Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.“NFS: Street Art from Around the World” opens at the Hardware Gallery, 1801 Vinton St. on Nov. 4.
A reception will take place from 6-10 p.m.
John McIntyre and Laura Vranes know how to make an entrance.
Vranes' shock of pitch black curls cascades down her shoulders toward her full-skirted, ivory satin dress. The front is studded with a sparkly rhinestone brooch. Her husband is in all black, his tie dotted with tiny white skulls and his shoes printed with trompe l'oeil sneakers in black, white and red. They could be on the way to their own, hip wedding.
Instead, the duo are walking into the 13th annual Bemis Art Auction.
For most people, the auction, where more than 400 pieces of art are bought and sold in the span of a few hours, is a big night on the Omaha art scene.
For McIntyre, 43, and Vranes, 40, it's the biggest night of the year.
The duo slowly make their way through the Bemis' central hallway and toward the galleries, this year full of 444 pieces of art to be auctioned. They stop often to greet friends, give hugs and chat amicably but really only have one thing on their mind: placing winning bids for art they want.
"I have to say, we're nervous," McIntyre said, while anxiously fingering his bid card and his dog-eared program that lists all the work for sale. His is marked through with scribbled notes, with circles around pieces he'd like to buy and yellow highlighter marking the pieces the couple is most interested in.
Vranes, a teacher, and McIntyre, who works at a bank, save carefully all year long for this night. They've been collecting change since last year's auction to fund this year's purchases. Those buckets of coins added up to an art budget of $626.32.
The annual Bemis Auction is the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art's biggest fundraising event. All the sales benefit the center's internationally recognized residency program, which brings artists from around the world to Omaha, where they create in the center's on-site studios.
The Bemis collects work throughout the year for this night. The works are then divided into a silent auction, which features most of the work for sale, and a live auction, which features high-dollar pieces from renowned international artists, including Dale Chihuly, Christo, and Betty Woodman, and well-known locals like Keith Jacobshagen, Jun Kaneko and Therman Statom. This year's auction attracted more than 1,000 people to its cocktail reception, Bemis Underground auction and main Auction, and raised $440,000.
McIntyre and Vranes first stroll through the high-dollar live auction room, stopping next to Statom's striking piece, a glass house called "Quattro Torri." They move through the space quickly. McIntyre said later they can't afford most of the work in the live auction.
They walk into the first gallery of silent auction work, where all the walls are full of art and central table is full of sculptures. Bemis Curator Hesse McGraw said he purposely installs the work in the galleries to look like it might when people install it in their homes.
Vranes and McIntyre focus now, looking at the work, talking to each other and ignoring everyone else. They look at their marked-up program, and then at the art, strategizing what they'll bid on and figuring out what they can afford.
They already visited the galleries twice before tonight. They also went through all 444 pieces online and made notes abut what they wanted.
Tonight, the goal is to pinpoint — and win — the pieces they want the most.
Sitting in the driveway of the couple's west Omaha home, you already know you're at a place where art lovers live.
Painted on the two-sided, brown garage doors are huge versions of the restroom symbols for "men" and "women" (Vranes did this herself.) An artsy bench sits on the front porch, and a mosaic tile piece decorates the front garden.
Once inside, art is everywhere. It fills stairwells. It's hung in a neatly spaced grid above the living room couch, rising nearly to the vaulted ceiling. It decorates the bathrooms and a huge painting is a stand-in as a headboard in the master bedroom.
"Hello, my name is Laura," Vranes says while walking through the house, "and I'm an artaholic."
The first piece Vranes and McIntyre bought together was in 2007 in celebration of their first wedding anniversary. The large piece is part of Phillip Faulkner's series called "American Still Lifes."
The painting shows a Norman Rockwell-esque family watching a television set in a 1950s domestic scene. In the center, an abstract video shines through a hole cut through for the television screen.
The couple has the video components of the piece tucked in a side table next to the couch below the painting. The room is dim, perfect for watching the video. Neither of them ever thought about the complexity of installing a video piece in their home.
"We just loved it," Vranes said. "And we had to have it."
A piece in their dining room by Joshua Reiman was one they first saw at the Bemis Auction in 2009. It was their first time at the auction, and they weren't aggressive enough, Vranes said, because they didn't know they had to be. Someone else went home with their photo. They were disappointed, and ended up contacting the artist to get their own print later. But they learned a valuable lesson, one they'll surely remember at this year's event: if you want to win your art at the Bemis Auction, you have to hustle.
At around 7:25, ten minutes before the first round of the silent auction closes, things reach a frenzied pace. An auctioneer begins a countdown before each section closes, and people crowd around the work in noisy anticipation. The temperature in the galleries soars high enough that even people who don't have a bid on the line are sweating.
Vranes and McIntyre are like old hands at this. They already secured one piece on their list using the Bemis "buy it now" option. They paid the list price instead of starting at the lower bid price and risking being outbid in the final seconds.
One open bid remained on a second piece, which Vranes wanted and decided to try and buy that night. They didn't hover around the piece as the auctions closed, instead hanging out in a second gallery and waiting to see what happened.
As the last 30 seconds approach, some grab a pen hanging from a chain on the wall and hastily mark down a winning bid. When the time is up, black-clad volunteers whip through the room, snatching paper bid cards from the wall and marking unsold cards with a giant, red slash.
Some bidders give their friends high-fives. Others try and hide their gloom, and move on to the next section, where a winning bid might still linger. By 8 p.m., all the sections of the silent auction are closed and the live auction begins.
Vranes and McIntyre are calmer now. They spent their $626.32 (and then some) on the buy-it-now piece and the second bid Vranes made, which they won without any other bids interfering.
Colin Smith's piece "PAN Xm-6" which Vranes describes as a "pile of gunk" was the one they had highlighted in their books. The small sculpture does look like a pile of multicolored goo, red on top of orange on top of blue and purple all stacked in a pile sitting on a metal pan base with wheels.
The second piece was one they saw and just wanted, Vranes said. It's a tall wooden mallet by artist Christopher Romer. The couple bought "Darling, You Can Do It! #10," a large mallet with a neutral tan base covered with polka dots.
The two quirky sculptures fit well in the couple's larger, eclectic collection. Vranes said they'll install Smith's piece in the loft, near the first piece they ever bought. The mallet will go downstairs, in conversation with another sculpture.
Vranes said she wasn't bothered that they didn't get more of the work on their list.
"It's just so much fun to be here," she said. "Tomorrow, we'll start saving our change for next year."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1069, sarah.bakerhansen@owh.com
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