Appetite (art gallery)

Appetite was a gallery and artist-run space, founded by Daniela Luna, in the neighborhood of San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the mission of discovering and promoting new artists. It sometimes courted controversy, before finally closing in mid-2011.

Daniela Luna.

History

APPETITE was created in 2005 by Daniela Luna. It generated so much traffic in the neighborhood of San Telmo, that soon a lot of galleries moved to that area and new ones started to open, transforming it in the main contemporary art district of Buenos Aires. As told by Rolling Stone on December 2006 “The best of an intense year for art in Buenos Aires: When all the movement seemed to be getting installed at Palermo, the Daniela Luna tornado opened the appetite with an art gallery in San Telmo and little by little is monopolizing the neighborhood and transferring the scene.. They say that in art schools they already write thesis on her, and though there are some who criticize her, many of the best artists, young and not so young have shown their work under her wing.” [1]

APPETITE also inspired many young artists to open their own spaces. As pointed by Time Out: "Appetite continuous to thrill certain art punters with its grungy style, and you only need to check out the young section - the Barrio Joven - of next year's ArteBA, the city's major art fair, to find a dozen of nascent Lunas in progress." [2]

It fastly became famous for putting into the map many new artists, for its openings and parties, as well as for the personal style, often described as punk or edgy, and the originality of all APPETITE presentations. As described by New York Times, “Appetite, an irreverent, punk-inflected gallery in San Telmo started by Daniela Luna, a feisty 30-year-old known for her shrewd eye and cool parties.” [3]

DMode, local popular magazine also claimed in 2006: (from Spanish) "Daniela Luna contradicts astronomic laws, she has the Earth at her feet and around her gallery/planet many of the new good artists orbit. She carries Appetite with exquisite artist gluttony. It is well known that artist-run spaces are the 'it' format at international art. And it credits the indisputable prize: the best openings of Buenos Aires. Making excess and experimentation her war cry." [4] Later in 2009 another article started by "The no-princess of argentinian contemporary art is such an important character that is becoming an icon for her generation. She is a working, thinking and acting machine. She transformed a butcher shop from San Telmo into Appetite, a space that more than a gallery, is the place where new talents are born, and where the most offbeat shows are made, and the hippest events are held. It is the first argentinian gallery invited to Frieze Art Fair, and you can say it has the biggest projection in Latinamerica." [5]

And even some of the hippest magazines from New York recognized her talent for art and parties, as the article published by Black Book called "Industry Insiders: Daniela Luna, International Party Leader" [6]

In mid-2010 APPETITE closed the doors of its three Buenos Aires spaces, as Daniela Luna moved to Beijing, China.

Overseas presence

New York

In 2008 and 2009 APPETITE had a branch in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where it organized exhibitions and events. It had appearances in New York art fairs, like Pinta Art Show, where The New York Times pointed: “For once, a fair looks like an art exhibition, not a job-lot display. And when a booth is crowded, the pieces can be blamed, as is the case at Appetite, a gallery with branches in Buenos Aires and Brooklyn that shows young artists working in an accumulative mode.” [7]

London

APPETITE was the first argentinian gallery to be accepted at Frieze Art Fair, where it was one of the stands that received more attention from the press and public, and generated controversies by their approach to the global economic crisis as subject for the stand. CNN talked about this: "At the annual Frieze Art Fair in London's Regents Park, Argentinean gallery Appetite, literally blended their art with the credit crunch. The artists and gallery owner Daniela Luna ate remnants of visitors' food and slept only when a visitor was kind enough to offer them a roof. 'We have to learn how to survive these difficult times' says Daniela Luna. Her words ring especially true as Appetite did not sell any of its works-- it seems the art public might not be ready to hear the words 'survival' just yet." [8] While The New York Times pointed: "With first-time exhibitors from China, Turkey, India and Argentina (from Buenos Aires, Appetite, where the work of about 10 artists is displayed in a kind of continuous trash heap), Frieze still managed to provide a random snapshot of an increasingly global and youthful art world in transition.[9] Wealth Bulletin said: "Daniela Luna, curator of Appetite, the first Argentinian gallery to show at Frieze, said the financial markets had not helped the emerging art scene in Buenos Aires, but they were able to survive because of their low overheads and the fact they create much of their work out of 'junk from the streets'".[10]

Vilnius

APPETITE was invited to participate in the fair Art Vilnius 09 , that year Vilnius was named European Capital of Culture, and this was one of the main events organized. The APPETITE stand was nominated for best stand. While being in that city, Daniela Luna also made a performance at the Vilnius Graphic Art Center and a video screening from argentinian artists.

Milan

In April 2008 it was part of the group of galleries presented to the fair MiArt by the name of FOCUS BUENOS AIRES . Local newspaper La Nacion announced: (From Spanish) "With consortium format and cooperative spirit, a group of Buenos Aires galleries with the support of the minister of culture, Hernan Lombardi, and the curatorship of Adriana Forconi and Florencia Braga Menéndez, celebrated the opening of MiArt edition 13th." [11] APPETITE participance at this fair was pointed by New York Times as well: "Appetite gallery will get additional exposure in Milan when the contemporary art fair, MiArt 2008, spotlights emerging Buenos Aires artists in April. Adriana Forconi, a jet-settling consultant to the art fair, was in town recently to scout for worthy galleries, and was struck by what she calls the city’s “frenetic and blissfully chaotic” pace." [12]

