Aaron Flint Jamison

With stored works by Yuji Agematsu, Liz Deschenes, Aaron Flint Jamison, Sam Lewitt, Scott Lyall, Jean-Luc Moulène, Florian Pumhösl, R. H. Quaytman, Raha Raissnia, Jimmy Raskin, Blake Rayne, Pamela Rosenkranz, and Hans Bellmer & James Metcalf

For my second exhibition at Miguel Abreu Gallery [1], I have proposed a multi-part project. The first aspect brings into the exhibition spaces all available works by gallery artists that are currently housed in offsite storage facilities leased by the gallery. I have secured the terms for inclusion of stored works from the following artists: Yuji Agematsu, Liz Deschenes, (myself), Sam Lewitt, Scott Lyall, Jean-Luc Moulène, Florian Pumhösl, R. H. Quaytman, Raha Raissnia, Jimmy Raskin, Blake Rayne, and Pamela Rosenkranz. These artists’ works will remain in their packaging in the galleries at the 88 Eldridge Street location, while works of scale will be brought to the 36 Orchard Street location and remain in their respective crates or bins. The differentiation between offsite storage and onsite storage is crucial. The gallery’s current offsite facilities are:

● American Self Storage, Brooklyn: five units

● SOS/Flexible Warehousing, New Jersey: three units

● DAD Trucking, Inc., Bronx: one unit

● Boone Ave, Bronx: one unit

Miguel Abreu Gallery also maintains multiple storage rooms at 88 Eldridge Street and 36 Orchard Street in downtown Manhattan. The second part of the exhibition makes accessible the works stored in the gallery’s onsite facilities, which is where the majority of the gallery’s inventory is kept. Each of these onsite storage areas will be open and available to audiences for viewing stored work during the run of the exhibition.

Three hundred and seventy-three works, wrapped for storage, by the aforementioned artists will be on view. Moreover, if an audience member would like to see any particular work unpacked during the course of the exhibition, because of convenient location, any work is viewable upon request. Audience members are encouraged to speak to one of the gallery’s directors to make arrangements for such viewings.

The floorplans below [see printed press release] highlight the seven rooms of onsite storage as well as the exhibition spaces.

Additionally, I have written a piece of software for cataloging and tracking the locations of the gallery’s stored works. During the course of this exhibition, each of these works will be tagged with a location-tracking device, and the collected data will populate a database. The system will generate regular reports about the locations of each work, their inevitable movements, and assist the registrar and other gallery staff members in managing the inventory. The gallery currently uses the popular database management software ArtBase to account for its consigned assets. This proprietary program is a graphic user interface skin on top of the popular FileMaker Pro database program for the Macintosh platform. Instead of storing information on offsite cloud-based servers, the gallery chooses to store its data locally on an array of redundant disks.

Moreover, during the run of the show, a conservator will unpack the stored works one-by-one to produce condition reports and update the gallery’s records accordingly. The enterprise of Miguel Abreu Gallery currently employs eleven full time and three part time individuals. It hired its first full-time registrar in 2015.

In conjunction with the above components of the show, I have made a new body of work which will be on view alongside work by other artists represented by the gallery at Frieze Art Fair, London, October 5–8, 2017.

Finally, I have worked with the gallery to secure a single lease to store its inventory at a more centralized site that would be expandable for its future needs. With gallery staff, I have begun designing the architecture, climate control, and storage systems for this new location.

1 - Founded in 2006, the gallery has produced a total of 88 exhibitions at its two current locations. To date, it has participated in 30 art fairs. Miguel Abreu Gallery has hosted numerous events in conjunction with these exhibitions. The inaugural roster of the gallery included a number artists who have relationships with the gallerist that date to graduate school in the 1990s at the California Institute of the Arts. Since its onset, the gallery has not used consignment contracts nor asked artists to sign their respective certificates of authenticity of works transacted.