposals be relevant to our inquiry into our unease with participating in the market. This is not Performa, nor is it a classroom where we will be doing the educating. It's a discussion based space responding to the ideas raised by the participants and hopefully a chronicle and debate on the walls of the space. Throughout this process we will also be making art to internalize and respond to the dialog through our own practices. We will use different methods to make the art accessible and to challenge the established practice of the fixed-price point model. To that end, we have tried to schedule some work time, but we will always be available while we work in the space.

We'd like to thank all of the people who have taken the risk to experiment with us. What we have created is a framework for a dialog that will last for a month. We also hope all the participants will help us spread the word to bring people into the gallery. Invite your co-workers, people you don't know, people who think contemporary art is a joke; we'd like to see a broad audience come through the show and make it accessible. Bring a six-pack, a bottle of wine, coffee or just your thoughts to #class. It's really yours and it might be absurd, serious, heated, contentious, ugly, wonderful, awkward, sincere, ironic, but maybe we'll figure this shit out.

More Events, and a clarification

2010-02-12T15:58:00.000-08:00

The list we posted earlier today comprised ONLY the
events/performances/presentations to be hosted at #class, NOT the table discussions (with the exception of two discussions whose topics had substantially evolved). The rest of the table discussion topics are more or less accurately reflected in our earlier post here.

As the discussions fill up with participants, we will list them again with more thorough information.

And here are three more events:

Bryan Zanisnik will present "Judicial Review," a performance and panel discussion that brings together practicing lawyers and professional artists. By drawing parallels between a legal profession and an arts profession, zanisnik's piece will address issues of professionalism, academicism, and ethical anomalies that exist within the art world.

Broadsheet, the zine by two lady artists with their knickers in a twist, will make its long-awaited return with a Broad vs. Broad smackdown on the pros and cons of working for free.

Debbie Ainscoe will host an event in Second Life from the UK which will be viewed at #class. Optimists, Pessimists and Skeptics seem to revolve around technology. It is relevant to some, but not to others. The appeal of spaces like the virtual world of Second Life lies in its visual and social appeal. Boundaries physical, spatial, and creative can be crossed. Second Life is a giant sandbox where you can create in 3d and experiment without material costs.

More events!

2010-02-10T09:58:00.000-08:00

Here is a closer-to-comprehensive list of the events we plan to host at #class. (There are still more to come! Stay tuned for additions.) A schedule will be posted here in the next couple of days. (If you're a #class participant who has has not confirmed his or her timeslot, email us asap!) And it should go without saying that everything is subject to change.

First the Event/Performances/Presentations (scroll down for some updated discussion descriptions)

Rebecca Armstrong will present "Working Artist," a contract-based performance art piece that sets up an agreement between an artist and collector by which the artist is paid for labor rather than product, thus ostensibly freeing the art-making process from the market. The contract is currently unsigned.

The Art Blahg will present "Art Wake," a funeral ritual for contemporary art.

Man Bartlett will be presenting "24h #class action," a marathon group intervention involving systematically blowing up hundreds of skinny balloons and popping them, without creating or harming any cute little puppies.

Zachary Adam Cohen will be presenting on social media as a flattening agent in the art world and its implications for broadening the discussion and community of the arts. He will also touch on issues of the unsustainability of the art world, the concept of Free and gift societies and how they relate to the current art market. He may propose the installation and adoption of artificial price support mechanisms and touch on the issue of collusion. His goal is to promote a bottom up, people powered movement in the art world with the power to continually restore and repair damaged nodes, as well as offering up a much needed dose of transparency into the current system.

Jennifer Dalton will present "Access Starts with Education and Education Starts with Access," in which she'll lead her son's Bedford-Stuyvesant public school kindergarten class on a short Chelsea art walk, ending up at Edward Winkleman Gallery to eat lunch and make an art project about what they've seen.

Franklin Einspruch will give a lecture entitled "Conceptualism for Sale: How the Art World Uses Low Standards for Fun and Profit."

Yevgeniy Fiks will present a slide-lecture titled "Communist Modern Artists and the Art Market," showing how many of the the most highly valued art of the 20th century was produced by artists who considered themselves communists (Picasso, Leger, Kahlo, Rivera and more).

Princeton University writing professors Dr. Gloria and Dr. Kristin will lead partipants in a thinking and writing exercise to assess the value of their assessments of value. Every participant will leave with a renewed understanding and a letter grade.

Rebecca Goyette will present "Market U," an art critique as experiential theatre. The Ringmaster of Market University will review the live examples of artwork of selected recent graduates of of various NYC MFA Programs including Market U. A panel of judges, internationally recognized art critics, gallery owners and artists who work for Market U will be the jury... or will you?

