The word bear/bare has many dictionary meanings (look it up). The word has a direct relevance to artists and their dealers. The artist, through their work, lays themselves bare and exposed. The artist is saying, “Look at me, naked, in Times Square on new Year’s Eve.”
Often the artist and their dealer has to bear the brunt of the uninformed viewer’s response to the dealer has to admonish the those that says their two-year old child could do this work.
Often the dealer finds themselves in a situation in which they feel like a bear. This dealer has found too often that she snarls and growls like a bear with clients who don’t pay their bills; or howls at shippers who do not arrive on time with crates; and finds she might eat a supplier that does not have glassine paper.
I hope that this exhibition, Bear/Bare With Me: Altered States bears relevance to artists and to the rest of the art world.
Bernice Steinbaum, Director