Former corporate raider Asher Edelman, who has a stand at Art Miami this week, has teamed up with Christie’s-owned Haunch of Venison gallery to represent San Francisco-based artist Doug Argue. “The situation is that Haunch and Edelman Arts jointly represent Doug,” says Edelman. It is the first time New York-based Edelman has shared artist-management with the gallery: “I work with Haunch in many ways, but mostly in the private dealing area—rarely do galleries in the same city represent an artist together,” he says.
The rather unusual arrangement came about after Edelman’s wife, Michelle, bought an Argue work from a show at Haunch last summer—a painting that “looks like a huge explosion from afar”, says the artist. “We thought Argue was the best artist we had come across in many years,” says Edelman, adding: “So we talked with Doug and Haunch and we’re drawing up the papers for a three-year deal.” Asked about whether the deal means Haunch will split production costs and sales commissions with Edelman, he says: “I’d rather not confirm specifics, but you could assume that.”
But a Haunch spokeswoman says: “There is no deal structure in place, as we are not representing [Argue].” Instead, the gallery has a “relationship” with “Asher Edelman/Doug Argue through the Four Projects show we did at HoV NYC in the summer (which is how we sold the piece).”
Edelman has teamed up with other dealers before. He recently staged an Agathe Snow show, an artist from gallerist James Fuentes’ stable (Fuentes is showing at the Nada satellite fair this week, see p10). “We don’t represent Agathe: We just did it through James,” says Edelman, who also works with the Moss design gallery, sharing representation of Cathy McClure: “She belongs to the design and fine art camps, so we do that together,” says Edelman.
As for his motivation, Edelman, who is showing a painting by Argue, Isotropic, 2007-10, priced at $75,000, says: “I do it because I really enjoy it.”
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Haunch teams up with NY financier'