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JENN SINGER
GALLERY
Winter Salon
Featuring work by: Joseph Adolphe, Miriam Cabessa, Daniel Maidman & Timothy Wilson
January 30 - March 5, 2016
Daniel Maidman
(Pink Painting of Syrie)
oil on canvas, 24"x24"
(Pink Painting of Syrie)
oil on canvas, 24"x24"
I had the great pleasure of meeting with Jenn Singer at her cozy little Gallery on Irving Place the other night.
We had a few glasses of chilled white wine, which was delicious and we had the following conversation tuning me in a little deeper as to how one goes about owning a popular and successful art gallery in NYC.
Interview With Jenn Singer
TNYO: Jenn, how long have you been in the art business?
Jenn Singer: So it’s been about 10 years, a decade. This is my first gallery.
TNYO: and how long have you been in business?
Jenn Singer: Since last May.
TNYO: And how is it going?
Jenn Singer: It’s going really well, I am very proud of the progress so far.
TNYO: Are you selling the art?
Jenn Singer: I am - I am proud to say that I am selling art! (laughs)
TNYO: Well that is the whole trick.
Jenn Singer: At first I was like well you never know, but that’s what I love to do - I love selling art, that was the point.
TNYO: Are you an artist as well?
Jenn Singer: No, I was a dancer - a ballet and modern dancer - and I received a scholarship to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. (A popping sound echoes through the Gallery as she looks for cups for the wine). My first gallery job was in California, I walked in my first day and made a sale for $8500 dollars, which for me seemed like a big sale.
TNYO: And this was in California ? Where ?
Jenn Singer: It was in Laguna Beach, I lived out there for a brief amount of time.
So that first day I fell in love with selling art, because I was a dancer and dancers don’t really make serious money from their art. You know you put so much work and training into it and it’s a very expensive art form to train for, like I was going through a pair of point shoes a week when I was younger and back then they were $65 a pair. I had to learn how to make them last longer, so you know it’s a very expensive art form and you really don’t get paid well.
When I made this first sale it made me so happy because I knew that 50% was going to the artist, and I thought oh my god, this is fantastic! (Some joyous laughter between the two of us)
You know that’s more than I ever made after months of preparation for a weekend performance as a modern dancer, and in one sale this artist was making several thousand dollars. It made me so happy and it still makes me so happy. I love being in a position where I can make sure artists get paid.
TNYO: (I did not say this in person but I will say it now) Hallelujah Jenn Singer!!
Jenn Singer: I also love the process of watching someone falling in love with an artwork and really connecting with it and then sometimes they leave and come back and they say oh I have been thinking about it for days and I really just need this piece. It just makes me happy to be a part of that. Because I know the torture and the angst that artists go through, you know it’s just so hard in this city to do (Pause) anything now.
TNYO: And you are making it happen?
Jenn Singer: Yes.
TNYO: Is this because you have a magic book of wealthy connections, or is it because you are working with these magical artists?
Please tell me how you go about selling these artworks?
Does it ever get to a point where your thinking this painting is very close to being sold I’m just not sure what else I need to do to close this sale?
Jenn Singer: Well, I’m not a pushy person and it’s a really natural process for me.
TNYO: This business is not the type of business where pushy people succeed, or is it, you tell me?
Jenn Singer: Well I have seen some pushy people and yes, it can work for some people that are very aggressive and it works for them. I just like to have conversations and I try to build relationships I don’t see selling art as a one-time thing. I worked in Chelsea before opening this gallery and I learned so much from being there.
It was on 25th street across the street from Pace Gallery next door to Betty Cunningham’s old space and we were in a beautiful 2500 square foot gallery. My specialty was talking to people. So many people are used to going around the galleries and no one talks to them - they are just being ignored.
TNYO: Yes, there is a lot of pretentious behaviour in the art world.
Jenn Singer: (Snickers) That’s just not my nature and I cannot get down with that. (Authentic laughter) I just made sure to say hello to everyone who walked through the door - it didn’t matter if they were an artist or not. Sometimes it would end up being a really big collector and they would end up buying art right there. So I ended up building a really great collector base from walk-ins, and felt confident that when this great space came into my life, I could make it happen.
TNYO: Who do you think is one of the biggest gallerists in the art game over the past 20 - 30 years?
