This past weekend at the John Cleary Gallery we had our first exhibition opening of the year, featuring the work of San Diego photographer, David Fokos.
David Fokos on Plum TV from clifford reese on Vimeo.
Though I deal with our photographers through email and over the phone on a daily basis it is often a bit nerve-wracking actually meeting the artists (especially during an opening) for no other reason than I want to make sure that they are pleased with the hanging, lighting, labeling, etc. -- it is kinda my job after all.
Morning Rings, Study #3, Boston, Massachusetts, 1997
Catherine had forewarned me that David emerged out of an engineering background, and I would have been a bit more surprised had his first comment, after the requisite introductory small talk mind you, not been something along the lines of: “Okay, everything looks great and now I’m going to make small tweaks to just about everything.” But that’s the thing: I welcome the criticism because A.) who better to perfect it than the artist himself and B.) it allows me to do a better job next time.
Foggy Night, Stafford, Texas, 2005 Taken near Catherine’s home when David was visiting for a past exhibition
Especially instructive was the lighting process, and if you come to the gallery then you can see how fabulous these pieces look in the right light… for as lovely as they look here on the interwebs, no pixilation can properly compare to the real thing.
Fresh Snow, Chilmark, Massachusetts, 2007 – something Houston, TX (currently at 78 degrees) will not be seeing for quite some time
Just as we change the front of the gallery for every new exhibition, so do we try to rotate the photographs throughout the rest of the gallery as well. When Catherine told me the large Renate Aller piece was coming down behind my desk in favor of three of David’s smaller pieces I requested that perhaps I could chose one of them, for selfish reasons only, natch. Regular blog followers might remember seeing David’s work in a previous post from last year where I talked of first seeing his work, and I now have the opportunity to live with this piece behind me for the next month! I LOVE THIS JOB!
“Nightwatch, Port Townsend, Washington, 2002"” I miss you, my dear Mason!
David was also accompanied by his wife, Barbarella (@divabarbarella), AKA: my newest favorite person ever in the whole world. Typically I have about two “new favorite people ever in the whole world” per year… looks like the rest of y’all are going to have to try an awfully lot harder during 2012. Barbarella, a long time columnist for the San Diego Reader, regular NBC/KNSD “News in the Morning” contributor, socialite and TEDx emcee extraordinaire—among other fabulously not-so-hidden talents—is basically a San Diego (and now Houston) celebrity. Check out her most recent piece, “The Pointy Ball Game” from The Reader about being in Houston during a Texans game and enjoy this interview with Maestro Jahja Ling of the San Diego Symphony from her “5 Questions With Barbarella” series:
Needless to say, David and Barbarella, Catherine and the rest of the after-opening gang were the perfect antidote to a stressful day – oh, by the way I got profanity spewed at me for the first time by a client earlier in the afternoon and spent the entire evening with what I think might have been a migraine– and though the time was brief it was quite the extraordinary evening and one I shant forget for some time. “Shant”’s a word, right?
As you can tell from the lack of personal shots, in all of the tizzy of the evening I forgot to take one single picture with anyone. Looks like I’ll be heading to San Diego sometime soon!!
Artist: W.A. Mozart / Album: Le Nozze di Figaro
