Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/271576
BENJAMIN TRIGANO Founder, owner and director, M+B, Los Angeles Established. 2008 Raison d'être. M+B began with a focus on social documentary photography then, using that understanding of the medium, shifted to contemporary artists using the printed medium. Trajectory. I originally moved to L.A. working on a hotel project for a company; however, once it started, I realized I didn't want to work for someone else. I loved L.A. and wanted to stay here and realized that through the people I knew, I could create a destination for photo-based work. Balancing act: hotelier/hospitality innovator/brand guru versus gallerist/ curator. That's a lot of things at once; I think I am simply an entrepreneur. I have learned over the years that the only way for an idea/project/concept to work is to be passionate and to partner with people you enjoy working with. Most of the projects I am involved with are related to the arts and/or the social experience within that venture. Whether it be M+B, Mama Shelter or this new poster company that I am launching called WAX Posters (first one with Ai Weiwei), I also want to make sure we are having fun. You're one of the few galleries that's a member of both NADA [New Art Dealers Alliance] and AIPAD [Association of International Photography Art Dealers]. Your take on photography's place in the contemporary realm. I find photography — or perhaps better put, the printed medium — probably the most exciting media in the arts at the moment. Photography is one of the youngest mediums. Artists working in it have new tools never before available allowing them to experience and create in ways that they never have before. Artists have an understanding of the medium and its history, as well as an investment in its analog nature, and at the same time they are attempting to break it open in new ways. Your stable, and M+B's place in the L.A. art eco system. We have divided the gallery into two entities which will be move obvious when our new websites launch in the month to come. One will focus on where M+B began, traditional photography lending towards documenting critically defining social moments. The other will continue to do what we have been featuring: contemporary artists pushing the medium's boundaries and involved with the whole of contemporary art. I would like to think that both have, and continue to, influence the L.A. art eco system. The program focusing on traditional photography and social documentation was the first to give Leroy Grannis and Hugh Holland shows as well as represent the estate of Hunter S. Thompson and represent Malick Sidibé. Grannis and Holland's influence on the birth of street culture is critical and — while feeling universal — is quintessentially L.A. JULIA DIPPELHOFER AND MICHAEL NEVIN Co-founders and co-owners of THE JOURNAL GALLERY, Brooklyn Which came first, the gallery or the magazine? Michael Nevin: I started the journal in 1999, during my first year of school at Who's coming to Dallas next month for year six of the convergence that's vying to be the best boutique art fair in America? Catherine D. Anspon surveys five independents — fresh and game-changing galleries showing at the Dallas Art Fair 2014 — who need to be on your collecting radar come April. Calendar these Fair dates and prepare to acquire: Preview Gala Thursday, April 10; Fair days Friday through Sunday, April 11–13; at Fashion Industry Gallery; dallasartfair.com. Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts. Julia was an au pair in the next town over, and we both signed up for a black-and-white photography course at the school. I had just published the first issue of the journal at Kinko's and gave her a copy. The photography teacher basically set us up by suggesting Julia and I work on an assignment together. After graduating, we moved to NY and shortly after took over a large garage space on East 6th Street in the East Village, which became the journal office. The gallery grew out of having so much space and involved the people we were working with the magazine … One day a collector came in and bought 25 drawings, which was really the start of the gallery. Biggest break. MN: Opening our new space … Julia's brother, Dominik Dippelhofer, who is an architect based in Luxembourg, designed the space, and Julia oversaw the building and details, and put together and managed an incredible crew. For me, it's the most beautiful gallery I've seen. I wouldn't change one thing. On the wonders of Williamsburg. Julia Dippelhofer and Michael Nevin: When it comes to Brooklyn, we found the perfect home. Artists can't really afford to be in Manhattan anymore, so the majority of them are here, it's like having the kitchen and the dining room under one roof; we are in studios almost every day. Williamsburg is also the fastest growing neighborhood in New York right now, and collectors enjoy that about coming out here. On running gallery and magazine. JD and MN: In a sense, one can support the other, meaning that content in the magazine could sometimes lead to work being shown in the gallery and vice-versa. In many ways, the magazine has inspired the growth of the gallery because it is a unique aspect of what we do. Our approach was always very organic and sincere, and a lot of it was just evolution into what it has become now. At times, the borders between gallery and magazine were a lot less defined. We take both very seriously, and while we enjoy working on both, not everything that is fit for the magazine would be something that we would consider as something that would make sense with the programming of the gallery. OLIVIER BABIN Founder, owner and director, C L E A R I N G, Brooklyn and Brussels Established. The gallery opened 2011 in Brooklyn and then a year later the Brussels space opened. It is growing steadily and it is exciting. We exhibit solely emerging international artists and more than once artists have had their first solo shows with us. Bushwick bound. I came to New York as an artist in 2008 and after working for a couple of years I decided to open the gallery. The way a gallery interacts with artists in the primary market was very attractive and motivating for me. CLEARING was started in a loft space in Bushwick, Brooklyn surrounded by factories and industrial spaces, artists and studios. We are still in the same space and it's great. The neighborhood is turning into a very dynamic environment for art and "I FIND PHOTOGRAPHY — OR PERHAPS, BETTER PUT, THE PRINTED MEDIUM — PROBABLY THE MOST EXCITING MEDIA IN THE ARTS AT THE MOMENT." — BENJAMIN TRIGANO, M+B, LOS ANGELES "IT'S NOT SO MUCH BROOKLYN AND BRUSSELS, BUT INSTEAD, IT IS BEING PRESENT IN THE U.S. AND THE EU THAT IS VALUABLE." — OLIVIER BABIN, C L E A R I N G, BROOKLYN AND BRUSSELS COURTESY THE ARTIST AND C L E A R I N G, BROOKLYN AND BRUSSELS © JESSICA EATON, COURTESY M+B GALLERY, L.A. MAGNUS UNNAR JEAN-BAPTISTE MONDINO Ryan Foerster's In accordance to natural law, 2011-2012, at C L E A R I N G, Brooklyn and Brussels Jessica Eaton's Cfaal 346, 2010, at M+B, Los Angeles The Journal Gallery's Julia Dippelhofer and Michael Nevin FAIREST OF THE FAIR M+B's, Benjamin Trigano