Jenn Singer: Oh gosh, I don’t know….big question!
TNYO: Because Leo Castelli comes to mind when I think of some of the big names in the art business. After a little reading and research I have came to find out that he was just a very sweet natured guy who happened to work with the biggest artists of our time, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, etc.. I ask because the idea of art galleries losing sales due to, well just poor social skills blows my mind as an artist when I was showing with galleries I would watch the representatives selling my art and wince as they let the sale go because, well I guess the best way for me to describe it is to say maybe these sales people were more in tune with the notion of creating a false sense of importance within themselves as to the buyers needs and the importance of the sale itself.
Jenn Singer: That’s what I did not understand about Chelsea. There were galleries that would not sell to walk-ins - they have a different tier of artists, I get it, they have their own way of doing things.
TNYO: Can you explain that (giggles) because I just don’t get it.
Jenn Singer: Well I guess I don’t get it either - doesn’t matter if I have a gazillion dollars to spend on top artists or not - if I walk into a gallery to buy a piece, I would expect a warm welcome and to be able to ask about the art and to be treated respectfully. I would expect that if I am someone who loves art enough to work in a gallery, I should want to fill people in on the work. You never know who will end up buying art.
TNYO: Do you think it’s a language these people are speaking?
Jenn Singer: I think they are trying to create an atmosphere.
TNYO: Like this untouchable feeling…
Jenn Singer: Yes. I had read about this Chelsea thing of being ignored by the staff at galleries, and even I would walk into galleries in my early days working there and be nervous because of that strange atmosphere they create and would later think, come on you are my colleagues and this is our community.
What I loved about Chelsea was that there were all these galleries right next to each other
and you never knew who was going to walk in - it is this great community for the arts.
In this neighborhood, in Gramercy, I am one of the only galleries.
TNYO: So there is no support or competition,
Jenn Singer I think that competition is healthy. I am going to show art and do it differently then others will do it and vice versa and you never know what people will want. I wish there were more galleries in this area!
TNYO: It is a lovely location. Let me ask how do you go about choosing your artists?
Jenn Singer: I started with a list of artists I mostly knew and trusted, but I am now starting to add a few more artists to the roster. The art world is such a small world and someone will ask oh have you met ….. and I end up meeting with them and perhaps see their work and become really interested. From the very beginning I have been getting blind submissions from artists and it’s rarely the most effective way to do it, because it truly is a business of who you know or who you happen to meet or you come in contact with.
So I do look at blind submissions when I can - mostly out of curiosity – I’m like, you never know what you are going to find so let me take a look! So I do if I have time. I don’t put a no submission policy on my site, though I really encourage people not to send CDs because I can’t even look at them on my computer anymore – there’s no where to put them and they are outdated.
I also recommend that artists don’t show up to galleries with their artworks in tow because you never know what the gallerists are in the middle of and we can’t just sit down on the spot and look at the work. It puts everybody in an awkward situation.
TNYO: Do you have a general price range for that art you sell.
Jenn Singer: Yes, for this particular show the range is between $1,800 - $14,000. Generally, it ranges from $2,000 - $50,000, depending on the artist.
TNYO: Are these all new artists? I know Daniel Maidman is young and up and coming in the art world.
Jenn Singer: Yes exactly, he’s emerging. I was really excited to meet Daniel through a friend. I did a studio visit and I saw this painting “Syrie” and I some of his drawings and when I knew what I was working with for this show I thought perfect! And he’s a nice guy.
TNYO: Yes he is very cool.
Jenn Singer: And his Instagram following is out of control. (laughs)
TNYO: How about this artist?
Jenn Singer:
This is Joseph Adolphe’s work, “Ravenna 3”. I sold Joseph’s work in Chelsea at Bertrand Delacroix Gallery. Bertrand was fantastic to work with. I learned so much from him - the good and the bad – but, he died unexpectedly last summer. He was only 49 – it’s been very difficult loss, and the gallery is now closed. So yes, I actually sold a lot of Joseph Adolphe’s work in Chelsea. His works range from $2500 to approximately $50,000 for the larger pieces.
Well there you have it and accurate honest assessment of how a young gallery here in NYC (the capital of the art world) works. Thank you Jenn Singer for being so gracious and taking the time to give our readers a peek into the workings of a successful art gallery.
