Friday, Oct. 31, 2008

Vendor Sparks Art Concepts

New Gallery Brings 'Conceptual Art’ to Community

By Sarah Junek

Staff Writer

The sheen of its striking blue finish makes the machine itself a work of art poised on the walls of Art251’s contemporary gallery in Keller Town Center. But step back from its cold metal frame, a monument to the conceptual art it dispenses, and its former use becomes clear.

A hand-restored cigarette machine rescued from the scrap metal pile after legislation banished them in 1997, it vends cigarette-pack-size art for an accessible price of $5.

The experience is what keeps people coming back — either to buy a work of art or have one of their own put in, joining more than 400 official Art-o-Mat artists worldwide.

"This is just so cool," Lori Love said. "I want to jump on board now."

Love was one of many artists who came to hear a presentation by founder and conceptual artist, Clark Whittington of Winston-Salem, N.C., at Art251 recently. Owner of the only Art-o-Mat in North Texas, Mike Gerra and Kim Patrick-Gerra needed to be trained in how to care for and maintain their new machine, Whittington said. Artists heard the history of Art-o-Mat and instructions on how to contribute a prototype for consideration.

"It’s accessible to anyone at any level, and I want to be a part of that," Love said.

Whittington was excited to find this much interest in conceptual art in a Texas suburb.

"There’s nothing this progressive in the Winston-Salem arts district," he said of the gallery as he sat on the floor adjusting his iPod slideshow presentation for guests.

"There would be nothing for $10,000 in Winston," he said, pointing to a contemporary painting by local artist Trish Biddle on display next to the Art-o-Mat.

"You don’t have to be wealthy to collect art," Love observed.

Part of the Heritage neighborhood’s arts committee, Love has invited the Gerras to give a presentation on art collecting to the subdivision. Gerra plans to present art appreciation seminars to subdivisions like Heritage. Residents of all ages can display their art on club house walls and many of them are now interested in submitting to the Art-o-Mat.

One of them, a 4-by-4, brightly colored puzzle piece, now hangs over the door in Art251. The first gallery to show her work, Love said she just did art for herself until the compliments kept coming and she finally decided to put it out there.

"So now I have a hole on my wall where that used to go," Love said, pointing to her giant puzzle piece on the wall.

A reference to the sound a snack wrapper makes, the community formed under the name Artists in Cellophane after the inspiration to vend small works of art.

"We have plenty of machines, but we always need artists," Whittington said.

He now has 81 machines operating in the United States and Canada and one in Vienna, Austria. He still refurbishes them in his basement.

"If someone had told me five years ago that I would be meeting and representing artists from around the world through retired cigarette vending machines, I would have accused them of being on dope," Whittington wrote on his blog about an event, the fifth anniversary of the artist swap meet at the original venue site, a café in Winston-Salem.

Celebrating 10 years last fall, the group had more than 60 artists meet up to trade their art, most of them conceptual artists.

"All of the artists recognize that Art-o-Mat has benefits that go far beyond the vend," he said.

Artists make only $2.50 per vend, but many purchasers have become collectors and go on to buy larger works as a result of exposure through Art-o-Mat.

The most important aspect of conceptual art evolves around the statement of the idea itself. Emerging as a genre of art in the 1960s, it is now part of anything contemporary that focuses less on the traditional concerns in art definitions.

Statements vary. For example, barcode artist Scott Blake has a studio full of barcode art but for Art-o-Mat sells individual barcode tattoos with different inscriptions.

Other artists make flip books with political statements. Another collects money found on the street, documents it and sells it as art. Afram Peter, a member of Metal Casters of Krofofrom, Ghana makes bronze sculptures of soccer players.

One of Whittington’s first out-of-state machines landed at the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Later in 2002, Talya Bar Ilan from Israel was touring at the Cultural Center in Chicago and got a handmade ring by artist Naoko Higashi, a contributor to the project from Nara-City, Japan. Bar Ilan wrote the artist to thank her and tell her where the ring ended up.

"I think the whole idea is great because it connects between people all over the world," she said.

Keller is the fifth Texas city to join the Art-o-Mat host family, as Amarillo, Austin, Houston and San Antonio all have machines. Once an Art-o-Mat has been placed, that venue has the right to be the sole host in the area for at least a year, Whittington said. Costs to have one installed are about $4,000, Whittington said.