Hyperallergic has prepared $ECRET$ OF THE NEW YORK ART WORLD, which invites visitors to reveal who in the city's art industry owes them money. Will the pyramid scheme that is the art world collapse when the secrets come out? Hyperallergic hopes so.

Bernard Klevickas will present "Labor Class- Learn what it is like to construct a masterpiece." From 2000-2005 Klevickas worked at an art foundry fabricating art for Jeff Koons, Louise Bourgeois, Frank Stella and others. This will be a great opportunity to hear what the experience is like from the labor and production side of things.

How does a single human being raise an army? James Leonard asks just that with his Warbonds Performance. After conceptualizing an ambitious installation, rather than waiting for someone else to do the fundraising after his career has taken off, James has decided to take matters into his own hands. He's printed his own series of Warbond Certificates complete with multiple security features such as microprinting and a holographic foil tape. The profits from the sale of these prints will fund the manufacture of 100,000 custom toy soldiers. Through the theatric language of a quasi-para-military briefing, James will weave a web of connections between The Warbonds Project and the larger economy in which we all participate. Certificates will be available for sale, signing and sealing following the performance along with open interaction with James regarding the project and any related discussion.

Dr. Lisa Levy, S.P. (Self-Proclaimed) will present "Investigating Personal Obstacles to Creativity and Creative Productivity," a workshop using the tools of psychoanalysis to begin to identify how personal history and emotions subvert and misdirect our actions to make creative work so we can realize our full potential as artists.

Alan Lupiani is a self-styled street reporter utilizing his own blend of humor and wit to get the inside scoop regarding art news and events around New York City. Please feel free to chat with him at the opening of "#class" at Edward Winkleman Gallery on Sunday, February 21st between 6 - 7pm."

Jennifer and Kevin McCoy will lead "Let's Figure Out What They Want," a collector focus group. They aim to ask direct questions not only about what art piques collectors' interests, but also what their expectations are vis a vis the presence of the artist's life behind the work.

Carolina Miranda will lead participants in "Art Yoga by C-Mon," incorporating newly invented poses to aid artists in the contortions necessary to advance their practice and career.

Artists MTAA will demonstrate "Autotrace," a completely automatic, software-generated appropriation and shape creation system.

William Powhida will lead an informal art walk through several Chelsea galleries encouraging people to exercise their judgment and discuss the value of the work on display turning each stop into a think space. (Hopefully we won't be thrown out for discussing the art!)

Nic Rad will present "The Celebritist Manifesto," a stirring defense of celebrity culture as the boldest creative expression of a democratic society, in which it will become abundantly clear that James Franco is the most significant artist of the decade, if not all time.

San Francisco-based artist Lizabeth Rossof will ask, "Do I have to Live in New York City?" to a cast of New York-based experts, in and out of the art world.

Caitlin Rueter and Suzanne Stroebe will host a Feminist Tea Party, an event that lies somewhere in between a contemporary consciousness raising group, a panel discussion, a performance, and a joke. They will create an installation of sorts, with a table set for tea, complete with tablecloth, porcelain cups, finger sandwiches and cookies. While attempting to maintain a visual and stylistic protocol consistent with an afternoon tea party, they will engage visitors in a dialogue around contemporary women's issues that contrasts sharply with the formal, prissy setting.

Free Gift Wrapping! Anyone who buys an artwork during the run of the show can have it gift-wrapped by Zoë Sheehan Saldaña in handmade brown paper and twine.

Magda Sawon of Postmasters Gallery will host "Ask the Art Dealer," vowing to truthfully answer any and every question posed to her as long as it does not involve her weight, social security number or other people's money. We're starting to collect questions now, if you post one in the comments here it will get asked!

Painter and writer Mira Schor will read her 1990 essay “On Failure and Anonymity” and lead a discussion on how these conditions might play a positive role in making art.

Sarah Smizz will give away free posters featuring her "Maps of the Art System."

Leigh Waldron-Taylor will present "Meme no more? Has the artist become a 21stC trope?" A rereading of Allan Kaprow's "The Artist as a Man of the World" 45 years later.

Author and motivational speaker Rod Verplanck CSP, CPAE will be giving an entertaining and inspirational talk on how to make it to the top of the Contemporary Art World. Let Rod help you unlock what is stopping you from wild creativity. Avoid the fear of overfulfillment, unshackle your ambition and face the maelstrom of horrible possibilities. Learn that the very smallness of your ideas is key to your wild success. (The opposite of what you thought!)

WAGE Artists will present "Wake Up Call, Artists Need to be Paid Too!"

