Shop Talk
Fruitful
P artnership
TAI Gallery
ібоїв Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
(505)984-1387
“We are the fun part of our
clients’ lives,“ says the textile
dealer Robert Coffland, who
with his wife, Mary Hunt Kahl-
enberg, operates тлі Gallery©
in Santa Fe. “Because we’re
both art collectors, too, we un-
derstand that.”
Their partnership is a blend
of distinct yet complementary
styles and strengths. She’s
a New Englander with formi-
dable textile expertise: a gradu-
ate of the Art Institute of
Chicago, she studied industrial
textile design and tapestry-
weaving in Europe and spent
a decade as curator of costumes
and textiles at the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art. He’s
a Californian who had a suc-
cessful career marketing gour-
met foods when they married
in 1982. Kahlenberg was by
then dealing textiles privately
in L.A., and had become (and
remains) the personal curator
for former Neutrogena chair-
man Lloyd Cotsen, helping him
build the company’s collection
of textiles and objects. By the
time the couple moved to Santa
Fe in the late 80s, Coffland too
had grown passionate about art
and soon joined his wife full-
time in the gallery.
Located in the city’s Rail-
yard arts district,
t a i
offers
museum-quality traditional
textiles from South America,
Africa and Asia, along with
contemporary Japanese bam-
boo baskets and sculpture, such
as Honda Syoryu’s
Reincar-
nationQ.
Lately they’ve added
Japanese photographers to
their stable.
How did bamboo baskets
become a specialty of yours?
Robert Coffland: At the time
I made the decision to leave
[the food industry], Mr. Cotsen
asked me to look for bamboo
baskets for him. In the process
I found a whole world of con-
temporary bamboo artists who
had become marginalized within
the Japanese craft arts world.
That, combined with the [early
90s] post-bubble economy had
put a lot of these artists on the
edge of giving up.
We began showing bamboo
art in 1997 at art fairs, and it was
instantly popular.
How would y'ou describe the
photographs you carry?
RC:
It is what people imagine
Japan to be, that kind of Zen
serenity and purity, and then
the wacky, real Japan, too—
M asaru Tatsuki’s photos of
trucks [garishly embellished
rigs called Decotora], Naoki
Honjo’s tilt-shift camera lens
prints of Tokyo urban scapes.
They all have an underlying
Japanese sensibility that is
rooted in how the Japanese
look at the world and want
to shape reality.
What has changed in the gal-
lery business over the years?
RC:
We’ve had a tremendous
bull market in the art world,
which has meant an explosion
in the number of galleries and
artists who’ve been able to
make a living. We are now en-
tering a new reality. There’s
going to be a tremendous shake-
out in the art world, just like in
the financial world—consolida-
tions, people going out of busi-
ness. Flexibility and a willing-
ness to take risks will be key
going forward for any dealer
who wants to succeed in this
new world we’re living in.
W hat’s the criteria for works
you select for the gallery?
Mary Hunt Kahlenberg: My
criteria are relatively specific.
First of all, I have to really love
the piece. When I go into the
field to buy, I am making a com
mitment. If I buy something, I
know that I might have it for the
rest of my life. I might not be
able to convince somebody else
to love it as much as I do, so I
have to be really happy with it.
Then I look for material that
speaks truly of the culture it
comes from, that has an aesthetic
viewpoint I know is acceptable
to that culture and also accept-
able to the culture I’m bringing
it to. Sometimes those are the
same, sometimes they’re not.
If not, I need to understand it
enough to make somebody else
understand why it’s an impor-
tant piece of art.
W hat’s the greatest challenge
of your work?
m h k :
It’s always a challenge
to push out in a field that isn’t
recognized. People come in
who like the material, but for
them to feel comfortable with
it, you have to make them under-
stand it, so that they want to
pursue their natural interest.
They need that reassurance.
Not recognized?
m h k :
I mean in the world of art.
How many people are going
to tell you bamboo baskets are
what they’re interested in? It’s
always exciting when we hear
people say that, but.
..
But there’s opportunity there.
m h k : Yes, that’s true, and some
see that. Mr. Cotsen did. He
understood niche marketing.
The challenge is getting the
word out that this is a wonder-
ful medium, and people who
see it will respond.—J.L*
Gimme More!
taigallery.com
For more photos and interview
excerpts go to americancraft
mag.org
020 american craft
apr/may 09
TAI Gallery Photo/Jack Kotz.
