Harrods Art Gallery Shop (Halcyon Gallery)

Key Points:

• The art gallery is structured like a classic commercial gallery, emphasis on the commercial. The artwork within it is mainly sculpture and classic paintings or prints from famous artists like Piasso.
• There is also a variety of contemporary sculpture made from polished aluminium and stainless steel, similar to the standard that I am polishing my own.  The pieces within this gallery are all for sale, and they come at a great price. 

• The price of these pieces only helps the consumer identify its rarity and therefore, cause desire for the viewer to want to own something so unique. Of course, being in Harrods it attracts a different clientele, which is likely to be more wealthy and therefore able to afford such artwork.  

• The ironic thing is, Harrods itself is like a gallery, as many of its contents the everyday person cannot afford to buy, and this is where the luxury and high end artwork worlds merge as one. 

Santiago Montoya, Lucky, V, 2016, Acrylic and Paper money on stainless steel

Reflections and Further Research:

• This piece of art above caught my attention, due to the emphasis on material which included real paper money and stainless steel - the two mediums that seem to go hand in hand with commercial artist's like Koons. The artist here has meticulously used paper money to exude wealth, and perhaps the word 'lucky' is to enhance this connection with bragging about wealth. The use of stainless steel is seen as a clean, solid, perfect background, suitable for an immaculate, outspoken and luxurious artwork like this. The consumer of this piece would probably reflect the artwork, outspoken and wealthy, and would display this in their contemporary London apartment, rather than be a collector of art themselves. 

• This commercial gallery visit has provided me with an idea about what is involved in the contemporary commercial gallery and the mediums these artists are working with, with seem to be along the themes of visual aesthetics, money and value, producing luxury goods for the consumer. It has also allowed me to understand who these works are for within the commercial gallery.

• I will consider the placement of this commercial gallery when placing my own artwork, and take some devices from it - for example they had a gallery catalogue type thing displaying prices, and in a sense that is what I have done by creating my mass produced piece of text - which is essentially an information sheet displaying the price of my sculpture. 

• Further research will delve into those artists I saw within the Halcyon Gallery, for example, Santiago Montoya.