The Departed

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Camille Pyatte

Jonathan Greene

INFO

For more on Jonathan Greene, see our cover story from February 2007 here.

For more on Toby Albright, see our cover story from September 2007 here.

On the eve of his last local show, Greene Contemporary namesake Jonathan Greene is feeling "weird" but ready. The Brooklyn-born public-prosecutor-turned-gallery-owner is closing shop at his Pineapple Avenue space later this month and returning, two young children in tow, to his old stomping ground. New York has always been the destination, and skyrocketing rents, an abysmal economy and a looming storm-water project bound to kill foot traffic made the decision that much easier. That, he says, and "thinking of 13 years in Florida really shook me up."

Not that there's anything wrong with that. "I learned a lot doing what I did here," he admits. "And living here's not my end game."

Still, Greene's departure, barely a year after the 37-year-old's CL cover stint, leaves the art scene wide open. And in speaking with several major area figures, a dialogue emerged -- between artists, curators and those in the know, longtime residents, proponents and, in some cases, other fresh transplants to the Big Apple.

What follows is a makeshift "conversation" culled from weeks of interviews with Sarasota's art set. While none were actually in the same room at the same time, their words eerily converged into one narrative. The frustrations were the same, the challenges clear.

The solutions? Not so much.

The Market

Greene: It's true that you can only get to a certain level here. There's only a certain price point that you're going to be able to sell here. People are not going to spend more than X amount in Florida because those people who are spending that much would just go to New York anyway or go to Art Basel [an international art fair] in Miami and be able to see all the galleries at the same time. ... The art world's not an easy one to run in. You have to do it the right way and get yourself in the right spots, and it just wasn't going to happen anymore here. It's just not a location where there's enough collectors to support going forward and moving higher.

Allyn Gallup, 68, Greene's neighbor on Pineapple Avenue, owner of Allyn Gallup Contemporary: The basic mistake that I've made all along -- and I continue to make from a financial perspective -- is overestimating the market, the constituency. ... Even if you talk about greater Sarasota County, it's a very small town, and the makeup of the town, consisting of, in the first instance, a lot of elderly people with a very high average age in Sarasota County. When I moved here [in 1991], the average age of Sarasota County was the highest average age [51] of any county in the United States, and people, generally ... at some point they don't buy things anymore, they de-accession things. ... People move down here, and they reduce the number of things they own, and they die. So in general, you start behind the eight ball.

Joseph Arnegger, 39, artist, Ringling College of Art and Design graduate, soon-to-be NYC resident: The problem is that [in] Sarasota, the spending has plateaued and the rents keep going up. So to rent a gallery space downtown, if you're paying thousands of dollars in rent and you're not covering that by sales and you're accruing that much overhead a month. ... It makes the galleries start sinking and it makes people try to do safer stuff and then that actually doesn't turn the market. It doesn't even drive the market. It just turns people off and they stop coming because the shows aren't interesting anymore.

Tobey Albright, 26, artist, Ringling College alum, curator/director at mack b projects: Like two summers ago, we tried to get together with some of the gallery people downtown and put together a sort of gallery collective and have a map to everybody's spaces. And we met once a week for about two months, and there was a lot of talk and a lot of excitement, but then in the end, everybody was so busy with their own projects that they didn't have any time or energy or concern, really, to go the extra step and do it. And that's sort of what it takes, I think, in this town, is the ability to really go beyond the amount of work that you're already putting in -- which I imagine from everybody's point of view is a massive amount of work.

Nick Katranis, 48, artist, curator of the local Pure/Impure series: I wish I had money to put on a show every two weeks ... but it's costing way too much. ... [And] if there's not this general feeling that the town really has a vital scene going on, then somehow [those] kind of like satellite-like events that pop up dwindle, because they don't seem like they're connected to anything.

Albright: And Nick [Katranis], I always loved his shows, right after graduation [in 2004]. He knows how to really put together an event, and I wish he could do that more consistently.

Arnegger: It's kind of this like vicious circle. And then we end up in the same place as if we were 5-10 years ago -- an art town that people that are art collectors have to go out of town to buy art to bring back here, so they're still spending the same amount of money. They just feel that necessity to go out of town to buy it.

