Ferran Josa Monegal-Pigment Gallery
Pigment Gallery at the “Art on Paper Fair” in New York
The third edition of the much-talked-about “Art on paper” fair took place from March 2nd to 5th at Pier 36, on the East River side of New York City. This year, a new exhibitor joined the medium-based contemporary art fair: the one-year-old Pigment gallery from Barcelona, a gallery that is set to start in September a partnership with Catena Artistorum.
Pigment gallery may be among the youngest galleries on Pier 36, but it is the not the least experienced. Before he opened it up in January 2016, Ferran Josa Monegal was for 16 years the director of Sala Parès, the oldest gallery in Europe. A solid business experience and a deep sense of friendship were the foundations on which he built Pigment gallery: “One year, in that special period, was very difficult to achieve, but we’ve had a lot of success this year!”
His friendship with Xavier Gonzalez-Florenzano, now president of Catena Artistorum, goes back about 15 years, to the opening of an exhibition in Geneva, followed a year after by another exhibition, curated by Ferran Josa Monegal and, this time, hosted by Xavier Gonzalez-Florenzano. Catena Artistorum now gives that friendship a new and creative outlet, as Pigment gallery offered to open each commercial season with an exhibition featuring artists selected by the Catena.
This collaboration will be inaugurated as early as September 2017 with an exhibition of three outstanding Ukrainian artists who took part in the CatenArt residency in Barcelona in August 2016: Olena Smaha, painter, Oleksander Buyvidt, sculptor and Yaryna Shumska, performance artist.
“In the art world we are always in the process of showing older artists, but also looking for new ones…” explains Ferran Josa Monegal, who sees this collaboration both as a benefit for his gallery and for the artists involved. It is indeed the gallery’s goal to bring together “consolidated Spanish artist as well as young emerging artists”.
The spirit of Catena Artistorum resonates deeply with the gallerist, who believes one should not look at art only with a financial lens. “I think the business has two arms, the selling — to the collectors, the clients — and then the possibility of knowing people, artists, new countries…”
Even when he takes part in such a commercial event as a contemporary art fair in New York City, the gallerist does not lose sight of his goal. Even there, friendship remains the key: “we are here to sell, but for me it’s very important if I can make a relationship with a gallery from another country, and then maybe they can work with my artists and I can work with their artists. That’s another way of working.”
Congratulations to Ferran Josa Monegal on the first anniversary of Pigment Gallery!, We are looking forward to the First Pigment-Catena exhibition in September: may it be the beginning of a deep and lasting friendship!
