Freight + Volume
Owner Nick Lawrence is a former partner in LFL (now Zach Feuer), owns Provincetown's DNA Gallery, and exhibits his paintings at ATM Gallery.
"I love to create a community in a gallery and watch the sparks fly" - Nick Lawrence
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- Rat Fink searching for Scuz Finks, Gold Finks. Artists: Please share your positive/negative experiences with critics, curators, and galleries. Comments from those with direct experience only, please.
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48 comments:
Takes forever to pay. Sometimes bounces checks. Be cautious. Anybody else have this problem?
famous in p-town, for the reasons mentioned above.
FYI: previous "anonymous" is an insecure, jealous ex-associate of Nick. Artists beware of these bullshit blogs. Nick has one of the edgiest and ballsiest programs in the hood. Hoo-rah.
Anonymous 4:47AM - How do you (think you) know who the first anonymous is? And how could you know if any artists are having problems being paid? Are you with the gallery?
The comments posted to this blog are not criticisms of a gallery's program. The intended commenters are the program.
4:47 is probably Nick Lawrence.
Great, another fucking Sherlock. Thanks for your insight.
artists beware of bullshit dealers who care more about their ego than the art.
ha. dealers beware of bullshit artists who care more about their ego than the art.
ps: newsflash! - everybody's got an ego. especially in the art world. perhaps if you stop wasting all your time on blogs, you might realize this.
Writing on blogs of this kind in this manner is gross. Nick is one of the hardest working, loyal, and generous dealers in the hood. His understanding of art making makes him a far better dealer than the usual used car salesman. Instead of hiding behind a dubious blog why don't you have the integrity to express your views to Nick and the gallery in person.
Not that I care, but aren't you also writing anonymously, anonymous 9:21?
Are there any artists represented by Nick who would like to stand up for their dealer?
Anonymous negative comments are to be expected, but I'm genuinely surprised that not a single artist has committed his or her name to the support of a single dealer.
So, Buck, who are you? Your e-mail says "ratfinkcanary." Perhaps if you identify yourself, the others --including myself, will too.
Are you kidding me?
Willingness to publicly support your own dealer is a far far cry from claiming authorship of this blog. No relation.
I'm closing the comments to this post on Freight + Volume. The only commenter who seems to have been speaking from direct experience was the first one.
Check back at a later date.
The owner recently took several works to auction, including one purchased at a benefit auction from a non-profit where I work.
NL must be doing something right because he's got two of the best directors in the business. Steven and Yasha rock!!
He does have a good eye in hiring talented directors. It's keeping them that's tough! They all tend to be more successful after they leave!
Lost my work...at least as far as I know...haven't heard from them in over a year...maybe they sold it...owner and directors won't return my emails...
that sucks about the lost work. try http://www.vlany.org/
Yep, included me in a group show, said they sold my piece, but owner actually bought my piece, took for ever to pay me / my gallery, tried to take it to auction, my gallery had to buy it back from auction house at well over retail to protect its provenance.
In my business dealings with Nick, I saw that he can be an incredibly generous person, especially at late night dinners and after-parties. One fact is that everyone does eventually get paid, albeit sometimes after a lot of time and requests. The essential problem is that Nick has more ambition than he has means and my opinion is that his skill set doesn't particularly match his professional goals. Still, if this was acknowledged, then 90% of the issues could be resolved with the help of a good financial planner and the other 10% with a good PR firm. But, as it is, resources are constantly shuffled between his personal needs, two galleries, another business, and his art collecting habits. Somehow everything stays afloat in the end and there are never any real consequences. It's also true that a lot of artists who wouldn't have opportunities otherwise benefit from working with him, all the while bemoaning his behavior (especially with his gallery on Cape Cod). But the better artists (especially in New York) move on quickly when they realize what is involved in a continued relationship with the gallery. I think it's unfair to comment on him personally on this blog or make any moral judgments, but those are some professional observations that might be of benefit to artists considering working with him.
they take forever to pay. they don't really promote their artists. nick lawrence doesn't really care about developing artists careers. the directors are competent and smart but overwhelmed. the programming recently has been abysmal. i am often embarassed to show there.
i really like working with yasha and steven. they are good friends. nick, i don't really know but i've been showing at F+V for almost two years and he's never been to my studio. i don't really mind showing there but i think they need to seriously think of their reputation- in terms of programming and paying artists. it does take forever to get paid... but they don't really ever sell any of my work so i guess it doesn't matter.
