I had a deep interview with Tripoli last week at the office. He's curating an upcoming art opening at his gallery in Southampton www.tripoligallery.com. He's been grinding it out, working nonstop, and was kind enough to drop in after picking up some lights for a chat. Artists, take heed! - Jon
LNY: How did you get into the gallery business?
TP: Basically my father does pre-Columbian art, he’s in the art world for the last fifty years, forty years probably. So I’ve kind of grown up around art; it’s always been part of my life. Five years ago I did my first show with James Cruickshank, a group show we did in Bridgehampton. And it turned out very well, we had a good response, and the art looked great. We had about 1000 people show up. And then from that it all made sense, the following year I did another show, basically learning from practice. You know, each show kind of taking that next step in developing, which I think is good because it’s a natural process. It all came very naturally to me. It kind of found me as much as I found it.
LNY: What field of art is your expertise?
TP: I guess I could say it’s contemporary; it’s all kind of art that I can relate to. Most of my artists are in their fifties, forties, but in the art world that’s still pretty young. And it’s all art that’s relevant to me and relevant to where I’m going in my life and where I am in my life. I’m working on a show now with Hans Hokanson, who’s an artist that died years ago; he’s the father of one of my best friends, and I’m going to be showing his work in a few galleries. But I think that’s still really contemporary art because it’s the last fifty years.
LNY: How does curating a retrospective gallery differ from a living artist’s?
TP: You really have to kind of create, depending on where they are when they died, depending on their success level, you have to focus more on giving the audience the whole picture, because they don’t have the artist to base their initial feelings from, all they have is the work and what you say. I think it’s kind of creating this aura, creating what comes with the art. So I think that will be a challenge. I like to be into it, you know. The last five days have been like fourteen hour days, just changing, sweating, putting my sweat into a space. That’s part of it; it’s important. I mean, down the line of course I’m going to probably have people doing it for me, but I think it’s important to actually do it yourself. I like the work.
LNY: Do you have any formal training in the arts?
TP: It’s all experience, and I’m gifted in that sense. I’ve got training from the best in the field. Which isn’t a university. I’d like to do it--I’m going to have to further my education. Not to be naïve because it’s important, but as of now I’ve had the privilege of being around the best in the field, the current best. It’s not like a teacher telling me about a prior expert. The people who are doing it now, most of the time they’re generous enough to give me some insight that not a lot of people have access to.
LNY: You learn by doing, yeah.
TP: And by the people that are doing, the people who are at the forefront of the industry. I’ll have to go to school at some point, but I’m not in a rush. I want to be in the field before I jump into an education process without knowing where I’m going. I want to educate myself as opposed to just going to school because that’s what you do after high school.
LNY: What kind of art do you do yourself?
TP: I don’t really do art in public. I did a lot of art in high school. I still draw for fun and paint. I’ve really found a lot of pleasure in helping artists, partly because I’m an artist as well, so I know how their brains work. I’m good with people, I’ve been on the other side, so I have fun protecting the arts in a sense. I surf professionally, so I’ve always kind of been critiqued as a surfer, so it’s nice for once to be able to critique and be on the other side. It takes the spotlight off of me and I can focus it on these artists that I’m trying to build up, develop, and portray them to the public as best as I can.
LNY: What kind of advice or direction do you provide your artists with?
TP: I provide them with a comfort level; they can trust me. Artists are very insecure in a sense, they reveal themselves completely, they’re opening themselves up to all types of criticism, all types of opinions, good and bad. I think, I’d hope they can trust that I’m going to put all I can, all my energy towards them. Put them on as high a pedestal as I’m capable. I want to grow with them. Now I can give more to an artist than I could five years ago. But it’s still the same starting point, the same basics. I think that’s what makes them feel comfortable working with me. It’s changing and developing as I go along.
LNY: What have we not addressed about the gallery?
TP: A big part of it is making it seem effortless. The work that goes into it is not just for the end product. The behind the scenes is full dedication. It is labor. It’s everything. It’s almost twenty-four hours a day. Publicly it should seem like it just happened. The end product is beautiful. Even when I was landscaping, I loved seeing the start and then seeing what you can develop it into. I love setting up and renovating the space, and then being able to walk into it like an outsider to see where it comes from and what it is, and what the public is going to think of it.
LNY: Is there a particular theme you like to explore with your artists’ work?
TP: I like it just to be natural. I like for them to reveal something intimate about themselves. It’s not just about a pretty painting, it’s not just about pretty coloring. I want an artist to kind of put a part of them into it. Make themselves vulnerable. You know what I mean? And I think once they do that, then they’re on the right path, they’re separating themselves from the decorative art. It’s not about that, art. It should be more. It should be something that they’re insecure about. Expose yourself. Most people can see it; you can tell there’s something else to it. It makes it art, I think. It makes it worthwhile.
LNY: The analogy you made between surfing and art, do you always see things through the eye of an artist?
TP: I try to see things openly. I look at things from a naked eye. Surfing is very unpredictable; the ocean is going to do what it’s going to do. You don’t know anything, really. You know what you see, you know what’s in front of you, and it’s not as complicated as people like to make it. I like to look at things from an unbiased eye. Detach myself and just look at something for what it is, and then afterward you can look at the person who did it, and where they’re coming from. But I get frustrated, a lot of people in the art world are like, Oh that’s not good art. Like, come on, you know? The world’s ever-changing, you know, what art was 500 years ago isn’t what it is today, and it’s not going to be what it is tomorrow. There’s no formula. The formula is the outcome. It’s nothing to be conceived; it becomes what it is because that’s what happens. Human nature wants to put things in a box, they want to understand it, they want to explain it to themselves before they even look at it.
LNY: Is there a last message or word of inspiration that you would like to impart, a question you’d like to pose to the viewer of your gallery?
TP: Don’t do something because of the end result, do something because it’s that step you need to take to the next step, do something because it is, do something because of failure, do something because of success. Don’t worry about the end result. Without failing a hundred times it never really gets there. And I was talking to someone the other day, you can’t expect to get to a place before trying to go there. People waste their whole life because they’re afraid of failure. Failure's not bad. Failure's part of the process. Failure's fun, you know what I mean? Without failure you’re never going to be able to enjoy yourself. If you were successful in everything you do, there’s no gratification in that. Failure is what’s exciting. When you look back, you’re going to remember and enjoy the parts of your life where you fucked up, that you did this wrong, that you did that wrong. Success is only going to come from those parts. You know what I mean? That’s the journey, that’s the trip. So I enjoy that, I like fucking up. From those mistakes you can progress, and then you get to the next level.
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