We had a few glasses of chilled white wine, which was delicious and we had the following conversation tuning me in a little deeper as to how one goes about owning a popular and successful art gallery in NYC.
Interview With Jenn Singer
TNYO: Jenn, how long have you been in the art business?
Jenn Singer: So it’s been about 10 years, a decade. This is my first gallery.
TNYO: and how long have you been in business?
Jenn Singer: Since last May.
TNYO: And how is it going?
Jenn Singer: It’s going really well, I am very proud of the progress so far.
TNYO: Are you selling the art?
Jenn Singer: I am - I am proud to say that I am selling art! (laughs)
TNYO: Well that is the whole trick.
Jenn Singer: At first I was like well you never know, but that’s what I love to do - I love selling art, that was the point.
TNYO: Are you an artist as well?
Jenn Singer: No, I was a dancer - a ballet and modern dancer - and I received a scholarship to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. (A popping sound echoes through the Gallery as she looks for cups for the wine). My first gallery job was in California, I walked in my first day and made a sale for $8500 dollars, which for me seemed like a big sale.
TNYO: And this was in California ? Where ?
Jenn Singer: It was in Laguna Beach, I lived out there for a brief amount of time.
So that first day I fell in love with selling art, because I was a dancer and dancers don’t really make serious money from their art. You know you put so much work and training into it and it’s a very expensive art form to train for, like I was going through a pair of point shoes a week when I was younger and back then they were $65 a pair. I had to learn how to make them last longer, so you know it’s a very expensive art form and you really don’t get paid well.
When I made this first sale it made me so happy because I knew that 50% was going to the artist, and I thought oh my god, this is fantastic! (Some joyous laughter between the two of us)
You know that’s more than I ever made after months of preparation for a weekend performance as a modern dancer, and in one sale this artist was making several thousand dollars. It made me so happy and it still makes me so happy. I love being in a position where I can make sure artists get paid.
TNYO: (I did not say this in person but I will say it now) Hallelujah Jenn Singer!!
Jenn Singer: I also love the process of watching someone falling in love with an artwork and really connecting with it and then sometimes they leave and come back and they say oh I have been thinking about it for days and I really just need this piece. It just makes me happy to be a part of that. Because I know the torture and the angst that artists go through, you know it’s just so hard in this city to do (Pause) anything now.
TNYO: And you are making it happen?
Jenn Singer: Yes.
TNYO: Is this because you have a magic book of wealthy connections, or is it because you are working with these magical artists?
Please tell me how you go about selling these artworks?
Does it ever get to a point where your thinking this painting is very close to being sold I’m just not sure what else I need to do to close this sale?
Jenn Singer: Well, I’m not a pushy person and it’s a really natural process for me.
TNYO: This business is not the type of business where pushy people succeed, or is it, you tell me?
Jenn Singer: Well I have seen some pushy people and yes, it can work for some people that are very aggressive and it works for them. I just like to have conversations and I try to build relationships I don’t see selling art as a one-time thing. I worked in Chelsea before opening this gallery and I learned so much from being there.
It was on 25th street across the street from Pace Gallery next door to Betty Cunningham’s old space and we were in a beautiful 2500 square foot gallery. My specialty was talking to people. So many people are used to going around the galleries and no one talks to them - they are just being ignored.
TNYO: Yes, there is a lot of pretentious behaviour in the art world.
Jenn Singer: (Snickers) That’s just not my nature and I cannot get down with that. (Authentic laughter) I just made sure to say hello to everyone who walked through the door - it didn’t matter if they were an artist or not. Sometimes it would end up being a really big collector and they would end up buying art right there. So I ended up building a really great collector base from walk-ins, and felt confident that when this great space came into my life, I could make it happen.
TNYO: Who do you think is one of the biggest gallerists in the art game over the past 20 - 30 years?
Jenn Singer: Oh gosh, I don’t know….big question!
