John Connell exhibit at Dwight Hackett Projects, 2009
Dwight Hackett Projects to Cease Exhibitions
Dwight Hackett Projects, one of Santa Fe’s leading contemporary exhibit galleries, will cease hosting public exhibitions this year, AdobeAirstream has learned. Asked to comment publicly on reports by artists and art professionals in Santa Fe that the gallery would close, Jenifer Hackett stated in an email, “We will continue to deal privately.”
The gallery’s exhibitions closure follows on several other significant losses to Santa Fe’s contemporary gallery landscape in 2010: Linda Durham Contemporary Art closed after a 30-year exhibit history, and Launch Projects – a more recent but substantial program devoted to emerging artists and projects – also closed last spring.
Dwight Hackett Projects in Santa Fe has hosted exhibits by leading international artists including James Drake, Harmony Hammond and Terry Allen, all of whom live in Santa Fe. It has also featured exhibits by the late Jay de Feo, by Barry Le Va and by Cranbrook professor Heather McGill, whose exhibit, No Object is an Island: New Dialogues with the Cranbrook Collection, can be seen at the Cranbrook Museum of Art through March 25, 2012.
Prior to launching an art gallery, Dwight Hackett ran The Foundry, which he established in 1980 as a venue for leading artists to come to Santa Fe and cast editions. The group has included Bruce Nauman, Kiki Smith, Richard Tuttle and Rachel Whiteread, among others. The gallery has been located off Siler Road in south Santa Fe at the former Foundry location, for its history. As Linda Yablonsky reported in the New York Times, it was one of the must-stops on the biennial weekend circuit in 2004, when Rob Storr curated “Our Grotesque” at SITE Santa Fe.
Featured Image: John Connell exhibit at Dwight Hackett Projects, 2009
There is one primary reason why galleries close – fewer sales. Many galleries have continued to hold on, but I don’t see a change on the horizon. Unfortunately, art fairs have also taken a larger slice of the pie. As a gallery owner in Marfa, all I can say is that it is a struggle. Whether inde/jacobs willl be around in one or two years, who knows? I can’t survive by tourists alone. I understand that the dynamics of selling art is changing and we are experiencing a tremendous cutback in discretionary spending. One final comment: I have had many people visiting Marfa express their disappointment that there are fewer galleries than before. I have never asked these people the following, but … “Do you intend on buying any art?”
Vilis, thank you for the comment. THought you might be interested in this PDF which I am preparing to post about later this week.
http://skatepress.com/files/Skates_Annual_Art_Investment_Report_2011_part_1.pdf
It was called Art Foundry not The Foundry.
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