What is Not in a Downtown Phoenix Gallery Name
by Jerome du Bois
While perusing the Phoenix Art Detour 2003 brochure, I couldn't help thinking that a lot of successful (e.g., New York) galleries have simple names, meaning people's names -- Castelli, Feldman, Goodman, Gladstone, Augustine, Gagosian: they are named after their founder(s) or director or head per$on. For every Haunch of Venison or Fusebox or Thread Waxing Space or Kitchen, there are scores of Joplings, Lehmanns and Saatchis.
According to the Artlink list, in downtown Phoenix almost nobody puts a simple, or simply descriptive, name on their gallery (such as Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century.)
Here's a short tour, from the Detour brochure:
Like here -- the made-up streetzony names: The Wash, Grandevelt Complex, The Western Fringe, Roosevelt Row.
I don't hang out with this crew, so does Jeff Falk, for example, say he's going to get something to eat down at the Wash? with a straight face? And besides, the moniker doesn't help narrow down exactly where he's going to eat, so what good is it anyway?
Modified. A beige word, meaning "to change or alter," and the other two definitions apply as well: "to make or become less extreme, severe, or strong," and especially "to qualify or limit the meaning of." Bang on. They've got diminishing meaning down pat.
The Paper Heart. Great name for a card shop. In fact I think they're putting in a card shop. They already have a coffee shop.
Studio LoDo. A two-toneless non-echo of SoHo, frustratingly flatfooted. What does it mean, Kathleen? Lower Downtown? Loading Dock? Lost Dog? Lone Dogma?
[Update: It's Lower Downtown, according to Ms. Thomas herself in something called YES.]
Cob4lt Blu3. If you're going to rip off David Carson at least have the decency to flip your 3.
515. Imagination working overtime.
eye lounge. a lower case art space.
Holga's, named after a cheap, nearly-disposable camera. Perfect.
Paulina Miller Studio/Gallery. Straightforward, serious metal sign; but then you remember her oombrellas, and "It Is Building." After 9/11, no less.
monOrchid. Wayne Rainey explains this somewhere, and it's fascinating and unforgettable.
ThoughtCrime. The subversive shiver subsides as the worn clichés warm the room.
New Urban Art. And right down the middle of the road.
3carpileup. Or two, anyway, including the aptly-nicknamed Slackster, who says of his work, "They're not really about anything, no deep meanings at all, just what I am feeling and seeing at the moment." In these times when they made them jump from the Towers, remember, Randy Slack proclaims his vacant vision, and expects us to share in it.
There are more, of course -- Buckaroo Parish, Weird Garden, Carbon-based Studio, From the Ashes -- and they sound more like bad band names than serious art venues. Pretty soon maybe Makeshift Memorial.
But a name stands for something.
Posted by Jerome at June 1, 2003 08:54 PM