I show at the gallery and its true that Nick takes many months to pay
and he is mostly absentee which is not cool. I think he is busy selling other artists work at auctions thats not cool either but they sell my work enough. Getting the money is always hard and sometimes my work isn't handled well but its not a bad place.
Dearest Bloggers,
All of us @ F+V are frankly surprised and chagrined by your various concerns, whether you are indeed actual gallery artists (albeit unlikely, since we converse openly with all of our artists on a regular basis), or mere acquaintances. Regardless, you should know we take all of your comments very seriously.
Granted, we are a young gallery, and our pockets are not as deep as those of our neighbors across the street (Larry, Mary, Matthew, Barbara, Marianne, etc). Between our rigorous exhibition schedule, our semi-annual magazine, and five or more international fairs per year, our finances can get stretched a bit thin at times. Nonetheless, each and every one of us works extremely hard to fulfill all these commitments. For the most part, developing a serious art gallery anywhere is a labor of love, and our hearts work overtime.
However, unlike many of our bluechip neighbors, and as anyone who truly knows F+V (and any of us personally) will attest, we are all eminently accessible and approachable.
So instead of leaving your valuable comments on this relatively obscure, shallow and embittered blog, why not contact us directly: 212-691-7700, or info@freightandvolume.com. I'm sure we can readily address - and hopefully, resolve - any and all of these issues.
Good luck - and thanks,
The Crew @ F+V
www.freightandvolume.com
Sigmund Freud, in his twenty third introductory lecture, “the Paths to Symptom Formation” states, “An artist is once more in rudiments an introvert, not far removed from neurosis. He (or she, my addition) is oppressed by excessively powerful instinctual needs.”
I’m afraid if Siggy were reading this blog he’d remove the gap to neurosis.
I met Nick several years ago at PULSE Miami. The work at the Freight/Volume booth caught my eye. He approached me and introduced himself. I was impressed. I’ve run into the F/V guys at several art fairs, which is important. We share common friends as well as my wife’s Dartmouth background. I make it a point to visit the gallery when I’m in the neighborhood because I know they have a program that in many (though not all) cases, jives with my “taste”. I’m always treated well at the gallery, although they usually seem pretty busy, (a good thing, no?).
The above posts complaining about Nick deaccessioning their works at auction should grow up. That’s the way the art world works. You should be glad to get the work into the secondary market to see what its “real” value is. Let’s not forget, the nature of the art business is entrepreneurial. If you’re a “professional”, and someone can make a profit from selling your work, that’s good.
It seems Freight/Volume is doing business which tends to attract lots of attention, both good and bad.
All I know is that I would love to show at F+V. Stop sipping the hatorade.
27 September – 7 November, 2008
> Nick Lawrence
>
> Notes From Underground: 1982 - 2007
> A 25 Year Survey
>
> Closing Reception: 7 November 6 - 9 pm
>
> Subheading
> *A fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Peter Frank,
> Anthony Haden-Guest, James Kalm, and John Yau has
> been prepared for the exhibition
>
> Pierre Menard Gallery is pleased to announce a mid-career retrospective of
> the work of Nick Lawrence, including paintings, sculpture, work in mixed
> media, work on paper and print work in several media. Lawrence (b. 1960) is
> a powerful and prolific artist working in a self-described both figurative
> and abstract expressionist idiom, drawing upon primitive sources, myth and
> folklore to delineate a view of the world which he has elaborated from
> consistent principles over a period of three decades. Lawrence's faith is in
> the earth, and he sees its denizens and their works as merely ever-evolving
> expressions of its life: "physis" is everything, with no remainder; nothing
> is foreign; everything is integral to the whole.
