 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
The Artist | What People Say! |
||||
|
Latin Art Strikes Salsa Beat With Hispanics The buzz in marketing circles is the growing Hispanic population. But how does this community respond to art?
By Debbie Hagan The spinning of thread to be used for weaving is depicted in “Highland Spinners” by Julio Quispe Virhuez (Quispejo), who is represented by the Boston-based Equator Gallery. Hispanics are now the largest minority in the United States. One in eight Americans—almost 39 million—are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More than two million more Hispanics live in the United States than African Americans. It’s a fast-growing population, too. Between 2000 and 2002, the Hispanic population grew 9.8 percent while the rest of the country’s population grew only 2.5 percent. Demographic Details Of the major minority groups in the United States, Hispanics have the smallest percentage of art buyers. According to the 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts, approximately 7 percent of Hispanics own original art, such as paintings, drawings, sculpture and prints. In contrast, 20 percent of the overall American population owns art. However, art and money go hand-in-hand, and many Hispanics are new Americans struggling to establish themselves. The Census Bureau reported in 2001 that 26 percent of Latinos made $35,000 or more a year, and about 12 percent made $50,000 or more. But one-fifth of all Hispanics live in poverty. Economists note that, as Hispanics become more educated and better employed, their income and earning power will rise. Ed Bolin, owner of Kaleidoscope Gallery, located in Mission Viejo and Laguna Beach, Calif., said that even though 32 percent of all Californians are Hispanic, he sees very few in his galleries. Rather, Hispanics* tend to cluster in homogeneous communities. Instead of living in Laguna Beach (where most residents are wealthy and white non-Hispanics) many Hispanics prefer to live in Santa Ana. There, 76 percent of the population is Hispanic, and the median income is $42,162. The 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts shows that more than one-third of the Hispanics who buy art have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Half of art buyers earned $50,000 or more a year. Twenty percent earned $75,000 or more a year. Using the same survey, 72 percent of Hispanic art buyers said that they owned their own homes. In contrast, only 47 percent of all Hispanics were homeowners, whereas 68 percent of all non-Hispanics owned their homes. Also, the Hispanic population is quite young. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median age for all Hispanics in this country is 26. Thus, marketers look at this as an up-and-coming consumer market. Expectations are high that the Hispanic market will surge in buying power by the end of the decade. By 2008, Hispanic buying power is expected be $1,014 billion—exceeding that of African Americans by almost $100 billion, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, a demographic research organization in Athens, Ga. Areas of Interest Celia Birbragher, who for 27 years has published Art Nexus, an international Latin-American art magazine, observes a trend among Hispanic art buyers. “Usually, the interests come through their background,” she said. “If they’re Cuban, they collect Cuban art. If they’re Mexican, they collect Mexican art. Usually they move on to other areas—usually, but not always.” Birbragher said that art buyers learn about new artists and art trends from different sources, such as her magazine and Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions. They also attend museum shows and go to art fairs. “The art fairs are playing an important role,” she said. “They’re bringing in works from all parts of the world. Collectors can compare prices. I see more people not only going to their galleries, but going to fairs in Madrid, Basel and other places. Also, I see it in their collections. Ten years ago people were buying very traditional works by very well-known names. Now they’re buying more contemporary works.” According to Daniel Lahoda, director of Equator Gallery in Boston, there are two kinds of Hispanic collectors. One is “the type of collector who wants to get ack to his roots,” he said, referring to buyers who look for traditional images that relate to their culture, beliefs and country of origin. The art may make subtle religious, social or political statements. “The People Who Come and Go,” by Ecuadorian artist Eduardo Kingman, is a good example. This long, horizontal painting shows a group of feet, as one might typically see at the local market. Some of the feet are finely clad. Others are bare and battered. It’s a visually striking image on one level. On another level, Lahoda said, it’s a strong commentary about “the marginalization of indigenous people.” Lahoda meets other Hispanic collectors who are young, urban, trendy types in their 30s and 40s who have traveled a lot and are attracted to anything Latin American, be it food, dance, history, politics or religion. Religion, namely Roman Catholicism, plays an important role in Latino art. According to the 2003 Harris Poll on Religious Beliefs of Americans, 85 percent of Hispanics believe in God and hold traditional Christian beliefs. “Religion on their walls reminds them of hope,” said artist Elizabeth Baez, who is originally from Puerto Rico, but now lives in Florida. “Most people I know have religious symbols throughout their house, such as crosses by their doorways and pictures of Mary. It’s important, even if they don’t go to church every Sunday morning.” Crosses and images of Mary, Jesus and the Holy Family are recurrent symbols and messages in Hispanic art. The Three Kings play a prominent role in the work of Obed Gomez of Kissimmee, Fla. “The Three Kings is a tradition that we celebrate every Christmas,” said Gomez, whose paintings are tied deeply to his Puerto Rican heritage. “It comes to me in remembering what my grandmother used to tell me about what it meansabout what it means about royalty and wisdom, being aware of the birth of the king of the world. I use it a lot.” Erica Prosper is one art collector who collects crosses. A marketing consultant for Garcia 360, an advertising and marketing agency in San Antonio that specializes in Hispanic markets, she said that she collects them because they remind her of her grandmother and her religious beliefs and traditions. “As a Hispanic, any art I collect has to refer to my life,” she said. “As I grow up, I appreciate the culture more.” Marketing Latino Art Though selling Latin-American work in New England may not be easy, Equator Gallery reaches an international market through its Web site, www.equatorgallery.com. “A lot of the work goes to California and the Southwest—areas that have a high Latin-American population,” said Lahoda. In New England, Lahoda connects with cultural groups, museums and organizers of events that tie-in with the gallery’s focus, such as Latin-American wine tastings. Bello, of M & B Latin American Art, uses similar strategies, exhibiting at Havana Bay Coffee, in North Bergen, N.J., and staging cooperative exhibitions with other Latin-American organizations.
