Walter Feldman Gallery to showcase emerging artists’ works

On Friday, March 21, the new Walter Feldman Gallery at the Arts & Business Council (A&BC) of Greater Boston will be inaugurated with a mini retrospective of Feldman’s work. The show will celebrate his work and legacy, as well as the beginning of an exciting partnership that fulfills a goal Feldman has long held over the course of his artistic career – to support emerging artists.

When Feldman was about 26, he had his first exhibition in New York City at The Artists’ Gallery, whose sole purpose was to promote young artists who had never had a professional exhibition. Walter received exemplary reviews in the New York Times and one of his paintings was bought by a person who was on the board of Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Thus his professional life began. Ever since that day, he has wanted to “give back” by providing solo exhibition opportunities to young artists who have not had prior professional recognition.

Fast forward to 2010 when Feldman met James Grace, a lawyer and the executive director of the A&BC of Greater Boston. After the introduction was made, Grace visited Feldman’s studio and encouraged him to make an appraised inventory of his work of more than 1,000 paintings, sculptures, books, and drawings. Since the A&BC of Greater Boston helps to provide pro bono assistance to aspiring artists who have deep artistic talent but may lack knowledge of the business aspects of art, the idea was born. Grace proposed a partnership to Feldman to create a program to empower artists with a first solo exhibition combined with the business and legal support they need to best take advantage of that opportunity to grow their career. Feldman shared with Grace his life’s ambition to be able to support younger artists just as he had been helped by his first solo show at age 26.

Artists will be selected for the program based on a strong body of existing work by a jury consisting of art professionals. Exhibitions will be held for six weeks – one in the spring and one in the fall. To be eligible, artists must be based in New England, under 40 years old, have not had a previous solo show at a commercial gallery nor professional representation and may work in any two-dimensional media except photography.

This partnership extends outside of these two annual shows. The story of this partnership between Feldman and A&BC will be published on the website of the organization. Selected works chosen by Feldman and his advisors will be added to the A&BC’s Corporate Art Lending Program, creating additional opportunities to show and locate collectors of his work. Four of Feldman’s larger paintings have already been loaned to MIT for this purpose and are currently on display in their offices.

The A&BC’s new Center for Creative Entrepreneurship is located in a renovated light industrial space in the Midway Studios building in Boston’s Innovation District, near the waterfront in Fort Point Channel. The Center shares the first floor with other businesses, including a photography studio and an architectural firm. The Walter Feldman Gallery is an exhibition space within the Center’s multi-use environment.

THE GALLERY OPENING event will be held from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. on Friday, March 21. Feldman’s work will be on dis-play until April 18. To learn more, go to walterfeldman.com.