TNYO: Because Leo Castelli comes to mind when I think of some of the big names in the art business. After a little reading and research I have came to find out that he was just a very sweet natured guy who happened to work with the biggest artists of our time, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, etc.. I ask because the idea of art galleries losing sales due to, well just poor social skills blows my mind as an artist when I was showing with galleries I would watch the representatives selling my art and wince as they let the sale go because, well I guess the best way for me to describe it is to say maybe these sales people were more in tune with the notion of creating a false sense of importance within themselves as to the buyers needs and the importance of the sale itself.
Jenn Singer: That’s what I did not understand about Chelsea. There were galleries that would not sell to walk-ins - they have a different tier of artists, I get it, they have their own way of doing things.
TNYO: Can you explain that (giggles) because I just don’t get it.
Jenn Singer: Well I guess I don’t get it either - doesn’t matter if I have a gazillion dollars to spend on top artists or not - if I walk into a gallery to buy a piece, I would expect a warm welcome and to be able to ask about the art and to be treated respectfully. I would expect that if I am someone who loves art enough to work in a gallery, I should want to fill people in on the work. You never know who will end up buying art.
TNYO: Do you think it’s a language these people are speaking?
Jenn Singer: I think they are trying to create an atmosphere.
TNYO: Like this untouchable feeling…
Jenn Singer: Yes. I had read about this Chelsea thing of being ignored by the staff at galleries, and even I would walk into galleries in my early days working there and be nervous because of that strange atmosphere they create and would later think, come on you are my colleagues and this is our community.
What I loved about Chelsea was that there were all these galleries right next to each other
and you never knew who was going to walk in - it is this great community for the arts.
In this neighborhood, in Gramercy, I am one of the only galleries.
TNYO: So there is no support or competition,
Jenn Singer I think that competition is healthy. I am going to show art and do it differently then others will do it and vice versa and you never know what people will want. I wish there were more galleries in this area!
TNYO: It is a lovely location. Let me ask how do you go about choosing your artists?
Jenn Singer: I started with a list of artists I mostly knew and trusted, but I am now starting to add a few more artists to the roster. The art world is such a small world and someone will ask oh have you met ….. and I end up meeting with them and perhaps see their work and become really interested. From the very beginning I have been getting blind submissions from artists and it’s rarely the most effective way to do it, because it truly is a business of who you know or who you happen to meet or you come in contact with.
So I do look at blind submissions when I can - mostly out of curiosity – I’m like, you never know what you are going to find so let me take a look! So I do if I have time. I don’t put a no submission policy on my site, though I really encourage people not to send CDs because I can’t even look at them on my computer anymore – there’s no where to put them and they are outdated.
I also recommend that artists don’t show up to galleries with their artworks in tow because you never know what the gallerists are in the middle of and we can’t just sit down on the spot and look at the work. It puts everybody in an awkward situation.
TNYO: Do you have a general price range for that art you sell.
Jenn Singer: Yes, for this particular show the range is between $1,800 - $14,000. Generally, it ranges from $2,000 - $50,000, depending on the artist.
TNYO: Are these all new artists? I know Daniel Maidman is young and up and coming in the art world.
Jenn Singer: Yes exactly, he’s emerging. I was really excited to meet Daniel through a friend. I did a studio visit and I saw this painting “Syrie” and I some of his drawings and when I knew what I was working with for this show I thought perfect! And he’s a nice guy.
TNYO: Yes he is very cool.
Jenn Singer: And his Instagram following is out of control. (laughs)
TNYO: How about this artist?
Jenn Singer:
This is Joseph Adolphe’s work, “Ravenna 3”. I sold Joseph’s work in Chelsea at Bertrand Delacroix Gallery. Bertrand was fantastic to work with. I learned so much from him - the good and the bad – but, he died unexpectedly last summer. He was only 49 – it’s been very difficult loss, and the gallery is now closed. So yes, I actually sold a lot of Joseph Adolphe’s work in Chelsea. His works range from $2500 to approximately $50,000 for the larger pieces.
Well there you have it and accurate honest assessment of how a young gallery here in NYC (the capital of the art world) works. Thank you Jenn Singer for being so gracious and taking the time to give our readers a peek into the workings of a successful art gallery.
About the Winter Salon Artist
• Joseph Adolphe moved to New York City in 1992 to attend the School of Visual Arts where he received his MFA in 1994. He has received several awards for his art, including First Place in the “Figure Now 2010” Competition at Fontbonne University in St. Louis, Missouri. His work has been featured in over forty exhibitions since 1998 throughout America and internationally. He now lives with his wife and children in New Haven, Connecticut and is a professor of Fine Arts at St. John’s University in New York.
