Rivet presents Annie Owens « Columbus Underground Messageboard

Columbus Underground Messageboard » Events » Art Events

Rivet presents Annie Owens

[30 posts] [12 contributors]

Topic Rating:

(Total Ratings: )
Rate this topic:

Started 5 years ago by desecration
Latest reply from columbus native

Tags:

No tags yet. Add them below.

« Previous 12

desecration
Harrison West
Login to Send PM

Amentia wrote Vinyl Requiem's own James has a sit down with Annie, talk about her 1st solo show, and much more.
Read the interview here:
http://vinylrequiem.com/?p=281
That was a really nice article. Kudos to James for the work involved.

Posted 5 years ago #
myliftkk
Columbus, OH
Login to Send PM

columbus native wrote
Amentia wrote
DId you buy a piece?
Yep. Wouldn't be surprised if I picked up another before the shows end.
The price points are not bad, almost low for someone of her talents. From someone who has purchased art work from Kozik, Camilla d'Errico, Zoetica, Stella Im Hultberg, Bansky, Kaws, Dok A, Brian M. Viveros. and Kobe Ver, adding her work among my personal art collection was and is a no-brainer.
But whatever, thats just my thoughts.
You just named a list of artist that you and I both know and I'm sure a handfull of others in town do as well. The masses would give you the scooby do face on that list though. That was kind of my point. either way no discredit to Rivet or Anne Owens. The work is amazing and worth it in most cases.
Core, your argument on price points is comparing apples to oranges.
Don't confuse couch art buying by the masses, a localized market, to underground pop art collecting, a market that is spread out globally. Rivet's goal is not to bring highly collected underground art to the masses at a price point they will swallow it at (it will not serve as an Art-Mart), but to serve as a local showcase for some of the best of what is going on in the underground popular art scene, both locally and globally. Rivet's purpose is to serve people ranging from young first time viewers who are simply interested in this particular art, up to savvy collectors who are intimately familiar with the artists and are actively looking to expand their already valuable collections. Catering too much to any one group, while spurning the other, means you serve both groups equally badly. IMO, prices have, in fact, little to do with whether original artwork sells or not, because in the end, you can't price original artwork down to the level of the $30 framed print at Target. So, if the goal is to be the most affordable, a gallery's already lost that battle before even taking the field. Also, misleading young collectors into thinking every worthwhile piece of artwork must be cheap is also bad form because no other collector market works that way, so neither will this one.
People who are truly getting into underground pop art come to understand that it is a collector's market, and they will in fact, have to pay collector's prices to be a part of it. There are always artists moving up in the market, and if you're savvy, you can catch great pieces by them for great value (which does not mean dirt cheap). On this score, Annie's work is a bargain considering the potential upside of her career and what she is already responsible for to this point. Also, considering prices at all of our shows are extremely variable and certainly not LA prices, complaining about them in general is like complaining that someplace doesn't sell all original art for only $9.99, because that's what only some people would buy.
I have no complaint with Annie's very reasonable prices, neither does Amentia, nor others who purchased pieces from us. That the feedback we've gotten from actual collectors who buy originals of this type of art has been excellent thus far, I would hazard a guess that your complaints have more to do with yourself and wanting to hang a piece on your wall than honestly advocating for John Doe on the street. If the underground market is pricing you out of the collectible pieces you like and you're sore about that, then I can only suggest you hustle some more dough and buy yourself back into it. Or, explore the layaway options that Rivet and other galleries have to purchase work. I'll warn you though, when Annie opens her own show on the West Coast and her prices go through the roof and pieces fly off the wall, don't start complaining that you should've bought a piece when you had the chance. :roll:
Personally speaking, driving artists down on their prices does nothing but gain the ill will of both artists and existing collectors of those artists who have already established demand for the artist's work. For the sake of maybe moving few pieces, the reward is not nearly worth the cost.

Posted 5 years ago #
columbus native
Columbus the indie art capital of the world
Login to Send PM

The price point is perfect and I will buy a piece a.s.a.p.

