Hello, This about an artist residency that was a total mistake misleading scam. The Art Letters and Numbers in Averill Park NY State turned our to be a false advertising hyped...
Does anyone know anything about 1340Art Magazine. I was contacted by Carolyn Tate to enter some of my images in a competition to be included in the print version of...
Do NOT work with Joseph Latimore of Gallery Sensei, now based on 135 Eldridge Street. He owes me 3K, he owes a friend 9K, he owes people in London 30K and...
Does anyone know anything about 1340Art Magazine. I was contacted by Carolyn Tate to enter some of my images in a competition to be included in the print version of the magazine. It says ‘small payment required’ but not what it is exactly. First contact was made through instagram. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has had experience with them. Thanks
Residency Arquetopia located in Puebla, Mexico
They were in a rush to get my bank transfer.
Once I got there, they gave me a studio separated from the group because I paint in oil. They never told me before hand I would be painting in a separate room.
The room was located on the fourth floor made out all off glass without air conditioned and with way too much light for a painter! Think about it were in Mexico! It is super hot and sunny. A room made out of glass really! I couldn’t paint a hole week. They didn’t offer anything to compensate the money I lost. They didn’t reply to me for 3 days because it was apparently the week-end and once they respond they did act like I was disturbing them. It took them too long to react and their only idea was to put paper in the window. They had no excuse. They knew an artist painting in oil was coming right! Anyway, I was unable to paint during the hole residency because it was too hot.
One of the guy is an American and he knows exactly what he is doing business wise.
During the residency they never came to ask genuinely how we were and to make sure we were fine. They kept to themselves.
All the resident there were mostly young women having an art residency experience for their first time.
When I ask for a formal receipt of the art residency for my tax purposes, they never responded to me. I emailed them several times. I never heard back.
What was included in this art residency?
-Four week residency
-Four individual meeting with text to read
-a room and one meal included a day
The price: 1,780$ US. It did cost me 2,520$ in Canadian dollar.
This residency is all about the business of financing their big houses and the music school of the owner.
I don’t recommend it unless you are desperate.
Garvey Simon Gallery charges a $22 fee to review artist’s work. They call themselves a gallery and an art “advisory.” Foolishly I submitted and was told my work did not suit their “program.” No other comments. What did I gain? Nothing. Wiser perhaps….Nothing illegal I suppose….just a waste.
Every industry and field now has growing sexual assault claims, and the art world is no different. Here are four recent articles, feel free to comment of post an incident of your own. All comments can be posted anonymously.
The Guardian: More than 150 artists, curators and museum directors, have written a letter denouncing sexual harassment and abuses of power in the art world. It was signed by over 2000 people since its writing.
The letter comes in the wake of separate allegations against Knight Landesman, co-publisher of leading arts journal Artforum, who resigned on Wednesday hours after a lawsuit was filed in New York accusing him of sexual harassment.
It reads: “We are gallerists, artists, writers, editors, curators, directors, arts administrators, assistants, and interns — workers of the art world — and we have been groped, undermined, harassed, infantilised, scorned, threatened, and intimidated by those in positions of power who control access to resources and opportunities.”
We’ll stay silent no more over sexual harassment in the art world
Letters: We have held our tongues, threatened by power wielded over us and promises of institutional access and career advancement
The signatories of the letter, published in the Guardian on Monday, include American photographer Cindy Sherman, Turner prize winner Helen Marten, British art dealer and gallery owner Sadie Coles and Cuban-American artist Coco Fusco.
The letter, which 2,000 more people have put their names to and which will be shared on social media platforms using the hashtag #notsurprised, says that “abuse of power comes as no surprise” and that the request of sexual favours in exchange for career advancement was commonplace.
Here is that recent article with more than 150 artists and curators signed to say art world sexual misconduct is rampant – click here to read it.
The article about the resignation of Jens Hoffman, a major art world curator – click here to read it.
Artforum publisher Knight Landesman resigned over sexual misconduct.
Another article about the resignation of Benjamin Genocchio.
Article on Chuck close.
Several interviews with women on harassment in the art world.
NYtimes article on Thomas Roma.
