(When digital artist Joe Nalven pitched me this story of how one gallery has made a commitment to digital, I couldn't refuse. As he himself stated it, Joe weaves together an interesting fabric of people and places, and the wonderfully unusual way in which things happen... even with art. --Harald Johnson) Digital Art at the Avalon: An Art Gallery Embraces All 2D Media text and all images by Joe Nalven (except as noted) November 12, 2003 © 2003 Joe Nalven It is a truism to say that art galleries want to sell art. But not all art is saleable. There are issues of what is in fashion, of presentation, the reputation of the artist, of pricing, and quality. And now, digital art is clamoring to get on gallery walls. Gallery owners, though, have been reluctant to hang digital images. Some owners have been dismissive, "that is not real art--just filters superimposed on a photograph or a mathematical design," while others have been interested but see a public reluctant to pay for prints that reflect an original located somewhere inside a computer or on a CD-ROM, Zip disk, or DVD. Marc Shannon, a new gallery owner in San Diego, decided to embrace all media, including digital art. Is Shannon's decision an act of business madness? Or is the world of art shifting once more? Ray at Night San Diego's art scene has gotten a boost from its off-Broadway location, dubbed "Ray at Night." Forced out by high rents in the now fashionable Little Italy section, several studio artists moved to the North Park area and created a location for once-a-month art show openings. For the past two years, one block of Ray Street, and surrounding side streets, has a fluctuating number of galleries, possibly a dozen as of this writing. The most prominent of these galleries is Avalon (replacing Tres Studio Gallery in July). ABOVE: Avalon Gallery at night, October 11, 2003. Photo by Jack Davis. The second Saturday night of each month draws several thousand visitors to the area. The event has now been bookmarked by the city's major newspaper's Internet newsplace. And several of the openings have been reviewed by the paper's art critic, lending the location additional credibility as well as fun. Step 1 - PhotoTech Into this excitement has stepped Marc Shannon. Shannon started a fine art print shop, PhotoTech, nearby in 2000. PhotoTech features wide-format printers, primarily Epson, from the 9000 (with reworked interior) to the 7500 and down to four 1280s (for greeting cards), as well as one HP 2800. Shannon alters his printers to optimize piezo-archival and print-speed objectives. His RIPs include Fiery and Onyx. For his reproduction work, he uses Heidelberg drum-scanning technology to bring images in with a size limitation of 10' x 20'. ABOVE: Marc Shannon. Shannon has also purchased a framing operation, allowing him to print with archival inks on a german rag paper, mount on poster board, and frame in a 14" x 18" precut, all for under $50. Shannon developed a business around fine art prints (reproductions and original digital compositions) but found it difficult to compete in the traditional photographic market, and he does not emphasize those products. Information on the history of PhotoTech and its products can be found at www.ptisd.com. Step 2 - Avalon Gallery Productions When Tres Studio Gallery gave up its lease, Shannon seized the opportunity to increase the sale of his print work. At the same time, Shannon knew that his specialty was printing not directing an art gallery, so for that role he decided to hire Gracie Staton, former director of The Artists Gallery in La Jolla. ABOVE: Gracie Staton. Staton talked about her prior work at The Artists Gallery. "The owner is a well-known traditional watercolorist, Georgeanna Lipe. We only accepted original paintings and pastels. And we did not sell reproductions. Everything was bright and colorful, mostly landscapes and florals in a more traditional style. Happy art. The clientele and the artists at The Artists Gallery were older in general than I am seeing here at Avalon." Almost every month is a new experience. Shannon wants Staton to take more control over the entire gallery, but she is focusing her initial efforts on the South Gallery (explained below), which features traditional media: oils, watercolors, acrylics, and mixed media. When Staton first came to Avalon, she discovered that Shannon was putting up the work of people he was printing, much of it digitally composed or manipulated. "The digital prints were lower in cost and were more affordable," Shannon explains, "so we were selling." Staton started with the September South Gallery show on Ray Street. "All we did was move things around," she