Posted 5 years ago #
desecration
Harrison West
Login to Send PM

columbus native wrote The work was of a very high quality in this show. I do question some of the price points in reguards[sic] to how well she is known in these parts.
I am sorry you did not talk to me about this while you stopped in and looked at her work recently. Just because someone is not familiar with a name, should they adjust the price for that individual in question?
columbus native wrote
Amentia wrote
columbus native wrote The work was of a very high quality in this show. I do question some of the price points in reguards to how well she is known in these parts.
What do you mean? I've been watching her work for awhile, her attention for detail is outstanding.
I agree, but you are 1 person in a city of many. DId you buy a piece?
a 4x6 piece of plywood and acrylic that isn't finished priced around $300 is a hard sell if people don't know the roots of that perticular[sic] artist. Again I agree that the quality of work is high, but in this market I wonder how well the show will sell.
The art shown at Rivet is available for sale to anyone, whether they reside in Columbus or Germany, the case of the purchaser of Annie's piece, "Grettl". Rivet's intent was to bring a style of art to an area where it was lacking. This is what I love and I collect and the hope was to share this passion with others. To expose, to inform and to allow each individual the decision for themselves whether their passion of art lies within this genre.
To correct the information stated in your comment above, her birch wood acrylic paintings are 5x7 and priced at $150 and the other two birch wood pieces are 12x9 for $300 and 6x12 for $350. You stated above that they were not finished, according to whom? With every show, we offer an artist statement at the gallery throughout the show, as well as on the web site. Any questions asked are answered to the best of knowledge, as I want people to know more about the people whom present their work at Rivet.
Since you brought up the price factor, medium used, and the ability to sell, what was your customized wood toilet seat cover priced when it was displayed at Stained Skin last year?
columbus native wrote
Amentia wrote
DId you buy a piece?
Yep. Wouldn't be surprised if I picked up another before the shows end.
The price points are not bad, almost low for someone of her talents. From someone who has purchased art work from Kozik, Camilla d'Errico, Zoetica, Stella Im Hultberg, Bansky, Kaws, Dok A, Brian M. Viveros. and Kobe Ver, adding her work among my personal art collection was and is a no-brainer.
But whatever, thats just my thoughts.
You just named a list of artist that you and I both know and I'm sure a handfull[sic] of others in town do as well. The masses would give you the scooby do face on that list though. That was kind of my point. either way no discredit to Rivet or Anne Owens. The work is amazing and worth it in most cases.
As stated previously, the intent and point with the artists shown at Rivet is to allow the "masses" a chance to learn of the art movement and some involved with it's existence. I can promote and get the word out, but I can not make anyone walk through that door. They need to have the desire to do so.
Laura

Posted 5 years ago #
mightymighty
North Side
Login to Send PM

I just took a peek at the Rivet website to see what all the fuss is about, and I think the prices are quite reasonable for original work. Actually I'm surprised that the wood paintings are not more expensive.
Chances are the work is priced the way it is because that is what it has sold for in the past, or by using the ratio of materials + time spent working= price of work wholesale x2= Gallery price (typically). If the girl can sell at those prices, than yay to her!
... I don't see what the big deal is.

