Combine: An Art Fair

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Griffin Art Projects, "Combine Art Fair," 2020

COMBINE: AN ART FAIR CONVERSATION | COMMUNITY | CONVIVIALITY

A collaboration between Franc Gallery – Griffin Art Projects - Monica Reyes Gallery - Unit 17 – Wil Aballe Art Projects

At Griffin Art Projects Residency, 1180 Welch Street, North Vancouver, BC, V7P 1B2

The closure of national and international art fairs globally due to Covid-19, provides an opportunity to reconsider art economies and solidarities.  This project features four young Vancouver galleries and finds within a collaborative model, ways to think together to imagine how such impacts can result in exploring the fissures and sites of opportunity that this unprecedented moment represents, to ask: How are we now working? What do proximities mean at this time? How do we express and experiment with the idea of collaboration as opposed to being in ‘competition’?

COMBINE art fair also features an online public program that explores new ecologies in gallery, artist and art fair cultures. Accompanied by an onsite exhibition at Griffin residency, Ecologies of Resilience.

Overview

 At this particular moment of COVID-19, within the Vancouver art ecosystem, there are many interdependent parts: artists, collectors, galleries, non-profits and institutions. All of them are relevant. We need each other to thrive to keep the ecosystem healthy. Galleries are important in the nurturing phase for artists, as well as the nurturing of young collectors. The four galleries featured in COMBINE art fair provide an access point for great new art that is being made on the West Coast while keeping the conversation going with the more seasoned collectors who want to continue learning about new voices in the local scene (and beyond).

COMBINE, held at Griffin Art Projects—an important collector-driven institution on the West Coast—is an event where galleries combine in support of collectors of contemporary art by coming together in the same space at the same time.  At a moment when travelling to separate spaces to see work may be challenging, we offer a new collaborative experiment and model.

The long-term aim of this initiative and our work as collaborators, is to foster the development of confident collectors in the city, who use their own instincts and insights as they navigate the art works they encounter and acquire, and are aware of the importance of their patronage in supporting artists (and their galleries) in Vancouver. Although all galleries represent artists at every stage of their career, both artists and gallerists also benefit from such support at the early stages in their career. Ultimately, we are all here, collectors and galleries, to support artists who serve our community.

 Griffin will host four progressive Vancouver gallerists onsite throughout the residency spaces in May 2021, for a collaborative venture. Wil Aballe Art Projects, Unit 17, Monica Reyes Gallery and Franc Gallery will work with Griffin to create an Art Fair, developed to support younger galleries who have been impacted by Covid-19 through the suspension of art fairs globally. The project also provides a ‘cross-fertilization’ with new audiences for all. Griffin will work with the galleries to promote the event and develop a safe onsite plan that follows COVID-19 protocols. The galleries will be located in the two studio areas while Griffin will curate an exhibition of gallery artists in the ‘bedroom’ space that will be transformed into a small gallery for this occasion. The overall project, which will be held in the residency area, is intended to create an exciting new alternative event that supports our local art community during these challenging times.

Exhibition: Ecologies of Resilience. Based on the idea of the Decameron, the famous medieval novel written during the time of a global pandemic, the exhibition posits conviviality and storytelling as a main locus. Each of the artists will show how solidarities, empathy and conviviality can result in the sharing, and the necessary reshaping of, narratives and of histories.