For artists, MySpace leads to gallery space
By John Guigayoma
Feb. 6, 2008 9:39 p.m.
The tiny crowd at an East-L.A. mini-gallery wanted more, but William Deutsch didn’t have much else to give.
Only a few pictures circling the Internet recounted the show: devilish dragons in melting pastels, a distressed whale with mouth agape, a stained-glass punk altar.
People would ask to see more, and the UCLA 2006 alumnus would shrug his shoulders ““ until he developed heyitswilliam.com, his own little corner of the Internet, complete with portfolio and pictures of his show at Truxtop Gallery nearly two years ago.
Deutsch is a full-fledged Internet art-networker, eager to talk about the art forums in which he posts, the blogs on which he dreams of being featured, his MySpace account and of course, his Web site.
“It’s a way to represent yourself without you being there. It’s a place where people can see what you are about and get in contact with you,” he said. “It’s like the equivalent of an answering machine, but for your artwork.”
Musicians do it: Any group of guys with a drummer and a dream can create a MySpace account and pray a record label requests a tape. Filmmakers do it: A student can post a short film on YouTube and dream a studio rep will give them a call. And artists are no exception, vying for attention from galleries or companies looking for fresh designs and illustrations.
But while the boundary-breaking world of the Internet gives artists a greater chance of being recognized, it poses a few tricky questions for the art world itself.
Make a chance
As many artists can tell you, creating art is one thing; it’s another thing to sell it.
The traditional money-making goal for an emerging artist involves gallery representation, meaning a gallery picks up an artist and acts as both promoter and agent. Artists hope to establish the right connections to hook up with the right gallery, and galleries hunt down the freshest art that fits the aesthetic philosophy of its space.
Companies also search out works that would be strong images for their products. An illustration could end up as the art on items such as T-shirts, mugs or stationary.
The process can mean years of waiting, but the Internet eliminates the footwork. It unites galleries, stores and artists through keystrokes and mouse clicks, giving many the connections they otherwise would have never had.
Michael C. Hsiung’s success is a product of this. The Koreatown-based artist has gone from post-graduation doodling in his sister’s L.A. apartment to gallery representation, design deals with shoe and skateboard companies, and appearances on blogs and in zines around the world.
His formal training was one high school figure-drawing class, but his first networking tool was Flickr.com, a Yahoo-owned photo-sharing Web site. Founded in 2002, “Flickr” is one of the first Internet forums where artists are able to post their work, and it now has a considerable artist community. After college, Hsiung found himself back in L.A. without a job and eventually expanded his artistic presence on the Internet by exploring other sites.
“I drew a lot of funny people and animals, and we’d all just get a laugh out of it,” Hsiung said.
“My friends would say, “˜You should keep drawing. You should scan some of these and put them in a computer.'”
One important viewer was Leora Lutz, curator and owner of Gallery Revisited in Silver Lake.
“I found Michael’s MySpace, and I was just laughing all the time,” she said about Hsiung’s early illustrations of mermen. “I contacted him, and it turns out he was local, so I let him come in. He brought all his work.”
After showing at the gallery, Hsiung’s relationship with the Internet grew, not to mention his career. He now adds regular updates to his MySpace and Flickr accounts, and he also maintains a blog and personal Web site, michaelchsiung.com.
A more striking example of Internet success is Gallery Revisited artist Ashley Goldberg. Part artist, part blogger, and part businesswoman, she manages to keep a foot in Los Angeles without leaving her home in St. Louis.
Goldberg’s golden ticket is Etsy.com, an online retailer founded in 2005 that specializes in craft products. A couple weeks after putting up a few prints for sale, she only sold around 10, but Lutz sent Goldberg a message through the Web site requesting to meet her and see her work.
Goldberg draws much of her Internet notoriety from kittygenius.com, a blog that advertises her work and follows her daily musings. Between the blog, the gallery, and the prints she sells online, Goldberg was almost able to do what many artists dream of doing: Quit her day job. She only goes in to bartend once a week.
“If an individual makes art and it doesn’t sell, and they are comfortable, that’s great,” she said. “That isn’t me. I’m here to make and sell art.”
The good, the bad – the worse
Gallery Revisited’s tagline is “Accessible Art with Content,” and Lutz follows the motto. The Internet allows her gallery to be an open art space.
She keeps a blog and a MySpace for her gallery, She has searched online for artists. She has a personal Web site for her own art. But while Lutz sees the Internet as an important way to get the gallery to others, she doesn’t see it as the best way to get artists on the walls.
For Lutz and many in the art community, the democratic nature of the Internet means more artists in the spotlight, but a lower quality all around. Blogs post every day, but they don’t always post the best material. Message boards have loads of images, but most of them are nothing of consequence.
“It’s getting a little bit out of control,” she said. “On those Web sites, they’re not being very selective. At some point it becomes a big mess.”
Hsiung and Goldberg are rare exceptions: artists who Lutz came across online and could envision appearing in her gallery.
Another reason for the abundance of low quality art, according to Lutz, is that many young artists just rip off the latest styles online instead of developing their own voices.
“A lot of artists don’t have their own voice, and it’s starting to become too much of the same thing. In the long run that is not good for the artist,” she said. “You need to show your individuality.”
In the end, the hopes remain high for artists who promote their work online, but the chances are still slim. Those who gain huge success from networking on the Web are few and far between, especially when galleries still remain reluctant to take anyone outside the old-school system of making connections face-to-face.
“Even with the Internet, you still have to go to galleries, and (for) most galleries, you send a submission over the Internet and they will gloss over it,” Deutsch said. “The best way is to go to a gallery, meet the people, and drop off your postcards or your work. But I can’t bring everybody to my house to check out my work.”