Posted 5 years ago #
ilovethiscity

Login to Send PM

...and I have to say again...
The show is AMAZING

Posted 5 years ago #
myliftkk
Columbus, OH
Login to Send PM

columbus native wrote WOW AND HOLY SHIT!
I wish I lived in a day and age where someone can voice an opinion and those that differ can voice theirs and somehow we all meet in the middle. I never said I pay that price for the artwork. I simply think that those with no understanding of Lowbrow and the recent commonality of painting on raw plywood would question the price point. I don't and for the 15th time I liked the work and respect the artist. The style has no place in my collection so I would never buy a piece of her work, but thanks for refrenceing my budget. I will consider this next time I feel like spending a buck at Rivet.
I realize that Rivet has survived for several months thus far, but please don't think that in any way this means that the entire community of collectors here now understands the Rivet methodolgy or lowbrow art as a whole. Hell there art local artist that would almost spit in your face for calling their work lowbrow and you know who I am talking about. So until the awareness it as it's prime you will have those that will walk in and question 4x6 painings on plywood and toys in a gallery to be a very odd thing. I respect you guys and your vision even if it is a bit blind to me at times. just know there are still many people here that don't understand this kind of artistc environment.
As for driving price point down and what it does to an art community. Look at the resonse the C Note is having thus far. It has done nothing but build community spirt and help those that haven't shown or sold a venue to do so. I am twice as proud for delivering this kind of event than I would ever be for driving my price through the roof in an attempt to build moral. Just my two cents and in the end I love Anne Owens, Rivet, Amentia, Scott, and Laura. we just have different opinions!
You did voice your opinion, and hence, I voiced mine. I took a stab at the motivation behind your post, but by the same token, I could take offense to hearing you voice your opinion on pricing in an art event thread when we both know if you walk south down high, you will see art pieces for many times the cost of any underground art show in the central US. I did not, however, intimate anything about another show, nor intimate that any gallery or show was the end all, be all, of art and shows. I intimated that undulying influencing an artist(s) to accede to unproven econmic theories does not make for good intra-artist/collector relationships when existing collection markets have been around and operating for centuries. I limit my responses to only that art that could be viewed to fall under the underground pop art banner, and not the art community in general. It's not to say pricing isn't a touchy subject with artists to begin with, but I will defend underground artists of their right to price for their market as they see it as a general rule of thumb, especially if you're going argue an economic theory about art collecting with scant historical data to back it up as a viable alternative.
As to Lowbrow in specific, the understanding of it isn't better understood if you drop the price point. The price point is immaterial to what underground pop art is about. This is why your unending focus on price (or numerical splits) among various threads and conversations is what is confounds me and others. For example, people don't question the price tag of a Ferrari, it is in fact accepted with a fair amount of mundane regard, though it could be said objectively that it doesn't do a substantially better job moving a human being than any other four wheeled vehicle. Car collectors, though, understand the difference, and hence pay premiums for cars that peak their specialized interest, and as a result Ferrari only makes a certain amount of cars to feed that collector market. They don't for instance, water down a Ferrari to sell next to a Pinto. Underground pop art is the same in its own way, but operates using a set of ideas that exist outside the purview of normal society. This is why an insistence on lowering the price threshold as if it were some imaginary rope line holding back acceptance by the masses doesn't make for a sound argument. The masses aren't intriuged by underground pop art because most of them have no real interest in it. They have in fact a mental rope construct that keeps them from it, and on inspection, you'll find it isn't built around price. As someone who's made a lifetime out of collecting the obscure and trawling the outer reaches of society, I can, and do, accept that for what its worth. One store/gallery, or a hundred independent stores/galleries isn't going to reverse decades or centuries of relegation of certain ideas to the edges of the mainstream. Conversely, a lot of the movement's staying power arises because it always exists and exploits the edges of mainstream popular culture conciousness. Expectedly, there are only a certain number of people that are ever going to live and work out on that edge. While new people do come out there and live over the years, it's hardly ever going to be a deluge, or ever merged back into mainstream culture in any real fashion. Parts of it will be stolen, for sure, and merged back into mainstream culture a la hot topic, but that's the way capitalism works. It co-opts the edges of mainstream society, and guess what, the edges move out further.
Your suggestion is that the artists shouldn't exploit their own innate market within the edges of society they inhabit, but instead try to market to the center of society even though they are guarranteed to be ripped off in the end by those parts of society that will strip out their ideas of any meaning and remarket them to the masses for a dime. Hell, this even happens within the outer reaches of society, as some people try to rip off others. Why though, would artist want to appeal to that part of society when they've already found a loyal market that treates their unfiltered ideas as sacred and many won't dare infringe upon them? In my view, the internet has created the ability for a viable following on the mental periphery of society where they can exist side by side with their collectors, so why struggle so mightly for acceptance by all the other parts where they most often find themselves uncomfortable? Furthermore, every generation of masses will have those artists and collectors that come out to gather on societies edge and pursue their own proclivities regardless and in spite of what the masses think.
That certain artists might be afraid of the 'lowbrow' tag is often wrapped up in fears of how other people not on the edges of society would view them using misconceptions of the word. They are, in some ways, still trying to appeal to those segments of soceity that will likely never embrace them on their own terms.
The medium: plywood, paper, guaze, clay, is also immaterial. Lowbrow isn't about trafficking in a medium, it's about trafficking in ideas about popular culture that have been cast off, spit upon, denigrated, laughed at, twisted, perverted, beyond the pale, etc. The medium, whatever form it takes, only serves as a means to an end in capturing the idea in a physical form. Lowbrow isn't just a style, though it's often described as one, it's a set of ideas, and I would argue, a pretty valuable set to a fair number of us that traffick in those ideas.
Your focus on the physical: price, medium, and masses, leaves out all of the non-physical reasons that most art collectors in the underground scene are drawn to and purchase art to begin with. This dichotomy, the physical vs. ethereal is, where we differ in the extreme. I see physical things as transitory in nature, while the ideas that drive most of underground art have been around for decades and centuries, I and others have no issue divulging funds for artists who can accurately capture those ideas in the physical form. Not eveyone is willing to pay for ideas, but that's just the way life is, and a lot of us have made peace with that. That said, I've no problem explaining my views on the ideas I value in underground art to anyone who stops in, and people who also have the need that underground art fills, get it. Masses of people who don't have that need, well, I can't create it for them even if one were to price things like a fire sale. Yes, the masses can walk into Rivet because the doors are open to everyone, but the mental doors that require opening to get at the heart of underground art can't be opened by you and I, and they aren't going to be opened by everyone. The end result being price has little to do with why those doors stay shut.
Your argument boils down to an economic theory on the commoditization of underground pop art that I strenuously disagree with. Once you commoditize the extreme simply to gain center market share, you'll find the extreme simply becomes the mundane, and you're no longer living on the edge of ideas. You can continue to make the argument otherwise, but historical trends in pop culture and collectible markets prove this time and time again.

