Two thousand and seven, for a businessman and arts\ncollector like myself, was noteworthy arts-wise because of two interesting,\nuncommon and comparable art exhibitions — “Art For Grabs” organized\nby The Annexe, Central Market, and “Art Around RM1,000” organised by\nValentine Willie Fine Arts (VWFA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Annexe programme director Pang Khee Teik, who was\nthe main mover behind “Art for Grabs”, was ecstatic over the\nexhibition’s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We had for sale really affordable art which\nanyone with a modest income could hope to acquire, especially since the prices\nof most items were capped at RM100.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pricing of RM100 and below is indeed attractive to\nfirst timers who are out to own their very first piece of art, and for those\nwho have tight budgets. Sure, there are bound to be examples of kitsch thrown\nin masquerading as art but then there are those who maintain that kitsch is an\nart form in itself, so who am I to argue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I asked Pang point blank; what sort of art was\navailable at RM100? “My photographs,” came the reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He continues: “But seriously, you could get\nsmall-ish paintings or sculptures. At that price, what matters most is\naesthetics, not exclusivity or rarity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pricing\nfactors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n But this brings to mind a recent Christmas dinner\nconversation I had with a “listed” Malaysian artist (let’s call him M\nto avoid annoying the commercial galleries which promote his paintings).<\/p>\n\n\n\n M was not very happy with the way commercial galleries\npriced his art: “Some of my best paintings were under-priced because they\nwere smaller in size. It was almost as if they were pricing everything by the\nsquare foot and not by complexity, materials used, intrinsic quality or\naesthetics, which should have been the proper criteria for pricing. I\ncompletely disagree with this horrible practice which is found in most\ngalleries in KL.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n VWFA’s “Art Around RM 1,000” was actually\neclipsed by an exhibition of one of their regular artists’ paintings. The VWFA\nmanagement spent more time taking me to meet the artist concerned and\nexplaining his paintings to me rather than focusing on the “poorer”\ncousin, “Art Around RM 1,000”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about “Art Around RM 1,000”? The 60-odd\nitems on display were shunted to a small side room and that gave me the\ndistinct impression that VWFA did not believe that there was any worthwhile art\nin that price range. I noted that the exhibits were priced between RM300 and\nRM1,800. I expected art to be priced between RM700 and RM1,300 but the RM1,500\nvariance took me completely by surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pricing also seemed to be dictated by size, but in\nany event, that is the yardstick employed by VWFA as confirmed by one of their\nstaff. Like Godzilla and King Kong, size does<\/em>\nmatter to galleries!<\/p>\n\n\n\n K, another well-known artist friend had this to say:\n“It is ridiculous to buy art from galleries. Come buy from me at my home.\nI can give any serious collector 40% off the gallery RRP (recommended retail\nprice) and for my friends I can do a 50% discount or maybe a little more. I\nhave almost withdrawn most of my paintings from galleries and prefer to deal\nwith my customers directly.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ouch! Round One goes to The Annexe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Priced for\nwhom?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To quote the upbeat Pang: “From the response, we\nhope to make this a quarterly event in 2008. The public loved the event as it\nwas extremely accessible and no one felt out of place.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as local galleries could be accused of\nover-pricing art, could The Annexe now be accused of promoting under-priced\nart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I seriously doubt it. Most Malaysian artists have a\nhard time getting people to buy their works. “Art For Grabs” is thus\na fantastic platform for artists. And it is not just artwork but the entire\nexperience of visiting an art gallery which is made available to the public,\nwhere “Art for Grabs” is concerned. \nHaving a flea market atmosphere helps a lot! How many of you walk into\nsterile commercial galleries on an impulse? Most people I know are uncomfortable\nabout doing so as they feel they would not be able to afford the art displayed\nthere. Don’t let’s start on the subtle snobbishness they are likely to\nencounter there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The commercial galleries, by virtue of their being\nbusiness concerns, only have the bottom-line in mind and so, they seldom take a\nchance on an unknown artist. The same goes for artforms — such as photography\nand abstract art — which suffer from a low public perception of the skill\nlevel required to produce works of these genres; few local galleries dare to\npromote them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One could say that all these “alienated”\nartists and artworks have stand a better chance at being displayed and being\ncollected at an artspace like The Annexe. At the very least, artist and artwork\nwill get more of the much-needed exposure to the public. And who knows,\ncollectors may begin to notice them and start to seriously collect their works.\nAnd in time, this higher demand will drive up the artworks’ prices and the\nartists’ income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By contrast, commercial galleries would be the least interested in promoting affordable art for the masses, for reasons already stated or implied above. So, to all who wish to attend the next Art For Grabs: good hunting! <\/p>\n\n\n\n ~~~ <\/p>\n\n\n\n First Published: 31.12.2007 on Kakiseni <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two thousand and seven, for a businessman and arts collector like myself, was noteworthy arts-wise because of two interesting, uncommon and comparable art exhibitions — “Art For Grabs” organized by The Annexe, Central Market, and “Art Around RM1,000” organised by Valentine Willie Fine Arts (VWFA). The Annexe programme director Pang Khee Teik, who was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,3600,3539],"tags":[3605,258,3621,722,3620,259],"language":[7523],"writer":[7596],"class_list":["post-27228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-exhibition","category-visual-arts","tag-art-for-grabs","tag-exhibition","tag-pang-khee-teik","tag-the-annexe-gallery","tag-valentine-willie-fine-arts-vwfa","tag-visual-art","language-english","writer-andrew-hwang"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38787,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27228\/revisions\/38787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27228"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=27228"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=27228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}