Platform 2017 Inaugural 3-day fair/show will break new ground hosting 44 visual artist, 22 book fair exhibitors, a film festival, 60 Americans 2 group exhibition, 101 Contemporary Artists group exhibition, 3 Curated Sections by Noah Becker (NYC), Joe Heaps Nelson (Greenpoint & Williamsburg) and Melanie Prapopoulos (Miami) on-site installations, performances, poetry readings and slam, various book signings, food trucks (focus on farm to table), along with morning artists talks and round table panel discussions that relate to the sustainability (survival) of emerging, mid-career and mature artists in the current contemporary art market. The artists exhibiting at Platform are creating work that is essential to their lives as the air we breathe. The artists presented at Platform are necessary, important, relevant and as a collective and will resonate a new movement of passion, integrity and authenticity missing from the current contemporary art landscape.
“Platform Contemporary Art Show, Art Book Fair & Film Festival is a game changer in bridging the gap between artist, critic and collector.” – Terrence Sanders
Platform Art is a vehicle for emerging and mid-career artists to engage in the important conversations of our times with their contemporaries, adventurous collectors and art enthusiasts alike. In the current art fair/show paradigm too many artists are often left out of the conversation or their work is promoted solely as valuable and expendable commodities. We lose the brilliance of their ideas and the wisdom of their work. We become caught up in trends and an art world that celebrates image and branding over vision and individuality. With the large numbers of talented national and international artists working today, and so few available opportunities for them, a tone of limited access has been set by the auction houses, major galleries, private dealers, a handful of influential curators, critics, and A list artists who represent a fraction of our national treasure of creative artists.
Platform Art is a new art show that will offer under-represented artists an opportunity to exhibit their work in a professional setting. It is a place of discovery for the beginning or established, socially conscious yet adventurous collector. Artists and arts professionals who participate in Platform Art will conduct creative dialogues and have a voice in numerous and authentic issues that impact both the broader art community and the public-at-large.
Platform Art Book Fair will feature curated artists’ books, catalogs, monographs, periodicals, and magazines. Platform’s focus is the independent, the underground subculture of the mainstream.
Platform Film Festival will screen films with substance and narrative that enrich everyone’s lives who view them on a multitude of levels providing another platform for discourse. A vibrant program rooted in cultural diversity, innovation, independence and creativity, these are our principles and goals.
PLATFORM – “FOR ARTISTS BY ARTISTS” – Terrence Sanders
Platform People
PLATFORM’s staff is a relevant group of artists, collectors, curators, directors and gallerists whose commitment and contributions to the landscape of contemporary speak for itself. Platform’s focus, direction and programming will be original, unique, and unparalleled thanks in part to these cultural warriors.
TERRENCE SANDERS – FOUNDER/DIRECTOR & CURATOR
Terrence Sanders has contributed to the landscape of contemporary art as a poet, filmmaker, artist, photographer, gallerist, curator, museum director, musician, publisher of Artvoices Art Books, and publisher and editor-in-chief of Artvoices Magazine. Sanders mission as Editor-In-Chief of Artvoices Magazine (Established 2008) was to create a platform for emerging, neglected and under recognized artists. Sanders modus operandi is rooted in social activism. In the past 25 years Sanders has created 33 bodies of work featured in exhibits worldwide. In New Orleans he created a memorial featuring the 1,800 plus names engraved in gold leaf on granite on the façade of the ‘Saratoga Building’ in New Orleans dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Sanders opened 4 contemporary art galleries over the past 11 years. Terrence Sanders Gallery (New Orleans), Untitled Art Projects (Los Angeles) and Sanders, Smith & Stokes (New Orleans) and Artists 101 (Los Angeles). He is currently the Director of the Makeshift Museum in the arts district of Los Angeles.
