Success in NYC!
Having been back from the States just a couple of days now, we have had time to reflect on our much anticipated trip to the Big Apple and we are excited to share the news with you! What a city!, And great future opportunities ahead for us.
Below are some photos of our rep Lucy with Namakula our new representative agent out in the States. We couldn't of asked for a better schedule put together by Namakula from Agent 99. who put together some great meetings with Bergdorf Goodman windows production team, two amazing SoHo galleries and one of New York's high end real estate developers. We see big things on the horizons in the US for the brand and look forward to developing further in 2018!
So our schedule was jam packed from the minute of arrival on Monday 11th all the way through till' Friday 15th.
On Monday we met with the Curator of an independent gallery in the Lower East Side of New York, this meeting went very well, we discussed the opportunity of a possible representation within the gallery and showed her a recent collection of our paintings. This particular gallery showcases more contemporary/modern art so there was a slight reservation if we would fit in to this gallery and its current artists. We are going to keep in touch and watch how the other projects pan out in the States.
Later that day we went along to a beautiful gallery located in Soho, NY. The reputation of this gallery is very high-end and the Director is currently selling original pieces by the Old Masters.
We discussed an exciting opportunity for David to create a collection of paintings in the style of Caravaggio and other Old Masters but to use current day affairs to create something original and almost modern.
This is to be discussed further, but it would be very interesting for David to create something totally from scratch and form something that Caravaggio would be painting today!
On Monday evening we had a couple more meetings, one of which was with high-end interior designer that manages the portfolio of very wealthy New Yorkers'. Some of which have town homes, and holiday homes in locations such as The Hamptons, Florida and Miami.
The opportunity we spoke about here was to provide copy work to clients purchasing new properties, or looking to refresh their interior design and implement new artwork in to their homes.
This was a very exciting meeting and I am positive we will have a long relationship with this client.
Finally I managed to get some rest, from travelling through the early hours of the morning and a real hectic day in meetings all over NYC it was good to put my feet up!
Tuesday arrived and again we had a lot to fit in. Our first meeting was with real estate broker, investment broker and hedge fund, Antonio. This meeting was excellent!
Antonio is really in 'the know!' out in New York, he has the clients and the contacts and he bought a breath of fresh air to my schedule.
Antonio develops multi-million dollar apartments, furnishes them and kits them out with all sorts of gadgets including high-end art work. He also has a huge interest in the arts world and has involvement in buying and selling gallery space.
Fortunately Antonio had a beautiful gallery available which he was keen to show me (picture below), we discussed a great opportunity to put on a weeks' long exhibition in this beautiful location, for David to paint live from this location and run an auction night at the end of the week where the proceeds go to a reputable charity, of which Antonio is chairman for (of course!).
This plan we have is for November this year, so we are working hard to bring everything together to get back out there before the end of the year.
It might be tight, but Antonio is 100% positive that this will be our break through and his clients and contacts; such as New York Times, CNN and more, will be absolutely enthused and exasperated at the talent and skill that David has and wants to bring to America.
This is also to be continued...
Tuesday late afternoon I was invited along to meet with the gallery director of another beautiful gallery, slap bang in the middle of Soho (which is a high-end part of town, surrounded by all your iconic shops such as, Louis Vuitton, Moncler, Gucci, Burberry and more).
We discussed a couple of project options, one of which was representation out in America. It was important to me that I could pin down at least one gallery to represent us.
This was a very positive meeting, we decided to accept the offer of involving ourselves in Decembers exhibition (2017) and are keen to make a good example to their clients, which will lead to full-time representation.
Wednesday was rest day!!!! At this point rest was definitely needed. We enjoyed a trip out to the Statue of Liberty, took in a few of the iconic sights of New York, including the Empire State building.
We also took a stroll in to a few of the independent art galleries located in areas such as Chelsea. This was interesting because we noticed that there was a real gap for our works. There were very little original paintings being showcased, majority of prints and mostly all very modern.
This bought a real positive vibe to push the brand forward over there as we really noticed there was a huge window for us to fit in to and the ability to really stand out!
Thursday came around very fast, we met with an extremely knowledgeable man called Jimi. He directs a couple of galleries in New York as well as being an artist himself. It was very interesting catching up with Jimi because he could give us pointers from both views; the artists view trying to break through in America and the Curator/Directors view on what works a gallery would be looking for in the city.
We discussed some exciting opportunities of representation and a possible exhibition. But as we had already confirmed our show with Antonio we didn't want to commit to more than we could accommodate, therefore we are going to stay in touch with Jimi and he is enthusiastic about supporting us and following our journey out in the States and the UK.
Thursday night we were invited along to a gallery opening down in Soho. It was a gallery we had previous talks with and it was great to see the gallery come alive and to get talking to the staff and their clients. It was nice to let our hair down and close the week with a positive, fun evening.
New York is a hectic place and really doesn't sleep! But we are extremely grateful for the time people spent with us whilst over there.
We came away from the trip understanding more about the arts market in New York, and a good few offers on the table that we are in the process of considering.
It is a very exciting time for the brand and we will keep you up-to-date along the way!
Thank you for reading,