Albright: It would be interesting to find out ... who's capable of making a living from their work here, cause I know there are people.

Katranis: Right now, I'm making a living from my art work. [But] I don't sell one piece in Sarasota.

Arnegger: That trend [had] sort of tapered off, and it finally felt like there was something here, and there was real art being represented in town. ... [But] now, after just a few years, all of those art galleries are being scared off because their rent is high, there's not a lot of people coming, season is later and later, transient traffic is gone because most of the big hotels have gone condo, so instead of 50 families in a season coming through and possibly buying -- or at least looking -- you've got one family coming for two weeks out of the year.

Gallup: I've been trying to do this now for almost 17 years, and "trying" is the operative word. My situation is very different from Jonathan Greene, particularly my age is very different, and it's very difficult. ... I've never ever had an easy time of it. I've held on to the business so fiercely because I like the business. I'm very interested in art, I think I have a pretty good eye for quality, but essentially what's driven me is a fear ... of giving up, in essence. But from a financial perspective this is a terrible business, an absolutely terrible business.

Greene: It's a frustrating business in general. And that's not to take away from, I mean, I think there's a lot of collectors here who I think are great collectors, great people, great friends of mine who I know will show up in New York and be supportive. It's a lot more of that than the bad. There's much more of the good and much more support.

Arnegger: I think that all of these gallerists want to move to a different, bigger market, but they all want to keep ties here because there's real support here. There's real interest.

Ramses Serrano, 33, director/proprietor of Serrano Contemporary/Sonnet Gallery in Sarasota and, as of February 2008, in New York's Chelsea district: Sarasota has always been good to me and my gallery.

The Town

Albright: I love the fact that we're out there [in North Sarasota, on Tallevast], that people have to ... as ridiculous as it is, make a little pilgrimage out there. It's 10 minutes from downtown. If this were a city, that would be like no time at all. The distance I don't think is really an issue outside of strange Sarasota standards of what's close, ideas of proximity. ...[But] in a way, we are completely dependent on the people who care about visual art. And a specific kind of visual art, I suppose.

Arnegger: Tobey's put himself in a very unique and different situation, with Margaret [Barnes, his mack b partner and their efforts to become not-for-profit] and with the connection with the school [Ringling] and younger artists and doing more comprehensive, broad-scoped shows. You're able to do more avant-garde, contemporary, risky shows if you're not trying to pay the rent with every show. That's important, I think, but it's also important for people ... to see what's going on in the art world for real.

Gallup: You get people like Tobey. And I've talked to him about it. I don't know why he stays here.

Albright: The work that I made in school and the kind of work that I'm making now is basically relationships, trying to figure out how to make it work or how to make work from relationships, and I've always been interested in the peripheral -- that which happens outside of the center. So this is seemingly a perfect place to make it happen, so I'm just really invested and really trying to make it happen. ... It's exciting to see where it's going to lead now. It's definitely a formative time.

Gallup: If I were young, I don't care what I was doing, I wouldn't stay around here. This is dead, this is really ... I mean, this is slow, tired, and certainly if you're an artist, why would you want to stay here? Not if you have any ambition. New York is the center of the art world. ... If my circumstances were somewhat similar to Jonathan's, I'd do the same thing. I told him, "That sounds very exciting, what you're planning to do."

Albright: [There's] some strange sort of collective sentiment that exists here among creative people. That sort of back and forth: "Well, I'm leaving. I'm moving. I'm staying here. I'm not being supported. I'm being supported." It's really some weird sort of psychological struggle, I think, for a lot of the artists here. And they don't have enough ambition to make it on their own. I think that's the easiest thing to do. Like with any relationship, it's easiest to just stop it, you know? Quit? ... It's really charming here, [with] really amazing people and incredible chance-oriented opportunities, I think, and there's a rich history here.

Gallup: There's no question it's a very cultural town, but it's really all about the performing arts.

Greene: The ceiling is low for everything. I mean, the ceiling is low for the arts because people still tout it as the cultural coast, but to be honest, it's just not. There's no opera or ballet that's marketed at people between 20 and 45, you know what I mean? I don't even hear about that stuff, [and] I'm interested. There's just nothing. The theater's getting closer, but I don't think people support it enough.

