Yearly, like cicadas and Europeans, the artwork world disappears in August. However earlier than that, New York galleries historically stage a bunch present—normally modest, typically thematic, and infrequently, miraculously good. Lately, although, sellers and critics have lamented that these exhibits really feel timid, incoherent, or like thinly veiled makes an attempt to dump unsold stock. Some have questioned if the group present is fated to die out altogether.
However in speaking to sellers and advisers, it appears much less just like the once-ubiquitous summer time group present shouldn’t be fairly disappearing. As a substitute, galleries have merely grow to be extra clear-eyed in regards to the true function of those exhibits.
Most summer time exhibits don’t intend to remake the canon. What most of them do—quietly, imperfectly—is assist galleries preserve visibility throughout a gradual season, provide trial balloons for rising artists, and foster the sort of mid-tier networking that powers the artwork world when its larger machines are idle. At their finest, these exhibits allow you to see work in a manner it hasn’t been seen earlier than. And even in its diminished state, the summer time group present stays a significant web site for smooth energy: relationship-building, creative growth, and refined market testing.
For Alex Glauber, president of the Affiliation of Skilled Artwork Advisors, group exhibits are inclined to fall into two buckets. The standard summer time group present is “both a considerate curatorial endeavor that’s meant to advance a dialog, or it’s a present constructed for relationships—a option to maintain artists shut and collectors engaged,” Glauber, who has curated group exhibits at Lisson, Andrew Kreps, and Casey Kaplan, instructed ARTnews.
Each approaches have their deserves, he mentioned, however the problem lies in execution. Group exhibits, which generally contain artists from different galleries, get costly when you think about delivery and set up, and that galleries typically earn much less when consignment splits are concerned with companion sellers. Those self same splits can even make it tougher to safe prime works, as some sellers choose to carry again items they’d quite promote outright than share.
“The margins get tight, and everybody’s getting much less,” he mentioned.
That’s what makes it all of the extra putting when a gallery embraces the format not simply out of obligation, however with actual intent—and even a way of play. Adam Cohen, founding father of Chelsea gallery A Hug from the Artwork World, opened his first summer time group present this 12 months with a premise that manages to poke enjoyable at art-world solemnity, whereas nonetheless taking the job severely.
Set up shot of “Open Eyes” at A Hug from the Artwork World.
JENNY GORMAN
Titled “Open Eyes,” the present was organized by 14-year-old Luke Newsom (son of painter John Newsom), who approached Cohen with a pitch—and a surprisingly sturdy guidelines. “After I was 14, I by no means would have had the gumption to even suggest one thing like this,” Cohen instructed ARTnews. “He had a imaginative and prescient, and I needed to honor that.”
Nonetheless, this wasn’t only a novelty act. The present, which incorporates work by KAWS, Urs Fischer, and Raymond Pettibon holds its personal. “There’s an inherent lightness to it, however that doesn’t imply it lacks rigor,” Cohen mentioned. “For those who’re considerate, you are able to do each. The enjoyable of summer time doesn’t have to come back on the expense of substance.”
What actually makes Newsom’s present work, Cohen added, is that it acts as a relationship-builder. “Group exhibits are connective,” he mentioned. “They’re the way you begin conversations with artists, with collectors. That issues greater than whether or not all the pieces sells.”
Almost each seller interviewed for this piece echoed that high quality because the hallmark of an amazing summer time present. Success for such exhibits is never measured strictly in gross sales, however quite in visibility, and the alternatives down the road—like future institutional placements—that end result.
A mix of ambition and openness additionally characterizes “Summer time Reads,” a bunch exhibition at Galerie Lelong organized by assistant director Grace Hong. The present facilities on the act of studying—literal, visible, metaphorical—and contains standout works by Martha Rosler and John Clang. (Works from Clang’s ongoing collection “Studying by an Artist,” during which he makes use of historical Chinese language metaphysical techniques to craft dwell portraits of individuals within the gallery, have been just lately offered on the Sharjah Biennial; these items at the moment are making their New York debut right here.)
Mary Sabbatino, director of Lelong’s New York house, instructed ARTnews that she views group exhibits as autos for opening institutional {and professional} doorways—for artists, sure, but additionally for youthful galleries. She pointed to the gallery’s 2022 exhibition “Open Doorways,” a collaboration with Welancora Gallery and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles. Welancora went on to do Frieze LA for the primary time the next 12 months.
“Group exhibits are a spot to take probabilities,” Sabbatino mentioned. “For those who’re not utilizing them to open the sphere a bit, why hassle?”
For the gallery Timothy Taylor, the summer time present is a strategic launch valve from the pressures of promoting. Its present exhibition, “The Children Are Alright,” brings collectively greater than 40 artists exploring the true and imagined lives of kids. The present, organized by Helen Toomer, options artists starting from Ruby Sky Stiler and Gordon Parks to Dominic Chambers and Cecily Brown, however the objective wasn’t simply breadth.
“It will be straightforward to take a seat on our palms and say we all know who we’re,” companion Chloe Waddington instructed ARTnews. “However the summer time offers us house to loosen up, invite completely different voices in, and attain individuals who may not in any other case stroll via the door.”
The gallery plans such group exhibits six to eight months prematurely, she mentioned, permitting sufficient time to safe sturdy works, handle delivery prices, and assume via tone and idea. That lead time additionally helps steadiness the books.
Whereas group exhibits might be costly—particularly with a number of loans and far-flung consignments—Waddington emphasised that they don’t must be budget-busters. There are usually no dinners and no champagne towers. The gallery’s large opening gesture this 12 months? An ice cream truck.
“It’s not about spectacle,” she mentioned. “It’s about constructing relationships. We met advisers and collectors this summer time who’d by no means been within the gallery earlier than. That’s a win.”
And whereas not all the pieces within the present was on the market, based on Waddington, fairly a bit did promote—proof, maybe, that playfulness and profitability aren’t mutually unique.
Nonetheless, as has grow to be obvious during the last a number of years, there are various galleries who sit the summer time out. Amongst these skipping the summer time: Bortolami, David Kordansky, Andrew Kreps, Tempo, and Alexander Grey.
“We haven’t performed a bunch present in three years,” Fionna Flaherty, a companion at Lehmann Maupin, instructed ARTnews. “There was a time while you couldn’t stroll via Chelsea in July with out tripping over a bunch present. However simply because it’s custom doesn’t imply it’s helpful.”
The gallery didn’t choose out of the summer time season completely. At its New York location, Lehmann Maupin is presenting two solo exhibitions—by Arcmanoro Niles and Tammy Nguyen—which Faherty described as a part of a broader plan to help artists forward of institutional milestones or shifts in market consideration.
So is the summer time group present lifeless? Not fairly. Faherty mentioned she isn’t towards that format—she’s simply skeptical of inertia.
“If we ever do one once more, we’ll need it to have an actual function. In any other case it simply turns into filler,” she mentioned.