Posted 5 years ago #
quadrantid

Login to Send PM

Ugh.
This looks like the kind of thing you'd find in a Juxtapoz magazine. The type of thing that "might" scare white suburban moms. A lot of this type of thing is part of the big con going on today in the name of "art". That which we see in galleries and soho areas which I hear being defended all the time. Call it by it's righrful name - junk - and you'll be looked down on as another cowtown peasant who hasn't been to BOMA's 80's nite yet. I'll tell you what's happening today in the world of art, junior campers - the artists are asking you to accept their childhood hang-ups and visual folderol as truth. T'aint so! A lot of these art types have yet to learn or speak clearly visually. If art is communication, then say what it is you want to say! Don't ask me to understand or swallow your unintelligible droopy eyed mangaesque hooey with a tear in my eye. No sir!!! We as citizens of this fine city need to stop accepting artists on their own terms. Their deliberate incoherence tells me that you have nothing to say. They want you to think your criteria is faulty. You're supposed to bow your head and humbly appreciate it coz it's different??? Please. If you need an expert critic to explain it to you - he can read just about any freakin' mumbo jumbo tripe into it and he does usually and ( GASP ) gets paid for it. These 'experts" have decided that the onus of repsonsiblity is no longer with the artist - who's clearly walked away from it: it's now YOUR responsiblity my shortstacking friend to decipher and appreciate what they are trying to say, if they are trying to say anything at all.
That's the cop-out.
I can appreciate new ways and art but for chrissakes let's have it be built on something not all these toys + crafts that infest the city left right front and centre!!! Nobody has the balls these days to say something is crap when it is. Everybody in the town can be VERY apologetic, backing off from making the decision publilcy and denouncing junk for what it is.

Posted 5 years ago #
desecration
Harrison West
Login to Send PM

Quadrantid-if you'd like to complain/vent about this particular genre of art, then by all means please start your own thread about the matter. This post was to promote the solo show for Annie Owen's work and she and I deserve that respect. I wish that some who have chosen to speak in this thread would show a bit more tact.
quadrantid wrote Ugh.
This looks like the kind of thing you'd find in a Juxtapoz magazine. The type of thing that "might" scare white suburban moms. A lot of this type of thing is part of the big con going on today in the name of "art". That which we see in galleries and soho areas which I hear being defended all the time. Call it by it's righrful name - junk - and you'll be looked down on as another cowtown peasant who hasn't been to BOMA's 80's nite yet. I'll tell you what's happening today in the world of art, junior campers - the artists are asking you to accept their childhood hang-ups and visual folderol as truth. T'aint so! A lot of these art types have yet to learn or speak clearly visually. If art is communication, then say what it is you want to say! Don't ask me to understand or swallow your unintelligible droopy eyed mangaesque hooey with a tear in my eye. No sir!!! We as citizens of this fine city need to stop accepting artists on their own terms. Their deliberate incoherence tells me that you have nothing to say. They want you to think your criteria is faulty. You're supposed to bow your head and humbly appreciate it coz it's different??? Please. If you need an expert critic to explain it to you - he can read just about any freakin' mumbo jumbo tripe into it and he does usually and ( GASP ) gets paid for it. These 'experts" have decided that the onus of repsonsiblity is no longer with the artist - who's clearly walked away from it: it's now YOUR responsiblity my shortstacking friend to decipher and appreciate what they are trying to say, if they are trying to say anything at all.
That's the cop-out.
I can appreciate new ways and art but for chrissakes let's have it be built on something not all these toys + crafts that infest the city left right front and centre!!! Nobody has the balls these days to say something is crap when it is. Everybody in the town can be VERY apologetic, backing off from making the decision publilcy and denouncing junk for what it is.

Posted 5 years ago #
columbus native
Columbus the indie art capital of the world
Login to Send PM

alll in all I was talking about a mear few pieces of a perticular size in the show. The price point I mentioned would get a rise out of those less familiar with the genre. The two most studied people on the genre in town steped up like I was shitting on the entire concept. Thats just not it! I will refrain from anything further. I am glad that you were able to write a few books in the last day though Scott. I now fully expect the Rivet Manifesto to go live by next gallery hop.
love you guys!

Posted 5 years ago #