Katranis: This is a train station; this is a cultural train station. ... Sarasota is not an art town. It is a vacation town and a retirement town -- and a great one for those things.

Greene: I think [Sarasota] will always be on the bubble. I think there's a possibility that it breaks through at some point. It's just that it depends on what you want out of the town.

Gallup: If this community was 800,000 instead of 80,000 -- or half a million, maybe -- it might be different. ... I deluded myself, really. Essentially, I didn't realize there wasn't the kind of market I thought there would be when I moved here. It's been a struggle every day.

Tim Jaeger, 28, artist, gallery director of Canvas Cafe: Good galleries open and close all the time in all kinds of communities. Even more so, it does not only deal with the visual arts ... it deals with the creative workforce. We should be asking, "What are the impacts of creativity on our community," and "How can our local government help to transform and sustain our community into a thriving place for the arts?" ... In general there is a lack of creative activity. In addition, I feel that our local government does not financially support the arts enough through grants and special programs for artists, that would help to provide housing, and a kind of economic sustainability that could help keep the creative class in our community.

Katranis: There's no general feeling that it's a part of a larger moving of things. If there's that larger feeling, then people feel like they're missing something. That's where the momentum comes. So this question of momentum in Sarasota is, I think, the central issue.

The Reality

Greene: The draw of New York is, I can increase my stable of artists to get artists who have already made a name for themselves, work in the artists that I want to keep -- and we're talking about a market where you can sell stuff for millions of dollars. ... Here you're talking about 20,000. That's as good as it gets, and that's rare. ... It's not the same amount of respect that they would give a New York gallery, and no matter what I do ... they have to realize that I'm paying all the bills.

Mark Ormond, 53, Greene Contemporary associate director: Like any business I think it takes time to cultivate patrons and draw them to your space ... Sarasota will never be a big city. That is why people move here and remain here. ... What I like to remind people is that IF you want to live in a community of artists you have to buy their work. And we had art priced at $300 and up ...

Gallup: I'm not an optimist by nature. ... I'm a glass half-empty guy, so I'm very worried, looking forward. I think it's safe to say that people have to be comfortable to buy a piece of art, they have to feel good about themselves and about their situation. ... And a lot of people are hurting [here]. A lot of people are carrying a ton of real estate that they don't want to be carrying.

Greene: I think there's hope, but if you look what's gone on here, I don't know when it's coming. Real estate's dead, businesses are going out of business. ... They're doing these [development] projects like they did on Palm Avenue, which ruins the businesses; nobody cares about the merchants, it has nothing to do with the merchants. It's all about the property owners. 'Cause they're the ones who are going to make out in the end. Nobody cares if these people go out of business. [And] the only way you can have a thriving community where people walk around is have great businesses going.

Katranis: Look, it really comes down to this: The art has to be interesting enough that people are going to want to buy it. If people aren't making really good art, then people aren't going to buy it. I think a lot of the kids make good stuff, but they're gone in a year or two.

Gallup: An awful lot of it springs from, given the size of the population, a lot of people are just very uncomfortable with art, and they don't have confidence in their own taste. They don't really have any taste. It's not that it's bad. They just don't have any taste.

Greene: You don't have to love art. But if you do, don't spend $10,000 on a couch. Spend $5,000 on a couch and get $5,000 pieces that you can look at everyday and love. You're going to throw the couch out in four years anyway; it's gonna get stains. ... I mean, it's just a different mentality.

Gallup: Very often they've already exceeded their budget -- if they're moving here and they are wealthy -- on their furniture, and they always somehow leave the art to last, and the art then just becomes a part of the overall decoration. And it really doesn't matter.

Greene: You don't buy an artist so you make money on it. You buy art from an artist because you love it. But later on you want to know that the people that you bought it from are doing a good job, they're advancing and that the artist is advancing. If not, it won't mean as much to you. You may love it, but you want to know that this person -- a lot of people want to know that this person is going somewhere. You catch 'em on the rise.

