MIKE HOWARD

ARTWORKS IN THIS EXHIBITION: 

LOCATION:

Gracie Mansion Gallery

101 Second Avenue, #1

New York, NY

DATE:

April 1, 2009

PRESS RELEASE:

Twenty four years ago, in 1985, Mike Howard had a show with Gracie Mansion Gallery and staged the project "Win a Trip to Paris Sweepstakes." All artworks were sold in less than one week and used as the raffle tickets for the sweepstakes prizes. Assorted gifts were dispensed: a motor scooter, color TV, plane tickets to Paris. Each painting was numbered and the show concluded with the art dealer spinning a carnival wheel to determined the sweepstakes winner. 100 paintings of the exact same image and size were bought by members of the art world such as Lynn Gumpert, Marilyn Minter and the late Al Hansen (who recognized Howard's raffle as a bonafied Fluxus event).

Gracie Mansion is now an independent art dealer and curator and works at ARTNET. In 2007, Mike approached Gracie at Miami Art Basel about his series of signed BB paintings. Art advisor and Independent Curator, Kimberly Marrero, suggested Mike and Gracie re-unite in a collaborative project on ARTNET’s web site.

After researching the values of particular players' autographed baseballs, Howard recognized the disparity in price value between, for example, a Luis Aparicio ball $120.00 and a ball signed by Alex Rodriguez $875.00. He then decided to price his own paintings according to these actual values. So, an 8x10 painting could cost you anywhere between $35 and $9,000. The priciest bearing names like Roger Maris, Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth.There are 67 signed baseballs, in total worth: $76,649.00. Taking bids on entire collection or you can purchase a painting individually. How about a painting of a baseball signed by Jimmy Piersall for $35? The paintings come in 2 sizes 8"x10" and 9"x12".