New Year, New Focus
As the New Year approaches, we are excited to share with you the news that Chandra Cerrito Contemporary will refocus our energies on our flourishing art advisory projects and shift away from a traditional gallery model starting in 2019. As many of you know, Chandra Cerrito Contemporary began as a passion project that paralleled our more established art consulting agency, which was founded in 2004. In 2007, the gallery was created as a way to highlight talented artists whose work deserved greater visibility, to engage the vibrant, burgeoning arts community in Oakland, and to present a unique curatorial vision. We are proud that Chandra Cerrito Contemporary has contributed to the vitality of an art district in the heart of Oakland and we look forward to utilizing the gallery space in new ways that continue to contribute to the neighborhood art community.
Although we have been deeply honored to promote inspiring artists’ careers and have thoroughly enjoyed developing our exhibition program for the past 11 years, it is now time to turn our full attention to our rapidly expanding art advisory business. As we look at how we can best fulfill what has always been our primary objective–to support artists and foster appreciation of contemporary art–it is clear that we can be most effective by focusing more exclusively on consulting. Art consulting enables us to make more of an impact for artists by facilitating ambitious acquisition, commissioning and public exhibition opportunities. To give some context, our consulting projects have enabled us to place more than 600 artworks by over 200 artists in the last two years. Among these are 17 major pubic art installations that are either underway or completed. Our incredible team, including Art Consultants Ginny Tominia and Donna Napper, Associate Katie Revilla, and Principal Chandra Cerrito, is looking forward to dedicating our expertise to elevating clients’ understanding of and enhancing environments with art. In doing so, we aim to enrich the daily lives of a wide range of people, from those who are unacquainted with contemporary art to seasoned art lovers.
We have no doubt that art connects us and that artists uplift the human experience. To that end, in addition to using our Oakland location as an art consulting base, it will also serve as an artist-in-residence program that offers rent-free studio space to help support one or two local artists each year. While ideas are still evolving, we also envision the space will be used to host a program of salon-style discussions and educational events directly serving artists seeking professional development, including portfolio reviews and topics like “a studio artist’s introduction to public art.” We will continue our participation in Oakland’s First Friday event by showcasing artists we are working with, celebrating site-specific installations commissioned by local artists, and opening up our art residency program for behind-the-scenes engagement with the artist’s studio practice.
It has been the highest professional honor to offer exhibitions to artists we admire and to help promote their careers. We send our deepest gratitude to the artists who contributed so much to the gallery over the years and have entrusted us to present their work. We also want to thank our generous collectors, our devoted gallery visitors and artist talk attendees, and the esteemed curators, critics, and artists who have shared enriching and eye-opening perspectives of our exhibitions. We continue to be energized by the dialogue that was spurred through the activities of Chandra Cerrito Contemporary and we look forward to engaging with all of you in new ways.