> The work is bold, assertive and all-embracing, "mystical and timeless," in
> the words of one reviewer - not unlike Australian aboriginal "Dreamtime"
> sand paintings. Other notable influences include modern German
> Expressionists such as Max Beckmann, Franz Marc and the Blau Reiter; French
> painters Dubuffet, Roualt, and Nolde; Italian 80's neo-expressionists
> Clemente, Chia, and Cucci; and more recently German artists Albert Oehlen
> and Peter Doig. But the world he creates is very much his own: a narrative
> forest of symbols at the same time that it is, in its larger scope, a
> catalogue of the simplest, most straight-forward and most pervasive things
> in the world and in human life. Sea, earth, sky, sun, animals, plants, men,
> women, houses, ships, even automobiles -- as well as love, violence,
> tragedy, war, jealousy, music, humor, joy, misunderstanding, technology, and
> extinction - all play out in magnificent, fervent orchestrations in these
> lyrical narratives. The work is dense, yet uncluttered. And it is dense with
> meaning, yet uncluttered with conceptual apparatus.
> Strong of line, sometimes bold in color, at others saturated in the tones of
> earth, there is a clear consistency of iconography and style even among the
> many evolutions that are evident across the decades – and more than 20
> distinct bodies of work are represented in the exhibition. The spirit that
> infuses the work is primordial, seeing the world "subspecie aeternitas",
> accustomed to death and the passing of pleasure, but at the same time
> constantly inspired by the possibility of joy. The seasons change, life
> expires and death folds into life again, and all the while we suffer the
> most extreme pangs, woes and satisfactions, and they all pass into air, and
> dust, and thence into life again.
> For all the wild profusion of its imagery, the work is calm and balanced,
> like nature, like the economy of a teeming jungle. As in primitive art, man,
> earth and animal meld into each other, shifting, partaking each of the
> other, their struggles only a dance. In Lawrence's work the dance
> encompasses not only the "natural order," but the whole world of technology,
> emotion and human structures as well, interacting with nature, arriving
> briefly at a precarious balance, exploding, perhaps, and coming together
> again in transformed, or perhaps transmogrified new incarnations.
> The author of over 40 solo and 40 group shows both here and abroad, Lawrence
> received his BA from Dartmouth College, followed by graduate work at the
> Ruskin School in Oxford, England, and a summer at the Skowhegan School of
> Painting and Sculpture in Maine. He is the recipient of numerous grants and
> residencies, including an Artist Foundation Fellowship in Massachusetts for
> works on paper, and an NEA Visual Artist Fellowship. He is the owner and
> founder of 15 year-old DNA gallery in Provincetown, MA, 5-year old
> Freight+Volume in Chelsea, NYC, as well as publisher of the artist magazine
> "Freight+Volume". He is also owner and founder of Nick's Moving Company in
> Somerville, Ma, which for over 20 years he claims has "supported my artistic
> endeavors".
I'm a collector who has bought from the gallery and my experience with both directors was truthfully positive. The transaction was smooth and my dealing with Steve in particular was especially professional, I think he shows promise as a young dealer and Sasha was helpful and efficient. I will surely visit them again soon. I have never met, nor heard of Nick.
this is starting to sound a little like the mccain campaign's attempt to separate the candidate from the party...the directors seem to be trying to separate themselves from the owner. when you work with this gallery, you get all of the above - there's no separating them.
nick included my work in an art fair in 04 sold work and I got paid.Dealing with Sean (previous co- director) was the problem.Nick stuck his neck out for me. Good guy.
Freight + Volume didn't exist in 2004.
"Freight + Volume didn't exist in 2004"
freight + volume is not nick's first gallery.