An Xiao will present "Photoglam," during which she and her glamorous entourage will be photographing attendees during the opening reception and posting them on the Facebook event page. The photos with the top number of 'likes' will be publicly posted.

[name withheld by artist's request in the spirit of open content] has organized "Shut Up Already, I'll Look at your Art!" open source call to artists on the "Outside" to have their work viewed by an "Insider". For this project, gallerist Ed Winkleman will spend a portion of his time in the gallery during #class reviewing digital images of art sent via the internet to #class by artists globally. Artists will be asked to submit a digital image of one piece of art to be reviewed by Mr. Winkleman for at least 10 seconds, TWICE the average time museum goers spend viewing a piece of art.

On Sundays #class will be the only show open in Chelsea, and we encourage you to come out and help turn the show into an informal, social space. Jen and William will be making work for the market space and discussing the progression of ideas within the think space. During the day from approximately 2pm-5pm will be "Competition Time," a game-playing hangout where visitors can overtly show their competitive side and play video games, card games and board games. Come hang out, talk, have a beer, do some work on the walls, read a text, play, or maybe even make an offer on a drawing. It's the only thing going on in Chelsea.

On the final night of the show we will host "Rant Night," where everyone is encouraged to come and let it rip on whatever's still bothering you.

Two of our discussion topics have evolved slightly, here are updated descriptions:

Collecting with Your Eye, Not Your Ears

What motivates collectors to acquire work? Is it what you hear about an artist or is it the work itself? It can't just be to fill the New Museum or flip at auction! Barry Hoggard and James Wagner have been invited to lead a discussion around how and why people build private collections, with an emphasis on the committed enthusiast with limited funds.

The evening is intended to address collecting, not as a hobby, furniture or investment, but as a way of repurposing a worthy human impulse in danger of being reduced to a convention, an adornment, even a racket. The discussion will be facilitated by Julia Weist.

Background, Identity and the Straight White Male - (Suggested by An Xiao )
As William Powhida wrote, "The complexion of the art world is a lighter shade of pale, and despite the Whitney Biennial's gender parity all is not well in the market." Artist An Xiao would like to invite an open table discussion about how artists' identities and backgrounds influence the perception, reception and display of their work. How do factors like perceived race, gender, age, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation affect our experience of the art world? To what extent *should* an artist's background be considered? We welcome those of all backgrounds with open arms to talk about your art, which could be worth making the implicit explicit. This panel will be moderated by writer Joanne McNeil.

Market Space

2010-02-03T09:53:00.000-08:00

Purchase Application

Powhida & Dalton
Graphite and colored pencil on paper

2010
We will be selling this work to whomever makes their best offer based on their approximate income and rationale for ownership. There is no fixed price point and we won't be insulted if (a) no one wants it, (b) you can only offer what you can afford, or (c) you end up paying the same as your Marc Jacobs handbag.

Table Discussion Topics

2010-02-02T16:36:00.000-08:00

Here is a preliminary list of potential table discussions and people who suggested the concepts. We have named several, so please don't take offense if we butchered anything. We are also doing away with the traditional, hierarchical panel discussion and inviting the 'experts' or invited guests to sit centrally at our converted work tables along with the first people to arrive at the gallery or who RSVP (this depends if we receive a strong response for the finalized discussions). We hope to make the conversations more informal and promote greater interaction with the audience by including some of them at the table, literally and metaphorically. There will also be beer and pizza, when we can afford it, to keep things light, especially if the discussion turns heavy.

While we are still awaiting confirmation for invited guests for many of the discussions, we are also soliciting nominations and volunteers who feel like they'd be willing to share their expertise and experience. Please get in touch. If you'd also like to host a discussion or add a topic, send it along. We only have a certain number of slots for the series, but we'd like to post discussion topics regularly in the think space.

Possible Discussions:

Collecting with Your Eye, Not Your Ears (Suggested by Barry Hoggard and James Wagner)
• What motivates collectors to acquire work? Is it what you hear about an artist or is it the work itself? Barry Hoggard and James Wagner have been invited to lead a discussion around how and why people build private collections. It can't just be to fill the New Museum or flip at auction!

Nocation, Nocation, Nocation - (Suggested by Emma Gray)
• How does not having a traditional brick and mortar space affect the roles of independent curators, pop-up galleries, roving spaces, independent dealers? Is it a matter or resistance, a new business model, a niche role in the market, or a reaction to the recession as fixed costs displace dealers and empty real estate creates new opportunities? What's happening out in Bushwick? We want to hear from you.

The Critic's Panel - (Suggested by Edward Winkleman)
• What will happen when some of New York's most prominent critics come to the table at #class? We have a few brave volunteers to bring the critic's perspective to the discussion, but we are looking for other voices out there in the trenches.

