David Kordansky Gallery Is Launching an Online Viewing Room With an All-Star Sale That Benefits Climate Activism

Another respected dealer with
market clout is embracing online sales through its own platform.
David Kordansky announced this morning that the gallery will launch
its inaugural online viewing room next month. And, at first, the
sales it generates will go toward a cause greater than just the
bottom line.

Kordansky will debut the
initiative with a digital-only benefit exhibition titled “Artists
for Climate Action,” which will be accessible through the gallery’s
website beginning November 18 through December 20. All sales
proceeds will be donated to organizations actively addressing the
causes and effects of climate change. The show will feature works
by an all-star squad of the gallery’s artists, including Sam
Gilliam, Jonas Wood, Lauren Halsey, and many others, before ceding
the virtual space to a yet-to-be-announced slate of curated
exhibitions and artist projects.

Asked about the genesis of the
online viewing room, gallery director Kurt Mueller told artnet News
that the initiative was “overdue” in light of Kordansky’s history
and near future. “We already
conduct a significant amount of business by email and JPG,” he
explained. “And as we expand physically—with a new gallery opening
in LA next year and a growing roster—it only makes sense to expand
virtually as well, to add depth to the exhibition program and the
online experience of our artists’ work.” 

Several of the pieces on offer
in “Artists for Climate Action” were created specifically for the
exhibition, including new works on paper by Huma Bhabha and Tala
Madani, as well as a fresh drawing from Rashid Johnson’s “Anxious
Man” series, and a new watercolor by Lesley Vance. Mueller
attributes the enthusiasm partly to many of the artists’
pre-existing support for this cause, particularly Wood. This May,
Wood consigned a new painting, Japanese Garden 3, to Christie’s New York to benefit Global
Wildlife Conservation. The work sold for more than $4.9 million
(including buyer’s premium)—more than seven times its pre-sale high
estimate.  

Kordansky and his team are
hoping for similarly robust results in their online viewing room,
and they believe they have reason for optimism based on their
clients’ concerns for the planet. “We wanted to focus on a cause that our
international and local audiences could all rally behind,” says
Mueller. “Climate change affects everyone, and action to fight it
is the most pressing issue we face as a global
society.” 

The gallery wants to fund that
fight by donating to what Mueller terms “a diverse portfolio” of
organizations, working from the local to the national level using
complementary approaches including political, legal, educational,
and grassroots action. Although the names of the organizations
receiving funds won’t be announced until the close of the online
exhibition, the gallery says that several of the projects are based
in the greater Los Angeles area and seek to counteract oil
drilling, food waste, and land degradation, among other
causes.

Riding the Wave

Kordansky joins a growing pool
of dealers launching in-house digital showrooms in recent
years. David Zwirner
inaugurated the trend in January 2017, when it initiated an ongoing series of
curated selling exhibitions through its website, with works priced
from $1,000 to $500,000. Gagosian made a splash in June 2018 by
debuting the first of its online viewing rooms timed to major
events in the art-market calendar, some featuring
multimillion-dollar works, and each only “open” for a few
days. 

Since that time, a lengthening
list of dealers has followed suit in one way or another, including
mega-gallery Hauser and Wirth; blue-chip outfits Mitchell-Innes &
Nash, Lehmann Maupin, and Galerie Lelong; and more approachable
spaces like Tribeca’s the Journal, whose Tennis
Elbow project features
one-week-only digital flash sales on a rolling
basis. 

For its part, Kordanksy’s online
viewing room will take a traditional approach to the sales process.
The interface will eschew a
“click to buy” feature and live-chat assistance. Instead, all sales
inquiries will materialize as emails sent to gallery staff for
personal follow-up. “The
Online Viewing Room is an extension, an expansion of the gallery,
rather than a new way of doing business,” says Mueller. “We still
want to prioritize engaging visitors, creating conversations, and
building relationships.”

Still, the gallery hopes to
stretch itself in other ways as its digital efforts continue to
mature. The exhibitions and projects will have more targeted timing
at the outset, but will eventually develop into a continuous
program that could take a variety of shapes, according to
Mueller. 

“There’s a lot of freedom to an
online presentation—even the obvious limitations precipitate
creative thinking—and we want to be as thoughtful with each project
as we are with our gallery exhibitions and fair
presentations.”

The post David Kordansky Gallery Is Launching an Online
Viewing Room With an All-Star Sale That Benefits Climate
Activism appeared first on artnet News.