Short but sweet: An Interview with Amani Olu, Director of the soon-to-be defunct Bond St. Gallery

Opening night at Bond St. Gallery, Young Curators, New Ideas
Taken from Amani Olu's facebook page.

Bond Street Gallery was recently taken over and transformed into a contemporary photography gallery by Amani Olu, the founder and director of the Humble Arts Foundation. But after two and a half shows, the gallery is closing its doors early (and is even cutting the current show short by two weeks).

The opening show (August 13, 2008) was a fantastic study of the current trends and new ideas in art photography: Young Curators, New ideas was curated by Alana Celii & Grant Willing, Michael Bühler-Rose, Jon Feinstein , Laurel Ptak , Amy Stein, and Lumi Tan.

The second (September 10, 2008) was a show of reprinted Gelatin prints and new Carbon Pigment prints from Walker Evans' estate.

The third show (October 15, 2008), which is being cut short by two weeks, was Amani Olu's Curatorial debut. The exhibition "explores the shift in American culture following the Second World War, and how that shift has influenced American values today." And features the work of Timothy Briner, Jon Feinstein, Matthew Gamber, Justin James Reed, Angie Smith, Brian Ulrich and Michael Vahrenwald.

This morning I used the highly sophisticated Gmail-chat to talk with Amani about Bond St. closing, Humble Arts, and whats next.

me/Tim: Dude, you got a minute or two?

Sent at 10:17 AM on Thursday
Amani: What's up?

Sent at 10:18 AM on Thursday
me: I wanted to ask you a few questions about the gallery for the blog:

Amani: sure send them over.
me: Bond St.: So what the fuck?

Sent at 10:25 AM on Thursday
Amani: i mean, the pdn [interview] pretty much told the story; the owners got impatient and had unrealistic expectations; they didn't really understand how the gallery market works in new york; they expected to do a lot of sales in a really short period of time, and they didn't have a collector base when i started; so i was trying to build that.
me: Really? 3 shows? That's it, they pull out after 3 shows and 3 great turnouts? And they don't even let the last one run its course? Is there not something else going on?

Sent at 10:33 AM on Thursday
me: BRB, getting some coffee...

Sent at 10:34 AM on Thursday
me: OK. So really, is there something you are not telling us? Or they are not telling you?
Amani: i think them closing the gallery two weeks before the show ends proves my point that their is a lack of respect and concern for how to work in this community. i suppose i'll never know the real reason why they are cutting the show in half, my guess is that they just want to get this over with and move on. the bottom line is that the gallery is closing because they don't want to be in this business any longer.

me: WOW.. I just got an email from Adorama: 16x20 prints for $4.95. WTF!

Sent at 10:38 AM on Thursday
me: Ok... so this must be frustrating... you had a nice space and was the start of something big, something that directly comes from your work with Humble; what now? What's next for Amani Olu?

Amani: not sure.

Sent at 10:40 AM on Thursday

me: We don't have to worry about Humble, I'm sure. But you got a taste of directing a gallery, having control over the design, the shows, the artists, and you curated your first group show. You want to continue with that? it seems like a perfect fit to me.

Amani: i would like to continue as a director/curator.

Sent at 10:43 AM on Thursday

me: Has this inspired you to try and take Humble out of the virtual world? Or you going to look for a separate space, like Bond st.?

Sent at 10:45 AM on Thursday
Amani: The goal for Humble has always been for it to be out of the virtual world (while still existing there). 2009 is all about finding the right funding to open a space for Humble; that was on the agenda in 2007; so, we're going to keep moving forward with that; nothing at Humble changes; we're just going to keep it going and developing it for emerging art photographers.

Sent at 10:48 AM on Thursday
me: That's great to hear! Thanks for you time, Amani. One last question: how many pairs of glasses do you own?

Amani: five
Amani: but only two are in rotation.

Sent at 10:50 AM on Thursday

me: If you don't mind... I want to ask you one more: As an artist who is looking for representation myself, I'm curious how hard was it to have to announce to the five photographers [Bond St. represents] that the doors were closing, and that they were to be cut?

Sent at 11:44 AM on Thursday
Amani: It wasn't easy; but I had to do it; it wasn't my decision, i was just the messenger; i'd like to not have to do something like that in the future; but it's a part of the business; galleries close; it happens.