00:00 Okay, so we're here at Envoy. How do you describe it?
00:04 Envoy, yeah. Envoy, Envoy, the discussion is open because Envoy is more
00:09 effective and Envoy appears to be the correct way but we don't really know.
00:14 No one knows.
00:15 Envoy from New York City?
00:17 Envoy from New York City, yeah.
00:19 New York City, Chelsea?
00:21 Yeah. The gallery is located on 22nd Street in Chelsea where the entire or majority of the contemporary art scene is.
00:29 And there are a lot of computer?
00:33 Yeah, there's about 350 galleries in the neighborhood so that's a lot. But the competition in a friendly way.
00:41 So why did you start the gallery? Are you an artist?
00:45 Yeah, I started as an artist and I still am an artist although my work is now more focused on the gallery.
00:50 And showing artists that I like and that I've always liked and then some that I just got to know that I thought that were really good.
01:00 So, what did you bring? Which artists did you bring to the gallery?
01:08 Although I show a lot of European artists in the gallery, I didn't see the point of bringing European artists to Europe.
01:15 And I thought it was more interesting to show the European artists in the United States and to bring the American artists to Europe.
01:22 And although the artists that I'm showing here are all except for one American.
01:28 One was born in India and lived there until he was 18. He was born in Calcutta.
01:33 Another one was born in the Philippines. Another one was born in New Zealand.
01:37 Then I have artists from the south of the United States instead of the north, which is like New York City.
01:42 And I have one British artist, Simon Henwood, that I'm showing.
01:47 Could you look at one piece, this subject?
01:51 Yeah. This is a subject by Michelle Lopez. She's from the Philippines and she lives in New York City.
02:02 It is a sculpture that she made for an exhibition at the gallery which was called "Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's a Mandelier".
02:09 And actually we had nine contemporary artists who each made a piece about a mandelier.
02:17 And in this case you have the shoe, which is a real shoe, it's a socialite, because of course a mandelier is known as a socialite.
02:24 The fact that the heel of the shoe is so long is because it's a reference to the phallic symbol,
02:33 a reference to the fact that a mandelier was rumored to have been a man.
02:37 And it's set on a microphone stand referring to her career in pop music.
02:42 So that's basically that sculpture.
02:46 Michelle Lopez brought some interesting paintings.
02:51 Those paintings are by Gerald Collins. He's a young artist and he's a true old school artist,
02:58 meaning he locks himself into his studio basically.
03:01 He basically lives in his studio and breathes and paints and breathes and lives his paint.
03:07 If you enter his space you can really smell the oil paint.
03:11 It's like a passionate, wild way of going at his paintings.
03:15 And these are the most easy on the eye that I brought,
03:18 because his larger scale paintings are gruesome to a lot of people, but not to me.
03:26 I think the next show is with him.
03:28 Yeah, well in May. He has a solo show at the gallery in May.
03:33 Do you intend to go to other art fairs?
03:36 Actually I'm doing the Slick Fair here in Paris as well at the same time.
03:40 At the same time?
03:41 I know. So we're doing both.
03:44 I decided to do both because I like to support alternatives.
03:49 I'm not a fan of big art fairs. They just are not good for art.
03:57 You don't get a chance to look at art properly because you're just overwhelmed.
04:02 I much more like smaller fairs because that way you can really look at art,
04:09 take a day off and go on another fair, look at art, and you will not be overwhelmed.
04:15 There were two fairs and I didn't know.
04:18 I did Slick Fair first and then Show Off came to my attention and I couldn't decide.
04:25 I thought they both were interesting in their own way because they have a different identity.
04:30 And I wanted to support both, so I decided to do both.
04:35 And we just did a year-old six fair in London.
04:39 So we went from one fair to another.
04:42 I think you have the right job because you are capable to organize two fairs at the same time.
04:49 That's great.
04:50 Well, thank you.
04:52 Okay, thank you very much.
04:53 Thank you very much.
04:55 Hope to see you in New York.
04:59 Yeah. Which show are you doing in New York?
05:04 We have a show opening this Thursday.
05:07 Francesco Russo, which is an Italian artist.
05:10 And then we have a show in December with Simon Henwood, a solo show.
05:15 Will you be participating in an art fair?
05:19 After the Slick Fair, I'm going to take a break.
05:22 Okay.
05:24 I need a break.
05:26 Okay, thank you very much.
05:27 Thank you.
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