Bemis Auction recap

Last Saturday night Niz and I attended the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts' 11th Annual Art Auction. This was my first experience with the auction - as both a contributing artist and attendee - having let a general apathy for galleries (and dislike of openings) keep me away since I became aware of the auction a couple years ago. I had always assumed the auction was very Art with a capital "A", and only open to Omaha's wealthiest clientele. I think I'm a little right about both of those things, but I had a great time and the crowd represented a wide swath of the metro-area.

The event itself was very well put together and gave donors and artists alike a huge spread of grilled veggies, bread, dips, lamb lollipops (yum!) wine, beer and even a pasta bar to complement the art. By the time we left, just prior to the live auction, things were getting stuffy. There were points throughout the night that it was a little difficult to maneuver some of the gallery space because of the swell of attendees and shear volume of work covering the walls and floor spaces. With silent auctions, it's not uncommon to see work packed in close together, and that was definitely the case here. I wondered if the volume of work would counteract competition in bidding, and thus drive sales prices down. Judging from the Bemis Center's own recap, which called this year's auction the most lucrative ever, that didn't seem to be the case. That's a good thing for everybody, especially the Bemis's Residency Program, which is the main benefactor of the auction.

So what about the art? Well, I was amazed at the level represented by the work itself. There was stuff from some big, established national names (Dale Chihuly, North Platte Native Roy De Forest and Tony Berlant, among a big scoop of others). A healthy dose of Omaha transplants (Sean Ward, Mark Gilbert, Jun Kaneko, etc.) and past and current Bemis residents (including my two favorites since I've been there, Cody Vanderkay and Lori LaRusso) were also well represented. But it seemed like local work filled the most space in the 3 silent auction galleries, as well as a good portion of the live auction.

I've heard tales of a time when the Bemis Center wasn't always as friendly to the locals as it has seemed during my involvement over the past few years. You wouldn't know that now. It would be easy to say I have a bias, since I wouldn't have a workshop without them. But the Bemis's support for the Kent Bellows Studio & Center for the Visual Arts while it establishes itself seems to be a great way to impact local youth art development without taking on the capacity demands of a full-fledged and traditional education program.

To me, however, the true indication of local support is reflected in the breadth and level of work represented by Omaha artists in the auction, including work from Bemis staff members Matt Lowe and Joel M!ghty Damon. Outside the canonical (and often dry) touring exhibitions offered by the Joslyn, there isn't often a chance to see (let alone buy) work on such a significant and wide scale. For so many local artists to be given an opportunity to include their work is important to continue developing fertile local scenes.

I alluded to my own apprehension about galleries earlier. My criticism of them is that they make can make experiencing art feel like an exclusive activity, both financially and socially. The auction crowd might have drifted that way, but there was definitely representation from those more in my collecting and income bracket.

I think this was the first year they've included an online bidding platform too; I would assume the same for the live stream, courtesy of their bidding service, which I think was called Proxybid. It seemed to pay off at least once, during what I thought was the 2nd most dramatic part of the night. Local artist Mary Zicafoose's black-and-white "Ancient Text #12: Chain of Command" textile incited a bidding war between an online bidder and member of the live audience. A series of "going once, going twice"'s ended when the local bidder's high mark stood, and was subsequently greeted to a standing ovation from fellow audience members.

So what was the most dramatic moment of the night? Well, for me, it was the successful sale of my own piece (hey, you gotta be excited about yourself sometimes too, right?). I was fortunate enough to have been introduced to the winning bidder. And to my delight, she commented that she shared my vision that chairs should be vessels for sharing. All in all, it was a great night, and I'm extemely happy I had the chance to participate.