Any comments on individual incidents will be published as their own category.
I received an unsolicited email (see it after my comment) from World Wide Art Books Inc. This company publishes art books under the titles International Contemporary Masters, Current Masters and Important World Artists. This publisher “selects” and “approves” artists for their books mainly by sending unsolicited emails.
In the email below, WWAB claimed they contacted me previously and they saw my artwork on a website for an artist organization that I am a member of which both claims are false. For one, I never received an email from WWAB in the past. And second, only my name is on the artist organization’s website, no images or links to images of my artwork exists on the artist organization’s website. Matter of fact, I don’t have a website or an Instagram account yet. Of course this raised a red flag for me so I checked out their website and it indicates an artist has to pay a participation fee of $1385 for just 1 page, up to $9800 for the front cover. I also researched Metropolitan Art Museum in Las Vegas, where WWAB claims artists featured in their publications are invited to exhibit, and this “museum” is actually a vanity gallery on the 2nd floor of a tourist mall on the Vegas strip.
If you receive an email from WWAB, don’t respond, just immediately delete it and block the wwabs.us domain so you won’t receive any more emails from WWAB. Also, I wouldn’t create a portfolio on their artavita.com website because they probably use it to find new victims to scam.
As mentioned above, here’s the email I received:
Dear [Artist’s Name]
I have contacted you in the past about inclusion in our publication but I have not heard back from you. Have you received my message?
I am pasting it below again. I would appreciate if you let me know.
I came across your art though the [the name of place where artist name came from] and I liked it so I would like to invite you to submit your portfolio for inclusion in Current Masters, International Contemporary Masters and Important World Artists three leading juried annual art publications presenting noteworthy artists and photographers from all over the world.
We have a large distribution and the purpose of the book is to promote the artists in it. Besides delivering it for free to galleries, art collectors, museums, etc. we distribute free copies to all visitors and exhibitors in art shows that we participate, such as Spectrum-Red Dot in Miami, Art Expo New York. Only artists who are up to the standards of our art committee are selected.
As a result, the artists in our books are approached by many galleries to exhibit their art.
Please note that inclusion in the books is not free. Approved artists must pay a participation fee which varies according to the number of pages of the artist’s presentation.
Galleries, agencies and groups of 2 or more artists receive special discounts.
Artists appearing in the book are invited to participate in the exhibition organized by WWAB at the Metropolitan Art Museum in Las Vegas, dedicated to each new volume.
You can review our previous books on our site wwab.us (to visit the website you can type the address in your browser)
If you are interested, I can send you detailed information.
We also have a tremendous art portal, artavita.com where artists can create their portfolios for free and sell their art directly to their clients, paying no commissions to anyone! Regardless of inclusion in the books, you can use artavita for your free portfolio and art announcements.
Thanks for reading,
Matt Benson — Assistant Curator
E-mail matt@wwab.us
World Wide Art Books Inc.
5533 Cathedral Oaks Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93111
United States
Tell 805 770 5136 and 5137
*World Wide Art Books was established in 1997 and we have represented and promoted thousands of artists.
In BBB (Better Business Bureau) which is an organization providing information for every company in the US we are A+ without one single complain all these years.
You can find the link on our website.
If you click on it, you will find all the information about our company.
I believe “Specto Art Space” holds “call for entry” events and never has actual exhibitions. I applied for a show and didn’t get in, which is okay… BUT they have yet to announce show dates, winners of their call for entries, or any updated information on their website. A friend of mine in the area says the gallery doesn’t exist, or in their defense, may just not be up and running yet. I have contacted a couple places that list their calls to make them aware of the situation. The owner is responsive to e-mail, but it is incredibly fishy to me that nothing has been listed anywhere. Once artists are notified, there should be a notification of who is exhibiting and when. The show dates and deadlines are continuously pushed back – something isn’t adding up here. They claim to print, frame and mount your images, and that they give away tons of prizes.
