Breakout Stars
Many of the contemporary artists in the show already have international profiles: Daniel Arsham, The Haas Brothers, and Monique Péan could hardly be considered discoveries. Others will be new to all but the most die-hard insiders; more important, they could point toward the future of American craft.
The youngest person in the exhibition is a designer named Joyce Lin, who has a dual degree in furniture design from Rhode Island School of Design and geology-biology from Brown.
“She’s an extraordinary, visionary young talent,” Snyderman says, noting that Lin’s initial forays into the market have been met with success. When R & Company exhibited one of her “exploded chairs” (about $3,000) in a group show, the entire edition of eight sold out. “Her market is growing,” he says, “but it hasn’t been a very public growth.”
Not everyone is so little-known.
Woody de Othello, a San Francisco-based artist who’s best known as a ceramicist, has had a series of solo exhibitions and been in dozens of group shows around the country. “He’s had a very successful five or six years; it’s a market that’s really on the upswing,” Snyderman says. “But his work is still very affordable—under $10,000, or between $10,000 and $15,000 for a major piece.”
While the show ostensibly treads a fine line between commercial imperatives and historical import, Adamson, the curator, says the two things can go hand-in-hand. “I have a less strategic and more bemused attitude” about the market, he says, but adds that “you don’t end up in a conflict or contradiction as a curator, because you want to give those 50 spots to people who deserve them.”
If, he concludes, “you think that turns into market success, well, great.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.