Tam Gryn

in conversation with Victoria J. Fry

www.tamgryn.com tamgryn

You have curated a wide range of art exhibitions and events worldwide. What excites you the most about curating?

I’m focused on finding new cultural economic models at the intersection of art and other industries. I want to see a world in which artists are the most desired people in society, disrupting industries one by one with their perspectives. Artists make the world’s consciousness rise and open the minds that matter, those outside of the art world.

Curators, we are the makers of meaning, therefore I follow and support artists transforming the perspectives, functions, values and total experience of each relevant industry one at a time. My curating changes and evolves at the pace that art changes and evolves.

Tell us about your work for Showfields. What are the benefits of connecting art with retail?

SHOWFIELDS is driving the cultural conversation that both artists and entrepreneurs share the same creative vein. We do not believe in categories when it comes to creativity. Instead, we celebrate the interdisciplinary aspects that drive innovation. Nowadays, there are more brands, more founders, more artists, and more innovation than any other time in history! We can find 100 mind-blowing artists on Instagram in 10 minutes, and we get ads to super cool mission-driven small businesses to no end. But, it is very hard for young artists and entrepreneurs to be discovered on hightraffic streets in their own cities and very hard for customers to find innovation in the physical world. That is why SHOWFIELDS was created, to engage and inspire your sense of discovery through revolving experiences with the brands and artists of tomorrow.

CURATOR + AUTHOR

In addition to your curatorial work, you recently authored the book How to Create and Sell NFTs. Will NFTs help artists to retain ownership of their work? What impact do you hope NFTs will have on the art world?

With NFTs, artists call the shots. Value is determined by artists and collectors rather than third parties who have a vested interest in maintaining authority by limiting access. This token ensures that the work could never be edited or modified and that no replica of the work could ever be passed off as authentic, since any reproduction would lack the original’s distinctive identifier. NFTs have the potential to change the function of ownership in the art world: an artwork can now be sold as an NFT that acts as the custodian of its uniqueness. The owner of a work could now sell it at any moment, with complete confidence in the transaction. And the faith of buyers with respect to the legitimacy of their purchases would increase. No longer would costly expert opinions be needed to verify the authenticity of a work and peer to peer international sales could happen within seconds. And finally, artists could create perpetual royalties and passive income— leaving out potential intermediaries.

What have been some highlights of 2022, and what does 2023 hold for you?

I hope to see an artworld that can seamlessly bridge physical and digital experiences that transcend both the experience economy of the 2018s and the digital renaissance post-covid. I hope to work towards a Web3 that uses curation for relevance and artistic narrative, but stays decentralized and provides access to all artists without gatekeeping. NFTs should be used to protect all of artists’ output, starting from the creative process, the behind the scenes, and every step of the way until the final artwork, both digital and physical. New mysterious projects involving NFTs and public art on the lookout!

What is the most important step emerging artists can take to advance their careers right now outside of NFTs?

Make sure your main message and research is reflected in all of your work, even and especially as it evolves. Make work about what keeps you up at night.

You focus on sustainability in your art curation. Why is it important to incorporate sustainability in your curatorial work?

As the environmental crisis accelerates, contemporary artists have taken up the mantle of addressing the precarious present. For the SHOWFIELDS launch in Miami, after visiting artists in their studios, I realized that everyone in the art community is concerned with water rising, the environment and sustainability - and that relationship between architecture and nature. Therefore, we wanted to come into the city with a sense of “we hear you Miami, and we are going to make ourselves accountable for you.” Every single artist in that curation had a strong sustainability practice and research. Concepts of climate change and carbon footprint are at the forefront of many artists’ minds, therefore with NFTs we need to be aware that ecofriendly options exist and new options are appearing.

VISIONARY ARTISTS

This issue of New Visionary Magazine is curated by Sergio Gomez.

Sergio Gomez is a Chicago-based artist, curator, author, and artist coach. He received a MFA degree from Northern Illinois University. He is known for his large scale figurative abstraction paintings and charcoal drawings exploring the cycles of life. Sergio’s work has been the subject of more than 45 solo exhibitions, and he has participated in over 150 group exhibitions. His work is in the collection of the National Museum of Mexican Art, Brauer Museum, and other public and private collections. Sergio Gomez is an active curator with a career of over 100 curated exhibitions since 2010. He is curator and Director of Exhibitions at the Zhou B. Art Center, Director and founder of 33 Contemporary Gallery, co-founder of the coaching academy Art NXT Level®, and founder of Amplified Art Network.

ARTIST, EDUCATOR + ENT R E P R ENEUR