WHAT PRICE ART?

Treasure your independent artist-run spaces, Cultivate is a maximalist punk rock gallery, we plan to crash and burn in style.

What price art anyway? We’ve done it before, it proved very interesting  – so interesting another London gallery claimed it as their own unique idea, “unprecedented for an art gallery” I think was the claim they plastered around the broke-ass art media – we won’t go there this cold November morning though – we won’t mention said gallery person who, until challenged about it recently, spent half his life at Cultivate openings “borrowing” ideas, artists and bottles of free beer. Should take Imitation as a compliment really, and we have no problem with the idea of other gallery owners coming in. spying some exciting art from an artist they’ve not encountered before – that’s part of the idea, come in, get excited about the art and the artists – didn’t need to be so sneaky about it though, a “hey. encountered your beautiful work on the crooked walls of Cultivate, we’d love to work with you in someway” would have done nicely, and then we wouldn’t have artists saying things like “Hey I don’t need you or your gallery anymore, I’m showing at this big fancy place now” – then again we don’t need attitudes like that from artists anyway, however delicious their painterly textures are.  I’m getting distracted, what price sanity? Two years of non-stop invigilating, the  sanity left with the Montana fumes… (Cultivate does work for you artists though, there’s always people in suits or fancy dresses skulking around “spotting” things that excite them, they might not admit where they “discovered” you but we know who they are – like the gallery up the street who tend to send their note-book-carrying interns down and then send the artists they “discover” e.mails, and dubious contacts, along with messages saying things like “heard about your art on line and discovered you through your website, we’d like to work with you” – see in terms of exposure Cultivate works if you want that kind of thing, not that we’d advise you artists to sign any of these dubious contacts of course, no no no, do it yourselves, do it with the artist-friendly galleries), whoops, really did get distracted there, I was only here to tell you about the What Price Art show that opens on Thursday…..

Art for whatever you want to pay for it. This weekend only

WHAT PRICE ART?

What price art, we’ve done it before, we said we wouldn’t do it again, but then we said a lot of things/ We said we’d never do it twice, so here it come for a third time.

The third (short sharp) What Price Art show at Cultivate Vyner Street – This time mostly my art (me being Sean Worrall), unless of course any of you artists wish to join in and take part in this last minute show – you are welcome to come join in, but don’t feel pressure just because we’re fundraising – your work is in danger of selling for a penny and I know that most artists are (reasonably enough) uncomfortable with the notion of their art being sold for a 1p.  If you really want to help, come join in our Christmas show, or maybe donate something for an online ebay auction        

SEAN WORRALL – PAINTED VINYL – yours for as little as 1p for this weekend only

WHAT PRICE ART – The rules are simple

All art on the wall is for sale at the price YOU wish to pay for it, we CAN’T negotiate with you, we have to accept your offer with no argument or discussion. If you think you should pay a mere pound then one pound it is, if you think it should be a couple of hundred then a couple of hundred it is, you set the price, we can’t say no, we can’t negotiate, well will not react other than to polite thank you. What price art? You decide.

The one rule we will set is only one piece per person, you can’t clear out everything in the gallery for 27p! Come on, be reasonable, paint cost money, rent has to be paid, the wolf is at the door…

If you are uncomfortable naming your price verbally, put the money in the envelopes we’ll have in the gallery, and hand the envelope to us, we won’t open it until you have left the gallery with you chosen piece of art. We want to share our art with you, we shall be delighted to see you leave with a piece, whatever the price…

50% of money made goes to the artist, 50% to the gallery – this is a gallery fund raiser, rent bills to catch up with (see previous blogs for wordy explanations in terms of what is going on),  Truth be known, every penny I ever make from sales of my art goes back in to Cultivate.

This week Cultivate will be alive with exclamation marks, leafhearts, painted vinyl, maybe even a knitting pattern or two that you can pay £6.15 for    

We open this Thursday morning (November 14^th) at 11.30am, no private view or late night, we shall run for the usual gallery opening hours (11.30am until 6pm) until the short sharp ram-raid of an event ends on Sunday afternoon   

Treasure your independent artist-run spaces, Cultivate is a maximalist punk rock gallery, we plan to crash and burn in style.

What price art?   What price artist-run art spaces and doing it yourself?

SEAN WORRALL – Fleshed (this large cancas could be yours for as little as 1p for this weekend only – What Price Art?