As the year 2008 comes to a close it’s useful for us to look back, reflect on successes, learn from mistakes and generally measure our progress. One such area for us to examine is our art251 website and blog. Hmm…

According to Alexa, an objective measure of many things webby, www.art251.com is now in the world’s top 2 percent of websites as measured for pages viewed and number of unique users, more commonly known as “reach”. Wow!

But, just to show that, as the old maxim goes, “anyone can use statistics to prove anything…”, we’ll dig a little deeper into this number. Most estimates put the total number of unique websites at around 200 million. Alexa actually ranked us 5,129,870th, as of the end of 2008, So, this puts our “2%” in a rather different light. Oops!

That said, Alexa gave us some more numbers to crunch — our ranking is up a staggering 1,692,565 places as compared with our spot 3 months before. Whoa!

So, thank you art lovers, clients of art251 and art blog readers. Thank you for making art251 number 5,129,870. Brilliant! We look forward to rising up the web rankings a little more in 2009, and, of course, spreading our love of art around the suburbs and placing a few more beautiful works into your hands, homes and businesses.

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Water Lilies. Claude Monet. Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris.

Today’s story offers an example of why Kim and I decided to open an art gallery. We’ve had the doors open at art251 for only around 4 months. We’re art newbies, relatively speaking. We’ve had no lengthy sales trends yet that would help us decide if or when to open during the holiday period. So, on December 26 we opened shop not knowing if anyone at all would visit our space.

A family of six, covering three generations, spent around an hour with us today, December 26. Yes, they bought some art, and some artpaks from our beautiful blue art-o-mat machine. But that’s not why I write. The family browsed and soaked in the art, they asked questions about artists and artistic processes, they were deliberate and thoughtful. On leaving, one of the group told me that beforehand they had decided to make visiting art251 a holiday event! Yes, they visited an art gallery; not the mall, not the electronics store. They had planned this out. They came to enjoy the art and to share some of their art purchases with one another.

I couldn’t imagine a better gift for us: knowing that some (a growing number) people truly appreciate art and bringing art to others, and that art can and does have an significant influence (usually positive). We are greatly encouraged.

This reinforces our mission for art251, and especially so, during these times of crisis whether cultural, moral or financial. Art can provide enjoyment — the beautiful form of a monumental sculpture or the well-composed lines and colors of a fine painting can be very pleasing. A Wii (and many other electronic gizmos) bring pleasure too. But art can and does go further. Art can bring solace, it can excite, it can evoke intense memories, it can inspire, it can soothe, it can provide respite, it can make us question, it can help us uncover new realities, it can calm our souls and enliven our spirits. So, I’d encourage you to put down that Wii (you’re probably over-borrowing it from your kids anyway), go and discover some great (local) art, and reconnect yourself to the inner spark that is so often buried by the daily grind or replaced by the TV remote.

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“Warhol and the Shared Subject“, opened on December 19 at the Fort Worth Contemporary Arts gallery, part of The Art Galleries at TCU. I like Warhol’s work, though I’m still not  comfortable with the notion of business-driven mass-production in art or as art  (I’ll postpone discussion on this for another time).

So, back to the show. This proved to be a good opportunity to see some of the many precursors (in this case Polaroid prints) to Warhol’s works and examine these in the context of art by a handful of Warhol’s successors. Gavin Morrison, curator of the Fort Worth Contemporary Arts gallery, planned the show as a way to bring Warhol’s portraits into the present and examine cultural factors as they effect identity and our understanding of portraiture. So, using the Polaroids as a reference point he presents them alongside the finished portrait and selected works in a variety of mediums by contemporary artists Tony Scherman, CS Leigh, Rineke Dijkstra and Douglas Gordon. Each of these artists uses Warhol imagery or Warhol’s worldview as a basis for their own work.

The Warhol Polaroids on display are from a recent gift to The Art Galleries at TCU from the Warhol Foundation’s Legacy Program. The entire gift included close to 200 Polaroid prints of celebrities and others whose 15 minutes of fame has yet to unfold. Many of these prints eventually led to the instantly recognizable portraits for which Warhol is now synonymous.

The exhibition runs from December 20, 2008 to February 1, 2009. You can read a more detailed review of the show at Artdaily or more about Warhol in general.

Image: Warhol. Untitled (Patsy Nasher). Courtesy of The Art Galleries at TCU and the Warhol Foundation.

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Art Basel | Miami Beach 2008, the annual pilgrimage for buyers, sellers and lovers of contemporary art is now history. But the blogsphere continues to buzz with all manner of reviews and highlights, and lots of great images of the art.

So, if you’d like to visit the show from the comfort of your own internet tube I present below three of the best blogs for the serious ABMB art fair watcher.

Joanne Mattera does an outstanding job of reviewing the event and its many sideshows, complete with lots of gorgeous photos of, what seems like, all the art on exhibit!

Kimberly Brooks has a great sampling of images with no commentary.

Matthew Langley covers select highlights of the event.

ABMB. The official site of the art fair for boring reference purposes only.

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Before we opened art251, Kim and I spend about 4 months looking for artists. We visited galleries, artist studios and art shows. We read art magazines. We looked at artists’ websites. We listened to friends. We used the great tubes of the internet, we used the Google.

So, here’s a quick summary of the process.

1. Search for local artists in local galleries, local artist directories and event / listings services.
2. Search online, search online, and search online.
3. Collect detailed information (no snooping in artist’s trash) about all artists and their art.
4. Categorize by media type.
5. Group in order of priority (based on our top secret art251 formula).
6. Invite first, then next, group of artists.
7. Go back to #1, and repeat.

Our searching lead us to around 400-500 local artists. We were, and continue to be, amazed at the breadth and depth of local artistic talent.

Recently, and now that the art251 doors have opened, artists have begun to find us. They find us through friends and other artists. They find us via other galleries. They find us through the vastness of cyberspace and, of course, the Google

So, if you’re an artist, especially an emerging one and have yet to expose your work to the world, or the neighborhood for that matter, here’s what to do. Follow our artist submission guidelines, and then take the next step towards finding us and letting others discover you and your art.

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Aahh! Receptions and shows are great fodder for the eyes and soul. But, my feet ache. So while traffic has slowed, today, I’m taking advantage — putting my feet up and collecting my thoughts for some serious blogging. Then it’s back to straightening our displays, moving more artwork around, re-orienting all the lights, and so on. Next on the agenda is our exciting annual Winter Sale (more on that next).

Oops! And, I had been under the false impression that a galley owner could just sit back and admire the art!  (Not my feet pictured here, nor do we have these for sale).

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The Contemporary Elements show features fabulous new works by Scott Young, glass maker; Bobbie Nix, jewelry artist; and James Johnson, metalsmith. Our artists will be on hand to discuss their work and answer your questions. The show will run from Thursday, December 4 to Saturday, January 3, 2009.

For more details check out the show page.

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