Website: https://spectoartspace.com/
I believe “Specto Art Space” holds “call for entry” events and never has actual exhibitions. I applied for a show and didn’t get in, which is okay… BUT they have yet to announce show dates, winners of their call for entries, or any updated information on their website. A friend of mine in the area says the gallery doesn’t exist, or in their defense, may just not be up and running yet. I have contacted a couple places that list their calls to make them aware of the situation. The owner is responsive to e-mail, but it is incredibly fishy to me that nothing has been listed anywhere. Once artists are notified, there should be a notification of who is exhibiting and when. The show dates and deadlines are continuously pushed back – something isn’t adding up here. They claim to print, frame and mount your images, and that they give away tons of prizes.
Website: https://spectoartspace.com/
| I was so excited to be accepted to be accepted to the Arctic Circle Residency and the geography of the trip is very beautiful. However, there were so many things wrong that I wanted to let others know. First of all, the Arctic Circle residency does not provide any funding at all; it is completely self-funded – they charge $6,500, but additional costs run another $3,000; gear, travel, hotels, etc. This is probably the same cost if you got some friends and organized a similar trip yourself, something that the shipping company offers.
The worst part is that the director was very abusive to many people. Participants (each trip has about 25) were not allowed to ask any questions. If they did, they were met with a tirade. My heart went out to a 22 year old who “had the audacity” to ask him a question. The trip is billed as a two weeks on a ship but is actually 10 days. That comes out to about $950 a day. 3-4 days were spent on land in a bunkhouse. It makes sense to get there one day early, but not at all interesting to waste time on land for $950 a day. People who left early were harassed and made fun of. That part could have been optional or they could have been up front about the actual itinerary. I understand not wanting to waste- everyone was assigned one cup only and cups were only washed once a day, if that. Of course that was hard to keep straight so when one person got sick, many people got really sick. The program also claims it is for artists and scientists, but there are no scientists are on the trip. That would have been very interesting. Participants are invited to stay up as late as they like drinking – that’s how the ship makes extra $$. Not to be a fuddy-dud, but if you want to make use of the time s studio time, that is not realistic. Why not close the bar at midnight for example? The bar is in the studio space/dining room – maybe convenient for some!!, but makes it hard if you really want to use the time well. The boat crew members were very nice, but smoked liked chimneys. Though they only smoked on deck, smoke got everywhere. However, to close on a nice note – the other participants were great. |
A User sent this in – – CYNTHIA HOUPPERT, “Art Agent” and former owner of ArtStruck Gallery in Blue Ridge, Georgia. This is still so incredibly painful to discuss —I’m going to provide the facts, but it’s is a lengthy story ; worth your while to read it! I was a novice when I signed with this “art agent” and her gallery. I had NO clue what real agents do for artists; in retrospect I think she got that about me right away & capitalized on it.
Long story short, after I’d paid/insured $10K worth of my portfolio to be shipped to her gallery, months later they weren’t answering the phone OR emails. I’m 2000 mi from there so I was panic-stricken. Not knowing what else to do, I called a local art association who gave me the low-down: they’d skipped town, owing quite a few people money including the landlord; the lady I spoke with said she was pretty sure there was a warrant for their arrest, several bad checks, I think. I should mention Cynthia has a life partner whose name changes often. Cynthia and her partner were men previously and transitioning to women has helped them hide from law enforcement.
Cynthia wrote a book on getting an art agent, which was one of the reasons I signed with her; I felt that added to her credibility and I trusted that. As the days went by I spoke with many people in Blue Ridge, Georgia, desperately trying to track down my work. Although she’d sold a few pieces, she still had the majority of my portfolio.
A kind person who knew the landlord said nothing was left in the gallery space they’d rented, so I knew she had to have my work with her. It wasn’t just me, there were 11 other Artists who were robbed. When I contacted each of them, they were afraid/ashamed to go public, felt it would hurt their marketability and were embarrassed they’d been scammed. One of my fellow exhibitors was a very well-know international sculptor; interestingly enough he tracked her down and got his work back, but I think he was successful only because he threatened to go public with the story. He told me they’d re-located to Miami and gave me a phone number.
