The crowd at Select
Crowding was only the start of issues at the SELECT art fair’s grand opening Wednesday night. We waited in line for 45 minutes outside Center548, the old Dia building, before skipping to the front as press. When we did, we saw collectors being told they needed to wait in line with everyone else. No one bothered checking our credentials when we arrived. We enjoyed the special treatment for press, but when collectors are being told they need to stand in line for an hour it seems inappropriate and unfair to the galleries.
The problem, it seems, stems from the fair’s policy of sending out VIP passes to virtually anyone on their mailing list. There’s simply no way for the door to identify collectors, thus enraging visitors, reports The Art Newspaper. “I’ve already lost two collectors, you need to let people in!” yelled one dealer from the doorway. We contacted the fair for comment earlier in the day, but they have not returned our emails.
UPDATE: Curator and Co-Founder Brian Whiteley issued the following statement over email:
We allow each gallery to bring the artists they are showing and to provide us with names for their VIPs. – 25 max. We also have a VIP sign up online that we vet. – for collectors, museum folk and press.
To be perfectly frank, we’ve never had issues with our VIP night in the past., they’ve been well attended but nothing compared to this years New York show.I am guessing the reason for us reaching capacity so quickly was that I focused a lot of my curation on Brooklyn, and New York in general. The local galleries brought out almost all of their VIPs and artists alike. We additionally at SELECT sent out to 1200 additional VIPs…This was truly a new experience for us at SELECT, and we are looking to streamline things for the next editions.
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I suppose crowded is stil a good thing? Maybe I’m wrong, ultimately…. Who knows?
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