Winkleman Gallery

Winkleman Gallery

- has a popular blog.

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30 comments:

Anonymous said...

A pleasure to work with. Smart and honest and respectful and yes they pay on time.

Anonymous said...

ditto. smart, great people; going places too.

Anonymous said...

Revolving door policy at this gallery. Artists are picked up and dumped faster than a flea jumping off a dead dog.

Ed is ambitious and has done it off the backs of a lot of good artists he has treated very badly.

Anonymous said...

Dumping weaker artists is the only way for a gallery to grow. If a gallery doesn't bump the lower tier, then the upper tier leaves for a better gallery.

Buck Naked said...

11/13/07 8:09pm says - "honest and respectful"

I'm trying to reconcile the respect with the dumping. What are the warning signs that you are no longer respected and about to be dumped?

Buck Naked said...

It's a rhetorical question, save your comments (unless you are one of the artists Winkleman dumped).

Anonymous said...

What constitutes the lower and upper tier artists? Sales?

His blog has gone down hill. He used to be much more open minded, now he's very touchy and defensive and almost bitchy. I think he may be having money problems. I heard he has a fulltime day job to support the gallery. Also, hiring his boyfriend who doesn't know much about art and doesn't speak great English? Questionable judgment.

Anony said...

While I don't always agree, I LOVE the blog!

Anonymous said...

He didn't dump the "weaker" artists. He dumped half of his roster. Some of the artists were selling and some of their shows were well reviewed. He dumped all of the older artists.
It's reasonable if you have some sales and a well received show to expect at the minimum a graceful exit, some time to find another gallery . Dumping people without warning especially older artists puts the artists in a tough spot. Dropping half your roster at the very least is a sign the gallery is in trouble.

Anonymous said...

Having worked closely with Winkleman Gallery I know for a fact that he did not "dump" the older artists. Many artists in his current roster are well out of their 30s. He needed to make some changes after leaving Brooklyn as hard as it was. His main motivation was to really hone and firm up his program. He gave most of the artists a six month grace period and did not remove them from the web site during that period. He did get rid of half of his roster and whether an artist is selling or not is really beside the point, it is really about a long term vision. I also know first hand that the gallery has a tight program and is not in trouble. Please get your facts straight before you make such allegations in such a public way.

Anonymous said...

If you look at galleries with long histories, (take barbara gladstone gallery) you'll see that a change in roster is usually part of a strategic plan and this usually bodes well for both artists and dealer. it's not about "dumping", it's about knowing what you want to do and how you want to do it, having perhaps come to a keener understanding of how to play the field; not to mention, the field changes and it behooves any good businessman to respond to that. if winkleman changed his roster, he probably did so for very specific reasons. from my own experiences with this gallery, I'd say it was done carefully, with respect.

Anonymous said...

I was doing the gettingtoknowyou dance with Winkleman. Really nice guy. I decided to stop courting him because of his blog. I think his blog speaks to the wrong audience, it actively courts desperate artists, not collectors. I took it (and his dayjob) as evidence that he doesn't understand where he should focus his business effort.

Too bad because I can see the value in working with someone who is transparent, pleasant and understanding. It's just that his good qualities get in the way of him doing right by his artists. How many times have I seen his shows and artists ripped apart on his blog?

Anonymous said...

What day job? He's always in the gallery whenever I stop in. Or doing an art fair.

As for hiring his boyfriend, the guy speaks five languages--and you quibble about his English. Anonymous March 1, how many languages do YOU speak?

I agree that the blog has many angry, bitter readers--surprising given Ed's generosity in posting every day--but the strength of the blog is that it attracts enough smart and equally generous commenters to balance things out. What's the option: closing off the comments? Wait, don't they do that in totalitarian countries?

Belvoir said...

I honestly appreciate Ed's attempt to open a dialogue,to explain things from his side. It's valiant and almost unheard of in the art world, which often operates like a whispering royal court.

He's extremely fair, and tells people a lot of truths they might not want to hear, but he's as honest and diplomatic as he can be. A tricky juggling act there.

The mere fact that he opens up the dialogue shows he really does have a passionate interest in art and artists. He makes no promises, but it's an act of generosity to write thoughtfully about the intricate and opaque ways the art world works.

He reminds me of Miss Snark, the no-nonsense pseudonymous literary agent, or Tim Gunn to his fashion charges. I think he's to be commended for trying to illuminate on his blog a very complex business.

Anonymous said...

I've only had good experiences around these two men, and appreciate Ed's willingness to engage and share his experiences and opinions on his blog. He cares about art and has always been professional and friendly when I've had the pleasure of talking to him.

For someone to use speculative "...I think..." and "...I heard..." in a public forum about small business owners doesn't give me much respect for the views of the commenter. Come on, keep unsubstantiated gossip to private conversation and use a potentially useful forum such as this to relay actual experience.

kalm james said...

I’ve know Ed and his gallery since they opened in Williamsburg low those many years ago.

One doesn’t have to look further that the comments on this thread to realize there are a lot of petty and vindictive “artsy types” who will bare life long grudges against a gallery when things don’t work out. Although there is a proper time for morning the demise of such a relationship, at some point it’s time to move on.

Edward Winkleman should receive kudos for his courage and forbearance. Not only is he running a gallery, giving exposure and support to the art and artists he chooses, but spending countless hours maintaining his blog. Edward_Winkleman.com allows comments and questions from any anonymous poster. Lots of valuable information about galleries is passed on to the young and inexperienced. Many of the same bitter individuals that have posted here no doubt lurk at his blog. So although there’s a community function served, Ed is also exposing himself to any vicious kid with a grudge and a keyboard. I hope these distractions don’t side-track Ed and the gallery because he’s providing a valuable service, and it’s FREE.