Like Lahoda, many Latin American dealers and artists use the Internet as a lifeline to Latin American buyers. Gomez sells work to buyers in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Puerto Rico and California through his Web site, www.obedart.com. Statistics show that such Web sites are effective. On the 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, 66 percent of all Latinos reported using the Internet. In fact, more than one-fourth of survey respondents reported using the Internet to increase their knowledge and awareness of the visual arts. Baez said her sales mainly come from her Web site, www.baezfineart.com. She said that people surf the Web looking specifically for art from Puerto Rico. One such Web surfer was actress Lisa Vidal, who plays Magdalena Ramirez on the Lifetime TV network series “The Division.” She acquired several of Baez’s paintings for her apartment on the set. Playing the role of a Puerto Rican, she wanted the character’s surroundings to reflect her heritage. Many of Baez’s buyers are in the military—a good percentage of whom are based in Virginia. “It’s not surprising,” said Baez. “There are so many Latinos in the Army. They want to surround themselves with things that make them feel like they belong.” Trends on the Horizon Many Latin Americans think the city to watch is Miami. Gomez said that the Latinos there are more established, have money and are ready to buy art. Birbragher, who has an office there, agreed. “In Miami, there is a genuine interest among young Hispanics in buying original artwork, good work and contemporary work,” she said. “You can see it in the galleries and the museums.” “I think there is a hype in Miami for art—not just Hispanic,” she continued. She cited the opening night of the Art Miami show in January. “There was a huge crowd that opened the fair. Lots of young Hispanics were there—very young couples, recently married. They were buying art and were very excited.” As for other cities with vibrant Latino art markets, she lists New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Statistics more or less support these observations. According to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, Florida is the state with the third largest disposable Hispanic income ($61 billion). The first is California ($189 billion), followed by Texas ($113 billion). New York ranks fourth ($55 billion). In terms of what to expect on the horizon, Birbragher has a theory. “In the ’80s, people became aware of Cuban artists. In the ’90s, they became aware of Brazilian artists,” she said. “Now we see a new group of Mexican and Central-American artists.” She suggested that anyone who’s interested in Latin-American art should take a good look at who’s exhibiting in major gallery and museum exhibitions today. Those Latin-American artists will be the ones who’ll be remembered tomorrow. ABN “Mademoiselle Gatto” (1959) is by Oswaldo Guayasamín who used his Cubist style to capture both human suffering and the beauty and bright colors of his hometown, Quito. Correia runs her publishing arm as a separate business endeavor, with a full-time computer tech and marketing support. In some sense, she competes, as a publisher, with the Patricia Correia Gallery. “I priced the prints in a way that other galleries could also have them. It helps my artists to have exposure in other galleries, even in this town. Yet I do try to keep an exclusivity for their original works,” she explained. Thus far, she has not used her gallery space at the popular Bergamot Station arts complex to mount an exhibit of the fine art editions material. “I like that I am keeping (the publishing) at a small, almost elite level,” she explained.
Printmaking Pitfalls Conversely, there are, said Smith, “Occasional dogs. You pick the wrong artist, or you pick the wrong image of the right artist, and it just doesn’t sell.” Flowers concurred. “Over the years, one does publish editions that end up in drawers,” he said. “You do stockpile paper.” There are other disadvantages to a hybrid venture. For an art entrepreneur trying to run two enterprises, sometimes you just can’t do everything well, said Smith. “When I’m running a retail store, I don’t have time to get this material into other galleries,” he said. Boyce also noted, “One of the pitfalls is that the person you hire to market the prints may or may not do a good job pushing the images.” And, she said, she sometimes neglects selling the prints because the originals takes up so much of her time. Still, for these gallery owners at least, the positives outweigh the negatives. Indeed, Flowers Graphics’ importance to the Flowers group of companies is not solely measured by its revenues, said Matthew Flowers. “Is it viable commercially? In all honesty, probably not,” he observed. “But what it does do—and it’s very difficult to quantify—it brings in new collectors, who then go on to buy originals.” ABN
Sources |
||
| © Copyright 2006 ObedArt.com, All Rights Reserved |
