Lower East Side Meeting with: James Fuentes & Sam Wilson

The pandemic has made in-person experiences nearly impossible, this have limited us to do many things, especially visiting places such as Galleries. In my mind, a gallery is a place where we can deeply enjoy the work of an artist, and see his or her intentions behind work of art. Also, I think a gallery is a place to enhance our knowledge of arts. It’s a place that lets us see how the history of the past have affected the arts today, and how the work of art is affected by the development of technology today. Furthermore, I think a gallery is also a place where I can inspire me to try out new things, such as new techniques that I can study in my personal work of art. However, visiting galleries online led me to see the warmth and coldness in galleries. 

Before visiting the galleries at the Lower East Side, I imagine that the galleries would give me a feeling of warmth or that I can somewhat relate to the artwork. But, on the visit to James Fuentes Gallery, all I can feel is that distance. James Fuentes surrounded most of his conversations around being in New York, he demonstrated the idea that New York is the center for the art world, to enter the art world you have to be in New York, “I think I was definitely very fortunate to actually be in New York City to have access to these things”. Personally, I do not agree with his idea, I think the art world is reachable anywhere if we dive in. We can access music, art, literature almost everywhere now, we do not specifically have to be in the city to access all of these things. Also James thinks that there are no other places that can replace New York when it comes to the question of developing art and sharing art. Throughout the conversation with James, I feel like we are very distant, I am not in New York city, and I can access the art world and express my ideas through art. His mind seems to be a little bit stagnant in some ways when he explains the concept of New York City as the best place for art is constraining art . 

Compared to the meeting with James Fuentes, the visit to the Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery and meeting with Sam Wilson is a totally different experience. I feel a sense of warmth and I can relate to the artworks in some ways. The moment we walked into the Gallery, I started to think about the intentions behind the artist, and what the art is trying to express. Sam Wilson, as an artist himself, brings conversations deeply into the art pieces and the intentions behind works of art. Sam Wilson talks about artificial intelligence and creating creatures, and he also talks about using technology to create that feeling of empathy. Furthermore, he also leads the conversation toward the idea of how to use technology that feeds our sort of personal longing and our souls in time. From meeting with Sam Wilson, we are looking for that human connection with technology and how to create or trigger responses from the audiences. From the meeting with Sam, I am questioning myself about the technology that I am using, and where I used correctly in order to present my artwork to a higher level or to reach the meaning that I want to present. 

Compared to James Fuentes and Sam Wilson, Fuentes is being more constrained, Wilson is more open. I think with this experience of visiting Lower East Side Galleries online, I have identified the kind of person that I would like to be. I would like to be a person that brings warmth to the art world, and lets more people understand art and be able to explore themselves through works of art.