ARTWEEK : INTERVIEW WITH JASON PATRICK VOEGELE, THE LODGE GALLERY

Thanks so much to Artweek.com and Artjobs‘s Liza SKova for this interview from early August about new ideas, partnership and the unique purpose of The Lodge Gallery

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http://www.artjobs.com/arts/interview/manhattan-art-space-new-ideas-healthy-debate-interview-jason-patrick-voegele-lodge#

By Liza Shashkova @ ARTWEEK, 2016

1.  Jason, you are an NYC based curator, creative entrepreneur, director, producer and public speaker but you started out as an artist, am I correct ? 

I did start out as an artist. When I was 13 years old I was growing up overseas in Taipei, Taiwan and I had an amazing teacher who showed me how to use oil paint. She encouraged me to think critically about art and seek to discover my own voice. From there I came to New York in 1991 to study painting at Pratt Institute. When I talk now about process, studio rituals or creative development, I still like to use the language of painting.  I haven’t painted in quite a long time though. After I left Yancey Richardson Gallery in 2009, I was primarily writing and curating and from that came Republic Worldwide, followed by The Lodge Gallery after Keith and I finally met. I feel like it was all a fluid transition and each step along the way had informed the next.

” In a way, many of the questions and subjects I like to explore as a curator and a producer are the same subjects I found fascinating as a painter and a maker. “

2.  What was the inspiration & motivation to open The Lodge Gallery with your partner, Keith Schweitzer ? 

Keith and I worked together many times before we decided to move forward and open a new gallery together. When Keith and I met, he had just left No Longer Empty as a founding member and was the Director of Public Arts for F.A.B. in the Lower East Side. We teamed up to curate a few shows and served as the development directors for the last few iterations of the Fountain Art Fair in Miami and New York before we agreed to open The Lodge. We have always been interested in what the purpose and function of an art gallery should be and how we could make the most of the opportunity.

” We wanted to build an exhibition space with an alternative business model that could become a gathering point for our community to explore new ideas and engage in healthy debate. Our unusual hours accommodate all sorts of collectives and creative events that encourage and support that kind of discourse and experimentation. “

I think that if you look back at all the work we have done over the last four years, you will see repeated thematic patterns in our programing and that speaks for itself about the inspiration that guides our direction.

3.  The Lodge Gallery began exhibiting and promoting mid-career artists in 2012. How has the gallery expanded in recent years and what is the next step ? 

That’s true. Since 2012 we have been primarily promoting the work of mid-career representational artists who have already had a solo exhibition or two under their belts and price points based on existing sales histories. In addition to the average four solo exhibitions we produce each year,

” we also curate around five or six group exhibitions that allow us to open up opportunities to work with both younger emerging creatives and more established artists who are interested in a particular project or curatorial vision rather than long term obligations and contracted relationships.  “

We have a loose stable of artists that we work with pretty regularly but our flexible approach has allowed us to develop projects that have attracted hundreds of the best working artists in New York and abroad. Each one of them is a different evolving relationship with respect to each artists needs and career goals.

There are a few interesting changes in our programing this year. Lately we have had a heavy focus on two person shows and have opened up at least three month long projects that bring in outside curators to the space. For example, in September we will be working with Michael David from Life on Mars Gallery in Brooklyn and in October, we are working with Dina Brodsky to install a fifty-person invitational group exhibition titled, Point of Origin.

4. Who is the most recent artist you exhibited and why did you choose them ? 

Our current exhibition, Unintended Archeology, by Levan Mindiashvilli and Uta Bekaia is about screen memory.  It is focused around the idea of remembering the past; even the most certain memories of your childhood, what you are really remembering is the last time you remembered remembering it. Now that sounds a bit confusing but it’s like playing a game of telephone with the memories of your life. The reality of your memory transforms each time you recall the thought. Levan and Uta are from The Republic of Georgia so many of the images are references to the post-Soviet era of Eastern Europe. Most of the work struggles through the effort to reconcile ideas like national identity and attempts to accurately recall transformation on both the personal and cultural levels.  We’ve worked with Levan before. He did his first NY solo exhibition at The Lodge about two years ago.  The decision to put this show together definitely comes out of our own curiosity about cultural identity and how to manage information inundation.  There are also undertones of ideas about the relationship of the body to architecture and we have done a number of projects on that subject over the years. Our next show is titled, A Peculiar Nature, and features Sirikul Pattachote and Tawan Wattuya from Bangkok, Thailand. That opens August 3rd through September 4th.

