Hundred Dollar Gallery

Look, talk is cheap. For example, I’m being paid nothing for writing this. But imagine I was paid one slim silver dime per word like in the old days when I wrote the obits and the racing news for the Abstract Expressionist Times. Let’s do the math. If a picture is worth 1000 words and each word is ten cents, then that picture is worth $100 which is good, because that’s what art sold for at the Hundred Dollar Gallery.
 
So if you’ve got one of those slick brown Sir Robert Borden c-notes heating up one of your cargo pants’ pockets, you can buy yourself some art here at the Hundred Dollar Gallery show. I mean, you could go to the dollar store and buy a hundred sparkly pencils with feathers on the end, or a 100 glue sticks that don’t quite work, but if you wanted to get your own totally original and unique piece of genuine Hamilton city art to gussy up your walls with ambitious class, then the Hundred Dollar Gallery show is for you. 
 
That’s the idea that artists Stephen Altena and Andrew McPhail came up with when creating the Hundred Dollar Gallery, late of Cannon St. near James St. N. Interesting and affordable art for a hundred bucks. Engaging shows and a community of gallery goers. Sure by dead of night you could slip in through the attic window of the Louvre or the MOMA and steal yourself a Picasso or a Garfunkel, but art isn’t just for criminals and Banker J. Moneybags. Art is for people. And here in Hamilton, art is a whole lot nicer than steel. At the Hundred Dollar Gallery, art was the new steal at $100 per art piece. That made it a kind of conceptual project in itself, problematizing the exchange value of art. Is art better if it costs more? What happens if regular folks can afford art? What is the relationship between art and money, between artist and purchaser, between a hundred bucks and your wall? What happens if you circumvent the idea of art as an expensive object for the elite and make it cost a lot less than a pair of snazzy sneaks? Or (and I just looked this up) six tickets to a movie. That’s nine hours of fun for your eyes, but for $100 at the Hundred Dollar Gallery show, you can buy some art and look for as long as you like. Also, even if you don’t buy anything, at the Hundred Dollar Gallery show you can look for free. It’s a nice thing to have this show at Hamilton Artist Inc to remember how great the Hundred Dollar Gallery was, how great its artists still are, and how great looking at things always is. 

By Gary Barwin

Featured artists include:

Donna Akrey
Paul Allard
Michael Allgoewer
Stephen Altena
Tyler Armstrong
Gary Barwin
Patti Beckett
Nancy Benoy
Natasja Bischoff
Gord Bond
Laura Bromwich
Nathan Eugene Carson
Andrea Carvalho
Christian Chapman
Nicole Collins
Danny Custodio
Marco d'Andrea
Robert Dayton
Tanya Denyer
Corinne Duchessne
Stacey Easton
Chuck Eelhart
Paul Elia
Christopher Reid Flock
Margaret Flood
Simon Frank
Laine Groeneweg
Cameron Groves
Sadko Hadzihasnovic
Christopher Hall
Stev'nn Hall
Anthony Haley
John Haney
Sarah Heinonen
Dave Hind
Corine Van Hoeve
Phil Irish
Peter Jelen
EM Johnson
Steve Kahn
John Kinsella
Caillin Kowalczyk
Dave Kuruc
Steven Laurie
Trisha Leigh Lavoie
Robyn Lightwalker
Henry Lu
Laura Marotta
Adam Matak
Ingrid Mayerhofer
Nancy Anne McPhee
Andrew McPhail
Steve Newberry
Eli Nolet
Andrew O’Connor
Hitoko Okada
Maureen Paxton
Cornelia Peckart
Carrie Perrault
Lisa Pijuan-Nomura
Klaus Pinter
Mark Prier
Ravinder Ruprai
Mariel Rutherford
Steph Seagram
Maria Simmons
Kyle Stewart
TH&B
Ty Tekatch
David Trautrimas
Stephanie Vegh
Brandon Vickerd
Bojana Videkanic
Nikola Wojewoda
Cathy Yantsis