Radio Workshop

Art for a Benjamin (Transcript)

by Laura Santini

Santini: At the moment, the Cynthia Broan Gallery in Chelsea more closely resembles one of 14th Street's 99 cent stores than a place where real artists' work is sold. But the gallery's 99-dollar show, up until March 10, does offer real art work.

Sculptor Tim Thyzel, whose work is known in Chelsea, asked 180 artists from around the world to contribute works they wouldn't mind selling for $99 or less.

Thyzel: I guess it is quite well established that art is a commodity, so I thought it would be nice idea to make it a commodity for everybody to be able to afford.

Santini: Some of the art appears to be inexpensive AND a bargain. New York artist Eric Doeringer, for instance, is selling knock-offs of paintings by well-known artists, like Damien Hirst and John Curran. A convincing knock-off of Hirst's identical, multi-colored circles prices for $90.

Doeringer: I started this project, I guess, about two years ago now and the way that I was originally was selling them was on the street, on 24th street. It was kind of like, you know, the guys who sell the bootleg CDs or fake handbags on the street, so I was right there.

Santini: The show conveys the feel of a superstore--right down to the muzahky shopping music. In the food and candy section, a meticulous, and quite lovely, still life of a Cheeze-Doodles bag goes for $99. In the love and sex section, people can purchase Victoria Secret ads showing off Burkha-clad models.

Another artist, Jason Paradis, is selling slender tree cut-outs that he made from trimmings of his other drawings.

Paradis: In order to make a drawing better, I always trim them down and I have all these scraps I'd been carving into trees and I didn't really know what to do with them, and I didn't know why I was carving them into trees...The idea of growing something out of the scrap was interesting to me and making something out of the debris.

Santini: Paradis has priced the trees by what percentage of the original drawing they represent. So even though two trees appear similar in size, one goes for $10.27 and another for $7.23.

Gallery-owner Cynthia Broan says certain works are particularly big sellers.

Broan: The penis subway map is very popular.

Santini: A work Thyzel said he also found clever.

Thyzel: It's amazing how well it works. You only see it on second glance.

Santini: Thyzel said he generally was pleased with the quality of the works submitted for the show, even though he didn't know what to expect.

Thyzel: When the packages were coming in it was like Christmas, because you were unwrapping, and you never really knew what you were getting.

Santini: As with any collection of contemporary art, some works just seem bizarre. Artist Franky Kong, for instance, fashions birds out of homemade beef jerky.

Thyzel: And then he chews on it, until he sees a bird's head.

Santini: Explains Thyzel.

Thyzel: Once he sees the bird head, he enhances it with paint, you see the beak has a little paint and then the eye.

Santini: The bird heads come enclosed in tiny glass cases at $99 apiece.

For Jason Paradis, the art show's reference to 14th Street discounters is really a wistful protest against further changes in the neighborhood. When galleries like Cynthia Broan's moved in in the late 1990s, THEY were the upscale tenants. Now, they are finding themselves edged out by exclusive boutiques and specialty stores.

Paradis: The idea for the show was interesting because it kind of reflects what's going on on 14th Street, these high-end clothing stores coming in and the galleries just can't compete.

Santini: But the show won't stop New York's former meatpacking district from transforming itself or prevent Cynthia Broan's rent from quadrupling when her lease expires in June. This summer she'll be moving her gallery to a new neighborhood. Where exactly, she wants to keep a surprise. Laura Santini for Columbia Radio News.