Craig Krull of Craig Krull Gallery

Craig Krull is the owner of Craig Krull Gallery, located at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, CA.

When did you first fall in love with the arts? My Mom is an artist, so that is where my interests began.  As a young person, I would sit in her studio having long conversations while she made art.  It was engaging, meditative, peaceful and quietly bonding.  Her love of Pre-Columbian art opened my eyes to that work and to art in general, then it just became a voracious appetite to see and learn about all the arts...Minoan and Manet were first loves.

What was the catalyst for establishing your gallery? Studying art history in college, I was considering teaching, writing, museum work or galleries. When I became director at Ace Gallery in 1985, I started meeting key figures in the artworld on a daily basis and knew this was my future. (Billy Wilder walked in on my first day). Owning one's own gallery allows for one's personal vision to be manifested more immediately than in a museum context. No need to ask permission.

Your exhibits have a focus on “place oriented” works. Can you explain why this theme is particularly relevant to you, and the kind of response you wish to evoke in your audience? I have always been drawn to places.  One of the first questions that I ask an artist is where they are from, where they have been, where they are now.

The poet, Gary Snyder said, "Our place is part of what we are." 

Our climate, community, daily travel patterns, language, culture, historical contexts all combine and sometimes become reflected in who we are and what we make and do.

What do you find most rewarding about the curation process? Curating is rewarding because it affords the opportunity to draw linkages between artists and ideas. One of the great pleasures in operating a gallery is the installation process, deciding what goes where and how unforeseen dialogues start happening between artworks.

A couple of recent curated group exhibitions that I organized included "Narrative Painting in Los Angeles" and "of rope and chain her bones are made." Read the exhibition statements on my website.  Beyond assembling artists and works around a specific theme, these exhibitions also were the basis of a couple dozen new friendships and even new gallery representation of several artists.

What are some of the challenges that you face running a gallery? There are challenges every day. Representing 65 artists who I want nothing more than to please and expose their work to the world is a full time psychological, diplomatic, and inventive process, and constantly thinking about collectors and museums that the work would connect with. Although that part is fully rewarding... The challenging parts can usually be the mundane daily logistics of things like shipping and following up on requests or "favors" from all corners of the art world. One of my mottos is that every situation is different. Every exhibition, every sale, every transaction in the gallery is unique and characterized by its own special context, which of course makes it wonderful, but sometimes challenging because there is no one approach to anything.   

How do you discover the artists that you showcase- do you seek them out or do they come to you? It just happens. If one is curious and has an open mind, the opportunities are boundless. What I do not have is an agenda, or checklist or wishlist, or set of criteria, and I certainly do not hunt - discovery is the right word. And yes, they come to me as well, and that has been going on for years... Luckily they still come, so hopefully that means I am still relevant, but the hardest part of my job has always been saying no to hundreds of artists. The artists that I have represented over the years are like family, so beginning a relationship with an artist goes much deeper than "business."

Do you have future plans for Craig Krull Gallery beyond what it is today? I have been doing this since high school, and operating my own gallery for over 31 years (28 at Bergamot Station). Probably because I like "place", I also like the consistency of my location. Being a native Angeleno and showing LA artists in LA is important to me. I will continue to explore the rapidly expanding art community of Southern California with no other goal in mind but that.

https://www.craigkrullgallery.com/

Om Navon Bleicher of bG Gallery

Om Navon Bleicher is the owner and director of bG Gallery in Santa Monica, CA, focusing on expressive-conceptual, insider-outsider, high-low and figurative-abstract

When did you first fall in love with the arts?

Art has always been something that is a part of me. I think it was seeing a poster of Salvador Dali’s Sleep in junior high, and art classes in high school, where it became a significant ‘other’ external objective for me, towards the end of a lifelong pursuit. 

Running a gallery takes a lot of commitment. How did you come to the decision to open one? 

I was managing a group of artists and dealing with the various ins and outs of showing them in other galleries. It was becoming clear that there was a distinct aspect to their work that would be suited to all being housed under one venue. 

Are there any specific ways in which you hope to influence the art scene?

Less focus on the institution, elitism, esoterism, and in-groupings, and more focus on the art. I’m constantly trying to bridge and dialogue previously disparate elements of the art world, to meld new forms and collaborations. 

Does bG Gallery align with, or differ from, what you originally envisioned it to be?

It’s different. At the start, I focused on my own art preferences, towards highly psychological expressionist work. I was very concerned about how the gallery would be seen as respectable by both critics and art world peers. I didn’t even consider business aspects, think of it in business terms, or more importantly the benefits to the community and the receivers of the art. It took experience and being exposed to other perspectives to switch focus and take into consideration what the vision provides to others. When I took on a new business partner with a keen interest in New Contemporary, they started to change the type of work we focused, and opened my mind to very unique crossovers. Engaging viewers is now a strong goal of the gallery, as well as opening them to work they might not have been open to, by providing an accessible bridge in. 

Can you tell me a little about your intentions with “Gestalt Projects”?

While bG’s represented artists tend to bridge domains within their practice, “Gestalt Projects” give us the opportunity to branch out to more varieties of work. We create an installation or a highly specific theme that allows us to present vastly different fields of art together in a unified show. For example, in our “Endless Horizon” show this August, we will be showing works of all styles that have a strong horizontal line (a horizon line in landscape works or just a line in abstract works). We are lining all these up, and hanging the works close to each other, so that there is a continuous horizon line through the gallery. A photo realistic picture might be hung next to an abstract work hung next to a photograph, for example. 

What do you find most rewarding about gallery directing and curating?

Bringing about a vision of your own art world, infiltrated into the others. 

What are some of the challenges that you face?

A constantly evolving market raising costs of doing business. Finding the right people to fit the artists you serve and vice-versa. COVID-19. 

Are there certain qualities that you look for in artists in deciding whether they will be pleasurable to work with? And on the contrary, any areas for improvement artists should be aware of?

Quality of work. Ease to work with. Potential for sales. These are possibly a triangle, where strength on one side can make up for weakness on the other. Conversely, if one side is missing it will not stand. 

Do you have any specific do’s and don’ts for artists looking to submit their work to you?

Email, then remind me two times so it's fresh on the email chain. Don’t approach to show your work on your phone at receptions or at art fairs. 

Do you have any plans for bG Gallery beyond what it is today?

We are expanding our Modern Masters program, and we are moving more into online modalities to keep the art community alive online during these COVID times. Our goal is to get more exposure for our artists and serve more collectors no matter what shape the frontier takes. 

https://santamonica.bgartdealings.com/