says, "moving to the front the artists who would have the best vibes for this neighborhood. Colorful, eye-catching, contemporary, impressionistic, and maybe whimsical. Before, everyone hung their own work. Now, I do it with Laura Funk, my assistant. By using an integrated hanging process, we get more cohesiveness. Now we are feeling out the response to our approach." ABOVE: Gracie Staton (left) and Laura Funk hanging more traditional work in the South Gallery. Shannon admits that he is still playing with ideas on how the North Gallery will work. "The South Gallery is a true art gallery," he explains. "Gracie has complete control over what goes in there. The North Gallery is different. It allows artists of all media to get shown. Gracie and my ideas may not be 100% in sync, but I want Gracie to have more say on what goes on here in the North Gallery." Shannon runs each room differently. "I'm running the North Gallery as an artist cooperative where the artists pay up front to lease wall space. But then Gracie gets only a small commission on anything that is sold in this room. Gracie gets a much larger commission on the South Gallery." ABOVE: Hanging digital art in the North Gallery. From left to right: Jim Respess, Robert Ambler, Gracie Staton, and Laura Funk. Step 3 - POD & E-commerce Marc Shannon keeps looking for linkages to further promote fine art production. Already, he is remodeling the back room at Avalon to accommodate a showroom that houses a wireless computer and that accesses his database of fine art images. Customers can retire to the back room and review the images of artists who have their work hung on the walls of Avalon or who have done so in the past. The images will project onto a screen and the customer can change the size of the image and view each one with a different mat and frame, all with the same software. Once the customer is happy, he or she can simply run their charge card through the system; the information is sent over to PhotoTech where it is printed, matted and framed, and returned to the customer within an hour. True print on demand. And, of course, Shannon plans to put his database of images online to service the worldwide community. Bricks, mortar, wall space, printers, print-on-demand, framing, and online--it's the whole picture. Step 4 - Connecting Up with Digital Fine Artists Shannon is open about his business approach: "I think that my intention for bringing digital art to Avalon is not totally noble. Yes, I want the digital artist to get a break. However, I also see digital art slowly being accepted by the masses. Sales are climbing in this field. I truly want to be a part of the new madness, at whatever level I can. I believe that eventually people will buy digital art. I would like that to happen at Avalon. Bottom line, promoting digital art at Avalon helps PhotoTech. And PhotoTech is about helping digital artists make beautiful prints." Success for the artists exhibiting at Avalon is occurring in several ways. In addition to immediate sales, Shannon has found that artists have jump started other shows and connections. Marc Kitaen's work, for example, was noticed by Harvest Productions (the world's largest digital printmaker) through his association with Avalon, and his work may be soon be incorporated into its product line. Renata Spiazzi and Ileana Frómeta-Grillo both were invited by the Lyceum Theatre in San Diego to exhibit their work to theatre patrons. Shannon recently attended a meeting of the Digital Art Guild. The DAG is focused primarily on San Diego digital fine artists, and it complements other local organizations that foster digital composition. These include Digital Imagination, organized by Jim Respess, and the San Diego Photoshop Users Group, run by Stephen Burns. The supportive environment for digital art is a natural resource for Shannon. After attending the DAG meeting, Shannon offered to dedicate one of the walls in the North Gallery to hang the fine art of DAG members on a rotating basis. ABOVE: The North Room in the Avalon Gallery, Ray at Night, October 11, 2003. Photo by Jack Davis. DAG members Renata Spiazzi, Jim Respess, Don Garrett, George Zucconi, and Joe Nalven met with Marc Shannon in early October to discuss the logistics and costs for this relationship. Shannon offered members of DAG favorable hanging lease rates but also gave up his early insistence that all the images be printed at PhotoTech. "I realized," Shannon explained, "that members of DAG have state-of-the-art printers, too. As long as the group hangs images that meet the current lightfastness standards for pigment inks, they do not need to print at PhotoTech." DAG members seized on the