Coagula Curator’s College Finishes Up with Salon Style Saturday

April 13 was the final show for the six of us taking Mat Gleason’s curatorial seminar. The show 13•4•13 was curated by me and painter Wini Brewer, and featured 13 artists. Each had one piece, with the exception of Tim Youd who had four, because, well they’re small and we used them to balance out Antonio Mendoza’s large piece on the center wall.

Because we were the last team to show, some of the works we were using had shown previously–a number of them were in YES, the April 6th show curated by Cindy Schwarzstein and Gina Mead Howie (who sold three pieces–yes indeed!), but one of the artists wasn’t able to deliver a piece otreplace one he’d taken to show someplace else, so we scored with a piece from Sharon Bell, an artist in storage who hadn’t shown during the three weeks of team shows.

Our show went well, we sold a piece, and while I didn’t count heads, four gallons of beer, eight bottles of wine, a case of water and a case of soda was consumed, which means about 75-100 people showed up.  I throw a lot of parties so I applied some of that to the opening and figured out a few things along the way. Here are  some basics, in particular order:

• Having a trash can outside for the opening is a really good idea
• Facebook RSVPs are no predictors of who will actually show up
• It’s nothing personal if someone can’t make it
• Have a pencil with you when hanging the show so you can mark the wall
• Get the manicure after you hang the show, not before
• Bring a pair of flat shoes for clean up
• You don’t need to supply food for attendees, but make sure you eat something before and after
• At least one person (usually an artist not in the show) will tell you what’s wrong with the show (and why they should have been in it).
• Circulate and introduce people
• Relax and have fun

Everyone said really  nice things about the show Wini and I put together, and while that might just have been our friends and the artists being polite, it was pretty cool today when I went by Coagula to pick up the (empty) keg of beer to return to Eagle Rock Brewery and discovered that eight of the pieces we’d hung were still in the same place and Mat’s Salon Style Saturday Show had been hung around it. Now granted, some of that might have been just because it was easier than rehanging everything, but I like to think it’s because we’d laid such a strong foundation. So here are some shots for 13•4•13 and preview of Coagula’s  Salon Style Saturday Show, which has Mat Gleason showing us how it’s done, using every artist in his storage.

Salon Style Saturday, curated by Mat Gleason
April 20, 7pm-11pm
Coagula Curatorial
977 Chung King Way
Chinatown, Los Angeles