Art Leasing

With the new year come new endeavors. Besides new pieces and shows, this year I will also be starting an art leasing business. There have been a number of occasions when restaurant owners have inquired about my interest in hanging my artwork in their respective establishments, which has led me to coming up with a business model that makes sense for the restaurateur and the artist. Let me explain.

I'm sort of torn on restaurants as art venues to begin with which is why I have thought of this in the first place. The way I see it, artists do their artwork for 2 reasons - 1. Love and 2. Money. Anytime I've shown work at coffee shops, art fairs and galleries I have sold artwork. I have sold the artwork because of 2 reasons - 1. Desirability and 2. Venue. Galleries and art fairs are expected venues yes, but coffee shops also have become to artists what blogs are to aspiring writers, a convenient and easily accessible way to show your work. Great.

Now, on the restaurant front, here's my philosophy. When I go to restaurants, which is like every day pretty much, I am going there to eat. I may be going to socialize and eat. I may be going to enjoy the ambiance and eat. Bottom line, at restaurants, I'm there for the food, not to look at or buy artwork. In fact, when I even notice artwork at a restaurant, I assume it's part of that restaurant's permanent collection. Which then brings me to my philosophy on art sales there and in general.

Ok, when you sell artwork through a gallery, your work is the product they sell. Their business is built on your work, and your art career is largely dependent on their business. They also advertise and display your work. They earn their sales percentage because they offer a service and venue to the artist and in my opinion, galleries should be the only venues that take a premium from your sales.

Now coffee shops are sort of a grey area because a good shop will curate, advertise and invest in doing openings for the artists they accept. Popular coffee shops that gain a reputation among local artists like Sidewinder or Brutopia here in Cincinnati, can be a pretty desirable alternative to a gallery in many ways.

Anyhoo, back to the leasing idea. Since restaurants are not venues where patrons are looking to buy art, there's not much draw for any artist to show there. Especially if the restaurant takes a cut on top of that. In my opinion, the restaurant should be paying the artist to show their work there. The restaurant needs decor, which is the service that the artists provide them. If a restaurateur wishes to display artwork, they should either purchase pieces specifically to cater to their brand image or they could do as they do with linens and plants and use a service. The benefit is that for a flat monthly fee a restaurant can have a defined number of pieces that can be rotated out on a customized schedule. This is easy for the restaurateur to budget and also gives a recurring revenue stream to the artists.

Right now I am creating my pricing strategy and am filling out the portfolio of available work (both mine and that of other artists that I will represent). As I finalize my plan I will post a link to the website which will have details for anyone interested.

The Gift of Art!

Economic times like these are not exactly the best to be thinking about buying stuff, but it is that time of year I suppose. Instead of just buying more plastic junk that will overstay it's welcome before 2009 is even up, why not look for gifts that last, like artwork? I know that it may cost more than a dvd or a sweater, but art will last lifetimes, not unlike say a redwood tree or a big rock but doesn't take up much space.

With that in mind, I have some inventory of paintings from the shows this year and am offering them at a 20% discounted price. Click on the right under the "paintings" tab and have a look at available pieces. Anything that doesn't say "sold" is still available. Email me with questions at atelier.romanos@gmail.com.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

Artist Reviewing Artists

Several months back I stumbled across an art blog called Thinking About Art, written by an artist and art enthusiast. I liked his posts and also liked his approach to the art world. One day when I was checking in on his blog he had a post about art reviews and their bullshitty and incestuous nature. The point was that most artists reviews are either written by artists that weren't successful or by people who were not really qualified to review art at all. With that, he decided to do an open call to artists to review other artists. This would be a good way for artists as peers to review one another. Great idea!

So, I submitted a piece that was pretty indicative of the style and theme I was working with at the time and in return I was given a piece to critique, all to be done anonymously and then would be posted on the blog to be shared with the community. Well, as the posts began to go up and I was able to see others work and their associated reviews I was even more excited to do my part.

It seemed that the tone of the majority of the reviews was fairly friendly that was more to be encouraging to the fragile artist ego that the typical reviews which would be deifying or completely dehumanizing. With that I thought I would at least try to review the piece that I received as objectively and positively as I could. Then the piece that I was to review arrived in my inbox and to my dismay it was a painting of a reclining nude. How many paintings of reclining nudes does the world really need to see at this point in time? Doesn't matter, I want to be fair and judge the piece independently for it's quality, composition, etc, which I did in my review.

