For the third year running, you can check off some boxes on your holiday shopping list with the annual art handlers calendar, featuring New York gallery and museum workers.
Whereas the first two editions offered tongue-in-cheek, fireman calendar–style shots of mostly anonymous art workers, the new edition offers elegant black-and-white images that stand on their own as portraits.
“This year we passed off the creative reins to fashion photographer Max Bernetz and art director Hans Maharawal,” said Zaq Landsberg, who is a co-organizer on the project along with a small group of other art handlers including Laura Krapacher. “We accomplished the fireman calendar aesthetic, so we wanted to try something new this year and class it up.”
The 2017 Art Handlers Calendar.
While there’s less exposed flesh this time, Landsberg said, the calendar is hardly without a touch of Eros.
“The idea was to have the sexiness come from the confidence of the subjects rather than last year’s campy sex appeal,” he said. “Last year was cheeky, this year it’s very straight-faced and serious.”
The subjects are not identified, since they work for New York galleries and museums “that value discretion,” Landsberg said. All the same, whereas the work of the art handler is meant to remain invisible, the images forefront the tools and accoutrements of these unseen workers.
Mr. June from the 2017 art handlers calendar.
You can get the calendar on Etsy for only $15 dollars; they’re printed in an edition of just 500. Landsberg hinted that there might be a few remainders of past years’ calendars to be had at a discount. And you can feel good about the purchase in more ways than one since proceeds go to three charities: New York’s Bowery Mission, Nepal earthquake relief organization Sangsangai, and Planned Parenthood.
You can pick up a signed copy at a launch event at New York gallery Field Projects, 526 West 26th Street, #807, on Thursday, December 15 from 6:00–9:00 p.m.
Miss March from the 2017 art handlers calendar.
“It’s definitely a niche calendar,” Landsberg acknowledged, but he says that what matters is who the buyers are, asserting that “It hangs in the offices of middle-aged registrars around the country.”