Virginia art made its way to New York City earlier this month with the help of Farmville’s j fergeson gallery. “We want to take art where the people are,” said Jarrod Fergeson, the gallery’s owner and namesake, who took works by Grant Garmezy of RVA and Susan Jamison of Roanoke to this year’s SELECT Fair in Manhattan.
Virginia art made its way to New York City earlier this month with the help of Farmville’s j fergeson gallery. “We want to take art where the people are,” said Jarrod Fergeson, the gallery’s owner and namesake, who took works by Grant Garmezy of RVA and Susan Jamison of Roanoke to this year’s SELECT Fair in Manhattan.
Fergeson said he chose these two artists because their nature-themed styles complement each other very well. Garmezy specializes in striking glass sculptures that can resemble “glass taxidermy,” Fergeson said, while Jamison creates austere paintings of animals that are often mutated in some way.
“What we really wanted this time was to keep it super clean and simple,” Fergeson said of his goal for the exhibition, since it’s very common for visitors to New York’s numerous exhibitions to get “art-ed out” from overstimulation. The j fergeson gallery booth at the fair measured only 96 square feet, with just 30 works exhibited total.
Co-founded by curators Brian Whitely and Matthew Eck in 2011, SELECT describes its goal on its website as “providing a unique platform to a wide range of galleries from around the world.” This year’s New York fair featured galleries from 14 states, as well as Paris, Havana, Canada, and Japan.
Fergeson said that it’s too early to tell how much the art exhibited will sell, since many fair and gallery patrons are not prepared to make immediate purchases, but he has several items on hold and has heard back from interested buyers already.
This trip represented the third out-of-town fair that Fergeson has participated in – he has twice previously exhibited at Miami’s Aqua Art fair. Fergeson said he is looking to participate again in the fair this December.
Jarrod Fergeson founded his gallery in 2008, and has since shown art ranging from graffiti-covered train cars to traditional folk art. “Our goal here is to have a little something for everybody’s taste, and also their budget,” Fergeson said. The gallery also contains a curated gift shop for visitors looking to make small purchases.
To see the SELECT Fair exhibit, as well as works from local artist Matt Lively, visit the j fergeson gallery, located at 311 W. Main St in Farmville; it’s open 11 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday. “We’ve got some artists here that are worth the hour drive,” Fergeson said.
