Blog entries by Despina Stokou
-
by Despina Stokou, 5 Mar 2014It is around this time of the year (Armory time!) where you pack your suitcase full of giddy anticipation to start on the roller coaster art fair ride through the Basels, the Friezes, and the Biennals that will eventually strand you on the South Beach in December, smeared lipstick, heels in hand, sporting a full blown... -
by Despina Stokou, 2 Dec 2013You will miss the big Tomatina taking place in August in Spain and in Februar in Miami, but while you are shifting your weight from one stiletto to the other watching the booth or talking to some random suit, you can fantasize about walking on a mash of cool, red, disintegrating tomatoes. You will feel so... -
by Despina Stokou, 27 Nov 2013While no professional relationship is easy, rosy or all good ( and why should they) the artist-gallerist relationship can be particularly strained. Mostly because the contracts are written on dollar bills with champagne ink and it is very hard to decipher who is the boss, who owes who and how much exactly. A 50-50% of... -
by Despina Stokou, 25 Nov 2013Nicholas Byrne, Anthea Hamilton, Jack McConville, Rallou Panagiotou, Despina Stokou @remap4 I used to think of openings like birthday parties. You prepare something special and your friends, their friends and their friends friends come to celebrate you and your accomplishments and share alcohol, which should ideally... -
by Despina Stokou, 30 Sep 2013Last week at a three-day retreat in downtown Berlin, Marina instructed Slideshow Johnny in the Abramovic Method--a series of exercises designed to heighten participants' awareness of their physical and mental experience in the present moment. Watch the series of exercises here Slideshow Johnny was... -
by Despina Stokou, 29 Sep 2013If you just landed from the moon and missed the whole action, or if you have three more days in Berlin before taking off- THESE are the shows you should go see. No drinks, no pics, no tweets. Just art. JUSTIN MATHERLY: Community I cannot believe I missed this at Unlimited this... -
by Despina Stokou, 20 Sep 2013And action! First thing I did on the fair was a step back, fretting from the crazy whip lady, one of the many shows/actions to be set up and taken down in the course of 2 hours in the Upcoming Exhibitions section right by the entrance. Is she performing a Julius von Bismarck? What I thought was as... -
by Despina Stokou, 2 Sep 2013Imagine you finally get invited to the Venice Biennale and you end up in this mess, in the upper left corner no less….That is what I thought about Sgarbi’s (mostly) painting cluster Arte no est Cosa Nostra, which appalled the art world in the Italian pavilion of the Venice Biennal two years ago. That was... -
by Despina Stokou, 29 Aug 2013So what has been going on? Berlin Art Week is getting ready for its second edition. It got bigger, better and if possible... Berlin_er! The 10 main institution partners, abc and Preview art fairs are now joined by ten temporary partners, chosen by the judicious qualities of Monica Bonvicini, Claudia Wahjudi (Zitty),... -
by Despina Stokou, 26 Jun 2013A few success story-lines I run after him screaming.“I am not a cop! I am not a cop! It took me a while to convince him to come in the gallery. A few weeks later I got him in a group show. People loved it!…First Time he ever sold art… He is covering his face. No, he uses an alias. He does not want... -
by Despina Stokou, 19 Jun 2013Maybe it was the alcohol, the lack of sleep, the constant flying or the fact that I kept bumping into Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev in Venice. While landing in Zurich last week I heard cows (the sound of cows: muuuuh). Twenty hours later it happened again. Overhearing an art dealer talking to an eager collector... -
by Despina Stokou, 15 May 2013Does his name mean “Big”? Like Maximum? No wonder he is so famous… I don’t know. And lives in New York… Hm… The maximum Curator. The Ultimum Curator. The Curator Ultimatum… I don’t know... Ultimilianno? I DON'T KNOW Despina! But you are Spanian!... -
by Despina Stokou, 29 Apr 2013Unlike "director’s cut", this new series, which might or might not become a thing in Bpigs, will try to present readers with a shortened version of events: a dense mix of popular oppinion, marked usually with “I heard” and personal ones marked, logically, with “I think”. There... -
by Despina Stokou, 16 Apr 2013Art fair season is upon us- the jet set, the name-dropping, the price-rising, the suspense, the champagne, the parties, the networking, the CELEBRITIES. Amongst the glamour, the VIPS, Eva&Adele, and the Press, there is a little army of Nobodies circling the booths like moths the light...Artists Anonymous. ... -
by Despina Stokou, 20 Mar 2013The PR Language series will sporadically discuss "rules" of the Public Relation language, as observed in the field. As with almost everything else in bpigs: use at your own risk! PR is a risky business. Anybody could be Somebody any minute (and Nobody the next), you do not want to risk displeasing a... -
by Despina Stokou, 4 Mar 2013Here is a selection of shows (with a focus on Berlin artists) you should not miss during your trip in New York for the Armory this week. ( and a series of photos and comments to use in conversations in case you do miss them) Ragnar Kjartansson The Visitors @Luhring Augustine until March 16th I am... -
by Despina Stokou, 5 Feb 2013As with press releases, horoscopes and quite a few event newsletters that have popped out the last years, self-improvement guides are practically useless. Unlike press releases, I flip through “success manuals” religiously, but whether on purpose or by accident they never NEVER deliver the information they... -
by Despina Stokou, 28 Jan 2013One of the things I will definitely miss about NY are the Lower East Side Sundays. The big galleries of Chelsea and midtown are closed on the day of the Lord (for obvious reasons), so the bigger and smaller names of art journalism (and we) are free to join the buzzing residents of Chinatown in a lovely afternoon art...