TW FineArt in GC MAG
Thanks for the great write up GCM. Check out the Culture Feature in the May/June edition.
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TW FineArt
ARTIST UPDATE - Keep Tabs on Our Artists
Chris Trueman is exhibiting work at Edward Cella Art & Architecture. Check out this great review in ARTLTD:
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TWFineArt Guideshop & Surya Graf
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TWFineArt is thrilled to be collaborating with designer Surya Graf on the interior of TWFineArt's GuideShop. Our GuideShop is a new age gallery. Gone are the days of the stuffy gallery experience, our concept is Art for All & All for Art, we want you to touch, feel, talk and learn about our artists and their work while interacting with our website and guides (or art experts) to curate the perfect selection of art for YOU.
Surya Graf Studio is a design practice with a background in both Architecture and Industrial Design. The philosophy behind the studio is materials led and process driven, with outcomes focused on functionality and a refined simplicity of form. The portfolio of work spans across a diverse range of product, interior and urban design.
Surya has crafted the most gorgeous pieces to compliment our concept and style. To view his current portfolio visit Surya Garf online at http://suryagraf.com.
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Stay tuned. The TWFineArt GuideShop opens it's doors June 8th! SHOP 4, Centro 2 on 31 James St Fortitude Valley. BRISBANE
Surya Graf Studio is a design practice with a background in both Architecture and Industrial Design. The philosophy behind the studio is materials led and process driven, with outcomes focused on functionality and a refined simplicity of form. The portfolio of work spans across a diverse range of product, interior and urban design.
Surya has crafted the most gorgeous pieces to compliment our concept and style. To view his current portfolio visit Surya Garf online at http://suryagraf.com.
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Stay tuned. The TWFineArt GuideShop opens it's doors June 8th! SHOP 4, Centro 2 on 31 James St Fortitude Valley. BRISBANE
The 9th Street Show - The Rise of Legends
New York City in the 1950’s was a pretty remarkable place. After WWII the city was a relative shell comprised of dilapidated buildings and neglected neighborhoods, with most people opting to live in the suburbs far away from the potential military target. Living and working amongst the derelict buildings was a group of young pioneer artists, bursting with intellect and creativity, yet struggling to have a voice in the art world.
In 1951, art dealer Leo Castelli and a group of these young New York City artists joined forces to create the infamous 9Th St Show, a self-funded exhibition that in many ways changed the course of art history forever. Europe was losing its edge and what was relevant, current and exciting was happening in America’s own back yard, despite being overlooked by the local art scene. At that time, there was only a small number of galleries in Manhattan, all were clustered around 57th street and all dealed primarily in European art.
The collective rented an abandoned antique store at 60, East 9th Street for $40 and together put on a ground-breaking exhibition that ‘appropriated a visibility that American Society had denied them for so long’. The Abstract Expressionist Movement burst onto the scene and caught the attention of not only critics but the culture at large. These artists ultimately became some of the most celebrated and valued of all time.
One of the youngest exhibitors in the 9th Street show was TW Fine Art’s Michael Goldberg. At that time Michael Goldberg had changed his name to Michael Stuart to avoid the association with his aristocratic family and his father. Goldberg told stories of taxis lining up down the street with crowds of people amassing outside the space on opening night. The New York Times labeled it an ‘uncommon exhibit of the New York avant-garde spectacularly coming together’.
Over the next 50 years the focus of the art world would shift from Europe to America and today there are over 1500 galleries in Manhattan alone. People have returned to the city. The end of the Cold War boosted people’s confidence in the safety of the metropolis and slowly but surely people began to gentrify the forgotten neighborhoods to create the New York City of today.
It’s unheard of for artists to be able to rent an exhibition space for $40 anymore – the thought makes today’s artists green with envy! The creative community that existed in those days is now geographically dispersed since Manhattan is for the most part unaffordable for the young avant-garde - the artist interested in the art and not the sale. Goldberg used to loathe walking through Chelsea (the modern art hub) “I fucking hate Chelsea, the content of the work is money no matter what it masquerades as”. In many ways, what he said is true – Mike was about art, not the money that came from today’s art celebrity culture. “I consider myself an old-fashioned modernist in that I think painting can change the world. And the desperation is about the fact that I know it can’t.”
Our own artist collective now lives all across the world although our roots are in New York City, where we all gathered as students, mentors and young artists. The Internet serves as our club and although separated by geographical distance, our bonds are strong and our art has been globalized in a manner that in many ways may now represent the future trajectory of the art world.
In 1951, art dealer Leo Castelli and a group of these young New York City artists joined forces to create the infamous 9Th St Show, a self-funded exhibition that in many ways changed the course of art history forever. Europe was losing its edge and what was relevant, current and exciting was happening in America’s own back yard, despite being overlooked by the local art scene. At that time, there was only a small number of galleries in Manhattan, all were clustered around 57th street and all dealed primarily in European art.
