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News: Are brick-and-mortar galleries going the way of the dinosaurs?, August 14, 2016

Are brick-and-mortar galleries going the way of the dinosaurs?

August 14, 2016

We bought Alaska on Madison almost five years ago, and we have reluctantly concluded that it is not economically viable. Wednesday, August 17 is the last day that we will be taking orders.  Most of our inventory will be leaving the gallery shortly after that.

We thank our loyal customers for their support. We have enjoyed meeting and talking with you, and we hope that your love for indigenous Northern art continues to flourish.

A number of you have asked where you will be able to look for high quality Inuit and Northwest Coast art after our gallery closes.  We will maintain our website, www.alaskaonmadison.com, although there will be a period when it is down for re-thinking and refurbishment. We will send out an announcement when it has been reincarnated.

 
We would be happy to assist you with inquiries, with searches for particular pieces or artists, and with organizing your collections. Our artist search tool will continue to be available on our website, and we would be delighted to help you use it.  We would be pleased to answer questions or just chat. You can contact us by email at alaskaonmadison@gmail.com . We will send out occasional newsletters. 


With respect to other sources for Inuit art, the galleries whose curatorial sensibility was most appealing to us when we were collecting (in addition to Alaska on Madison) were Galerie Elca LondonFeheley Fine Arts and Spiritwrestler. Knowledgeable collectors can find some excellent pieces at auction. Walker's Auctions and Waddington's Auctions have regular auctions featuring Inuit art, and several other Canadian auction houses frequently include Inuit art in their general auctions. If you are not comfortable with the auction process, we would be pleased to assist you.

Just to state the obvious, however, galleries can only keep their doors open if collectors patronize them.  If everyone on our email list had purchased just one sculpture every other year, we would not be closing. So please remember that every purchase you make from a gallery is important to keeping galleries available as a resource for collectors.

Our very best wishes to you all.

Ann and Michael Lesk

 

   
 
 

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