At Show Off Paris 2006 we met Jimi Dams of Envoy Gallery, New York. The gallery is based in New York. Jimi Dams talks about the artists he brought to Paris, his gallery, and why he participates in two art fairs in Paris at the same time (the gallery also does Slick Art Fair Paris). Show Off Paris, France, October 24, 2006.
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CreativityTranscript
00:00 Okay, so we're here at Envoy. How do you describe it?
00:04 Envoy, yeah. Envoy, Envoy, the discussion is open because Envoy is more
00:09 effective and Envoy appears to be the correct way but we don't really know.
00:14 No one knows.
00:15 Envoy from New York City?
00:17 Envoy from New York City, yeah.
00:19 New York City, Chelsea?
00:21 Yeah. The gallery is located on 22nd Street in Chelsea where the entire or majority of the contemporary art scene is.
00:29 And there are a lot of computer?
00:33 Yeah, there's about 350 galleries in the neighborhood so that's a lot. But the competition in a friendly way.
00:41 So why did you start the gallery? Are you an artist?
00:45 Yeah, I started as an artist and I still am an artist although my work is now more focused on the gallery.
00:50 And showing artists that I like and that I've always liked and then some that I just got to know that I thought that were really good.
01:00 So, what did you bring? Which artists did you bring to the gallery?
01:08 Although I show a lot of European artists in the gallery, I didn't see the point of bringing European artists to Europe.
01:15 And I thought it was more interesting to show the European artists in the United States and to bring the American artists to Europe.
01:22 And although the artists that I'm showing here are all except for one American.
01:28 One was born in India and lived there until he was 18. He was born in Calcutta.
01:33 Another one was born in the Philippines. Another one was born in New Zealand.
01:37 Then I have artists from the south of the United States instead of the north, which is like New York City.
01:42 And I have one British artist, Simon Henwood, that I'm showing.
01:47 Could you look at one piece, this subject?
01:51 Yeah. This is a subject by Michelle Lopez. She's from the Philippines and she lives in New York City.
02:02 It is a sculpture that she made for an exhibition at the gallery which was called "Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's a Mandelier".
02:09 And actually we had nine contemporary artists who each made a piece about a mandelier.
02:17 And in this case you have the shoe, which is a real shoe, it's a socialite, because of course a mandelier is known as a socialite.
02:24 The fact that the heel of the shoe is so long is because it's a reference to the phallic symbol,
02:33 a reference to the fact that a mandelier was rumored to have been a man.
02:37 And it's set on a microphone stand referring to her career in pop music.
02:42 So that's basically that sculpture.
02:46 Michelle Lopez brought some interesting paintings.
02:51 Those paintings are by Gerald Collins. He's a young artist and he's a true old school artist,
02:58 meaning he locks himself into his studio basically.
03:01 He basically lives in his studio and breathes and paints and breathes and lives his paint.
03:07 If you enter his space you can really smell the oil paint.
03:11 It's like a passionate, wild way of going at his paintings.
03:15 And these are the most easy on the eye that I brought,
03:18 because his larger scale paintings are gruesome to a lot of people, but not to me.
03:26 I think the next show is with him.
03:28 Yeah, well in May. He has a solo show at the gallery in May.
03:33 Do you intend to go to other art fairs?
03:36 Actually I'm doing the Slick Fair here in Paris as well at the same time.
03:40 At the same time?
03:41 I know. So we're doing both.
03:44 I decided to do both because I like to support alternatives.
03:49 I'm not a fan of big art fairs. They just are not good for art.
03:57 You don't get a chance to look at art properly because you're just overwhelmed.
04:02 I much more like smaller fairs because that way you can really look at art,
04:09 take a day off and go on another fair, look at art, and you will not be overwhelmed.
04:15 There were two fairs and I didn't know.
04:18 I did Slick Fair first and then Show Off came to my attention and I couldn't decide.
04:25 I thought they both were interesting in their own way because they have a different identity.
04:30 And I wanted to support both, so I decided to do both.
04:35 And we just did a year-old six fair in London.
04:39 So we went from one fair to another.
04:42 I think you have the right job because you are capable to organize two fairs at the same time.
04:49 That's great.
04:50 Well, thank you.
04:52 Okay, thank you very much.
04:53 Thank you very much.
04:55 Hope to see you in New York.
04:59 Yeah. Which show are you doing in New York?
05:04 We have a show opening this Thursday.
05:07 Francesco Russo, which is an Italian artist.
05:10 And then we have a show in December with Simon Henwood, a solo show.
05:15 Will you be participating in an art fair?
05:19 After the Slick Fair, I'm going to take a break.
05:22 Okay.
05:24 I need a break.
05:26 Okay, thank you very much.
05:27 Thank you.