PULSE Art Fair launches With Enormous Success in Miami:
High Attendance and Remarkable Sales Results
10-13 March 2006
PULSE Art Fair
PULSE New York to run concurrently with The Armory Show, March 10-13, 2006
69th Regiment Armory at 26th Street and Lexington Avenue
For more information about PULSE, please visit www.pulse-art.com or call (212) 255-2327.
Within hours of opening its doors for the first time in Miamis Wynwood district on December 1, 2005, PULSE art fair was already on its way to being an overwhelming success, even with nominal corporate sponsorship and intense competition. 7,200 attendees, about 40 percent more than expected, visited the PULSE tent, where 49 galleries were exhibiting, including 11 galleries in the IMPULSE section. Enthusiastic collectors, including Michael and Susan Hort, Beth Rudin de Woody, Neuberger Berman and Steve Wynn, among many others, attended PULSE during the preview while major and younger collectors alike continued to pour in over the following days. Overall, exhibitors, collectors, curators and critics raved about the gallery selection, the crowds, and notable sales results. According to Robert Mann, owner of Robert Mann Gallery, It was a fabulous first year for PULSE, the excitement from collectors, curators, and colleagues participating in other fairs was extraordinary.
Based on other exhibitor reports, sales proved significantly strong throughout the fair and final sales at PULSE are estimated to be over 4 million dollars. According to Susan Reynolds of Feigen Contemporary, who presented works by Matthew McCaslin, Jeremy Blake and others: I heard from many collectors that PULSE had a unique character and energy, and we sold works by most of the artists represented in our booth. Michael Schultz, a German gallery, had sold out its booth by noon, with paintings by Cornelia Schleime and SEO snatched up immediately.
PULSE proved that there is a popular market in the middle ground between the established and the alternative fairs, and collectors emphasized that they had enjoyed the mix of well-known and younger galleries that participated, as well as the smaller, friendlier and more accessible format of the fair in comparison with the overwhelming number of galleries presented at most other fairs.
One fact that came as a surprise to many was that many exhibitors had done equally as well, if not better, at PULSE as they did at more established fairs in previous years. For instance, Ernst Hilger was just as successful at PULSE as he was at Art Basel Miami Beach last year, perhaps even more so once follow-up sales are finalized. Parkers Box did better at PULSE than at Frieze, and Michael Schultz confirmed that he had achieved more during the four-day PULSE Art Fair than at Art Basel Miami Beach for three years. Among other enthusiastic dealers were Mark Moore from Santa Monica who sold out works by Christoph Schmidberger, Daniel Dove and Allison Schulnik. In the words of Director Max Presneill, PULSE Miami ranks as the most successful art fair the gallery has ever done, on all levels (sales, exhibitions, and prospects) in the 25 year history of the gallery, which includes The Armory Show, NADA Miami, Art Chicago, and Art Cologne, to name a few.
Additional highlights at PULSE include noteworthy sales by Yancey Richardson who sold a Bernd and Hilla Becher typology and seven rare photographs by Julius Schulman. FRED of London sold a collage by Simon English to the Louisiana Museum of Art in Denmark, and at Conner Contemporary, photographs by Julee Holcombe were selling fast. We had to remove them from the booth, said Leigh Conner. People kept asking and they were all gone!. DCKT Contemporary sold two works by up and coming artist Exene Cervenka, to both a trustee of MOMA and a trustee of The Whitney Museum of Art the first day of the fair. It was the first time her works were sold. Overall, the gallery made thirty percent of its annual sales at PULSE.
The PULSE tent was strategically located in Miamis burgeoning art district, Wynwood, only blocks away from the Rubell Collection, the Margulies Collection, MOCAs new Goldman Warehouse, as well as Ella Cisneross CIFO, Locust Projects and the new Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery. Undoubtedly, this brought extra traffic to the fair and made it one of the most accessible and well-attended events on the somewhat overwhelming calendar of collectors and art world professionals.
The 2005-2006 PULSE Invitational Committee was comprised of an international roster of curators, gallerists, and dealers, including Natasha Boas (San Francisco-based Independent Curator), Catharine Clark (Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco), Valérie Cueto (Galerie Valérie Cueto, Paris), Andrew Mummery (Andrew Mummery Gallery, London), Janet Phelps (New York-based Independent Curator), (Margaret Thatcher (Thatcher Projects, New York), Ken Tyburski (DCKT Contemporary, New York), Gwénolée Zürcher (Galerie Zürcher, Paris), and Pavel Zoubok (Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York).
PULSE New York
The success behind PULSE Miami is expected to continue with PULSE New York, which will run concurrently with The Armory Show in New York, March 10-13, 2006, and will be held at the 69th Regiment Armory Building, at 26th Street and Lexington Avenue. The fair will run every day from Noon to 8PM. PULSE New York will have a larger number of participants than PULSE Miami, hosting around 60 galleries, among which Aliceday (Brussels), Mizuma Art Gallery (Tokyo), Andrew Mummery (London), PPOW (New York), Schroeder Romero (New York), Torch (Amsterdam), and Galerie Zürcher (Paris). The final list of exhibitor list will be published in January 2006.
For more information about PULSE, please visit www.pulse-art.com or call (212) 255-2327.
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Media Contact:
Antoine Vigne or Lucy Toole
Blue Medium, New York
T: 212-675-1800
E: lucy@bluemedium.com
