The art gallery business, like all other classes of retail business, have developed habits over the years that have evolved into standard operating procedure. The SOP that I want to talk about today is what galleries do in summer. For some reason, summer is considered a slow period, and to fill their walls with art during this period, galleries will trot out some of their various unsold merch for an easy exhibit. I have no idea why summer is the slow period for galleries. But I just saw two inventory shows here in Houston.
I will dive into the realm of pure speculation about art business practicves and their origins. My assumption is that the gallery business really took off in New York City, in the 50s and 60s. Obviously people sold art before then, so my dates may be off. But one thing that doesn’t require speculation is the fact that people who buy art are much welthier than ordinary consumers. The art trade is a luxury trade. And in New York, the swells would take off for the Hamptons or wherever they go to spend the hot summer months away from the oppressively hot city. So galleries could either close down during the summer (since most of their clientele was gone) or diplay inventory on the off chance that someone with with a big enough checkbook walks in the front door. That’s my theory about why the tradition of galleries doing inventory shows in the summer came about.
The question is, why should this apply to galleries outside of New York? Who do galleries in Houston do this? Are they responding to actual commercial pressures, or is it just a tradition that conveniently allows the gallery an easy month or so showing various pieces of inventory instead of a brand new show.
Personally, I love inventory shows. They usually consist of a variety of works by the artists that the gallery values a lot. The two I saw this weekend were “This is a Group Show” at Anya Tish Gallery and the “Group Exhibition of Gallery Artits” at Moody Gallery.
I know next to nothing about Dave McClinton, except that he has a design business in Austin. Like Deborah Roberts, his works is mostly digital collages. I liked how though superimposition of the two faces, he gives his figure two left eyes.
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