Pacific Artists in the Fine Art Market
by: Elaine Monds
Figure 6.1. Cletus Maiban Smank our friend and guide on many Sepik adventures, beginning in 1984. Photograph by Dan Lepsoe, 2008.
The aim of this paper is to describe the development and methods of a gallery that exhibits and markets artwork created exclusively by contemporary indigenous artists from the Pacific Rim. The art we are privileged to display ranges from wood and metal sculpture through a wide array of graphic work on paper and canvas. Here, I will discuss the various avenues we have explored to showcase the work, educate the public about it, promote it in the fine art market, and ensure that art-making is an attractive and sustainable livelihood.
The gallery’s geographical position on Vancouver Island, home to the great artistic traditions of the Coast Salish, Kwakwaka’wakw, and Nuu-chah-nulth nations, has made it possible to create a gallery that works solely with aboriginal cultures. Our efforts are focused on the Pacific and the Pacific Rim, and are aimed at representing these artists by showing their work with dignity, respect, and attention to cultural protocol. The vibrant cultural and artistic revival that has happened along the Northwest Coast (NWC) of Canada during the past thirty years has demonstrated that traditional arts can be given a contemporary face. During this time, Canadian First Nations artists have experienced a revival of ceremonial life, which in turn has necessitated creation of finely made sculpture and regalia. The corresponding demand for individual artistic excellence has made it increasingly inappropriate for outsiders to view their creations as artifacts rather than art. There has developed an established audience in Europe and North America who appreciates and collects these works.
Over a similar time frame, the gallery has worked to alter the common perception that contemporary arts from tribal societies are remnants of the past rather than dynamic creations from living and vibrant cultures.
Which Cultures to Represent?
I was born in Australia, and spent my early years in East Africa. The experience of growing up there has enriched my life and heightened my awareness and interest in aboriginal peoples wherever I have lived. My interest in Oceanic art began thirty years ago, when I had the opportunity to see, and subsequently exhibit, Sepik artwork from a private collection in Vancouver. In those days, the public paid little attention to any kind of indigenous art, but the fascination I felt for these artworks led me to visit Papua New Guinea in 1984. During my travels, I visited the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea (PNG), and was fortunate to meet Cletus Maiban Smank [fig. 6.1]. Originally from Tambanum village, Cletus was an excellent guide and a carver with a wide knowledge of the varied artistic styles of the Sepik region. Since this visit, I have returned many times to Papua New Guinea. With the invaluable assistance of a network of master carvers, Alcheringa Gallery has assembled collections from a number of Sepik artists. On subsequent trips, ongoing relationships were established with traditional carvers in New Ireland and urban artists in Port Moresby (Lincoln and Monds 1993, Monds and Tutton 1996). The gallery has curated over thirty exhibitions including PNG artists to date. Alcheringa is most strongly associated with wood sculpture, but the importance of paintings and fine art prints of virtually every technique imaginable has been steadily developing.In an effort to broaden the viewing audience and maximize exhibition space, we have on occasion hosted exhibitions in collaboration with other galleries who usually exhibit mainstream artists. Further expansion of our client base occurred from 1989 to 1997, when Derek Simpkins Gallery of Tribal Art, a leading private gallery in Vancouver, hosted exhibitions of the work of Sepik and New Ireland carvers that Alcheringa Gallery had selected on field trips. Prior to the development of the Internet, these exhibitions presented important
opportunities to educate the public about an art form that was new to them. These collaborations were a key success factor in developing the market.
In 1989, Aboriginal Australia became part of the gallery collection. Gordon Grimwade, an anthropologist friend working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait artists at the Tafe College in Cairns, suggested that Alcheringa and The Gallery of Tribal Art co-host an exhibition of their paintings. Andrew Williams, one of the participating Torres Strait artists, was able to attend and conducted a workshop for children. Although the artists were disappointed by relatively poor sales of their work, the show created enormous interest and a base for the future. Spurred by this introductory exhibition, I satisfied a long-held desire to explore remote places in the land of my birth. In 1990, I travelled by air and four-wheel drive vehicle through remote settlements in the Western Desert, Arnhem Land, and the Cape York Peninsula. The network established as a result of this journey made it possible to respond to a request in 1994 from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria to curate an Aboriginal Australian exhibition as part of the cultural festival associated with the Commonwealth Games.
Northwest Coast art has also been a core part of the gallery since 1989. Its inclusion was a natural choice, given our location and the many exciting artistic developments accompanying NWC cultural revitalization.
Though we represent some artists from other traditions (the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Métis, and Cree) and are often approached with opportunities to expand our portfolio, our small staff has found it necessary to focus on a few core regions in order to be able to represent them well.