Well said, Kevin. It is great to see an artist of this caliber develop before our very eyes and we are happy to be supporters through the SD Art Prize. New collectors should jump on the Lael Corbin bandwagon now.

Patricia Frischer
SDVAN

New collectors? How about just plain old collectors. Here it is, second to final day of this four-week long show, and I am simply amazed by the absolute dearth of support from San Diego's supposed "collectors". And mind you, pretty much anyone who counts among this group was sent an invitation. (After countless unsuccessful attempts, I've pretty much given up sending personalized notes.) So, let's try it this way: "WANTED: INTELLIGENT, COURAGEOUS AND INDEPENDENT THINKING PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS (WITH PLENTY OF MONEY TO BURN) TO SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS! SORRY, THIS MUST BE AN HONEST AND HEARTFELT INVESTMENT. REWARD: DEEP GRATITUDE FROM THE ARTISTS AND THE PLEASURE OF KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE DONE THE RIGHT THING." Thank you.

Luis, you may have seen the exhibit at the SDMA a while back, exhibiting prominent collectors and their collections from San Diego. Other than the faux Dutch school paintings, some classical Greek sculpture, and a very bad Elizabeth Murray painting, there wasn't much to get really excited about. And if there was, it usually fell under the category of "Blue Chip" or the "must haves" of the art world. There wasn't a whole lot of risk taking being exercised by these collectors, and this just might have reflected the conservative nature of San Diego's cultural elite.

Your message is abundantly clear, but is anyone listening? And is it their fault? Who's responsible to support and buy artwork? People with money? Art collectors? Saatchi? Our peers? I would like to believe that anybody can buy or at least consider the possibility - if not for the reward in doing the "right thing" as you say, but also to appreciate the intrinsic value and work that an artist puts into his/her production. Recognizing that art is food for the soul, and that it beautifies any environment, should be plenty to convince most people to purchase it. So why isn't this working for Lael?

I don’t pretend that I have the answers, maybe just a few educated guesses. You may have set yourself up Luis with this show. You've pushed the envelope a lot further than a majority of galleries here in San Diego would even remotely consider doing (Christine Lee's show at Art Produce, would be an exception to that rule). And then you've tried to sell Lael’s idea - a concept – with construction materials from the real world, tainted with conceptual metaphors, and surrounded them by annotated sculptures about real functional objects (i.e. the washer & dryer out of MDF or the kitchen counter top out of soap) that depend on their tight relationship to the “remodeled” environment. I'm not entirely convinced, that once you pull one of these objects out of its "space" that it will continue to function as sculpture or as art. Will they be interesting to look at and beautifully crafted, of course they will, but what do you do with them and where do you put them in the home? This could be a potential deterrent to anyone wanting to buy.

They’re might also be a few things out of your control that in a cautious town like San Diego, work against you. One, collectors obviously buy what they like (or told by others to like) as much as galleries exhibit what they want. There’s no rhyme or reason, it’s just a simple matter of people making choices. Educated choices I don’t know, this is debatable, but you can improve your odds by showing quality work and talking about it and the artist’s process, thoughts, intent, etc. Second, and this isn’t meant to slam Lael, he’s not at a point in his career where he can experiment and take the risks that he does, knowing that he has a body of work in reserve, in the back room as a friend of mine said, to sell, that could support him and the gallery. This notion of course, is driven by the art market but the fact remains, in order to sell, you need something to sell. Which brings me back to the comment I made earlier about where you would put a piece of Lael’s in your home, specifically, any of the objects or a complete installation like the bathroom.

I’m not so sure that collector’s here can’t or won’t buy Lael’s work; it just may be that the work is just inaccessible enough to be unconvincing. I personally would be hard pressed to find a spot to hang the blue sink, though beautiful and eerie in its Dan Flavin-esque neon glow, it still is a sink. An artwork for me I believe still needs a little spark, passion, poetry, soul, mystery, intelligence etc. and while I’m not saying Lael’s work doesn’t have any of these qualities, maybe there just isn’t enough to turn the work into artwork. I believe the struggle exists in that it was plenty good enough for the viewer to experience such a visceral and physical exhibit – that was, I believe, also an excellent chance for the artist to spread his wings. I think it outweighs any monetary expectations, you or Lael might feel obligated to conform to or desire. This was the risk both you and Lael agreed to take; to expect anymore might be naïve. And while we would like to think collectors are the power brokers we imagine them to be, they shouldn’t be the ones to determine our fate. Alas, and this is a discussion for another time, but I am more frustrated with our peers and their lack of support, than any collector who has – good or bad – invested time, money and energy already. Better to groom potential gallery visitors into potential collectors.