Innovation will not be stopped
Although we often want to change what we do in our work, our audience isn’t always accepting. Sometimes, it is a wrong turn on our creative road, and audience feedback can be good. But other times, we take the off-ramp for a town called innovation.
I opened my gallery in 2004. I started with exhibiting photography. That’s what I knew, and that’s what I had been known for. For a writer, it’s “write what you know.” It makes sense. But what if you grow, trying new things, exposed to new experiences, and all these things lead you to see your practice differently.
In 2005, I started showing media other than photography. Gasp! This started with the collages of Stephen Aldrich* and the drawings of Richard Anthony Martinez. These two artists might appear at odds to what I was doing in photography, but this was not the case.
Aldrich was the good friend of the photographer Frederick Sommer. At first, Aldrich would have his collages photographed for presentation, just like Sommer did. Eventually, he showed the collages themselves.
Martinez’s very subjects were film and photography…playing with backdrops and classic photography posturing. What it means to photograph and to be photographed.
I really turned heads in 2006 with Purfle. An exhibition of artists Elissa Levy and Cal Lane, working in felt and steel, respectively. Cal was later curated into a show at the Museum of Art and Design (pictured above) and an exhibition I helped curate in Peekskill, NY (pictured below).
All of this “innovation” to my program was leading somewhere unexpected. It was a new component whose foundation characteristic was cutting. This was true with Elissa and Cal, both cutting patterns into existing material.
In later years, this would the involve cutting and folding of paper and photography best seen with exhibiting artists Simon Schubert and Bradley Castellanos.
What I am saying to you is this: do not fear innovation, adding to what you already do or changing mediums altogether. The links and threads in your work will be there. They may not be obvious at first, but the observant will see them.
Don’t be afraid to go down a new path. Maybe it’s not a medium change, but a subject change. There are a long list of photographers who have changed things up. Maybe it’s time to make that change.
* My friend and artist Stephen Aldrich recently passed away. A true innovator and gentle soul, Stephen will be missed by many whose lives he touched with his work and friendship.
This October, Elinor Carucci and I will be offering our workshop,
Perfect Match: The Gallerist/Artist Relationship, Placing Your Work In The Fine Art World
If you are a photographer who would like to learn innovative ways to approach galleries and have a better understanding what to expect when you work with one, Elinor and I offer decades of combined experience to help you along the way.
Our next workshop begins on October 11, 2021.
Michael Foley opened his gallery in the fall of 2004 after fourteen years of working with notable photography galleries, including Fraenkel Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery, and Yancey Richardson Gallery.
In 2002, Foley continued his interest in educating and working with artists by serving on the School of Visual Arts and International Center of Photography faculty. He currently teaches and lectures on contemporary photography issues at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
In 2020, he founded The Photo Community, which offers classes and commentary on contemporary photography.
Foley lives and works on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.