5. Do galleries really need to have a physical space anymore, when business is mainly conducted at art fairs, phone or email ? 

I suppose it all depends on how you define the purpose of a gallery. If a gallery is meant to be a purely commercial venture then I do not see much of a future in that for young gallerists or curators.  It’s true that the business of selling art has transformed in ways no one ever saw coming 20 years ago. It’s funny to think about how the old gallery model has been surrounded by extremes of change on both sides. On one side you have the art fairs that satellite around the bigger art fairs with big money investors and art world insiders with all of the fruits of success and excess on display, on the other side, you have websites like Instagram and Facebook and other sites like Artnet and Artsy that empower the individual artist and turn painters and sculptors into creative entrepreneurs.

” It’s fair to say that an ambitious creative entrepreneur with a hundred thousand followers on Instagram and access to art fair exposure could do very well in the current climate without traditional gallery representation. “

This brings me back to how you define the purpose of a gallery. Business is business and bills need to be paid at every gallery but we have never believed that the purpose of a gallery should be purely commercial. It needs to have a philosophy too and a vision that artists and patron both feel an intimate connection with. A place to return to often and look forward to in between visits.

” My favorite galleries are like anchors to the real world. Like temples to secular awe where shamans and the tribe come together to experience the theater of human imagination.”

6. Any tips or lessons from the digital marketing side of things ?

Three tips. First, update your website often and link it to all your social media outlets. Update your website, post about it online. Repeat ad nauseam. Second, shows come and go but the documentation lasts forever. None of that will matter if you don’t photograph your projects well and organize them on your website. Third, It’s important to remember that the ultimate goal of digital marketing is to garner real world results.

7.    What is “hot” on the New York Art Scene at the moment and what upcoming show are you most excited about ?

Well the Lower East Side is having its official moment now so it’s pretty hot all over down here. If you head over to the Bowery there is a great show open at The New Museum called “The Keeper” that was really inspiring. Also, the new site of the International Center of Photography just opened nearby there too so that’s worth a visit.

” Other than that everyone is still getting all set for the opening of the fall season in September and that’s always one of the most interesting times of the year. It’s often indicative of what to expect from the Art Basel art fairs in Miami in December. “

Until then the city is full of some really great representational painting exhibitions because representational painting is finally back in the “hot” zone.

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Interview- InstallationMagazine, June 2015

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http://installationmag.com/the-copenhagen-connection/

by A Moret and Shana Beth Mason

with Jason Patrick Voegele

In the vibrant, emergent neighborhood of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, some of the most exciting contemporary art is evolving and being seen.  It’s no surprise, then, that a new kind of gallery would spring up, playing to more alternative and intimate tastes than those of the “white cube” variety housed in Chelsea or the Upper East Side. The Lodge Gallery, co-founded by Keith Schweitzer and Jason Patrick Voegele, is a hybrid between art salon, exhibition space, community portal, and aesthetic experimentation. Installation speaks to Voegele about its history, its mission, and its future.

(A. Moret) How did The Lodge Gallery come about?

(Voegele) When we first started working together and were beginning to focus our visions, everything seemed to fall into place. It was a natural pairing. After about a year of curating and co-directing a variety of projects around New York and Miami, we wondered if the traditional idea of a gallery could be broadened or reimagined to suit both a changing art market and our shared vision of an alternative business model. We knew that we wanted our new headquarters to be more than just four white walls and wanted it to be a venue for debate, artistic experimentation, and social interaction. We wanted to build an experimental, multi-dimensional exhibition format. Eventually, we chose the Lower East Side because there is such a rich history of experimentation and authentic expression there. We wanted to be part of a community of galleries that shared our values, so as soon as the opportunity arose, we seized it and called it The Lodge.

(A. Moret) What drives your curatorial programming?

