The temporary art exhibition, or pop-up, as the short-lived events have come to be called, that took place this month in Riomar may be one more sign of a new trend in cross-marketing, this time involving not just art, but real estate.
The event, in which a house up for sale was filled for a weekend with the works of two well-regarded Vero artists, was the idea of Susan Fitzgerald. The longtime Vero resident, herself an artist and collector, pitched the idea to realtor Charlotte Terry. Terry, a fervent advocate for the arts, was enthusiastic: she found a house among her agency’s listings and got the OK from the seller.
Fitzgerald curated a similar exhibition in a mansion last year. And in 2010, Coastal Conservation hung works from ten local artists on the walls of a home in Orchid listed with Treasure Coast Sotheby’s. The $50 ticket price and a portion of sales of art benefited the cause.
The term “pop-up” has been mostly used for temporary restaurants opened by big-city chefs looking for exposure and investors. Pop-up galleries can do the same for artists, in this case, two of Vero’s best-known: Deborah Gooch and Tim Sanchez.
And when the pop-up space is a home for sale, the listing agent stands to gain, too. Terry says the pop-up, which coincided with the home’s open house, had at least one prospective buyer come through who saw the house in a whole new light.
Just as pop-up restaurants are marketed through social media rather than press releases, and tables are booked on Twitter, the Vero pop-up art exhibition was not advertised in the usual way, either.
“We sent out invitations to this,” says Terry. “I would never put it in the paper, that wouldn’t be appropriate. This is a targeted audience of art buyers.”
That audience included friends and associates of both Terry and the artists. The combined mailing reached a broader base of potential clients than usual for the house showing, Terry says.
“I also sent out an email to the realtors saying we’re having an open house. And I put the invitation on my Facebook page,” Terry says.
Fitzgerald’s first effort at curating a short-term art exhibition in a real estate showplace was an exhibition of Sanchez and Gooch’s paintings at a palatial oceanfront property last spring. An evening affair, that open house was strictly by invitation.
“My background is art and design,” says Fitzgerald, who holds a BA in art education and has been in Vero many years. For the past decade, she owned a Tootsies shoe store in Ponte Vedra Beach; she sold it two years ago. Looking for a new venture that would use her people skills and her love of art, Fitzgerald hit on the idea of being an independent art curator.
“I was friends with Deb and Tim, I collect art, and so this was just a natural fit for me,” she says.
The real estate agencies “have a property that they want exposure for, and I have artists that I represent and they trust me with their work,” she says. “It’s a nice marriage.”
Terry has known Fitzgerald for more than 20 years; they met shortly after Fitzgerald moved to town. “I was familiar with the fact that she’d done this before,” says Terry. “I think it’s a great idea, and I had a client seller that was okay with doing that.”
The pop-up event, a far cry from the formal gallery with its white walls of art perfectly hung, and a hush broken only by murmured artspeak, drew a much more casual crowd on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon earlier this month. People were drawn in to see Terry’s listing, and at the same time the space showed off the artworks.
“You know, nobody today or tomorrow may buy (the house), but they might tell a friend about it.”
She said one agent called for an appointment, and ended up showing the house during the show.
The clients liked the house a lot, Terry says. “And they may not have liked it as well, frankly, without the paintings.”
Walking into the house during the exhibition, the vacant rooms, though spacious, might have seemed rather bleak were it not for the presence of the large, vividly colored paintings lit, for the purpose of the brief showing, with portable flood lights.
Just inside the foyer was a 70 x 90 inch painting by Tim Sanchez titled “Non-Objective Abstract Expressionist Painting.” The composition featured an energetically applied cloud of paint that played peek-a-boo with the exuberantly drippy composition of primary colors beneath it.
To the left, a large living room came into view, where a grouping of Deborah Gooch’s mixed media paintings looked right at home. Composed of light, airy colors, the abstract composition that hung over the room’s white neoclassical fireplace featured a stargazer lily surrounded by furled buds. The paintings on either side were an abstract composition bearing scattered depictions of fruits, and a confection of round pink, blue, yellow, gold and white forms with a realistic – and quizzical – black crow in one corner.
An adjacent wall featured an abstract still life with lemons and coffee cups by Sanchez that complimented Gooch’s work. All the paintings in the room coordinated so well, it was as if the two artists had painted them in consultation especially for this showing.
“We didn’t plan that,” says Gooch. “We worked separately.”
The two are good friends, however; artistic colleagues who meet at least once a week to talk and critique each other’s work.
“My colors are brighter right now,” says Gooch.
And so are Sanchez’s. The crop of high-keyed abstracts at the event were a reaction to the darkly atmospheric interiors of a prior series of his.
Down a hallway and into the kitchen-breakfast area, smaller framed artworks hung on the walls, were propped on counters and stood in the niches of a shelving unit. Visitors were drawn to this informal space, as much for the plates of snacks on the counter as for the more digestible prices on the artworks.
While pieces in the living room ranged from about $1,500 to $7,200, the price point in the breakfast area started at $175 for a 12 x 16 mixed media collage by Sanchez.
“We want people to take something home,” says Sanchez. “They are here to see art, and if they want to buy art, we can let them have it. I think it’s important. There’s a responsibility that you should have something there that people can afford.”
The exhibition’s homey atmosphere also put potential art buyers at ease. According to Fitzgerald, when visitors saw artworks above a mantelpiece or bed, it may make them see the possibilities for the art in their own homes.
And the price of the house itself?
“It’s the least expensive house in Riomar,” says Terry, who adds that she expects the house to sell sometime during season.
As for future pop-ups, the outlook is rosy.
“I would do it on all my houses, if they’re accessible,” says Terry.
