The Gallery Date: Episode 2 - That's a Pricey Pickle
SHOW NOTES
Welcome to The Gallery Date, a weekly date with Jenn Singer to chat about art and life and perhaps the art of life, all in bite sized, not-at-all fancy, but definitely savory episode nuggets!
In this mini episode, Jenn welcomes her very first, and very good, first guests, reveals what made her start a business, and discusses crazy art world news.
You'll want to watch to the very end so you don't miss a real pickle of a story!
Crazy Art World News Featured:
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to The Gallery Date. I'm Jenn Singer, founder of Jenn Singer Gallery. Thanks for joining me for our weekly date to chat about art and life and perhaps the art of life all in bite-sized not at all fancy, but definitely savory episode nuggets. Let's mingle my friends.
Don't forget to press record, Jenn.
Well, hey there! Thanks so much for joining me today for our Gallery Date. The past week has been amazing since dropping episode 1. Thank you all for your incredible messages of support, awesome feedback, and for sending through some more super fun questions. Keep. Them. Coming.
So if you're listening to this on the podcast, what you can't see is that I'm holding one of my two little jackapoo pups. This is Brooklyn. He's a good boy. He insisted on being my very first ever guest on the show. So if you're not watching this go to the gallerydate.com and see this fluffy little monkey steal the show!
This is actually a question I received since announcing the show. Someone asked if I have any pets. Well, do I! Brooklyn here is a very good boy..oh he's tucking his little face into my elbow. So he's actually not the sharpest tool in the shed. It's true. Oh, well, I'm sorry, but,
it's true. You are very cute though. He's easily confused. He is a little yappy sometimes, but we're not going to judge. And also, can you show them your wonky ear? Where's that wonky ear? Say hi. Where's that wonky? Ear? Where's Florence?
Everyone meet Brooklyn's sister Florence. Hello Florence. She is a very clever pup.. when she's not eating her own poo and stealing food off the table.
She is a very sweet and cuddly girl who loves belly rubs. Yeah, you love a belly rub, don't you? You good girl. Good girl.
Oy. So those are my pups! Fluffy little monkeys.
Okay, next question. It's getting hot in here so take off all your clothes.
Oh, are we recording s***
Question number two: What made you start a business?
Oh great question, well like any good story it all started at the hair salon. I was getting my haircut in Gramercy Park by the amazing and wonderful Joshua Barbieri who I miss so much since moving to the UK.
Hey Josh, if you're listening, my postpartum and post-steroid-treatment hair really need you. Let's discuss. So I'd walked by this little papered up shop window next door to Josh's salon and while he was cutting my hair I kept thinking about it and imagining a little gallery space there.
I was at this point in my mid 30s where I was super single. Uh, very, very single. And the family I really wanted to start felt very far off given how super single I'd been and I wanted to find a way to create something that felt like a legacy and future for myself and this family that didn't exist yet. And so I finally worked up the courage and said heyJosh, what's up with the papered up windows next door? And he was like, oh! they're renovating it to turn into a storefront. I cut the guy's hair. What are you gonna open a gallery or something?
I was like what? No. What? No!
I could not believe he said that out loud. Like I was totally thinking it but he said it out loud. So a month or so later, I finally worked at the courage to ask him to connect me the landlord and to ask about space and we made a deal for short-term lease and suddenly I needed to get to work creating a gallery. I had to put together an artist roster, website, show schedule, marketing, everything. I did it all. Like I did it ALL over about three or four months and then we launched in May 2015.
It was exhilarating and totally terrifying. Yeah, I'd worked in art galleries for several years and was always fascinated and totally paid attention to the business of art. I really loved, I loved learning about the business of art but I don't come from a wealthy art collecting family. I didn't have a trust fund and I really didn't have a very big cushion of savings to lean on. I just knew. I knew that I wanted to invest in starting my own business and I felt like I needed to get to work and start selling art as soon as possible. Like I really needed to sell some art and I did.
So I remember the night before...the night before the opening having the worst case of imposter syndrome. Like I didn't even know what imposter syndrome was but it was a bad case. I was on the F train heading from the city to Brooklyn and Coney Island is the last stop on that train and I'm sitting there thinking. All right, if I get off at Coney Island I can run away and join the circus. I could join the circus! I mean, I think I would be a fantastic clown. I'm very animated.
So I didn't obviously join the circus. I didn't run away and I'm so glad I didn't. I showed up. I did the work. I had an amazing time.
And here we are. The business looks a lot different now than it did then. We don't have a storefront anymore. We were totally pandemic ready with an online presence, but the work to get here to make that possible even to even be able to work on this business from home and to be a more present mother and wife than I could otherwise be, that means everything. It was a great idea and I'm really grateful for it. So, I'm really glad I got my hair done that day.
Question number three. Okay, so it seems everyone loved last week's story about Squidge the penguin. Awww, Squidge! Watch the replay on TheGalleryDate.com if you missed it. So I thought I would keep this segment going this week. So question number three last week was: what is the craziest art world story you've heard lately.
Well, I have not one, but two crazy our world stories for you this week. We'll start with this one since it seems the entire world is literally burning this summer. Even here in the UK we have had record setting temperatures over 40 celsius, which is just like a Tuesday in Texas for the rest of us but in the UK that is stinkin' hot. So when I read this story, I thought it was a bad dad joke. Like you know, those bad dad jokes, like it's so hot You can't even make a chili dog, or it's so hot I saw a chicken lay an omelette.
Well, this was no joke. It's so hot the rooftop of a Chinese Museum melted.
Artnet reported on the 15th of July that the Forbidden City Cultural relics Museum in China closed for the foreseeable future because the rooftop collapsed amid extreme heat in the country.
Okay. Well, luckily there were no reports of casualties. But what is happening? Museums are melting. This is crazy.
The second crazy art world story was this attention grabber it from Artnet. It was also featured in the Guardian and in Art Forum. The headline reads "An Australian Artist Pulled a Pickle from a McDonald's Cheeseburger and Slapped it on the Gallery Ceiling. it Now Costs $6,200."
The tagline reads: "Lucky buyers of this piece won't be given the exact pickle, but rather instructions for how to recreate the artwork in their own space."
Imagine what Ikea could make just by selling instructions if they charged $6,200 for each set of instructions you needed from whatever you buy from Ikea. Okay. Continue.
Here's a quote from the article:
"Oftentimes in art galleries the question of whether an object is an artwork leaves onlookers in a pickle." (Nice one Taylor Dafoe, who wrote this article.) "In the case of one show in New Zealand, the object in question actually is a pickle. For the exhibition, Australian artist Matthew Griffin, plucked a pickle from a McDonald's cheeseburger and slapped it to the ceiling of the gallery. The piece is just the size of a quarter, but it comes with a price tag worth much more". That's right $6,200. "The artwork is simply called 'Pickle' and it's on view at Auckland's Michael Lett Gallery in a group show presented by Griffin's dealers Fine Arts Sydney.
You know, conceptual art can sometimes sour, if you will, art for those outside of the art world.
But, perhaps a McDonald's pickle with Special Sauce stuck to a ceiling is just what the art world didn't know it needed. Discuss.
Okay, that's a wrap!
Thank you so much for tuning in to The Gallery Date.
Join me for our Date every Wednesday for a bite-sized episode on TheGalleryDate.com or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks again for joining me and I'll see you soon!
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