Artexpo NY 2022 – Heaven for those that love art

Artexpo NY 2024 brought artists, galleries, and enthusiasts from all over the world to Pier 36 on New York City’s lower east side. This year’s expo was especially meaningful for Long Island Portfolio and our co-publisher, John Dowling, Jr., but more on that later.

Art Expo has been around for many years and was disrupted for the past 2 years due to covid. NYC has been opening up slowly, but this year’s Expo had a very strong showing.  There were 200 exhibitors (booths) and over 1000 artists from 14 countries on show. And for those exhibiting, there were more than 20,000 attendees viewing and buying art for the four days of the show. 

Global Participation

The erected gallery spaces in the exhibit hall seemed to stretch forever, supporting solo artists showing a handful of work at Artexpo for the first time to galleries representing many artists from all over the United States and the world, sometimes with multiple booths stretching over 40 feet with over 100 works on display.

The full spectrum of visual arts was on display, from photography and painting to sculptures of all kinds. Some of the artists created new art in the aisles, like Ohio Mike creating single line portraits of visitors to his booth. Jorge Torrealba also created art with his guests.  The artists were very enthusiastic about finally being able to display their work, discuss with attendees and sell in person. There is a certain satisfaction you get when giving a client a piece of art they just bought as opposed to shipping to an unknown person from an internet sale.

As a publisher of Long Island Portfolio

(in addition to exhibitor helping John Dowling, Jr.), I had access to art and artists during a press preview period as well as throughout the show. Attendees had great access to the gallery owners and artists alike, meeting in booths as well as a lunch and snack area open to all participants. I especially enjoyed discussing the art, processes and decision making involved with the creation of many of the pieces.

Speaking with Noelle Giddings, represented by ArT LoVe GaLLerY, is a great example of why in person meeting is so great.  We discussed how here career continued to evolve from here days as a colorist for Marvel and DC before digital was a thing, to creating art for rooms and set designs for TV series, a challenge to create new art in needed styles, sometimes every three days. Val Tarsia works with vibrant colors, some of her art inspired by the emergency room where she works when not creating.

Geared for selling…

Some of the gallery owners were especially insightful, like Gregg Mattson of Mattson Fine Art and Jeremiah Heller of End to End Gallery. Mattson represents many artists, some, like glass sculptor Alexis Silk were at the show. Jeremiah is a collector and gallery owner selling from his own collection; we discussed how tracking selling prices of an artist is an important determination in deciding to collect and represent the artist’s work.  Artexpo creates an environment that encourages cooperation and relationships with others in the trade. I am hoping to see Jeremiah in Hollywood in early May.

Artists participating in shows like Artexpo are there to make connections, but sometimes more importantly, to sell their work. I was on hand for quite a few sales. Nino Sarti, who traveled up from Atlanta, sold a piece to a very happy collector. I also saw sales by Monica Mangano who sold 3 pieces and was hired for some commissioned work.  I watched Adi Oren sell one of her large paintings of a diver, and artists Cose TDS and Leia sands, sharing a booth, sell more than 5 pieces.   There were many more sales, of course, with one sculpture going for around $80,000. As of this writing, total sales from the show are unavailable.

Spotlight Winner

The big news for the magazine though, as mentioned above, relates to our co-publisher, John Joseph Dowling, Jr. John had over 80 images representing his Miracle In The Making collection. John was chosen as one of six spotlight artists, selected from over 1000 exhibited artists. His unique work, consisting of abstractions of portraits and photography displayed as scotomizations, will also be on display at our show at New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square on May 14.

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