I called until my fingers were numb; no answer. I did a paid internet search ($40) to get their email. I wrote demanding my work be returned to me at ONCE. I got back a response, loaded with snark and smartassery, as though I was the one who’d stolen $10K worth of Artwork. I threatened her with police and she said I’d signed a contract and there was nothing I could do. The contract I signed was STRICTLY for exhibit in Blue Ridge, Georgia, NOT transporting my work ANYWHERE and had actually expired. I called the FBI Art Theft Unit and was told the value of my work was “arbitrary” and that they could not pursue these crooks; also was a problem that I’d “given” my work to them, wasn’t like they’d broken into a gallery or museum and stolen it. They were kind and sympathetic but couldn’t help me. Meanwhile, I began getting threatening emails from Cynthia, saying she would “alert the Gay/LGBTQ community that I was Gay-basher” .
I was like, good luck with THAT, honey, at least a third of my buyers are Gay. So WHAT ?!?! The threats and derogatory comments continued until I finally gave up and blocked her. You could float a kayak in the tears I shed over this. This was 10 years ago; I still have not been able to recover ANY of my work and am pretty sure she sold it all & kept the money. Insofar as I know, that’s what she did to ALL of us except the sculptor. I think his international status was what helped him recover his pieces; he had an established value of his work, well-documented. My work has grown exponentially in value since that time and now hangs in seven countries and two museums. I would give anything to get back my originals.
The work Cynthia stole from me were all early originals and I have very few photos of that work, stupidly trusted her to take more photos for me and of course that never happened. This person and her partner are straight-up thieves and manipulators; they come off as highly knowledgeable about the Art World, but they are crooks and cons. I strongly urge you NEVER to do business with them; they have a long history of cheating artists and actually robbing them AND very sadly, have gotten away with it for quite a long time, ten years plus. Had I owned a ten thousand dollar CAR, the cops would’ve been all over it. But, because it was Artwork, the value only counts if you’re selling like hotcakes and an established “name”. Keep that in mind when you do business with people who have little to no Art cred.
I learned the hard way–and my work is gone forever. I want to add that I am totally disabled and Cynthia knew that; my art materials, framing, and shipping & insurance were paid for by family members & friends who wanted to help me pull up out of a long, deep depression after an accident that’d permanently disabled me. I lost everything I had and was clawing my way back into Life. Cynthia knew ALL of this and still robbed me blind of my work. THAT is a direct illustration of how craven she and her partner are.
A reader sent in the following;
Art & Sol Studios
310 NW 25TH St
Miami, FL 33127
786-310-3689
http://www.artandsolstudios.com
info@artandsolstudios.com
Put out an international call for art last year with a deadline of October 14, 2016. It’s title: “Art Basel 2016” a three day event, December 1-31, 2016 in their Wynwood Miami studio to “exhibit during the hottest week in Miami” Art Basel Miami 2016. With a full color catalog to be published of entries submitted to this competition, awards and gift cards.
I paid the 42.80 submission fee, 4 stone sculptures were accepted and 2 sculptures as backup incase of sales, a total of 6 stone sculptures to be delivered and set up for the exhibition. I had been emailing and calling Christine with questions and concerns (I was getting very little communication) which began to leave me sceptical. Art drop off on November 28th, was a 5 hour drive to deliver my packed stone sculptures. I arrived to pay by the hour parking street side (not near the studio). I went into the studio to find a small so-called art studio with erotic/bondage art on the walls, a messy, dirty, unorganized street side party house.
There were no pedestals for heavy stone sculpture nor any space to place them.
When I confronted her about not having pedestals or space to exhibit my heavy stone sculptures… Christine said; I bought some pedestals and they’re waiting to be picked up at the post office. I asked for the slip, I would go pick them up, she said they’re being delivered, ” Just leave your stone sculptures on the floor and we’ll take care of setting them up. I asked about a contract to sign off my art, she didn’t have one.
I refused to leave my artwork. I had to stay in a hotel because of another 5 hour return trip back home. I never heard from her or Salim (who knew nothing about anything when asked)
Juror: Christine Madison; B.A. in Business & Visual Arts: Purdue University, Owner/Curator of Art & Sol Studios.
An artist herself and originally from Sanford, Florida. Set up shop in Miami.
Another Juror; Salim Cortes; B.A. in Visual Arts Columbus College of Art & Design.