The Circle City Industrial Complex is an excellent incubator not only for artists but for art collectors too. Affordable studios and straightforward access for visitors to First Friday’s open studios and exhibitions makes for an outstanding opportunity for artists to show their work and for patrons to collect their work.
As the first new tenant to sign a lease in January of 2015 with the current owner, Teagan Development, I have seen the Circle City Industrial Complex blossom into a bustling hub for the arts. But, that does not always correspond to an increase in sales for artist’s work.
At Galerie Perrotin’s booth at Art Basel Miami in December 2019, Italian artist Maurizio Catalan sold a banana duct taped to a wall entitled, Comedian, for a cool $120,000.00, and then another for $150,000.00. The absurdity and the extravagance of it all became an international phenomenon overnight.
Here in Indianapolis, I knew there were artists that desired the same attention and satisfaction from selling work that they created. I decided to do a take off on the “banana art” phenomenon and promote twenty two Indianapolis artists with an exhibition in the Stokol Gallery, adjacent to my gallery, Satch Art Space. The exhibition, 22 Bananas, was meant to be fun and it was meant to poke at the ridiculousness of the original duct taped banana at Art Basel Miami, and it did. On a more serious note, it was also to inform visitors to the exhibition that buying art directly from the artist is a sincere affirmation of support. Today, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, now more than ever, artists thirst for and can benefit from that affirmation.
Dan Grossman, Editor of NUVO in Indianapolis included my exhibtion in this article,
A pre-COVID-19 artwalk in Indy part three: A bananas art scene
Participating Artists, Writers and Creatives
in the exhibition:
Emily Gardner, Kent Brinkley, Kristi Quinn, Circle City Metal Works, Raymond Gray, Robin Toulouse, Mary Mindiola, Shaun M Niles, Larry Lad, Stephanie Doty, Ron Kern, Satch Artist, Roberta Avidor, Guy Davis, Sylvia Gray/Sara Love, Lydia Burris, Bertha Davis Books, Amelia Rose, Susan Peters, Anonymous Artist, Beatrice Waker Books and Sivavis Art.
satchartist 