NEXT 2011

NEXT 2011 was a huge success for Robert Bills Contemporary, and was a great experience for me.  I am thrilled with the quality and amount of work we sold, but also glad this crazy whirlwind of a week has come to an end!

One fun part of the weekend was getting to meet one of my PLEASE TOUCH THE ARTWORK artists in person for the first time.  She is an extremely talented artist who informed me that she will be making an installation piece specifically for this show.  I could not be more thrilled at the level of commitment and interest so many people I have encountered through this process have shown--including this artist.

Another interesting experience I had while working at the fair this weekend has to do with an interactive piece we were showing in our booth.  A very young, up-and-coming artist I discovered only a few weeks ago, who will be a part of the group show I am curating in June at RBC, showed a piece called "Cycle II," that was a huge hit.  The sculpture was a large, wheel-like structure made of wood, with a diorama-style landscape that inhabits the inner part of the wheel.  Viewers are invited to turn a crank, which rotates the wheel, allowing different views of the landscape as it moves around the circle.  The piece was a huge hit and sold before the fair was even officially open.  The immense popularity of this interactive piece allowed for many conversations with people enthusiastic about the idea of being able to "touch the artwork."  It affirmed for me the importance of this project not only for the visually-impaired, but as a step towards a more open and interactive environment for the exhibiting of art.