Transcript: Art Gallery SoCo

Austin Connoisseur
Episode “Art Gallery Soco”

Jason Siegel: I mean the artists of today are documenting the world as they see it today. I opened the gallery on south congress in February of 2000. So we are now in our eight year of being in this location. My name is Jason Siegel, I own Gallery Soco on south congress. We sell fine art and custom framing.
South congress is a really popular destination for locals who come down here just to spend the afternoon. As well as tourist, you know people come to Austin and they come from all over the place and you have a very, it’s a really good quality of life. There are lots of good restaurants; there are lots of things to do outside. There are cultural things to do. There is lots of music, there is lots of art. You have this sort of haven of positive energy.
I actually grew up in the art business. My family has been in it since I was born. And so from the time I was young I was running around art galleries and museums, interior design studios, just always surrounded by art. Maybe it’s strange but the works to me there alive, there vey dynamic and so I look at them in moonlight. Or I look at them in bright halogen light. Or I turn lights off and look at them in daylight, on a cloudy day or a rainy day or a sunny day and I see different things. And I am having a conversation with that piece.
But sometimes I will look at a piece and I don’t always understand it. Then I can ask the artist what they were trying to achieve in it, and they might explain it to me, then I get it too, and then I can pass that on. When you buy the original piece, you’re buying that work of art that that artist stood in front of. And so when you go to a museum and your standing in front of a Picasso, Picasso stood in front of that painting and worked on it.
I like to have a lot of art work that I think isn’t shocking necessarily, but it is pushing the edges of artwork. And you know, the colors speak to you, the layers of paint speak to you, and the way that the paint changes with different lighting speaks to you. And the artist as a body of work, all there work, you can see there style in it and see what there doing. There doing something completely unique. I have always had a really good eye for finding good pieces and I think that translates into how I have done my business into not only finding good pieces but finding artist who create all good pieces.
Ok so this painting here is by Lisa Fittipaldi, she is one of my artists, and she is an artist who happens to be blind. And she says that she can not see color distance, print, peripheral vision, shape, shadow, or dimension. But she says she can sense light, so she's not what’s known as black blind. If you look at her earlier work it was darker it was muddier.
But she practiced twelve hours a day and she got better and she got better. And she obviously had natural talent but she overcame this disability.
This artist behind me is Kevin Greer, he’s my youngest painter, and he is only twenty nine years old. Although his palette is so sophisticated he paints probably like he is in his fifties or sixties. He is my most collected artist, I have been sending his paintings to London, Chicago, New York, Florida, Houston, Dallas, all over the place.
He is so dynamic, you know a lot of artist they will base, you know there paintings are always based on still lives, or there always based on horizons, or they are always based on color fields. With him he’s influenced by so many things that he is constantly doing new and different work, which I find to be really refreshing and unique.
This artist that’s behind me, his name is Jeff Scott. And he was a fashion photographer and lived in New York, and got kind of tired doing fashion photography. He wanted to get into fine art; he had always really been an artist. So he contacted Graceland with his idea of the personal Elvis Presley. Graceland really liked the idea and they hired him on I think initially for a three year contract. They gave him access to all of Elvis’s artifacts, at Graceland and all the warehouses. Part of this thing is that his photograph is sort of like a blank canvas, and then he uses that to create his fine art from it.
The first thing I would recommend to people who are looking to buy artwork who don’t already collect artwork. Buy what you love and buy things that are in your budget. Those are the two most important things. But the most important thing is can I live with this piece? I mean what is it? What about it is striking me? And you might not, you might walk into the gallery just to look around and not think your going to even buy anything. And then this piece just jumps out at you. And you need to start thinking, where can I put it in my house? That’s kind of the right piece.
So that brings us into you should buy artwork that’s in your budget, because you don’t ever want to buy a piece and like be out on a limb. And you know be all stressed out, because its going to give you negative feelings about collecting art, and it should be fun, easy, and you know there is artwork from 5 dollars up to millions of dollars. So there is a vast price range. So figure out what am I comfortable spending? What am I comfortable purchasing, and look for artist that are in those budgets.
I do have pieces, original pieces of art, that start off at forty or forty five dollars, and they go up to… Probably the most expensive piece I have in the gallery is probably fifteen or twenty thousand dollars. And then I encourage all my collectors too, you know when you travel go to galleries. When you go travel go to museums. When a new gallery opens go to there openings and look at there work. Because it’s going to help you realize what you want to collect for yourself.
I always found that a lot of galleys are very intimidating and so I say, don’t make it intimidating. Go into the galleries, ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, there are no stupid questions that question will cause a dialog between you and the gallery owner or you and the artist or you and the painting. That will help you experience what it is that you might be looking for or the answer that you need in order to feel comfortable buying a piece or taking a piece home. Or looking at a piece or understanding a piece.
I personally try to make the art buying experience very enjoyable and as easy as possible. I put all my inventory on my website so that people can go and peruse and look at which artist they like and which artist they don’t like, and which pieces they like. Because I understand that it can be intimidating and people don’t understand it. So it easy for them to… Since I don’t understand it I’m just not going to do it. And the only way your going to understand it is by looking at pieces and asking questions.
If your in Austin come on down to the gallery and feel free to ask some questions and feel free to look around and I am happy to give you other places to go look at art and other places to educate yourself about the art world. Hopefully it will become a hobby for you and you will start collecting artist work and end up with your own personal collection.
My name is Jason Siegel and I am a connoisseur.