On Saturday, December 16, 2006, the Green Street Gallery held its final annual 150x150 show and Mad Dash. James Hull, who’s run the Green Street Gallery since 1998, and his wife, Donna Veverka, are going to Italy for 5 1/2 months. He's leaving behind the much hallowed space for Heidi Kaiser and Phaedra Shanbaum's Axiom Gallery, which will reopen with iArt: A selection of new works created for pdas on January 12, 2007.
Turnout for this year's Mad Dash was significantly lower this year than in previous years, but only due to a lack of publicity and short notice. Hull had not planned on doing another 150x150 show, so painter Joe Wardwell and several volunteers and artists, who Hull has mentored and shown over the span of the Green Street Gallery’s life, put together a final, one-day-only event. The proceeds of which would cover any remaining debts of the Gallery, give Axiom some start-up money, and once again allow patrons of the arts who typically can’t afford to buy artwork a chance to own something by a local artist.
For the past 8 years, 150x150 has been the main source of funding for the Green Street Gallery. Up 150 artists would donate an artwork to the gallery and each of those 150 pieces would be sold for $150.00, hence the show’s title. Typically, the show would open for a preview period when prospective buyers could seek out a piece they wanted, and a date would be set for a first-come, first-serve race to those works when the gallery opened its doors. This door opening was aptly titled the Mad Dash as patrons were said to have lined up as early as 6am to have first crack at dashing for the piece they wanted. Among early arrival, other less civil tactics were used in vying for the piece one desired. Waiting in line this year was John Guthrie, a painter from Boston, who talked about how he has pushed people out of his way during previous dashes in order to ensure he got the pieces he wanted.
It is not surprising that images from a Mad Dash would hearken back to the opening of Saudi Arabia’s first Ikea, as in past Dashes, any buyer—if they woke up early enough, or were fast enough—could get their hands on a Laylah Ali or Kanishka Raja for a mere $150. This year, some of the pieces that went within the first few seconds of the Dash were Jane D. Marsching, Steve Aishman, Deb Todd Wheeler, Morgan Cohen, and a work in smoke by Sheila Gallagher, similar to her works currently up at the ICA Prize finalist’s exhibition.
Links:
Green Street Gallery
"150x150" was on view December 16, 2006 at Green Street Gallery.
All images are courtesy of the Green Street Gallery.
-
- Not-particularly-timely photos of James Hull (top) and Joe Wardwell (bottom).
