Art auctions and fair sales (a major source of income for some local galleries) are down in the US and Europe. Ellen Miller predicts that collectors will dump art because they need cash, which will depress prices for any effected artists.
"I think that the galleries that have closed are really happy they closed," says Miller. After having one of the most lucrative winters and springs her gallery ever had, she says, it's become tough to break even. "I think those of us who felt confident and felt we had a reason to keep going are trying to just stay in the game. . . . I feel like it's a huge liability having a gallery right now and I've never felt that way before."
"It's a worldwide thing. It's not by region," says Krakow. "A lot of galleries will go under [worldwide]. Overhead is too high. People are holding back. Whether you're selling cars or Picassos, people are nervous."
Yezerski disagrees: "And the reason I say this is because the lease cycle just turned over. Everybody [on Harrison Avenue] just signed five-year leases." He thinks that the home-furnishings store Mohr & McPherson, an anchor tenant at 460 Harrison, will bring in business.
FIRST FRIDAY CROWD III: Stephanie Walker works the crowd opening night at Walker Contemporary. |
Hunker down
What does all this mean for the sort of art we'll see around here? The 1970s recession fostered conceptual art and other market-aloof experimentation. Perhaps our economic crisis will foster similar experiments. The local art market is so slow, Miller says, "it's kind of a no-risk time to try new things."
But most dealers are riveted on the bottom line. And the closing of the Skirt, Space Other, and Rhys means fewer spaces for hard-to-sell new media and installation art. (Toale's shift to art consulting is also a significant loss, but its replacement by Carroll and Sons, which is taking on a number of Toale's artists, seems an even swap.)
"It does seem like those galleries that are expanding are people who represent much more traditional media," says Jane Marsching of Boston, whose art ranges from video to digital imaging to blogging to performance to kite-making. "Maybe that's a sign that those markets are much more stable."
Marsching's art was orphaned by the closing of Allston Skirt, which she joined when she showed at the Institute of Contemporary Art as one of the finalists for the 2006 Foster Prize, which aims to "nurture and recognize Boston-area artists of exceptional promise." She's in a group show through December 12 at Miller Block, which may lead to an extended business relationship — or not. (Most of the Skirt's local artists have been picked up by Carroll, LaMontagne, or Krakow.)
"I don't make work that fits nicely into the collector profile," Marsching says. She's not looking hard for a new gallery, but focusing on developing her art, applying for grants, and connecting with institutional curators and museums.
AXIOM, a Jamaica Plain gallery specializing in new-media art, plans to do more to promote new media as it shifts from just exhibitions to also offering education (including panel discussions) and providing resources (a non-lending library, recordings of events posted online). Yezerski is considering presenting new-media installations in his windows. Rotenberg, LaMontagne, and Carroll may offer more installations and new media. Space Other never really had a stable of artists, but Bostonian Andrew Mowbray, who produced a major installation there last year, is signed up to exhibit at LaMontagne early in 2009.
