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Neuroesthetics & Artists as Brain Scientists

Written by Art News
This year I finally relented and bought myself an iPod. It's easily the best gadget I have ever bought and I really don't know how I lived without one for 33 years! I love it because I can take my whole music collection anywhere, it shuts off the outside world while working in the studio, and when I'm at the PC I am always listening to podcasts and lectures. The best podcasts haven't necessarily been art podcasts either, they have been podcasts on the mind, nature, spirituality, and business. One podcast which I always look forward to listening to is All in the Mind by Natasha Mitchell. In her latest episode (which can be downloaded Here, even if you hate music and don't own an iPod yet) she talks about neuroesthetics and an exhibition at London's Hayward gallery called Walking in My Mind.
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Dealers decamping to vacation spots to score sales

Written by Brook S. Mason

With the rich on the move, the galleries aren’t far behind

Beaches, sea breezes and deep-pocketed collectors on holiday are luring some Manhattan dealers to set up seasonal outposts in the Hamptons, on the eastern shore of Long Island.

“I’d wanted a gallery in East Hampton for years but the rents were too high and I couldn’t get the location I wanted. But now with reduced rents, opening here in May was a no brainer,” says Bernard Goldberg, a dealer of 40 years’ standing.

These days, the recession has markedly changed the landscape where Jon Bon Jovi, Steven Spielberg and Martha Stewart summer alongside artists Chuck Close, Eric Fischl and April Gornik. Mansions linger on the market, while rents for prime commercial properties have dived. Rent for the new gallery Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts is in the $100-$125 per square foot range. “A year ago, the rents were $200 a square foot,” says Mr Goldberg, whose premises are just steps away from Hermès and other luxury boutiques.

His new quarters have already scored considerable interest, with a Noguchi 1926 plaster portrait bust, an Archipenko 1948 terracotta sculpture and a Charles Burchfield work on paper on hold, with one reserved by a southern museum and prices from $85,000 to $450,000. "So far clients are wealthy collectors from New York, Palm Beach, California and elsewhere," says Mr Goldberg. "The reaction is always the same. We didn't think we would find this quality in the Hamptons. On the other hand, our New York gallery is totally quiet, with sometimes one visitor a week, whereas here I have 20 to 30 clients a day."

Jeffrey du Vallier d’Aragon Aranita abandoned ship for Hawaii, leaving a string of debts behind him

The founder of the short-lived Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) China in Hong Kong left the country soon after the museum opened last autumn, leaving behind massive debts, several sources confirm. Jeffrey du Vallier d’Aragon Aranita, a realist painter, registered the non-profit in 2007 and announced plans to establish a network of non-profit MoCAs throughout China that would share collections and programming. Art experts at the time were sceptical that he could secure private funding for even one museum, but on 3 October 2008 MoCA China opened in a 7,500 sq. ft second-floor space in a shopping mall in Hong Kong’s commercial Causeway Bay district. After three months and three shows, MoCA ran out of money and the space closed on 19 January 2009. Szewan Leung, a Hong Kong art consultant who served as artistic director of MoCA China, says that weeks after the inauguration Mr Aranita fled to Hawaii, ostensibly to receive medical treatment, leaving debts of more than HK$2m ($258,000) that he has refused to settle and has since broken off contact with his creditors.

Ms Leung, who says she was romantically involved with Mr Aranita until they separated in May 2008, says that as the only legal partner in the organisation she was left to deal with the creditors. The largest is MoCA’s former landlord G.O.D., the company that operates the Delay No Mall shopping centre, with whom Mr Aranita signed a lease “with his personal guarantee”, says Ms Leung. Benjamin Lau, a representative of the company, says that after a rent-free period MoCA paid no rent. “We had no choice but to terminate their lease as Jeffrey had left town without responding to our payment demands,” he says, adding that the outstanding amount is “below HK$1m [$129,000]”. “We have filed legal proceedings against MoCA China in the district court in Hong Kong and in April the court ruled a judgment in our favour,” he says, but declined to provide further details.