Deck the walls with Successories!

December 5, 2006 10:03 AM

Help us spend $7k on art for our office. The catch: we're supposed to finalize our choice by Thursday, 12/7.

Our office is made up of 6 workers and is located in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. We have a pile of dollars to spend on art and would love to consider some of your favorite artists.

Here's where we're at so far:

• Leaning towards photography.
• Leaning towards SF-centric themes, or even Potrero Hill themes if possible.
• These photographers are already on the short list: Sean McFarland, Heather Champ, Liz Hickok.
• One of our workers is gunning for Galen Rowell.
• Our office looks like this, with general decor leaning towards modern, lime green, orange, gray and white.
• We aren't entirely conservative, but the work must not alienate our clients.
• Bonus points for local artists, large-format work and conversation pieces.

posted by cior to media & arts (20 comments total)

Doug Sprock does some awesome outdoor photography (think Sierras and Yosemite). I'm buying the "S Hummock" print for my husband for Christmas. It's not exactly SF-centric, but definitely representative of the natural beauty of this area.
posted by handful of rain at 10:08 AM on December 5, 2006

Local to me, not you, but

Dave Twede does amazing IR photography.
posted by faineant at 10:10 AM on December 5, 2006

You have a nice modern office that could use some color. The three photographers you have chosen all look good. I'd vote against the Galen Rowell - sorry, but thats predictable, slightly cheesy stuff, the kind of stuff you expect to be accompanied by a motivational message. I dont know if you're a design firm but the photos on the wall will also reflect your tastes to your clients.
posted by vacapinta at 10:12 AM on December 5, 2006

Does your local art college have a student gallery? You could get some student work cheaper and it might increase in value as it ages.

Don't think of student art as necessarily bad -- probably 90% of it wouldn't be hangworthy, but I've seen some pretty impressive stuff from thesis students in particular.
posted by loiseau at 10:16 AM on December 5, 2006

Why not use flickr to help you find photographers? Here's a local group whose mission statement is "We all appreciate the hundreds of thousands of tourists that visit SF each year, but I don\'t need to see another picture of Lombard Street or Fisherman\'s Wharf. This group is for pictures of San Francisco that average tourist wouldn\'t see. The real heart and soul of San Francisco."

And here are all the photos tagged with Potrero Hill. I would imagine most anyone uploading to flickr would love to sell you a print or two.

Your office is great-looking. Use the Galen Rowell photograph in the kitchen, in case you run out of cheese.
posted by iconomy at 10:17 AM on December 5, 2006

Oh, I realize now that it wasn't obvious -- I'm completely against the Galen Rowell. It's just something we're contending with.
posted by cior at 10:19 AM on December 5, 2006

laura-hughes.com.
posted by DenOfSizer at 10:24 AM on December 5, 2006

Some NSFW
Joshua Jensen-Nagle (his web site is dreadful but his work in person is stunning--check out the mixed media stuff
Thrush Holmes
Nick Brandt
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Les Krims
Liz Hickok
Mark Holthusen

And... not photography, but I'll plug my friend Dana Boettger's abstract art.
posted by dobbs at 10:27 AM on December 5, 2006

Oops, didn't see you had Hickok on your list already.
posted by dobbs at 10:29 AM on December 5, 2006

A non-photographic artist (since you are "leaning", but not fully going in that direction) I like for a corporate environment is

Cynthia Joba

I think some of her pieces could look great when placed with some photography and the color would be a nice counterpoint to some B&W work.
posted by Invoke at 10:34 AM on December 5, 2006

Note that, assuming it is included in your budget, framing will eat up a fairly large chunk of your $7000.
posted by raf at 10:34 AM on December 5, 2006

IANAn art connoisseur, but when I visited San Francisco a couple months ago there were a couple of galleries in/nearby the 300 block of Sutter Street that had some pretty amazing pieces that would look great in your office. Why not take a long lunch and investigate?
posted by jtfowl0 at 10:58 AM on December 5, 2006

If you're not dead-set on photography, Kim Curtis paints some incredible murals that are well suited for spacey offices. She's a native Californian currently in the Midwest, but has loads of California-inspired work.
posted by diastematic at 11:03 AM on December 5, 2006

My cousin used to be the colorist for Marvel Comics, but in the past couple of years, she's been going in different directions and has sold a lot of work to corporate clients. Personally, I far prefer paintings to photographs in business settings, as paintings generally don't compete for visual attention in the same way that I find photographs do.
posted by paulsc at 11:25 AM on December 5, 2006

How many pieces are you planning to buy? Instead of picking several pieces by the same artist, you might think about picking pieces from many different artists--buy some photography, some mixed-media, some paintings, perhaps a sculpture, and some vintage travel or European advertising posters!

Additionally, perhaps each person in the office could be given the opportunity to buy one piece so you'll have a widely varied range of work.
posted by fandango_matt at 12:03 PM on December 5, 2006

raf, you can save a lot on framing by using a laminated-mounting outfit like ProLam. I've printed out some simple autostitch panoramas that turned out very nice, and very cheap. Largest was 5 feet wide, and it was under $200 for printing and mounting.

I'm a simple is better kind of framer, so they really appeal to me, but some people like them scrolly bits I suppose.

For 7k, it'd be pretty easy to fill up a tank of gas, drive down to Santa Cruz, take some pretty panoramics on the way, then have them printed/mounted yourselves.
posted by nomisxid at 12:41 PM on December 5, 2006

If you decide to lean another way, how about some textile art? Most of these art quilts are large scale, you don't have to worry about framing costs (only hanging), and the ones below have a clean, modern, minimalistic style and are made by young artists.

Regina Alexandra
Funquilts
Denyse Schmidt
Lisa Call
Anna Von Mertens (who I think is from San Francisco, or the Bay Area at least)
Angela Moll
posted by kmel at 2:18 PM on December 5, 2006

Ed Anderson is based in the Bay Area and may have some photos that would mix well with your environment. Check the Mix section of his portfolio.

There's also a place in the Mission called the Artist's Exchange with an artist that has a lot of screen prints picturing Oakland. I'll see if I can find the address and post it later.

And yes, that Galen Rowell stuff is utter shit. Even if it's coming from some ironic hipster perspective you shouldn't have to look at that stuff everyday.
posted by quadog at 3:24 PM on December 5, 2006

May I suggest Giant Robot San Francisco? They are a store and gallery.
posted by halonine at 9:18 PM on December 5, 2006

Dec. 7: So, what did you decide?
posted by kmel at 6:50 PM on December 7, 2006