Topic: Curating Images for Collection and Exhibition
Speaker: Arlette Kayafas
Location: Common Room, First Parish Bedford, Elm Street Entrance
Arlette Kayafas of Gallery Kayafas in Boston will be the guest speaker at the November 29th meeting of the BCA Photo Group. She will be discussing “Curating Images for Collection and Exhibition”.
Arlette, along with her husband Gus, will provide an in-depth analysis of eleven significant pieces from their personal collection focusing on why these works are important to them and how they entered their collection. There will be ample time for discussion about her curation process, how she views the art photography world today and related topics of interest to the group.
Arlette and Gus are well known influencers in the Boston art photography world, having started their collection 48 years ago. The collection includes works spanning the history of photography from the 19th to the 21st centuries beginning with the daguerreotype up to and including the most contemporary works of today.
Arlette opened Gallery Kayafas in 2002 in Boston's South End and is a member of the Boston Art Dealers Association. In both 2013 and 2015 Boston Magazine selected Gallery Kayafas as the Best Art Gallery in Boston, and the gallery was selected as Boston’s Best, 2016, by The Improper Bostonian.
She believes that she has a responsibility to the artist, the client, the neighborhood, and her colleagues to exhibit only the best works. The gallery often shows more than one artist at a time with very careful attention paid to how the various works relate. The visual conversation between artists is important. When asked how she chooses her artists and exhibits, she explains that she only shows work that she would own.
A November 1st Boston Globe article on artist Steve Locke’s current show at Gallery Kayafas gives insight into the role that the gallery plays in raising community consciousness.
Arlette and Gus are both overseers at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA. Gus is the founder of Palm Press, a photographic atelier located in Chelsea, MA. Together they continue to collect.