The Anti-Conceptualism Discussion - (Suggested by Jen and William)
•There are a vast number of people out there who don't like conceptual art, what Jen and William do, or what Ed Winkleman promotes. Do you think we are bullshit? We'd like to hear from you! We are inviting any formalists, purists, and ideologues with open arms into the gallery for a frank discussion on conceptual art and even #class itself. We currently can't fathom inviting anyone, but desperately want to host an animated dialog.

The System Works - (Suggested by several people who would like to remain anonymous)
•What's wrong with the market? Well, for many artists fully invested in it, nothing! We recognize that the market has worked and continues to work for a lot of artists (including ourselves!) and #class would be a one-sided debate without inviting in artists, dealers, collectors, and others who find more right than wrong with the market-based arts-investment system. We say chance and you say luck.

The System Doesn't Work - (Suggested by years of experience or William with Jen's support)
•What's wrong with the market?! Well, for many artists with nothing invested in it, everything! We recognize that even just getting access to the market seems to be based on pedigree, insider connections, randomness, and a byzantine social hierarchy right out 18th Century France. Then there's what happens when you work within the system; ruthless competition, sellouts to zero sales, dealers vanishing in the night, bounced checks, no art reviews, and a sense of ever impending doom. If this sounds like your perspective and luck is as likely as hitting a Win For Life scratch off, then we'd love to have you at the table.

Access - (A necessary offshoot of the previous topic)
• One of the defining issues at the heart of #class. Is open access for all artists even a possibility in the broadest sense of the art experience? Is it the wisdom of the crowd, a lottery drawing, or the discerning 'eye' of the curator, dealer, or tastemaker that should shape we see? Galleries are open to the public, but they are not the most inviting spaces, while public museums can cost more than a trip to the I-MAX for Avatar 3-D. Reading an issue of Artforum often feels like it requires a pocket theory translator (where is the app for that?). The complexion of the art world is a lighter shade of pale, and despite the Whitney Biennial's gender parity all is not well in the market. So, we raise the question of elitism and hegemony for #class.

The Ivory Tower - (see previous topic)
•In the late 80's and the early 90's, you could get an MFA without so much as drawing a line, well if you don't count all the underlining and highlighting of Derrida and Foucalt. Many young artists plow through undergraduate and graduate school for degrees so they can immediately get a tenure track teaching gig in....well anywhere, without ever trying to be a working artist. There are also a lot of artists who've been teaching for decades out there. What's your take on the rise of academia and the proliferation of art programs that promise a 'career' in the arts? Are you unhappy in your teaching gig? Are you swamped in student loan debt and considering going back to law school? Is it a symptom of the professionalization of the arts or something else entirely. So many issues...we really need to hear from you.

The Art World as High School - (suggested by William self-identified troublemaker)
•You can't possibly have a discussion about the art market without thinking about New York as a series of carefully placed lunchroom tables where even the subtlest glance, bit of gossip, or movement can set off a fight. Are you a cool kid? A rich kid? A fat kid? A jock? A nerd? An Outcast? Think about it, and if you want to address how reputation, coolness, likability, personality, wealth, and other social aspects shape the art world, please volunteer to have a deeply uncomfortable discussion.

Bolshevik! - (suggested by William)
•An open invitation to Marxists (and sympathizers!) to have a special dialog about the aging alternative to Capitalism.

Success? - (suggested by Edward)
• Another open invitation to discuss how the easy and plentiful money of the art boom fueled perceptions that this one was different and that it would last forever. How does the influx of money change artists, dealers, collectors, and is it a trap that promotes a defensive, cautious position? Does success promote creative stagnation or is money what we all really miss, deep down inside in the dark place?

The Straight White Middle Class Male Panel - (Suggested by An Xiao)
• Artist An Xiao would like to invite the default setting for artists in to discuss how their whiteness, maleness, straightness, middle-classness influences their art. We assume An is also looking for Americans, but Europeans and others from Western nation states will do fine. Again, we welcome you with open arms to talk about your art, which could be worth making the implicit explicit.

Here come the projects

2010-01-30T08:21:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the events, discussions and performances that #class plans to host at Winkleman Gallery between Feb 21 and March 20, 2010.

We have over 40 events in some stage of development already. There will be a few different things going on every day the show is open! A full schedule will be publicly posted once we have it hammered out. For now, a preview. We'll keep posting as more events become confirmed. If you haven't sent us a proposal yet, there's still time!

Painter and writer Mira Schor will read her 1990 essay “On Failure and Anonymity” and lead a discussion on how these conditions might play a positive role in making art.

