Texas Contemporary Art Fair 2015 – Houston

A Journey into the newly acquired hobby of artistic pursuit! At times alone and time with allies, todays chapter had me cross paths with an old friend. After a brief acquaintance we headed to our destination, George R. Brown convention center. The emphasis of this journey was to open the mind or idea expansion. In the end a side lesson was learned about the art world and a “necessary evil” (in regards to the fair) as my professor puts it. Necessary is understood, the term clearly relating to the open sales format. This was a gathering of artists vending pieces that was easiest explained to my comrade with the metaphor of a gun show. Although not occurring as often, the art fair’s purpose was very similar. Venders meet to at a unilaterally marketed location and have an opportunity to liquidate older inventory and showoff the newer. To smaller dealers the exposure and traffic is essential to build and maintain clientele, as well as sustain finances. But where does the Evil come in? Being an outsider for so many years and only now attaining the badge of novice I was not able to see it at first. As we walked through the exhibits and into each temporary “room” certain trends begin to present themselves by way of each representative. Some rooms had no one present, some had interns, and some had the artists themselves. Thinking to myself previously that seeing the author would be rare, after analyzing some distinct difference in experiences two main reasons were determined. One that becomes obvious due to the artist attitude, both towards us and a sense of entitlement, was the snobby artist. Acknowledging that the entitlement may be well deserved but the judging based on appearance was noted as equally. Let us say, in the most understating fashion, that my comrade and I came to a slack and tie event without either. The reaction from most snobby artist was in the form of body language only to say “I see you, don’t touch anything”, or complete ignoring because we were not even worth the effort. Then there were artist who not only greeted us kindly but spoke to us with disregard for our outer appearance. Coincidentally, more times than not these were artists on the beginning parts of their career. That inexperience may be the source of their untarnished personalities, and why we are able to enjoy their piece of the convention so much more. Chain of command bled the attitude down to the interns as well, for those artist advanced enough in their career time line to have interns. Overall most of the artist seem to fall under one of these two categories, and this was observed throughout the convention. In conclusion the “evil” that comes along with the “necessary” must be related to the pitfalls of putting yourself out there in any industry, faintly reminiscing a high school demeanor. Vendors with more success shining bright compared to noticeably struggling artist like night and day. Social artist flooded with on lookers while others on the anti-social end avoid eye contact at all cost. An interesting lesson to say the least.