Joseph Adolphe’s oil paintings depict uncertainty, anxiety and vulnerability in the modern day. Whether they are beaten down fighters, agile beasts or innocent children, his subjects appear burdened by conflict and the weight of the world. Nonetheless, they are strong, resilient characters, as their confidence and bravery give the paintings an undeniable optimism even when the subject is dark. In the summer of 2012, his painting, Mars No. 1, was chosen for the cover of Manifest Gallery’s International Painting Annual, and Joseph Adolphe and his work will be featured in the upcoming feature length documentary, HEAVYWEIGHTPAINT. Joseph Adolphe’s paintings are held in important private and corporate collections in the U.S. and abroad.
• Miriam Cabessa was born in Morocco, grew up in Israel, and has lived and worked in New York City since 2000. Her slow action painting has been internationally recognized since 1997 when she represented Israel at the Venice Biennale. Over the past two decades, she has abstained from using brushes, opting to make marks with objects and her body. Her imagery ranges from organic to mechanistic with surfaces that are both haptically handmade and digitally serene. Cabessa graduated from Ha'Midrasha College of Art, Israel in 1993, had a solo show at Dvir Gallery that year, and in 1995 won the Nathan Gottesdiener Foundation Israeli Art Prize that included a solo show at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Cabessa has exhibited extensively in the United States and internationally.
Recently, she performed 'Variation with Hands', with music by Jonathan Sheffer, at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2012), exhibited with Nye+Brown Gallery in Los Angeles (2012), and had a solo show at Julie M. Gallery in Tel Aviv (2014). She has also shown at the Morris Museum, NJ; Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel; The Israel Museum, Israel; Ben-Ari Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel; the Jewish Museum of Pittsburgh, PA; and the Kresge Art Museum, MI.Her work is in the collections of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Tel Aviv Museum of Art; the Haifa Museum of Modern Art; The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; and Texas State University
.
• Daniel Maidman’s paintings range from figure and portraiture, to still lives and landscapes, to investigations of machinery, architecture, and microflora. His representational work has been identified with the emerging Post Contemporary movement.
Daniel’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and the Long Beach Museum of Art, as well as numerous private collections, among them those of New York Magazine senior art critic Jerry Saltz, Chicago collector Howard Tullman, Disney senior vice president Jackson George, and Gemini-winning screenwriter Jeremy Boxen.
He has produced paintings in collaboration with best-selling novelist China Miéville, award-winning poet Kathleen Rooney, legendary actor Martin Donovan, and noted installation artist Erika Johnson, and has been exhibited at the Alden B. Dow Museum of Science and Art. Daniel’s art and writing on art have been featured in ARTnews, Juxtapoz, Hyperallergic, American Art Collector, International Artist, Poets/Artists, MAKE, Manifest, and The Artist’s Magazine. He blogs for The Huffington Post. He lives and paints in Brooklyn, New York.
• Timothy Wilson, based in Maine, works from direct painting on location and expands upon his studies in larger studio paintings. Both a meditative ritual and obsessive dedication, his daily outings in stormy, serene, and inclement weather to coastal Atlantic locations help inform an experiential vocabulary and expressionist mark making. After years of portrait and figurative work, Timothy merged his holistic concepts of the ocean, landscape and figure; aiming to find a more abstract and resonating image through the natural deconstruction of imagery.
Timothy keeps a permanent studio on the coast of Maine. In 2015 he attended residence at the DeDee Shattuck Gallery in Westport, Massachussetts, the Hewnoaks Residency in Lovell, Maine, and was an Art Students League selected fellow at their Hudson Valley residence location. Timothy’s works are part of the Restoration Hardware Contemporary Art collection. He teaches at the Maine College of Art. He received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2008.
Joseph Adolphe
"Ravenna" Oil On Paper, 30 x 22 in
"Ravenna" Oil On Paper, 30 x 22 in
Miriam Cabessa
"Homage To Turner" 24 x 52 Oil Gold Dust Collage On Linen
Timothy Wilson
Peccata Mortalia11x22" (each), oil on varied supports, 2015