The Local Audience

Katranis: I don't want to say that there isn't an art audience [here]. There is. But it's not big enough. And the art being produced here is not exciting enough to buy work. Not enough for the artist to survive.

Kevin Dean, 29-year resident, artist, director of Ringling College's Selby Gallery: It's a matter of demographics. There is an audience for contemporary art here but a limited number of collectors who are still buying art. The situation won't change until we develop collectors in the middle years. Until then, those of us who show contemporary art will continue to have people come to see our shows (or come to be seen at our shows), but that doesn't help gallery owners pay the bills.

Albright: It has to be about the art. I think if it can just be about the art, people who are really interesting can put most other things aside and just be there, and then everybody can be together about the art. I guess it kind of seems idealistic, but that's what I've come up with so far.

Greene: It's not a knock on Sarasota because I want to leave. It's just not for me. I want to be where I grew up. ... It's a decision -- do you want to do this [motions mid-air] or do you want to do this [motions higher]? ... When you're moving forward, it's different. We did well here, but I want to do better.

Serrano: He may be right. There might be a point where, you have to, in order to grow farther, you have to go somewhere else. ... There was the point where I needed to grow along with my artists and keep up with them and also what is going on in the world. New York is the center for art, so all of those things, and me already having a home here [in NYC], it only made sense to me.

Greene: I love what I do. I love going, looking at art. I wish there was more to see [here]. There's not. There's just not. ... Everybody should do as well as they can. ... It's a small town, and it's a tough place to work, write, anything. ... So say I make it big in New York or I do nothing in New York. I learned what I learned here. You know? And I made a name for myself out of a place like Sarasota, which is good for Sarasota. I mean, we're like the little tourism bureau when we go to the art fairs, people ask where it is. ... and every time, I say, "It's a great place to visit." Cause that's how I feel about this place, for me, personally.

It's a great place to visit.

COMMENTS

RE: The Departed

Posted by Susan Goldfarb on 03.23.08 @ 09:17 PM

Amanda Schurr did a fabulous job of putting together interviews that bring home the fact that Sarasota is a tough place to be for visual artists and gallery owners. All the interviewees were very articulate and no one had sour grapes about the situation--which was very succinctly described. It's not easy to do what Amanda did and as a writer I have a great deal of admiration for her piece.
As for the departure of Jonathan Greene... I understand his need to move on and "up" but those of us who are still here are not exactly "chopped liver." I hardly think he had the most dynamic gallery in town. Although I am always sorry to see vital people leave Sarasota. I totally understand the reason why many artists and gallery owners choose to leave Sarasota. And I appreciate an article that elucidated all the issues so clearly so that others who may not be in the "loop" will understand also. It painted the picture, as it were, of what real challenges this "arts" town presents. But bravo to those of us who refuse to give up in spite of the challenges.

P.S. It's rather ironic that Tampa editors decide about headlines and covers for Sarasota.
Susan Goldfarb

RE: The Departed

Posted by jgreene on 03.23.08 @ 08:46 PM

Because of the comments below I have decided to not open a gallery in New York and to actually become a burlap salesman as suggested by performance, an internet pseudonym used to hide ones identity.

You want people to either love or hate the art you hang, you want a reaction and you never want someone to just pass by. You two (so far) don't understand that by openly and semi-anonymously showcasing your bitterness for me as a person you are achieving the same result as someone openly saying how much they love the gallery. So, thank you.

RE: The Departed

Posted by performance on 03.23.08 @ 03:02 PM

Jonathan Greene does not speak the language of art, which is art history. He is a lawyer. And like the accountants and lawyers who shoe-horn themselves into the music business, he has been an incredibly divisive figure among local artists due to his ignorance of their interconnections, and his injection of personal agenda into exhibition matters. Just what artists need,
another artist-manque blocking their development under the guise of exponentiating their professional prospects. Without the formidable Mark Ormond, Jonathan Greene is a burlap salesman. That said, a few more Ormonds and Tobey Albrights and Allyn Gallups and we have something. PS: Editors in Tampa should never choose title themes for articles in SARASOTA.
Kudos to the brave, exhaustive exploration of this whole subject by Amanda Schurr. Where is Sarasota after Greene? Same place it was before him, just friendlier.

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