Yet ARCO seems to stand out from the mass for Grimes. Out of the 200 prolific international art fairs, he’s chosen Madrid 21 years in a row. He is interested in the “the curatorial symposiums, the quality of curators and institutional representation” at fairs. He even went back to school to learn Spanish, “I made an effort” for a “want to express a level of sincerity and passion.”
Carlos Bunga at Christopher Grimes ARCO
The gallerist, responsible for helping launch the careers of artists such as Katharina Grosse and Ernesto Neto, has probably seen such success thanks to this level of personal investment and passion. “I come here because there are good curators” he explains, good curators mean a good level of intellectual engagement with the pieces and the chance for prestigious institutional representation. ARCO is furthermore an intelligent choice because “the collectors are a little bit more considerate in the work that they buy. They buy pieces because they actually really like the work; they’re not interested in flipping it, or sending it right to auction, or dealing with the marketplace nearly as much as collectors at other art fairs.”
Leading the way as someone who cares about the cultural discourse that surrounds the field rather than simply the potential financial gains. “I think it’s an unusual thing these days, for people to talk about art” he bemoans, “being from Los Angeles, Los Angeles is very driven by trends”. So this is yet another reason that Grimes rates ARCO, “For me, having done Brussels and Sao Paulo and all these other fairs I never have the same kinds of conversations that I have in here in Madrid,” he explains.
Despite the fact that Grimes emanates a sort of mistrust for the motives of art fairs, it is clear what he is looking for — quite simply a “healthy environment for showing work.”
