They Don't Sing Songs About Wallflowers (redux)
The squeaky wheel gets the art grant, solo show, and big money benefactors
Originally published in 2022, this article is as necessary now as it was then and you probably missed it anyway, so here’s your updated medicine.
New Orleans artist Ashley Longshore is a firebrand. She’s loud, dynamic, outspoken, and makes no bones about her distaste for laziness and abstract art. She also regularly sells paintings to celebrities and hedge fund managers for tens of thousands of dollars.
She’s never been represented by a gallery or dealer and only operated and sold art through her studio/gallery in the heart of New Orleans. She declared early on that if any gallery or dealer wanted to feature her art, they could pay her in advance for the privilege because being locked into a consignment contract with no guarantee of return was a sucker’s deal.
In 2023, she announced moving her studio/gallery to New York, which is an affront to all gallerists and dealers in that city. The industry hub, which prides itself on widening the divide between the anointed and the riff-raff, is not ready for someone of Longshore’s audacity, but she couldn’t care less. If they don’t open the doors for her, she’ll bust them down and dance her way over their sprawled bodies.
“I fuel my confidence. I believe in me and I know myself very well. If I can love myself then I can handle all the shit sandwiches life is gonna serve. I have no choice but to be confident. This is my life, why wouldn’t I love me?? I honor my talent and I work as hard as I can. I have nothing to hide. I will get nowhere with self-loathing.”
- Ashley Longshore
When I saw Beef, the dark comedy featuring Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, the most unsurprising performance was from David Choe, not because he was terrible, but because his animated personality lends itself to the performance we got from him. Anyone who has watched Choe in anything will know precisely what I mean.
Push aside any controversies regarding his manufactured rape stories for a moment because Choe is crazy rich, but it’s not from Netflix or his art (well, not entirely).
Choe got rich because of an early relationship with Facebook co-founder Sean Parker who was a fan of the art before bringing Choe in to paint boobs and penises all over the walls of Facebook’s first campus.
Parker became a fan of Choe’s art more because of his exploits on camera than his painting technique. Parker convinced Zuckerberg to use Choe to decorate the Facebook campus. However, when given a choice to take cash for the work or stock in the early stage of Facebook, years before going public, Choe took the gamble, and it paid off.
Choe is an 8-figure millionaire now because he was brave enough to live his truth (even though it’s also gotten him in trouble many times).
We Don’t Talk About Artists Who Walk Softly
I’m always on the hunt for any stories that help other creatives move the needle forward in their careers. However, unlike other industries where success stories about paths to freedom are plentiful, it’s challenging to find articles about how artists made their way to six and seven-figure incomes.
Nobody at the New Yorker or Vanity Fair is writing stories about your favorite watercolor artist who paints flowers and landscapes with 10,000 Instagram followers. Instead, they write stories about Longshore and Choe.
It’s frustrating because I want to share stories of creative individuals who have found modest success, but there’s not much to share. I know these people exist, but they don’t make the news, at least not in the more established publications.
It’s almost as if you must be a loudmouth or a sociopath to get attention from the nouveau riche intelligentsia and social media-addicted influencers who drive online art sales beyond the walls of megalithic galleries and museums.
The next best answer is to do it myself. Don’t ask me what that means yet. Even though this isn’t new territory for me, I don’t know how I want to execute the idea, but I think there’s an opportunity to help positively highlight the work of others.
Perhaps that will make me the loudmouth sociopath.