(Voegele) We feel like part of our job is to cultivate and facilitate opportunities for artists first, and everything else follows. There is definitely a core group of familiar artists and faces at The Lodge, but we like working with new artists too and are always finding new ways to develop projects that engage new talent. We primarily exhibit mid-career, representational artists. If you look back through our catalog, you will see hints of special interests that we have revisited from time to time. Keith and I have a lot of diverse interests and are curious about exploring a broad spectrum of subject matter. In any given season, you might find us investigating subjects such as architecture, natural science, and/or mythological archetypes. We both like to think that curation can be an art form, itself, and we are lucky in the sense that we have found a unique way to operate a program allowing us to explore our own curiosities about the world around us.

(A. Moret) In what ways do you feel that each of your respective backgrounds support the The Lodge Gallery’s mission?

(Voegele) Keith and I come from very different backgrounds, but I think we are both grounded in similar values and a sense of community. Keith grew up in New York and studied art and business at The George Washington University in Washington D.C. I came to New York in 1991 from an international school in Taipei, Taiwan to study painting and art history at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Keith’s financial background and experience in public art programming coupled with my background in art history and commercial gallery experience drive a lot of our alternative ideas about how to manage the gallery and all of our other projects. I think that our individual experience and history of engaging the public through [previous] organizations we have worked with and have founded reflect well in the alternative business model we have built.  One of the things we enjoy the most here at the Lodge is the opportunity to converse with visitors from all sorts of various backgrounds. I think it was important for both of us that The Lodge was designed to be a useful and effective part of the community.

(A. Moret) How did you first meet and then determine you wanted to open the gallery together?

(Voegele) In 2012, Keith and I were both out in NYC hustling to grow our own arts organizations. I had been curating exhibitions and managing private art collections with Republic Worldwide since I had left a Chelsea gallery job in 2009, and Keith, after having been one of the founding members of No Longer Empty, had begun a new public art venture called The MaNY Project. We were introduced by a mutual friend to work on an exhibition on 35th street. We hit it off right away and the show was a success. Following that show, there was actually a long period of courting in a sense. After working together on various exhibitions and projects around NYC and Miami, we decided to open a gallery together. We wanted our professional partnership to be based on a mutual respect for each other’s work ethic and a shared vision of the future. The similarity in our aesthetic tastes were obvious from our first project, but it took about a year of working together before we settled on a plan to merge our professional projects and lay down the foundations of what would become The Lodge Gallery.

(A. Moret) The Lodge Gallery also serves as the exhibition space for Republic Worldwide, giving the gallery two distinct spaces- an exhibition space and a bar area that encourages conversation.  How do the spaces complement each other? Do you see Republic Worldwide as a salon that incubates ideas and supports the work of emerging artists?

(Voegele) From its inception, Republic Worldwide has had three separate divisions. The first is our art consultation and art logistics department, which manages both private and corporate art collections. The second is our community and charitable outreach program. The third is our exhibition division, which is most visible in the form of The Lodge Gallery. In addition to co-directing The Lodge, Keith and I manage the day-to-day business of the larger Republic together, as well. The bar behind the gallery is called Figure 19, and in the evenings it transforms the gallery into a whole other animal. We are partners with Fig 19 and with that partnership (in many ways) it dictates our unusual hours, which run from mid-afternoon to late in the evening. Certainly, the history of salon culture plays a huge part in the history of the Lower East Side and the New York art world. When people refer to New York as the “great melting pot”, they are referring to neighborhoods like the L.E.S. that have long histories of fusing multiple cultures into one cohesive, functional environment. Often it’s been the salons, galleries, and bars that have served as great congregation points for people from all walks of life to gather together for a drink and debate philosophy or the news of the day. Here at The Lodge, surrounded by the best and brightest artists in the city, we like to think we offer an extension of that history. We hope that our adapted formula for a new generation offers the same opportunity for community and social interaction that inspired us when we were first starting out.

(A. Moret) What kind of events are you planning for the future?