Hyperallergic has prepared $ECRET$ OF THE NEW YORK ART WORLD, which invites visitors to reveal who in the city's art industry owes them money. Will the pyramid scheme that is the art world collapse when the secrets come out? Hyperallergic hopes so.

An Xiao will present "Photoglam," during which she and her glamorous entourage will be photographing attendees during the opening and posting them on the Facebook event page. The photos with the top number of 'likes' will be publicly posted.

Magda Sawon of Postmasters Gallery will host "Ask the Art Dealer," vowing to truthfully answer any and every question posed to her. We're starting to collect questions now, if you post one in the comments here it will get asked!

Free Gift Wrapping! Anyone who buys an artwork during the run of the show can have it gift-wrapped by Zoë Sheehan Saldaña in handmade brown paper and twine.

Artists MTAA will demonstrate "Autotrace," a completely automatic, software-generated appropriation and shape creation system.

Rebecca Goyette will present "Market U," an art critique as experiential theatre. The Ringmaster of Market University will review the live examples of artwork of selected recent graduates of of various NYC MFA Programs including Market U. A panel of judges, internationally recognized art critics, gallery owners and artists who work for Market U will be the jury... or will you?

Sarah Smizz will give away free posters featuring her "Maps of the Art System."

Nic Rad will present "The Celebritist Manifesto," a stirring defense of celebrity culture as the boldest creative expression of a democratic society, in which it will become abundantly clear that James Franco is the most significant artist of the decade, if not all time.

Man Bartlett will be presenting "24h #class action," a marathon group intervention involving systematically blowing up hundreds of skinny balloons and popping them, without creating or harming any cute little puppies.

Dr. Lisa Levy, S.P. (Self-Proclaimed) will present "Investigating Personal Obstacles to Creativity and Creative Productivity," a workshop using the tools of psychoanalysis to begin to identify how personal history and emotions subvert and misdirect our actions to make creative work so we can realize our full potential as artists.

Yevgeniy Fiks will present a slide-lecture titled "Communist Modern Artists and the Art Market," showing how many of the the most highly valued art of the 20th century was produced by artists who considered themselves communists (Picasso, Leger, Kahlo, Rivera and more).

The Art Blahg will present "Art Wake," a funeral ritual for contemporary art.

Carolina Miranda will lead participants in "Art Yoga by C-Mon," incorporating newly invented poses to aid artists in the contortions necessary to advance their practice and career.

To Complicate Things

2010-01-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

When Ed Winkleman offered his space to Jen and I to consider "alternatives/solutions" to the market, we had some very different ideas initially. One of our first impulses was to completely invert the normal function of the gallery by banishing Ed, Murat, and Max from the space and creating something else. Jen and I had some evil laughs thinking about what that might look like, but the idea never got past Ed, as he felt we were singling him out as a proxy for all shitty art dealers. I thought that position was a little defensive, since Ed isn't a shitty art dealer. It's just that dealers create the market as it exists now. If you're not an art dealer, you run a non-profit, director.

Part of the logic of removing Ed from the equation also correlated with our desire to remove the 'luxury art objects' from the gallery as well. For me, this stems from the fact that galleries sell a lot of the same thing, types of art with minor variations from artist to artist. Eventually a few artists rise to the top of the heap for a period of time. Then, commercial success gives way to museum shows, grants, prizes, and only or two artists from any given style, school, or camp are cannonized and given a shot at the history books, which requires some level of critical support. Currently, The Bruce High Quality Foundation is being elevated into the Whitney Biennial from the collective institutional critique camp. Having admired their efforts, I think it's cool, but reminds me that what Jen and I are doing with #class is being done in different ways by different groups world wide. Not all of them of market friendly, but TBHQF seems to have commercial representation and the Whitney nod will confer a new level of value on whatever they do next.

The problem is, however much I may admire TBHQ foundation from afar, I've never actually seen anything they've ever done and just like the idea of what they are, I understand that we are in competition for the limited number of spots in the star system. I mean, galleries have two or three stars in their stable, two who sell and one who gets the critical acclaim. This is one of the things that makes me particularly queasy about the art market, considering my experience during the boom of people happily selling art and rarely willing to discuss ideas. Most conversations stayed in the area of "What are you doing next?", "How was your last show? (ie, did you sell out?), and "Congrats on your (Insert publication) review. It was great!" Underneath the veneer of artistic comraderie, there is something much darker and less talked about. Usually, we acknowledge the sour grapes, "Powhida is just jealous of TBHQF for getting into a Biennial. What a dick." That's a fair statement, in that I would also love to be in a Whitney Biennial any of these even years, but have stopped holding my breath. I'd already be dead.

