Lofty ideals, and a reality check.

I’ve had quite a few people recently ask me why my gallery doesn’t have a dedicated physical space. A few comments have alluded to “fly by night” operations, and expressed concern that the lack of a physical space may put me in that category.

Before such ruminations make the jump from idle chatter to damaging gossip, I’d like to explain my reasoning and goals a little better.

I’ve managed retail stores before, and was manager of a retail store here in Cleveland until about a year ago. I understand the vagaries of physical retail and gallery space quite well, and I can tell you that my experience has taught me this: I don’t really want to do it again right now.

My current workload is pretty intense. I’m handling Sales & Marketing for the esteemed Bigshot Toyworks, I’m raising two kids as a single dad, and in addition to the Steve Brown Gallery I’m still chugging along with my yo-yo career…performing shows, acting as a regional sales rep for YoYo Factory, and helping to run the Cleveland Yo-Yo Club. That doesn’t leave a great deal of time to be behind a counter, no matter how much I enjoy the physical interaction with customers and collectors.

So from a purely practical standpoint, I simply don’t have the time to man a physical space.

From a philosophical standpoint, I don’t think it’s really necessary for what I’m doing. My goal with SBG is not to serve as competition for all these other galleries that I love so much. I have no interest in trying to compete with the likes of Joshua Liner or Copro or Corey Helford or Rotofugi or Hive or any of these other operations who deal in the same genre of artists. They’re wonderful galleries, doing wonderful things, and I’m content to simply respect and admire them. They are already operating at a much higher level than I, and it would require a significant amount of time, effort, and money for me to elevate my operation to those standards.

We’re all short on money, I’m already putting in the effort, but I honestly just don’t have the time.

My goal with Steve Brown Gallery is to promote artists whose work I feel is deserving of the attention and accolades, but who might be a bit early in their careers to get into larger galleries. And for more established artists, to conceive and produce projects with them that help them reach their fans in a unique and affordable fashion.

I love curating shows in different spaces, and I love the challenge of finding a unique and interesting venue and putting together a show that works, for that moment in time, for that space. It keeps me aware of the creative aspect of being a “gallery owner”, which truly is a creative endeavor. It’s an odd one, since the goal of a gallery is to be largely non-descript so as not to detract from the art…which is why we all slap our names on our galleries. It’s our signature on a painting that changes every month.

The guidelines I set for for myself upon starting the Steve Brown Gallery are thus:

1. Only offer work that I would hang on my own walls.
2. Only offer work that I could afford myself.
3. Only offer work that I believe in, 100%, and could recommend to friends and family without remorse.
4. Only offer work from artists that I trust and support as people, not just as a producer of work.

I honestly believe that I can do something different and interesting within the setting of the gallery business, and I believe that not trying to squeeze this operation into the framework of a typical art gallery is paramount to maintaining the flexibility to do things that are unique, surprising, and effective in helping these artists connect with new and existing fans.

I love what I do, and I love every single piece of art that you see here. So while I may not have an address and a set of white walls that I can call my own, I can at least promise that Steve Brown Gallery will never get boring or predictable.

Because really, who has time for that? I certainly don’t. ;)

Written by Steve Brown on April 26, 2010 — 2 comments