(Voegele) Our next exhibition at The Lodge Gallery is called Post Human Utopia, which poses a fascinating, thoughtful experiment: if you take every living human off the Earth, what traces of us would linger and what would disappear? Will the footprint of humanity fade away completely, or have humans so irrevocably altered the environment that the impact of man will continue to shape the earth’s landscape far beyond the days of our departure? The show features Valerie Hegarty, George Boorujy, Kate Clark, Ryan Mclennan, Sarah Bereza, Doug Young, and Lori Nix. It takes a unique look into a seemingly dystopian situation and contemplates the positive repercussions of our absence. That show opens on April 22. Beyond that, our Spring and Fall seasons for 2015 will present all sorts of interesting projects. You can keep up to date with all of our upcoming work on our website.

(A. Moret) For the group exhibition “The Copenhagen Interpretation,” you presented the work of 18 artists working in drawing, painting, collage, and photography.  It is in collaboration with Gallery Poulsen (a progressive exhibition space in Copenhagen)?  Is this your first time collaborating with them?  What prompted the presentation of their artists at The Lodge Gallery? What similarities do you see between The Lodge Gallery and Gallery Poulsen?

(Voegele) Well, first we would like to thank Morten Poulsen from Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen for reaching out to us with the idea for this project last December at Art Basel in Miami. He was at Pulse and we were doing NADA, just up the beach. We have both worked with so many of the same artists over the years; it seemed perfectly harmonious that we would team up on a project together. Morten primarily shows artists from New York at his gallery, and because both of our galleries embrace a similar aesthetic and cull from a similar network of artists, there is a certain amount of crossover that happens in both programs. We might have different formulas for success, but we attract similar progressive, intellectually forward-minded talent. It’s the first direct collaboration we have done together, but it probably wont be the last. It’s been a lot of fun and has a very “family” atmosphere. After the “The Copenhagen Interpretation” comes down on April 4th, whatever is left of the artwork will return to Copenhagen for Part II of the project, which took place at Morten’s gallery in Copenhagen’s meatpacking district on April 17th.

(A. Moret) The gallery’s 18 artists are both from the US and abroad.  Why is it important for The Lodge Gallery to showcase the work of international artists?

(Voegele) Most of the artists in the show are based in New York. They are all from very diverse backgrounds and upbringings. I grew up overseas in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and was immersed in an extremely diverse international community from a very young age. Keith has travelled extensively, as well, and was also raised with a very realistic perspective of our current, interconnected global society. I think part of our vision here at The Lodge Gallery is to embrace partnerships and projects that promote this interconnectedness and offer artists the opportunity to explore ideas about their place in an increasingly global art market. I think it’s also interesting to note the rich history of immigrant culture in the Lower East Side that is still very much alive today. For hundreds of years and after the arrival of countless waves of immigrants from every corner of the earth, the Lower East Side continues to thrive as a place where people from anywhere can come to pursue dreams and share ideas together. In that sense, we feel like our environment really plays well into our vision.

(A. Moret) The title of exhibition, The Copenhagen Interpretation, suggests that each artist reflects their environment in some direct way.  William Powhida writes a tromp l’oeil piece addressed to New York City, while Rainer Hosch captures a comedy legend.  In what ways have you discovered the significance of an artist’s environment in their work?

(Voegele) Well, the Hosch and the Powhida works are good examples. Hosch is in California and over there, everyone is a comedian (so it’s no wonder that Carlin is rolling his eyes). Seriously though, Powhida is a good example, too. He has a solo exhibition up at Gallery Poulsen on the same subject right now. I also think that John Jacobsmeyer’s Alligator Pit is a good example of the influence of familiar video game imagery on traditional media, and Tom Sanford always has a magical way of bringing personal characters from his life and neighborhood into his work. Daniel Davidson is very successful at the same thing, but with his own unique style.

(A. Moret) How has the public responded to the show, thus far, since opening during Armory Week?

(Voegele) The response has been phenomenal and it’s been great working with so many talented and dedicated artists. The artists in Morten’s stable are all close friends, and even though we know many of the artists very well, it’s been inspiring to be caught up in the team camaraderie. Although it was Armory Week when we opened and there were hundreds of art world events happening around the city, the VIP and collector reception and the public reception that followed generated record numbers of visitors and guests. Press and sales have been great too, so we are looking forward to next year and what might come out of another collaboration.