 Dr
Andreas Giannakis is in heaven. "I'm sitting here, listening
to Andrea Bocelli, gazing at this painting by Léa
Rivière," says the 54-year-old Montreal physician
dreamily. "It's so beautiful — I wouldn't want to
be anywhere else." A look of rapture settles on his boyishly
handsome face as he sits back behind the desk of the fine
art gallery he owns and runs with his wife, Marian Read.
THINKING
BIG
Even on this rainy Sunday afternoon, the two-storey
space on Montreal's chic Avenue Laurier is flooded with
light. The Léa Rivière painting in question
is an awesome 1.8m by 2.1m Da Vinci-esque mixed-media
painting of a nude man clasping the neck of a rearing
horse that covers the better part of the gallery's west
wall. Her masterly rendering of the anatomy of man and
animal alike, as well as her unique textures, combining
acrylic paint, bronze, gold leaf and sand, have made
the French-born, Montreal-based artist an international
sensation. Her works show in prestigious galleries from
Colorado to Paris and have helped put Dr Giannakis's
and Ms Read's gallery on the map.
The Galerie d'Avignon, named after
Picasso's famous Spanish brothel painting "Les Demoiselles
d'Avignon," was born in 1998. Ms Read had taken a leave
of absence from her job at Via Rail after the birth
of their third and youngest child in 1992. When she
was ready to go back to work, the couple decided it
was time to realize their long-standing dream of sharing
their ardour for art with others. When the ideal space
turned up for rent, they decided to seize the day. The
first few months demanded something of a juggling act.
ARTISTIC
JUGGLING ACT
"The hardest part is getting started," says Dr Giannakis.
"To rent a space when you don't have any artists; to
get artists on board when you don't really have a gallery
— it takes a leap of faith." Ms Read adds, "Getting
artists for a gallery is something like getting clients
in any business. It's based on trust. They have to feel
you're going to represent them well and that their work
will hang well with the others. In the early years it's
hard to get the ones you want. We don't have that problem
now."
Back then, Dr Giannakis's full
time schedule as an HIV doctor at the Montreal General
Hospital and private practice primary care physician
meant the lion's share of the work fell to his wife.
She met with the artists, organized the shows and, until
they hired a graphic artist recently, designed all of
the promotional materials herself. The devil, Ms Read
recalls, was in the details. "One of the hardest things,
I remember, was learning how to make labels for the
art," Ms Read laughs. "Five minutes before our first
show, I was sitting there trying to figure out how to
do it. It's a million little things like that in the
beginning. That first year, I'd go to bed every night
and think, What the heck am I doing? It's like
any business at the end of the day. You have to persist."
One of the gallery's rising stars,
Kai McCall is lounging in a nearby armchair. A Montreal-born
figurative painter who bears an uncanny resemblance
to actor Matthew Broderick, Mr McCall is visiting from
his current home base in Paris to prepare for a show
at the d'Avignon in May.
His latest series of large-scale
oil paintings includes a number of mysterious scenes
of lone figures gazing out at snow-covered plains. "Ever
since I left Canada, there seems to be a lot more snow
in my paintings," Mr McCall notes with a grin.
The weather's not the only subject
of his Canadian nostalgia. "There's a real difference
in the attitude in the European galleries, versus the
North American ones," he explains. "There, the first
thing people ask is where you were trained — and
I have to reply, 'A university you've never heard of,
in Western Ontario.' In Canada, I find it's much more
personal, more about your work." Mr McCall was particularly
charmed when he first met Dr Giannakis at a Montreal
show four years ago. "He was so casual and approachable,"
he recalls.
SWINGING
BEGINNINGS
Dr Giannakis's relaxed approach is a carryover from
the swinging 70s, when he was first initiated into the
art world. While still an undergraduate at McGill, an
early love of art impelled him to troll downtown galleries
for affordable paintings. His first purchase was a Henry
Wanton Jones of a nude woman draped erotically, face-up,
across a horse's back. One of the earliest paintings
by the now-distinguished Québécois sculptor-turned-painter,
it went for $500 at the time. Dr Giannakis now has the
honour of representing Mr Jones, who remains one of
his all-time favourites.
His return on that initial $500
would be considerable. The discreet doc won't mention
figures, though. In any case, he insists, he never approached
art as an investment. "Back then, people didn't usually
think in those terms. I didn't know about the value
of what I was buying; I'd choose a painting on the spur
of the moment because it made me feel good," he explains.
"Nowadays," he adds, "people are
much less spontaneous. They research artists on the
internet. They want to see their CVs, to know which
galleries represent them, what paintings are on the
market." While Dr Giannakis and Ms Read do do
their homework about the artists they take on, they
don't let the pressures of the marketplace replace the
sense of wonder that made them want to get into the
business in the first place. "We trust our instincts,"
says Dr Giannakis. "Our tastes have evolved over time,
and I believe the quality of the art we select keeps
getting better."
Dr Giannakis now works three 11-hour
days and two half-days a week at the hospital so as
to be able to maximize his time at the gallery. The
big payoff for him is in the human aspect of the business
— above all, the chance to socialize with artists.
"I love meeting them, talking to them about their work,
their careers, their ideas," he enthuses, resting a
hand on an enormous Dale Dunning sculpture — a
mask made from lead typographical plates. "I'm not an
artist myself, but I have a great imagination, and I
appreciate their perspective on things. They see the
world in such a completely different way from the rest
of us."
For more info visit www.galeriedavignon.ca.
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