Gallery Article Collects Kudos and Criticism

As a gallery owner in Orange County who is committed to showing works by emerging local artists, I would like to address some of the assumptions made in Cathy Curtis’ article in the May 28 Calendar (“Collecting Art in Orange County: You Can’t Always Get What You Want”).

The black-and-white judgment that a gallery must either be a slave to the New York/Los Angeles model or it must be “commercial” and completely without artistic integrity or validity. What works in major urban centers is not necessarily the best system for other areas of the country.

The unwillingness of the local media to give new galleries a chance to grow and experiment. One commercial show and the gallery is seemingly banished forever from serious critical consideration.

The shining examples of TLK and Jack Glenn galleries, which, no matter how aesthetically successful they were, failed as businesses and are no longer any use to the artists they represented or the collectors who supported them. Using their owners and just a few other recurring sources for information on what is happening in the Orange County art scene limits the view that the general public perceives, and tends to perpetuate the gloomy atmosphere.

The assumption that unless a contemporary artist is working in a style that is currently trendy or on the “cutting edge,” the work has no meaning. By this standard, no musician need ever interpret a Mozart concerto again--after all, it’s been done before.

The artists that I represent are serious, full-time painters who depend on sales made through this gallery for their livelihoods. If I must occasionally show more commercial work to subsidize the exhibitions of more challenging artwork, then I will. Exposing the gallery to more people has always directly led to sales and new appreciation of works by the lesser-known artists that I represent. This is what seems to work in Orange County.

PAUL C. JILLSON

Jillson is the owner of the Pacific Edge Gallery in Laguna Beach.