Bravo casting to wind down this weekend

NBC affiliate company Bravo is making a stab into the arts. Like their housewives and fashion niche programming, they believe they will find the next great fine artist. Called "Untitled Art Project", the show hopes to uncover great talent in painting, sculpture, photography or the digital formats loosely titled as New Media.

Casting has been going on for the past week in LA, MIAMI and today/tomorrow in New York City. Details are at Bravo's site.

CAVET EMPTOR to applicants - the art world will have a hard time accepting the drama that is expected out of this show without legitimate backing of more than flash in the pan celebs acting as de-facto purveyers of the arts.

5 tents, a VIP section and no attendees in the Hamptons?

According to Bloomberg TV, Art Hamptons held in Bridgehampton was under attended and marginal at best. From our beat on the street, the
Saturday attendance was far from the claim that the "mini-Art Basel" was
now summering near the vineyards. Sure Tesla Motors might have been
hawking it's ware's to a crowd proud of their Bugati's, Aston's and even
Toyota Solara convertibles - yep the summer car for some on the tip of
America's societal scene (with all fairness there probably was a zip-car
sticker on a few of those convertibles for the neighborhood's visitors
and share goers).

The art on the walls - and those that shifted from one gallery to
another is what really counts for the advancement of collecting fine art
and the posturing of the next great artist movement. While we can't
assume much success with The Historical Society's art auction, the
galleries and dealers put on their classic, expected show face
"everything is going great." There were actually some great finds in
this era of "can anyone find the lost wealth of the Jones."

Chicago based artist Gregory Scott has done an exquisite job for the
advancement of "New Media". While Hockney cut his media to create
perspective, Gregory is actually a part of the perspective. He has shot
a gorgeous photograph of a scene which includes his own painting. Other
artists have done this technique as a method of paying homage to earlier
inspiration. What set's Gregory's works apart is the use of video and
the ability to engage interactively - aka experiential art. Scott
embeds a cleverly crafted video into the painting which is part of the
photograph. His connection at Art Hamptons: a colleague and show
contemporary - The Catherine Edelman Gallery. Catherine correctly
demonstrated how photography, painting and video are combined into a
series of works worthy of any collection - select works as editions sold
over the weekend. The new media movement is an electrifying experience
that can further diversify your fine art holdings.

The Investment Argument of New Media

With today's continued concern for financial stability, some art should be looked at for it's long term value.

First and foremost when an artist, dealer or gallery can only claim a high sticker price for a non-credentialed artist or body of work, kindly say thank you but no thanks. That "it's a great investment or it's for charity" means typically "head for the hills." The bubble in assets has burst for many asset classes including in the arts generally. Is now the time to buy - absolutely.

What countless downturns have demonstrated is, like a stock, the chaf fall hard and those of substance, those with an ability to capture the world around us and make us relate and react ultimately create a new movement. The movement before us is New Media.

Don't be fooled - there have been predecessors to new media in the fine arts. Warhol, Hockney, Katz, Max, Agam, Vasarely, Wesselmann, Dali and Leichtenstein are the new basis to many new media artists. The pop art, op-art and surreal movement while somewhat tired is found in New Media.

When an artist embeds painting and photography into one - this is only new media when it comes alive electrically - and in rare or unique editions. When a sculptor or glass blower shoots a photo of the main work and frames it as an extension of the main work - this is not New Media (recycled media is perhaps a better definition). Ultimately the ease of an artist's ability to extend the main work's concept is no different than a block buster film promoting itself with countless sponsor goodies in a box for the masses.

The key in turbulent financial and art waters - credibility and skill perfected over an extended period of time - usually a lifetime. Investment art does exist - typically when artist are long gone. Consider a Warhol soup can screened onto a shopping bag over a tryptic of books photographed and then framed as fine art.

Warhol underwater at Thompson Lower East Side, New York