Dilogy - Jay Silo Artist from NYC
Dil´o`gy
I met this guy, an artist a few years back, Jay Silo. Actually it was six years ago in 2006, doesn't feel like it though. Met him through some mutual friends. Anyway, he was part of the art boom from 2001 to 2008, before the economy went down the toilet. It was like you could gauge the excess from all facades and art was one of those facades. Sometimes people don't want to see that, why would you, you have cash, nice things, people buy your stuff everyone is happy. You don't think the party will end, banks were providing the liquor...which was the money and you just drank it up. Jay was part of that art boom and I was working on Wall Street at the time, so I saw the money and excess, the mortgage company start ups, flashy, amazing office fronts. So the thing was is to put these sculptures in the front foyers, it became a craze, a profitable one for the slew of no name artists that were kinda making a name for themselves. Jay was one of them. He meets this art dealer in Soho at a cafe, Jane Swallows...yes that was her surname, she saw a niche in the art markets, became an art broker...and yes there is such a term, art broker means art dealer, art broker deals the art to the perspective clients. Her clients, were big advertising firms, marketing firms and Wall Street brokerage firms, money guys. It was like, back then, money was flowing into every asset you could think of, no one really picked up the tab, as you know now when the shit hit the fan after 2008. Well it all stopped, somewhat, we still got some spill over, like you know the money guys, the greedy guys, not saying I was an angel. But the upper echelon, they want the party to go on and on, and you should know by now that the central bank, The Federal Reserve, those money printing academic idiots, well they are still producing the booze...the money, but this time it's going straight to Wall Street, who aren't really flowing it on to the jobless to go buy houses again. It seems that a black hole formed after 2008 when the markets collapsed and it's still there.
But back to the art boom and Jay Silo. Jay was no Warhol, I mean he was no go getter and set-your-self-up guy, he just got into the hustle at the time, hooking up with the art broker, gallery owners, with all the other new and upcoming artists who were getting snapped up left, right and center, mostly older wealthy New Yorkers, some Californian clients. But mainly rich East Coasters. They would buy anything at the time. Jay sells this sculpture to a Wall Street firm, they paid $300,000, he nearly faints, after the broker takes her cut he is still in the money. I mean, here is a guy that didn't even go to college. The sculpture that Jay sold, I mean if you are into this stuff, I was polite when he explained it to me at a galley exhibition. I couldn't see the appeal of a huge chunk of concrete with coat hangers dangling down and disappearing into the concrete. It looked cool in a way, but $300,000 cool? Well, they bought it, put it in their foyer. Jay's interpretation of the piece, which was an artist's irony in someways, was industrial collapse, concrete representing the Earth, the wire clothes hangers dangling, falling from above, disappearing into the concrete monolith...was us. That was what he said. Anyway, they commissioned another one, but irony swings both ways as the financial collapse hit in 2008 and the commission was pulled. Jay, like I said was a reserved guy, had like $500 left in his bank account. He traveled, drank, went to parties, had fun and blew his first payment as an artist...which also was his last. I haven't seen him in years, I hear that he is still doing art, doesn't live in Manhattan anymore, moved to Brooklyn, some old dive, run down. That's what I heard, also hear people say he is an up and coming artist. I always thought he made it...but I guess not.
Like I said, irony swings both ways.
| n. | 1. | (Rhet.) An ambiguous speech; a figure in which a word is used an equivocal sense. |
I met this guy, an artist a few years back, Jay Silo. Actually it was six years ago in 2006, doesn't feel like it though. Met him through some mutual friends. Anyway, he was part of the art boom from 2001 to 2008, before the economy went down the toilet. It was like you could gauge the excess from all facades and art was one of those facades. Sometimes people don't want to see that, why would you, you have cash, nice things, people buy your stuff everyone is happy. You don't think the party will end, banks were providing the liquor...which was the money and you just drank it up. Jay was part of that art boom and I was working on Wall Street at the time, so I saw the money and excess, the mortgage company start ups, flashy, amazing office fronts. So the thing was is to put these sculptures in the front foyers, it became a craze, a profitable one for the slew of no name artists that were kinda making a name for themselves. Jay was one of them. He meets this art dealer in Soho at a cafe, Jane Swallows...yes that was her surname, she saw a niche in the art markets, became an art broker...and yes there is such a term, art broker means art dealer, art broker deals the art to the perspective clients. Her clients, were big advertising firms, marketing firms and Wall Street brokerage firms, money guys. It was like, back then, money was flowing into every asset you could think of, no one really picked up the tab, as you know now when the shit hit the fan after 2008. Well it all stopped, somewhat, we still got some spill over, like you know the money guys, the greedy guys, not saying I was an angel. But the upper echelon, they want the party to go on and on, and you should know by now that the central bank, The Federal Reserve, those money printing academic idiots, well they are still producing the booze...the money, but this time it's going straight to Wall Street, who aren't really flowing it on to the jobless to go buy houses again. It seems that a black hole formed after 2008 when the markets collapsed and it's still there.
But back to the art boom and Jay Silo. Jay was no Warhol, I mean he was no go getter and set-your-self-up guy, he just got into the hustle at the time, hooking up with the art broker, gallery owners, with all the other new and upcoming artists who were getting snapped up left, right and center, mostly older wealthy New Yorkers, some Californian clients. But mainly rich East Coasters. They would buy anything at the time. Jay sells this sculpture to a Wall Street firm, they paid $300,000, he nearly faints, after the broker takes her cut he is still in the money. I mean, here is a guy that didn't even go to college. The sculpture that Jay sold, I mean if you are into this stuff, I was polite when he explained it to me at a galley exhibition. I couldn't see the appeal of a huge chunk of concrete with coat hangers dangling down and disappearing into the concrete. It looked cool in a way, but $300,000 cool? Well, they bought it, put it in their foyer. Jay's interpretation of the piece, which was an artist's irony in someways, was industrial collapse, concrete representing the Earth, the wire clothes hangers dangling, falling from above, disappearing into the concrete monolith...was us. That was what he said. Anyway, they commissioned another one, but irony swings both ways as the financial collapse hit in 2008 and the commission was pulled. Jay, like I said was a reserved guy, had like $500 left in his bank account. He traveled, drank, went to parties, had fun and blew his first payment as an artist...which also was his last. I haven't seen him in years, I hear that he is still doing art, doesn't live in Manhattan anymore, moved to Brooklyn, some old dive, run down. That's what I heard, also hear people say he is an up and coming artist. I always thought he made it...but I guess not.
Like I said, irony swings both ways.
Comments
Post a Comment