Sentry
March 5 – 29, 2009
It was an odd moment when I walked into the Pace gallery in Manhattan’s Chelsea district and saw a large white desk with a head poking up from the top edge of the computer screen. I took out my camera, carefully framing and exposing the scene, and the head never moved or took notice of my gaze. As I walked around that booming Chelsea neighborhood of art galleries, I noticed a trend: at some of the biggest galleries there are giant entry desks, where the top of the head of the desk sitter is often the only other human presence. This series was initially produced in 2006-2007. A few more pictures were taken in later years including one from Paris and another from London. As that Chelsea area continued to develop into a high-end residential neighborhood many of those contemporary art galleries have moved or closed. Some of the large desks have moved with them or have been lowered, some remain.
Andy Freeberg was born in New York City where he learned at an early age to be a critical observer of the world and the people in it. After studying at the University of Michigan, he began his photography career in New York taking portraits for such publications as Rolling Stone, Time, and Fortune. In 2007 Freeberg emerged on the contemporary art scene as a wry commentator on the art industry itself.
He has four books published of his works, Guardians: pictures of the women that guard the art in Russian museums, Art Fare: photographs of gallery owners and their workers at the big contemporary art fairs in New York, Miami and Basel, Switzerland, Advisor: featuring a company of art consultants delivering works to their San Francisco Bay Area clients and Where Art Thou?: a compilation of his four art world series published in conjunction with his 2022 retrospective at the Serlachius Museum in Finland.
Freeberg’s photographs have been exhibited extensively around the world in London, Russia, Mexico City, China, South Korea, Paris, New York and Los Angeles. His work is in many public and private collections including SFMOMA, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the George Eastman Museum, the Portland Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Serlachius Museum.