Anyway, the piece did nothing for me personally but I sent in my review and eagerly awaited mine. Several weeks passed and I was finally sent the review that the other artist did of my painting. I was really interested to see how it went over and to my disappointment, Mr. Reclining Nude guy's review was less than favorable. Now having been an artist and designer for the better part of 20 years I have quite thick skin at this point in my life and I truly believe that art is more for the artist that created it than any viewer. What bugged me though was that the bitterness of this artist came out in his review of my work, which went counter to the objective of the peer review project. Especially when even the crappiest of napkin drawings had been reviewed by other artists glowingly!

Yesterday the review of my work was posted on the blog and I thought I'd share that. Each artist had the opportunity to offer some sort of a response and add another piece if it helped give some context, which I did.

Overall and bad review aside, I still like the concept of the initiative, but the inconsistency of the reviews in relation to the quality of work was in reality no different that if they had been done by so called professional art critics. In the end art is just too subjective, which makes artists own confidence and personal network that much more necessary. If you like your own work, keep doing it. If you value the opinion of someone in particular,in my case my harshest critic (other than myself) my dad, bounce the work off of them. Either way, always push, push, push. Like your work, but never rest.

Upcoming Opening 12/05/2008

On Friday December 5th I will be exhibiting 4 paintings as part of a group show at the Passionate Arts Center in Covington, KY. The opening will be from 6-10pm and while I wont be there since I'll be lounging my days away on a Thai beach, you will at least be able to see a few of my pieces and also some from my coworker Mike Roller, who I've posted about here before. The PAC is located at 31/33 Pike Street in historic Covington's arts district. I hope you'll have a chance to go and support the local artists.

Art Off-Pike 2008 - Part 2

So, last weekend Marcus and I participated in the Art Off-Pike arts and music festival in Covington, KY - which is right across the river from Cincinnati. Covington is sort of our Brooklyn (sort of) and they are really trying to build an arts district, which I give them credit for doing. The potential is high for the area, as it still has tons of historical character, cheap real estate and a growing community of dangerous liberals. This was actually the 4th annual Off-Pike festival, though I'd never heard of it.

There's a place locally called Building Value that sells used building materials. Basically when a house is getting gutted or someone is doing a remodel, you can donate your cabinets, sinks, etc to Building Value for resale and proceeds go to a charity. I wasn't being charitable on the occasion of my visit, but I was on the lookout for some blank, white doors to show our work on. I ended up buying 9 doors and hinged them together in pairs to create some mobile screens to hang up the work.

So, Saturday we met down at our spots and began set-up, which didn't take too long, though those pop-up tents dont exactly just pop up. The doors worked out ok but the uneven pavement required shims to stay marginally stable.

The show only lasted from 11-5 and had about 50 "artists" displaying and selling their work, but after seeing much of it, my conclusion is that the jurying criteria was likely just whether or not submission checks cleared or not.

Although the weather was great, and sitting outside enjoying art and the weather on a Saturday was quite a treat, I was turned off enough by the outdoor show, that I doubted that I would do this fest again next year. Once the wind picked up and blew our work over, I was certain, never again. Not long after though, I actually sold a piece. Granted it was the smallest and cheapest, but a sale is a sale. Not long after that, around 4:30, the committee announced it's award winners, of which I won 2nd place and was handed a check by a guy who looked an awful lot like the Monopoly man.

This now has me reconsidering my 2009 participation as I have learned a few things about outdoor art shows.

1. Even if you sell nothing, it's more fun to sit outside drinking and showing off your artwork than doing house chores.
2. The streets of Covington do not lend themselves to panels that need level flooring to stand securely.
3. The sweet spot price-point for street fair art is under $100 (though I sold mine for $185).
4. The standards for a show like this and their stringent jurying process made victory that much easier.
5. The range of folk that a fest like this can attract is mesmerizing. Seriously.

In closing, thanks to those that came and thanks to those who were genuinely into my work. I know it doesn't appeal to all audiences - which is how I like it.

Art Off-Pike 2008

I will be exhibiting at the 4th annual Art Off-Pike arts and music festival this weekend, Saturday October the 11th. The work I'll be showing will be a selection of the work that I showed at my last 3 shows in New York. Hope to see you!

GalleryFCB Opening - my paintings

The collection of 10 pieces I painted for this show have been accumulating over the last 6 months with few people having seen them until show night. Now that they are public, I have posted them here for all to see.

Runway 1 - acrylic on canvas - 15x30


Runway 2 - acrylic on canvas - 30x40


Runway 3 - acrylic on wood panel - 16x26


Subway - acrylic on canvas - 18x24 sold


Marais Reflection - acrylic on canvas - 16x20


Asphalt Interruption - acrylic on canvas - 18x36


Eclipse 1 - acrylic on canvas - 11x14 sold


Eclipse 2 - acrylic on canvas - 11x14 sold


Eclipse 3 - acrylic on canvas - 18x24

Limnos - acrylic on canvas - 30x40 sold