Anonymous said...

Hey Buck Naked I was wondering if you could make all posts anonymous, I thought the point of this website is that it's NOT about the those who leave the comments, rather, its about the galleries, curators, etc. PLEASE don't turn this into a winkleman blog of "I am so and so and I care a lot". I don't know who "James Kalm" is and I would rather NOT know. **This is about the content of the comment, not about you** Thanks!!! Please resist the ego button to embrace the "me me" call.

zipthwung said...

Ed Winkleman is moderating comments on his blog. This means you are only getting "acceptable" comments.

Does this mean only the bitter anonymous ranters are missing?

Maybe, but it's also a lot more boring, and that is a real problem.

Art is not Ed Winkleman, and real foundational criticism of art and society does not exist on Ed Winkleman's blog.

Anonymous said...

how about a section to post on zipthwung? he's destroyed so many blogs with his jibberish. Of course winkelman blocks his post, he just wastes space in the comments sections.

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with the decision to drop so many artists but the comment about his boyfriend is completely out of line. He's a warm, friendly person many galleries would be glad to hire. Speaking with an accent does not mean a person doesn't speak English. My only experience with them was discussing a show with the boyfriend. He's nicer and more well spoken than many people who work at galleries.

Anonymous said...

I have had dealings with him. Nice guy but self absorbed and self righteous. I don't want to make false accusations, so an example on the Kalm Report James Kalm Report: The Art Bloggers Conference New York 2008 Part II at 7:08 into the video, he justifies he doesn't infringe on copyrights, yet what he describes is hot linking. "Linking an image from its original source." He links his blog to to another webiste so the image on Winkleman's blog comes off another website's server. By doing so everytime somebody goes to Winkleman's blog, the image is downloaded from the victim's host. The victim pays for a hosting plan and a limit of bandwidth, which Winleman is stealing. This is called hot linking: it is stealing bandwidth, and it's illegal. Winkleman's blog is on blogspot which is free, yet he steals bandwidth so he can claim no copyright infingement. A means to an end, but he can take the higher ground because he's not infringing on artists' copyrights, it's just stealing a little bandwidth.

If he does this to you, replace the image he is hotlinking with something nasty and pornographic.

Another example, go back and look at what he wrote about the MacDowell Colony and their fight to keep their tax exempt status. It's just his opinion, he did not bother to research - no facts, and he's never set foot on the property. These are the facts: Supreme Court of NH Ruling also Arts Law Memo

His blog is a pulpit for his own self promotion.

Anonymous said...

Ed is an honest individual with the best of intentions. He uses images the way he does to protect the artists copyright. He has posted an apology and has been removing them. One could simply email him and ask him to not hotlink if there was a problem. Those pdf documents in the previous post are hotlinked to this blog by the way, they are not downloaded off this site. This site's owner is guilty of the same thing. Maybe you should remove the post altogether, there has been enough fighting on this blog. The point was made.

Anonymous said...

Ed is in the process of removing hotlinks and is going to stop stealing bandwidth. He posted on his blog about this. How's My Dealing and that swaping porn images post made him honest. Good job BN.

Amory Blaine said...

He has a book coming out soon, and it's priced to sell at just over $16.

Unknown said...

He thinks of himself as a good person, and does the right thing most of the time. He's always extended professional courtesy to me.

He hasn't got a lot of integrity, though. Hudson is a nice art person who has a lot of integrity--you know that Hudson knows what right and wrong are and acts accordingly, and is pretty much accountable for his mistakes. Winkleman thinks he has integrity, but he cares too much about what people think of him.

Thinking you have integrity is an understandable problem and I don't think it makes Edward a bad person. But it can create problems that I don't want, so I have also decided not to work with him.

I think that the comments about boyfriends and dayjobs are out of line too. Give the guy a break. He has dug himself a hole with his blog and his sense of virtue. I think it's one thing to constructively point out a problem, but it's not okay to just throw stones at the guy--have a little empathy.

gallery artist said...

I show with Ed and he's always professional and always pays. I really enjoy our studio visits. I trust him and believe he has my best interests at heart. From experience, I can tell you that he has loads of integrity. Plus, I like him.

Anonymous said...

Yes comments about boyfriends are not fair but Eds is now a partner from everything I can tell from his his signature on emails that say he is "co-owner" and from what Eds artists say. The boyfriend (now part owner of Winkleman) is very nice and charming, is known to be very controlling and probably does not know much about the art world. That said Ed is very generous with his thoughts and ideas via his blog. Very interesting situation.

Anonymous said...

Censorship is his middle name---everywhere--in the gallery and outside---it's his way or the highway.

Anonymous said...

on the one hand...his blog is surprisingly frank, at times. He represents a few really good artists.

on the other hand...he is a bit of a self appointed expert...if you read his blog and didn't know the gallery you'd think he was a top tier dealer, when in actuality he is a very emerging dealer with a tiny space in a far off location.

he's also a cheerleader for the profession, seemingly afraid to face the fact that many art dealers stiff their artists or are substance abusers.

not a bad guy, just a bit full of himself.

Anonymous said...

You say "Full of himself." I say full of information. You say "a self appointed expert." I say point of view. I know the art world can be an inhospitable place--I live here, too--but why direct your anger and bitterness toward someone who is working to make it a little less inhospitable?