The collective rented an abandoned antique store at 60, East 9th Street for $40 and together put on a ground-breaking exhibition that ‘appropriated a visibility that American Society had denied them for so long’. The Abstract Expressionist Movement burst onto the scene and caught the attention of not only critics but the culture at large. These artists ultimately became some of the most celebrated and valued of all time.
One of the youngest exhibitors in the 9th Street show was TW Fine Art’s Michael Goldberg. At that time Michael Goldberg had changed his name to Michael Stuart to avoid the association with his aristocratic family and his father. Goldberg told stories of taxis lining up down the street with crowds of people amassing outside the space on opening night. The New York Times labeled it an ‘uncommon exhibit of the New York avant-garde spectacularly coming together’.
Over the next 50 years the focus of the art world would shift from Europe to America and today there are over 1500 galleries in Manhattan alone. People have returned to the city. The end of the Cold War boosted people’s confidence in the safety of the metropolis and slowly but surely people began to gentrify the forgotten neighborhoods to create the New York City of today.
It’s unheard of for artists to be able to rent an exhibition space for $40 anymore – the thought makes today’s artists green with envy! The creative community that existed in those days is now geographically dispersed since Manhattan is for the most part unaffordable for the young avant-garde - the artist interested in the art and not the sale. Goldberg used to loathe walking through Chelsea (the modern art hub) “I fucking hate Chelsea, the content of the work is money no matter what it masquerades as”. In many ways, what he said is true – Mike was about art, not the money that came from today’s art celebrity culture. “I consider myself an old-fashioned modernist in that I think painting can change the world. And the desperation is about the fact that I know it can’t.”
Our own artist collective now lives all across the world although our roots are in New York City, where we all gathered as students, mentors and young artists. The Internet serves as our club and although separated by geographical distance, our bonds are strong and our art has been globalized in a manner that in many ways may now represent the future trajectory of the art world.
Reproducibility, collaboration, circulation and accessibility - TWFA & the art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Throughout his work, Gonzalez-Torres (American, born Cuba. 1957–1996) questioned the notion of the unique art object, making series of works based on identical pairs (two clocks ticking side-by-side, two mirrors embedded in a wall) or finding inspiration in the possibilities of endless reproducibility (stacks of sheets as give-aways for visitors, piles of candy to be continually replenished). (MoMA)
I had studied Gonzalez-Torres’ work at University and was fascinated by his approach to art making. It’s quite funny watching people unfamiliar with his work look on in horror as others remove pieces of the artwork and then walk out of the museum. What many people don't realize, and what makes Gonzalez-Torres' work so interesting, is that the pieces are designed to be touched and yes, taken home with you.
Gonzalez-Torres wanted his work to be disseminated, to exist in unlimited, multiple places at the same time, and to be realized completely only through the participation of the viewer, which he described as “one enormous collaboration with the public,” in which the “pieces just disperse themselves like a virus that goes to many different places—homes, studios, shops, bathrooms, whatever.” FGT
In 1992 critic Anne Umland imagined the future reception of his work, writing ‘a photograph promises the possibility of replication, of reemergence in a different time and under different historical circumstances, a moment when this poignant image may come to mean very different things.” I look forward to seeing the next iteration of this idea within painting and drawing!
Reproducibility, collaboration, circulation and accessibility — we have reinterpreted Gonzalez Torres’ vision and incorporated his concepts into our practice at TWFineArt. We are playing with his ideas, reproducing the once unique, financially unattainable art object and in the process we aim to break down the gallery/museum experience. Great art can and should be for everyone – All for Art & Art for All.
I had studied Gonzalez-Torres’ work at University and was fascinated by his approach to art making. It’s quite funny watching people unfamiliar with his work look on in horror as others remove pieces of the artwork and then walk out of the museum. What many people don't realize, and what makes Gonzalez-Torres' work so interesting, is that the pieces are designed to be touched and yes, taken home with you.
Gonzalez-Torres wanted his work to be disseminated, to exist in unlimited, multiple places at the same time, and to be realized completely only through the participation of the viewer, which he described as “one enormous collaboration with the public,” in which the “pieces just disperse themselves like a virus that goes to many different places—homes, studios, shops, bathrooms, whatever.” FGT
In 1992 critic Anne Umland imagined the future reception of his work, writing ‘a photograph promises the possibility of replication, of reemergence in a different time and under different historical circumstances, a moment when this poignant image may come to mean very different things.” I look forward to seeing the next iteration of this idea within painting and drawing!
Reproducibility, collaboration, circulation and accessibility — we have reinterpreted Gonzalez Torres’ vision and incorporated his concepts into our practice at TWFineArt. We are playing with his ideas, reproducing the once unique, financially unattainable art object and in the process we aim to break down the gallery/museum experience. Great art can and should be for everyone – All for Art & Art for All.