Beijing

in March of 2011 Daniela Luna opened an APPETITE space in Beijing, China, at 798 Art Zone, and later in November moved to Caochangdi, the two main art zones of that city, where she organized and curated exhibitions and performance projects by artists from different nationalities. She also worked between Beijing and Hong Kong on research and writing about Chinese art. Part of this research can be seen as a four pages spread published by Argentinian magazine DMag.[13]

Side projects

War Club

It’s an underground party that started in 2008, in a secret warehouse that guests could acces with a password, and it mixed underground Djs and bands, with site specific art interventions and performance. As described at Time Out, "Arty meets party at Daniela Luna's WarClub. Surrounded by cutting edge wall art, intellectuals and club kids, artists and collectors, the young and the old make up an eclectic smiling crowd. WarClub is the brainchild of enfant terrible art gallerist Daniela Luna. It has taken place, up until now, in this raw, industrial, multi-room space whose only modifications, in the punk spirit Luna most prizes, are an accumulation of graffiti, murals and installations." [14]

Tanto Deseo

Concept store and exhibition space for erotic art and objects that functioned in the area of San Telmo since 2006. Many media celebrated this initiative, Les Inrockuptibles published an issue completely about sex, and Tanto Deseo was the cover story and was spread all over the magazine. (From Spanish) "Without any doubt, one of the present oasis is Tanto Deseo, an erotic-artistic branch from APPETITE gallery, mothership of young art commanded by Daniela Luna. Tanto Deseo is an experimental essay, where pulsions are expressed under different topics.” [15] It also won the "Revelation Award" at the fair Puro Diseño in 2008. A cultural site talks about it: "Appetite and Tanto Deseo, two galleries with young spirit, that intent to give a space of creation without the market's demands interfering, born from a personal necessity mixed with the feeling that things like these were missing in this city. Participants and winners of the Revelation Award at the fair 'Puro Diseño' some days ago.[16]

Popularity

Popularity is an art space and concept store started in February of 2011, hidden on the basement of a book store in the center of Buenos Aires, that Daniela Luna runs together with artist Judith Villamayor. It shows the work of young designers and showcases periodical exhibitions by artists, and all kind of events. It also includes a blog about fashion and lifestyle based on Luna´s trips around the world.

Controversies

APPETITE never stayed away from controversies; as well as other Daniela Luna’s projects, it has been censured or fined in different occasions, for their usual high content of sex, violence, critics to political and economical issues, or for pushing all kind of boundaries. One of the most talked about controversies happened by the end of 2008 when 10 of the artists abruptly decided to leave the gallery. As told by Clarin, one of the main Argentinian newspapers: (from Spanish) "Personality cult or misunderstanding? For Luna and possibly for the virtuose scene of young artists that she leads, there is an inflection point post-Frieze. By the end of last year, ten of them disassociated themselves from Appetite. While many local media celebrated the gallery's arrival to Frieze, they talked about her curves, her history, and compared her to a diva." [17] While Rafael Cippollini, one of the most notable critics from Argentina, resumed at newspaper La Nacion (from Spanish) "In a horizon in which the most celebrated references of this first decade are already history, it becomes necessary to revise a peculiar trajectory such as APPETITE gallery, in all its brilliant, polemic and flamboyant edges. A meteoric rise, the consequent excessive over expansion - multiple ventures in Buenos Aires, New York, London - and finally, an explosion that led to the dismissal of a substantial part of its staff : the risky and vertiginous bet by Daniela Luna, counter to the cautious times that punctuate our institutions, is as unprecedented and singular in our environment." [18]

References

  1. ↑ Marina Mariasch, “The best of an intense year for art in buenos Aires" Rolling Stone, December 2006
  2. ↑ Martin Gambarotta, Time Out Buenos Aires, "Talk of the town" 2010
  3. ↑ Denny Lee, "Argentine Nights", The New York Times, March 15, 2008
  4. ↑ By Kiwi Sainz, DMode May 2006
  5. ↑ By Lucrecia Leguizamon, "I’M NOT A FUCKING PRINCESS I’M THE KING" DMag October 2008
  6. ↑ Whitney Weiss, "International Party Girl", Black Book, October 20, 2009
  7. ↑ Holland Cooter, "Bulletins From a Bustling ‘Undiscovered’ Land", The New York Times, November 19, 2007
  8. ↑ Anouk Lorie , "Will the art bubble burst?", CNN', October 22, 2008
  9. ↑ Roberta Smith , "Frieze Art Fair Feels a Big Chill", The New York Times", October 17, 2008
  10. ↑ Tara Loader Wilkinson , "Emerging art market frosty at Friezel", Wealth Bulletin", October 16, 2008
  11. ↑ Alicia de Arteaga, "Los argentinos lucen su espíritu cooperativo en la feria de Milán", La Nacion", April 6, 2008
  12. ↑ Denny Lee, "Argentine Nights", The New York Times, March 15, 2008
  13. ↑ Daniela Luna, "China esta que arte", DMag", June 8, 2011
  14. ↑ Nathan Tichenor, "Let's start a war", "Time Out" Buenos Aires, 2009
  15. ↑ Javier Villa, "Arte humedo", Les Inrockuptibles", 2007
  16. ↑ Beatriz Montenegro de Antico y Eugenia Garay Basualdo, "Appetite y Tanto Deseo", "El leedor", April 21, 2008
  17. ↑ Victoria Cerruti, "Broken Heart", Si de Clarin', February 6, 2009
  18. ↑ Rafael Cippollini, "Un año incubadora", La Nacion, ADN', December 27, 2008

External links