Artemisia: Living with Art

Galerie de la Vie at Artemisia

Galerie

Galerie de la Vie at Artemisia (SLURL)

The creative community of Artemisia provides many public attractions. One of the most important is the Galerie de la Vie. The Galerie has been featuring interesting work by important artists since 2006 when it was established by Zephyre Zabelin, but flourished under the management of former curator RobertSteven Smythe.  Robert mounted a number of outstanding shows featuring the work of important artists like Alizarin Goldflake, Elros Touminen, Glyph Graves, Misprint Thursday, Gwen Carillon, Sunn Thunders, White Lebed, and many others. We then had Apollo Reinard, who is got his feet wet with the astoundingly beautiful show by artist Hephaistos Semyorka. Most recently, RobertSteven returned to install a wonderful new cross-reality show by photographer Monroe Snook.

The Galerie de la Vie is supported entirely by the residents of Artemisia (plus whatever donations can be raised at exhibits). The residents each pay a share of the total cost of the island in order to have a space to work and live here, but also to provide enormous public resources that make life here more stimulating and enjoyable. The Galerie is one of the most important attractions here, along with the Treehouse club (where we have regular live music events), the park lands, and the remarkable underwater park and other features. By providing these spaces, we get to live in an engaging and fun place that stimulates creativity and attracts interesting visitors. It’s a place we can be proud of for its unique combination of fun and aesthetic engagement.

By providing the Galerie at no cost, we can mount adventurous exhibitions without relying on artist commissions or other commercial activities to generate revenues.  This is a relatively stable business plan as long as we can keep a minimum number of residents here to pay the actual costs. (The owner makes no profit, and in fact pays the largest share of the costs.) And since exhibiting artists do not have to share commissions they are often anxious to have a reputable and attractive venue to show their work without risk.

So the Galerie de la Vie is not primarily a commercial venture. It is a place dedicated to celebrating and stimulating creativity. It allows residents to spend time with interesting work in a way that is different from just visiting it at a gallery. The experience for residents is deeper than that for visitors.  We see it every day while it’s here and we have more opportunity to interact with it and to think about it.

We are less concerned about traffic numbers and sales than about showing interesting art, though we certainly want visitors to share in it because they are also part of what makes life here stimulating. And we certainly want our exhibiting artists to get exposure and to make a few Lindens if possible.

We have a reputation for quality shows by name artists, but we are also interested in supporting new work by new artists who might benefit from an important exhibition. Much as we love the work of big name artists, many really don’t need another exhibition. And we’d rather not see the same work we’ve seen before a dozen times in different places, even if it means lower traffic numbers. Showing big name art enhances the reputation of a gallery. At this point I would like our gallery to begin enhancing the reputations of interesting artists.

EXHIBITING AT GALERIE DE LA VIE

The parcel currently includes 1062 prims. (This is somewhat flexible depending on the needs of a particular show.) The gallery has three usable floors (including the roof) and the spacious plaza in front for large works and/or opening parties.  The building with the plaza and landscaping is pretty efficient, taking only about 100 prims altogether.  There is an annex to the Galerie that houses art by residents and former exhibitors. We traditionally create an exhibition catalog for each show. The catalog is an archival record of the show and copies are made for the artists, Artemisia residents,  and for large donors. Past exhibition catalogs are available on view in the Galerie annex.

For more information or to discuss possibilities, please contact FreeWee Ling.
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FreeWee Ling, owner
Artemisia, Galerie de la Vie, the Treehouse Club, etc.