In a year gone topsy-turvy, one tradition has held fast at Sullivan Goss-An American Gallery on East Anapamu Street: the 12th annual “100 GRAND” exhibition and sale, featuring 108 quality works of art for $1,000 or less.
The event continues through Dec. 28.
“The exhibition has become an incubator of emerging talent, an entryway for beginning collectors, a holiday celebration in the art community and an ever timely reminder that everyone’s life is improved by the addition of original works of art,” said Susan Bush, contemporary curator at the gallery.
The paintings, drawings, photographs, assemblage and sculpture by emerging and established artists are priced to sell and sized (for the most part) to fit into smaller spaces.
“For this year’s exhibition, I was able to secure work from many of last year’s best-selling artists, but there are more than a dozen new artists who have never before shown with Sullivan Goss,” Ms. Bush said.
Those who are new to the “100 GRAND” exhibition include Alyssa Beccue, Sophia Beccue, Wendy Brewer, Kelly Clause, Yumiko Glover, Lynn Hanson, Peter Horjus, Wosene Worke Kosrof, Jordan Marshall, Chris Rupp, Mary Dee Thompson, Veronica Walmsley, Joyce Wilson and Sarah Yerkes.
“Often the gallery will use the exhibition as a proving ground to see what new ideas, aesthetics, materials or artists will find an audience. With ‘100 GRAND,’ new and younger collectors can begin to acquire and learn about original art from a serious gallery at an affordable price,” said Ms. Bush.
“With emerging artists, collectors get an opportunity to ‘get in on the ground floor.’ For the gallery’s regular roster of successful, mid-career artists, collectors get an opportunity to buy works below market rate. For these reasons, sales are usually brisk.”
Among these artists are Whitney Brooks Abbott, Meredith Brooks Abbott, Ken Bortolazzo, Phoebe Brunner, Chris Chapman, Patricia Chidlaw, Tom Dewalt, Jon Francis, Robin Gowen, Susan McDonnell, John Nava, Angela Perko, Hank Pitcher, Leslie Lewis Sigler,, Sarah Vedder and Michele Zuzalek.
Everything is on the website, www.sullivangoss.com, and those who wish to inspect the work in person are let in between six and 10 people at a time. Works are spaced farther apart to facilitate social distancing, and masks are mandatory.
“Last year, the gallery was astonished to see that almost 40% of the exhibition sold on the first day,” said Ms. Bush. “By the end of the 1st Thursday opening a few days later, the gallery had almost sold 50% of the works. Obviously, 1st Thursdays are suspended until we beat this novel coronavirus.”