What I'm hoping, in part, is that #class will open up areas of dialog that don't happen very often without several cocktails and a conspiratorial tone. Well, we may have cocktails, but it will be an open discussion not just for insiders. Artist Ken Weaver, who also shows at Schroeder Romero & Shredder (I still have trouble saying the whole thing), has proposed a variation on this topic, hoping to start a conversation about 'artistic jealousy' and the difference between our public reactions to success and our private conversations. I think Ken and I probably have some things to discuss...

But, back to the 'luxury object'. There still is that startling amount of repetitive sameness that permeates the market. This dull sameness will be magnified by Armory, Pulse, Volta, and whatever new fairs pop up to capitalize on fair week. I'm sure it was part of the reason that Ed offered Jen and I this slot during Armory to address and hopefully problematize the fair mentality. It really is a perfect time for the show. Ed will be participating in two fairs, PULSE and another new 'alternative to the alternative' fair. This is a spectacular set of conditions for #class to exploit and be exploited by. Ed hopes to potentially take part of our show and enter it in to the real market, while Jen and I hope to invade the polished, hushed art fair atmosphere in return. What I love about this project is, even as I'm writing this, I will also potentially be participating in two fairs, definitely PULSE with Charlie James Gallery from LA and Ed, depending on what fair he decides to take part of our show to. If anyone still believes for a second that I am not a 'pig' as Jen Dalton describes those of us who participate in the market (the other choice being 'loser' and the attendant poverty and integrity that comes with it) then you should really go back and take a look at my art. I have been trying to sell out for years, and have found that it takes an incredible amount of work to make any headway at all.

I have made some progress. Nearly two years ago, I was commissioned to do a piece for a collector that involved traveling to the Bahamas as 'research' for the painting. Now, I am finally traveling down to Grand Bahamas Island with my wife and volunteer assistant, Thomas. Jen and Ed have been making fun of me (hypocrite!) comparing me to Koons and suggesting the commission is analogous to designing a yacht called "Guilty Pleasure" for Dakis Joannou. The thing is, I don't have to paint a giant boat and put a patina of class on a massive, floating luxury item. I get to make fun of the whole thing, myself, and the collector. There's no restrictions on the narrative I create from the experience. If there were an analogy to Koons it would be that I would have had the freedom to sink Dakis' yacht off the coast of Athens and the only people who'd get to see it would need scuba gear. That said, I will be sipping cocktails on white sands in balmy weather while Jen and Ed start installing the show. Then, as soon as I disembark the plane I will descend back into my inferior social status and head to the gallery to start putting up on panels and painting them with chalkboard paint. Unlike Koons, Jen and I can't just have the show fabricated to our specifications. We have a budget of $250 dollars. It's not really a joke, but it seems like one. Jen and I will have to work hard to make some drawings that people can make an offer on, and help us fund the month long series of lectures, panels, performances, sits-ins, interventions readings, conversations, eulogies, yoga classes, game nights, and other bizarre activities we haven't even heard yet. (Well, I might be able to use some of the money I will be getting from a certain European collector for one of my New Museum prints.) If we end up making any money, I think we will all be shocked. We'll be sure to keep a running balance sheet on the walls during the show of what went in to it and what we all got out of it in economic terms. The rest of it will be harder to quantify.

These would be the intangibles. After Ed rejected the radical reinterpretation of the space (ie kicking him out) we spent a long time discussing the intangible values associated with the gallery system and why we all continue to participate when we make (a) very little money or (b) put ourselves in debt. Ed may only have ten collectors who might buy work during the course of a show, but he takes immense pleasure in talking about the art and the artists. One of the intangibles for Ed is that dialog he has, and that is one of the reasons he objected being taken out of the equation. For other dealers who do not engage the public as much, that might not be an issue. As far as art goes for me, I invested $36,000 dollars into my BFA and MFA. I've paid it down to $26,000 since 1999. I'm way fucking behind. I don't know about Jen or Ed, but in general the economics of selling art is largely unsustainable unless you or your gallery breaks the 100k barrier for art and stays above that threshold. During the art boom, there was enough money to make people feel like they probably had a long-term shot, but that was illusory. A 'how are they doing today?' chart comparing sales of artists from 2005 to 2009 would be awesome, but no one is likely to volunteer that information. It would be like committing career suicide. We can see variations on this idea through auction returns, but the values at auction are far more stable than the inflated prices of the art fairs. I'm sure a great number of artists live in fear of seeing their 2005 $10,000 art fair price point get eviscerated at auction. These questions fascinate me, and I'll continue to explore them as long as I can and as long as someone will help exhibit the results of my preoccupations. Part of the paradox is, unless it sells or generates press/controversy/critical interest, the less people are inclined to show it. On that note for another visual representation of this, check out my new Brooklyn Rail drawing Institutional Celebration.