Sean WAS the gallery for its first year - just like Steven IS the gallery now, and Zach was LFL. I doubt Nick has never sat behind the desk of any of his galleries a day in his life. He seems to just be a struggling investor who tries to duplicate past successes with an out-dated, formulaic approach to the business. I showed with the gallery in its first year when they couldn't even afford to finish the construction. I've worked with Sean and I've worked with Steven (Yasha just left) and I've had mostly good experiences with them both. The program seemed a little confused when Sean first left. I minimize my dealings with Nick and I don't expect the income, so that I'm pleasantly surprised when it arrives. I haven't gotten any press but I've sold quite a lot of work, almost always discounted.
There's only one person who ever referred to me as the "co-director" of the gallery.
Dear Anon 1:24 pm -
Your double negative "I doubt Nick has never" is perfect. And pretty much sums up your intelligence, your third or fourth-hand knowledge of F+V, and your transparent attempt to try to slander the gallery, like most of this blog. All F+V artists have had significant press while with the gallery, so go back to the website and do your homework. If you were actually an F+V artist, you'd know Nick is selling your work firsthand right now @ ArtForum Berlin (like most of the fairs F+V participates in). And most likely he selected you in the first place to show @ F+V.
As we mentioned a few months back - if you have any issues with Nick or with F+V, by all means call or email us, or even better drop by, and we'll do our best to sort it out. And if by chance you're another gallerist (which is more likely), stop wasting your time on this blog, and deal with your own (substantial) problems.
warm wishes,
F+V
Nick has a long history of offering enthusiastic support to young artists and opportunities to hopeful young directors, like myself. It's been a messy climb in many ways, but that shouldn't lessen the success that many have had because of their association with him or his various galleries. With that said, it's obvious from reading the posts here, that a few sincere apologies, forward-looking handshakes, and a little less defensiveness would go the distance in repairing his reputation.
The crew @ F + V has posted twice expressing doubts that any of the preceding comments might have been made by F+V artists.
I can confirm that at least one of the comments was made by an F+V artist. That artist e-mailed me directly.
That was that one of the good comments, right?
;+)
Has issues with paying artists and other members of the arts community.
I've worked closely with this gallery. They seem to be making a genuine effort to improve their reputation. From what I can tell, the financial issues have been resolved. They have a solid exhibition history and have done first shows for several important emerging artists. I would encourage young artists to pursue any opportunities here. But as always, be professionally savvy, keep written records, and ask for a written agreement.
F+V seems to have weathered some storms as all companies do after people leave, but they weathered well. Steve and Yasha (though she has moved on) helped Nick put together a cohesive program that seems to be doing quite well. Nick is genuine and present form at the fairs and the gallery. as a colleague in the business i commend them.
bart
Heard Steven left. That's too bad..
at least two more artists from their web roster have left as well.
My friend was one of their artists. They took forever to pay so he left... then he had to threaten to sue them to get the remaining money they owed him and his work back. The only worthwhile thing he took from the relationship was a positive review in the nytimes.
Seems to be a fact they have cash flow problems, but I think he deserves some credit just for how long he's been doing it. He's had some sort of art gallery for at least 15 years. if he was in it for the money - he would have moved on to a well paying job by now.
I have shown with Nick Lawrence more than a dozen times. The comments about his poor paying habits are all true. I have shown with a score of galleries over the past 20 years and he is the worst.
Even when one puts a sale right in his lap, from personal sources that could ethically be done outside the gallery, he STILL doesn't pay for months. He needs a reality check - showing with him is a mistake.
He is more disorganized than dishonest, but that doesn't help all the artists waiting to be paid - and there are still many of them.
I showed at DNA Gallery this summer in Provincetown, and I was hesitant because I had heard of Nick's failure to pay people. But DNA has a new director Kevin Rita, and I got paid less than a few days after the show closed. Immediate payment. Awesome. Kevin Rita.
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