opportunity to show their work for the months of October and November, and they will evaluate the relationship on an ongoing basis given the Ray Street dynamic. November's show is titled, "The Texture of Imagination." Some of DAG members are also electing to have shows of their own on Ray Street in November. Tiger Lee will be at DX Studio, and Ileana Frómeta-Grillo will be at TheCabernet. Other images by members of DAG can be found at: www.greenflashphotography.com/DigitalArtGuild.html. ABOVE: Members of the Digital Art Guild (DAG) at Renata Spiazzi's home. Clockwise from lower left: Joe Nalven (taken by Jim Respess), Robert 'beto' Ambler, Peter Gorwin, Renata Spiazzi, George Zucconi, Jim Respess, Jack Davis, Tiger Lee, Eileen Mandell, and in the center from left, Nathan Stinson and Michael Sussna. Addendum: Reflections by Members of the Digital Art Guild Several members of the Digital Art Guild offer their comments on exhibiting digital art... Renata Spiazzi has had a long and varied experience in the arts. "I think all of us have tried to get involved with galleries, but it's been an arduous road. One of my trips to a gallery really surprised me with the answer I got from the gallery attendant (I hope it wasn't the owner). When I introduced myself and told her that my medium was digital, she said, 'Oh, but we want the hand of the artist to touch the work!' I was upset and answered, 'What about the artist's MIND?' She looked at me like I was from Mars! Michelangelo says in his poetry much the same thing: 'La man che obbedisce all'intelletto...' (The hand that obeys the intellect.) "But we finally are breaking the wall," says Spiazzi. "We are showing our work in a gallery, and I am sure others will follow. You cannot stop progress, and I am confident it will happen. This is making us realize that we cannot just sit and work. We have to push in every which way we can. This is what I have been trying to do." Cher Threinen-Pendarvis has been exhibiting in galleries and museums since 1992 and has her works in several private collections. Her comments are helpful in trying to track the potential buyer of digital art. "The acceptance of digital art has greatly improved over that last six to seven years. Buyers of my work have expressed interest in the painting itself and the impact that the image has on them personally. They like the work, and the fact that the work was painted using the computer is not their primary concern. Some of them actually are fascinated by the idea. Most buyers are well-educated professional people in various careers who are comfortable with using their own computer at home and at work. They don't see the computer as something to be afraid of, so I think this may make it easier for these people to accept the fact that a computer can also be just another tool for creating art in a long line of tools: pencils, pastels, watercolor, an etching press, a camera, or a computer! People who seem skeptical about the value of digital art often are concerned about the lightfastness of prints. As we know, even a traditional watercolor should be framed with UV protective glazing, and hung in a room away from bright sunlight. When this concern is voiced, educating the potential buyer or gallery person is helpful. Threinen-Pendarvis continues, "Uneducated people sometimes think that art created on a computer is conceived by the computer, not the artist, or created easily like 'push-button art.' When educated about the importance of the artist's perspective in creating a good-quality digital work, these people become more open to the digital medium." Jim Respess, digital artist and leader of the local group Digital Imagination, underscores the importance of exhibiting digital art, including connecting up with the Avalon Gallery. "As an emerging medium, I think it is very important to give digital art as much visibility as possible, especially in traditional art venues. San Diego has an amazingly strong digital art community with a large number of world-class artists." About the Author: Joe Nalven is an anthropologist, lawyer, and digital artist. He has been active in the San Diego digital art community and recently served on the SIGGRAPH 2003 art gallery subcomittee. Joe's art website is www.digitalartist1.com. A hidden link to his SIGGRAPH artwork is at: www.siggraph.org/artdesign/gallery/S03/2d/0024.html. Joe Nalven can be reached at jnalven@aol.com. To read Joe Nalven's report on SIGGRAPH 2003, click here. For other Digital Acceptance stories on this site, click here. Home | About Us | Advertise | Contact Us News & Reviews | How-To's | Resources © 2002-2004 Harald Johnson Communications. All rights reserved.