The economics of luminous art is a reflection of that of the art world in general: it’s a tightrope between searching for grant funding and accepting corporate sponsorship and the strings that often come attached to it. Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, whose Levels of Nothingness was featured at New York's Guggenheim Museum this fall, has had budgets that vary widely, from as little as $10,000 for a simple (but clever) show to the $100,000 he expects Levels of Nothingness to cost, through the $250,000 spent for an outdoor show in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park all the way to $1.5 million for a recent U.K. installation. The numbers often parallel those of top-tier concert tours and corporate events. “It can get expensive,” Lozano-Hemmer says, speaking from his office/studio in Montreal. “With art, the concern for economics is always there.”
From “The Biz” by Dan Daley, PLSN, Nov. 2009