We understand the economics of art, and it's not a pretty picture. Hrag Vartanian has proposed a "Who Owes Who Money in the New York Art World" box for #class. While that might be revealing, it won't be shocking unless you believe that Goldman Sachs and A.I.G. work to better the middle class. What we want to explore more deeply are the intangible aspects of participating in the art world with the market being the focus. We chose the title #class, because it is an evocative word suggesting social hierarchies, economic conditions, school, access, exclusion, difference, taste, luxury, or conflict. This show is an open call to everyone, even those who might want to participate but fear sullying their brand or reputation (I'm talking to Andrea Fraiser, Sean Landers, Matthew Barney, Jeff Koons, Jeffrey Deitch, Kehind Wiley, Damien Hirst, Josephine Meckesper, or anyone with something to lose by even setting foot in Winkleman Gallery or 27th street, but would be amazing to hear from unmediated by the press and their representation) So, let the concept for #class unpack a little more in your heads and think about what what you love and hate in the art world. Then, yell at us! Propose an idea! Commit career suicide! Argue! Whatever, I'd love to see Tyler Green and Jerry Saltz sit down in the space, have a beer and discuss "Ethics, Moralism, and the contemporary Witch-Hunt." Facebook is really no place to get into it.

Tomorrow, Jen will be posting a list of events with short descriptions. A schedule will follow as we program our available time slots.

Draft Mission Statement (or some such thing)

2010-01-12T17:17:00.000-08:00

#Class

#class will turn Edward Winkleman Gallery into a 'think tank', where we will work with guest artists, critics, academics, dealers, collectors and anyone else who would like to participate to examine the way art is made and seen in our culture and to identify and propose alternatives and/or reforms to the current market system. By 'current market system' we mean the commercial model and attendant commodification of art, but also the unquantifiable, intangible, unpaid aspects of participating in the art world. We will work to physically transform Winkleman Gallery from a showroom into a think tank, where discussions and events will take place from approximately Feb 20 - March 20, 2010.

These issues will be approached from three intersecting spheres of artistic practice: 'Think Space', 'Work Space', and 'Market Space'. While thinking is also work, we make the distinction here to separate the labor the organizing artists, Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida, will perform individually from the collaborative and communal dialog that we will facilitate.

Among other things, we hope to reduce the amount of certainty that the audience feels when entering a gallery and encountering an art work. The outcome of this project is totally uncertain, and involves risk. We will process this uncertainty and risk artistically and respond as individual artists by making work at tables in the 'Work Space' and and displaying it in a small, marginalized 'Market Space' within the gallery. This will make explicit the conflict artists often feel between their belief in socialist or communal values and their isolated, individualistic artistic work and career.

Think Space

The gallery will be reconfigured from a display-space into a place for working, thinking, and hanging out. Several walls will be covered in chalkboard paint where artists and others may participate in defining and working out problems consecutively or communally. There will be chairs and tables available for visitors to use to sit and converse. We hope to improve upon and refine our current working definition that “art is a luxury commodity for the wealthy that limits the possibility of ownership, understanding, and access based on class, education and geography”. We will work in the gallery to continuously update, record, and modify the information that the public provides. Eventually, we hope to move from identification and definition into analysis to propose solutions.

We ourselves, along with other collaborators, will spend as much time in the gallery as possible. During some of this time, we will participate simply by talking, drinking, and working on the walls themselves as we would in a private studio. Members of the public will be welcome to join in on the dialog and make themselves comfortable.

We believe that this aspect of the project will implicitly challenge some of the expectations of the market including (1) that most art is produced in private by individual artists and (2) is presented as a finished product ready for consumption. We hope to make our thought process tangible.

The last goal of the Think Space will be promote a critical and academic dialog around the project and attendant developing ideas by hosting a series of informal events and discussions involving critics, bloggers, artists, dealers, collectors, academics, and the general public through a call-for-proposals. We would like to avoid the professionalism and authority of traditional panels by making the discussions less formal and encouraging people to speak with greater freedom and candor about the subjects by plying them with food and drink. We will have a full calendar of performances, discussions, and uncategorizable art-like events, all invested with the aim of enlarging and deepening the conversation about the intersection of art and the market.

Work Space

As the show progresses, the individual artists Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida plan to participate in the market by making art work inspired by the information, events and discussions generated in the space. At the work tables in the space, in public, we will create small works on paper based on our interpretation and documentation of the evolving project. This work will not be priced in the usual commercial manner, premised on 'what the market will bear' based on our past work and reputations. Instead, we plan to offer our work to the highest bidder with no reserve. We may offer suggested guidelines for appropriate prices, such as one day of the buyer's income from his or her job, 0.1% of his or her net worth, etc. However, the buyers will be free to offer whatever price they see fit, and the artists will be obliged to sell the work at the highest offered price.

