by Anne Gabriel
With a slew of out-of-town galleries moving into and investing in spaces in Los Angeles, Angelinos will see it’s own Nino Mier Gallery, one of LA’s fastest growing galleries, close all four of its Los Angeles locations coming fast on the heels of recent accusations that the gallery underpaid several artists and pocketed the difference.
Now, before you go clutching your pearls, let me just say no one should really be surprised and that unless you still believe in Santa Claus this tends to be the modus operandi for many galleries in similar situations. Of course, it doesn’t make it right, but it does it make it real. The art world has historically been built, sales created, and fortunes made on the notorious gray area of non-transparency. It is an industry that prides itself on obfuscation and why not, after all most collectors just want to know that what they’re paying today will be worth more tomorrow regardless if the piece of art ever goes on display in their homes or if they even like it.
That Mier was “caught” or, more accurately, called-out on such behavior might mean that it was (subjectively) more egregious than the gray margin that most other galleries play in and pocket separate from what artists receive from the sales of their work. Galleries should note the furor that has come along with these revelations and perhaps take pause.
There has always been a love / hate relationship between artists and the galleries that represent them. Galleries provide space and third party validation to the artist and their practice, but at the end of the day have to pay rent. The artists provide the work, and also at the end of the day have to pay rent. A push and pull that—although mutually supportive—is also mutually exclusive. Artists, to their credit, over the years have tried numerous ways to swing the sales pendulum closer to their side from starting artist-run spaces where artist’s consolidate their funds to run a gallery and thereby control the entire sales process to artists selling directly to collectors out of their homes and studios, but the inter-relationship between galleries and the artists they represent is a model that, at least for now, isn’t going anywhere.
Interestingly, Mier will keep open five other locations NOT located in Los Angeles. We’ll see if the gallery survives this and if the closing of the LA spaces will be a warning shot across the bow for other galleries to take notice and perhaps be a little more transparent and honest in their dealing with their artist partners.
Image: Copyright Nino Mier Gallery