Market Space

There will be a clearly defined, physically marginalized Market Space within the gallery where these works can be displayed and marketed to those who would like to view or purchase them. Our transparent complicity in the market and the proximity of the think/market spaces to the work space will help steer the discussion back to the emotional conflict between ideals and reality.

To elaborate:

2010-01-06T18:54:00.000-08:00

This is not business as usual and we are not soliciting art work for another group show. We are asking you (if you are reading this we mean YOU!) to participate in a dialog around the art market. Also, we are not addressing the New Museum or the Imaginary Museum Series directly. Rather, we are looking more broadly at the gallery model, the commodification of art, and all the unquantifiable, intangible, unpaid aspects of participating in the art world.

Tentatively, we have identified the following problem surrouding these issues, "Art is a luxury commodity for the wealthy that limits the possibility of ownership, access, and understanding based on class and geography." This is an oversimplification and a departure point for engaging all aspects of what causes the ambivalence, queasiness, or discomfort around the business of selling art. In particular, artists are sometimes unsettled by the intersection of the 'gift space' of art and the 'market space' of the commercial art world. Do you disagree with any or all of this or think we are missing the point? That's great, there's nothing we'd like more than to give you a platform!

As we began to define the 'problem' we realized that our own discontent is about more than the economics of the art market, but the unspoken rituals and norms that the selling and private ownership of art violates creating a discrepancy between how we value art. We also began to think about all the intangible values derived by participation in the art world from social status to existential purpose in life. We agreed that we wanted to bring more transparency to the intangible, affective aspect of the production of art, not just the economics.

In order to start this dialog, we have decided to shift the focus of the project from art objects to the discussions that the New Museum controversy and the recession have helped start after an unprecedented period of commercial growth in the art market. While the market expanded and everyone profited there seemed to be little dialog about the primary support system for artists and institutions, wealthy collectors and patrons. Now that the money has receded, underlying problems have been exposed.

This is not a comfortable dialog and speaks directly to our own complicity in the market, and what we really want to hear is what you think, not what you allow yourself or are allowed to say out of self-interest, careerism, or commercial pressures. In short, we are asking you to take a reasonable risk and participate by speaking, debating, lecturing, presenting, performing, or listening with people who may feel free to challenge you.

We want to hear your thoughts and ideas! email hashtagclass@gmail.com

#class is coming

2010-01-04T20:05:00.000-08:00

On or about February 20, 2010, we will transform Winkleman Gallery into a think tank for approximately one month, complete with blackboards, work tables, beer*, coffee-makers* and a mini-fridge*. We solicit your active participation in this project if you are an artist, critic, art dealer, collector, academic, art-lover, art-hater, or member of the general public.

We need your help to find answers to such questions as:

*Is contemporary art a luxury commodity for the wealthy that limits the possibility of ownership, understanding, and access based on class, education and geography? If so, why exactly is that a problem?

*Why do people keep making art (or writing about it, or showing it, or caring about it) even when they don't ever earn any money from it?

*When/if artists do manage to earn some money from their work, why does it sometimes make them feel queasy to sell their art to wealthy collectors?

*If New York is the Belly of the commercial Beast we despise, why are we paying so much to live here?

*Why do we keep going to art exhibitions when we don't like 90% of what we see?

*How much of "hating the art world" is simple sour grapes and how much of it is because the art world really is gross?

*Why on earth would anyone pay more than, say, 200 bucks for a painting?

* Is it 'selling out' to go to the Bahamas with a collector or design his yacht? What if you're kinda broke and this might be your only chance to go to the Bahamas?

* What are some possible viable alternatives or modifications to the current commercial art market system? What's wrong with Capitalism? Isn't it great!?

We will be hosting a series of presentations, discussions and other art-like events. Do you have an idea for a discussion or an event? Are there any special talents you'd like to share or topics on which you'd like to hold forth? Do you have a karaoke machine? Please share!

THIS IS NOT A REGULAR OLD ART SHOW! Don't send us your art unless it features relevant performance, can be written on a blackboard with chalk, or involves a lecture.

We can't do this without you. We don't have any answers but we want to facilitate the coming-together of wildly varying people, over beer if possible. Let us be the President Obama to your Boston policeman and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

If you have any ideas, please post them here or email us at hashtagclass@gmail.com.

Come forward!

All best,

J & B

*not yet approved by our host and subject to possible financial, safety and/or legal issues.