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Lowe Gallery Moves

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1. Bill Lowe is an art gallery owner in Atlanta who is moving his gallery to a new high-profile location in Midtown. 2. Lowe sees himself and his clients as "empire builders" who are always striving for more. His new landlord and the new gallery space reflect this ambitious vision. 3. Lowe believes that great art can have a healing effect and aims to select works that will emotionally impact and energize viewers. He takes an unconventional approach to running his gallery.

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culture watch culture watch HIGH ON ART Bill Lowe, passionate art lover and advocate, is moving his gallery to a high- profile Midtown address By Lisa Frank ho else could sayall in W bill? the same sentencethat he sold a multi-million dollar Kandinsky painting and started out as a waiter hoping for a good shift to pay the light Meet Bill Lowe, a self-described empire builder. This Atlanta gallery owner points out that most of his male clients are empire builders too: All Photos courtesy of the Lowe Gallery developer Charlie Ackerman, music impresario LA Reid of Def Jam Recordings, the president of DreamWorks in Los Angeles and many others. You attract people who are like you, he told us during a relaxed conversation in his Atlanta office. Were all about raising the stakes and Gallery owner Bill Lowe is moving his gallery to Two Peachtree Pointe in Midtown after 18 years at TULA. paving the way. He admits theres a down side. Empire builders are never The new building articulates my aorta. Hes thrilled to be across the content. We always want more. vision of who we are today, Lowe says. street from the hip new urban campus Enter another empire builderhis John and I have similar personalities; of SCADthe Savannah College of Art new landlord, John Dewberry, former we share a commitment to quality. and Designand just north of the High Georgia Tech quarterback with major Lowe boldly adds, I contemplate global Museum. He lives two blocks away in real estate holdings in the heart of domination of the art world. So my Ansley Park. Midtown. Thanks to Dewberrys castle must reflect that. If I move, it Lowe recalls the early days when incentives, designed to lure the has to have a huge WOW factor to another generous soul took a big risk prestigious gallery to his new building, engage our tribe [Lowes nickname for on him: Lily Friedlander. She still Two Peachtree Pointe, The Lowe his family of artists and loyal owns TULA, a former electrical plant Gallery moves uptown in March, collectors]. she converted into artist studios and leaving behind two decades of history Lowe sees his new Midtown address galleries in 1983. Lil has been a at TULA, a secluded warehouse with as the epicenter of Atlanta and the guardian angel for me, Lowe shares. more than a dozen galleries in south stretch from Pershing Point to 10th She was crazy to lease to me 20 years Buckhead at the end of Bennett Street. Streethis new gallery siteas the ago with my limited resources. Without 76 ATLANTA STYLE AND DESIGN | WINTER 08
1. 2. 4. 3. Photograph by Greg Mooney (left) 1. Steven Seinberg, Edge 2, oil and graphite on canvas. make the average person comfortable 2. Dusty Griffith, At Peace, wax, oil, acrylic on panel. with art, Lowe believes. I find the 3. Bill Lowe, Ted Turner, Rhett Turner and Eva Lowe. common ground and make art make sense. He wonders how clients and 4. Margarita Checa, The Beating of Life, olive wood their children could have the sensual and mahogany. art experience he is going for if there her, I would not be in business today, gallery and sell privately. Yet one of were no gallery. After all, Lowe readily he acknowledges. his favorite gallery owners in San admits, I do sexualize everything. I And in a climate where many gallery Francisco understands what drives want people to leave here jazzed owners around the country are finding Lowe when he says, You have too because theyre thinking about how the brick and mortar thing is archaic, much ego to do what you do without a that painting will change their world. Bill Lowe admits. Everyone says they public stage, dont you? Anything important we do in our lives make more money once they close the If I do have a gift, it is my ability to stems from a personal passion and 78 ATLANTA STYLE AND DESIGN | WINTER 08
strong desire. If someone loves a painting enough, they find a way to own it. Speaking of passion, over-the-top drama and sexuality, opening receptions at The Lowe Gallery are legendary. A recent party celebrating the gallerys 18th anniversary was a scene straight from Sex and the City. Free cosmopolitans at multiple bars, hundreds of young fashionistas, spectacular catered food, loud techno- music, and muscular dancers pumping above the crowd on elevated pedestals. Are we still in Atlanta? All the other TULA galleries were open, yet the energy was clearly at Lowe. In fact, he is the only Atlanta art dealer with a second location in another city. He chose trendy Santa Monica in West L.A., of course. And its thriving. We asked if he finds client tastes are different in Los Angeles and Atlanta. The answer is, Not really. We attract people who share our highly emotional taste in art, Lowe says. Interestingly, most of his west coast clients have east coast origins. Growing up in Alabama, Im painfully southern, he smiles, eager to promote emerging southern artists whose work often hangs right next to more established artists, to see if they can hold their own. In the end, Lowe believes great art can have a healing, nurturing effect. He calls it psychic surgeryliterally. Im obsessed with harmonics and unseen energies, he explains. Art is selected for its power to speak straight to the heart, an aspect often ignored by a purely intellectual approach. A great painting can open the viewer right up. It can reconfigure their energies. Thats the surgery part, Lowe adds, believing this unique approach gives his gallery a distinctive point of view. When the $145 million Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre opened in September, their board unanimously 80 ATLANTA STYLE AND DESIGN | WINTER 08
selected The Lowe Gallery to oversee the site-specific public art. I have 80 artists who could have done a stunning installation, yet Jimmy ONeals work stood out, Lowe recalls. I thought his southern roots were meaningful. The result is a 28-foot-wide painting and assemblage titled The Nine Muses which draws on Greek mythology, yet is very contemporary. The Lowe Gallery recently lent their southern sensibility to Blackberry Farm, a luxury spa destination in Tennessees Smoky Mountains, named among the finest in the world. Nine huge paintings were installed in an 18th- century barn, converted to the finest, most expensive organic restaurant in the southeast. This fall, richly colored, oversized photographs by filmmaker Rhett Turner filled the main gallery. Im going to try to be more restrained at this opening because of the nature of the work, Bill Lowe confides. Turners powerful portraits introduce natives from Yemen and Libya. Remarks by the artists fatherTed Turnerwere uncharacteristically brief. This is a great gallery, and, son, I am so proud of you, is all he said. It is a genuinely emotional moment. (Isnt that what everyone wants to hear from a fatherespecially if that father is an empire builder?) The crowd continues to pour in. Its just another day of highly charged emotions and live theater at The Lowe Gallery. About that global domination, I dont really want it, Lowe concedes as our conversation comes to a close. It would be way too much work. Perhaps his dream to dominate the art scene in Atlanta and L.A. is enough for now. Lisa Frank is an Atlanta writer and public relations consultant with a special interest in the arts and environmental issues www.frankrelations.com. ATLANTA STYLE AND DESIGN | WINTER 08 81

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Lowe Gallery Moves

  • 1. culture watch culture watch HIGH ON ART Bill Lowe, passionate art lover and advocate, is moving his gallery to a high- profile Midtown address By Lisa Frank ho else could sayall in W bill? the same sentencethat he sold a multi-million dollar Kandinsky painting and started out as a waiter hoping for a good shift to pay the light Meet Bill Lowe, a self-described empire builder. This Atlanta gallery owner points out that most of his male clients are empire builders too: All Photos courtesy of the Lowe Gallery developer Charlie Ackerman, music impresario LA Reid of Def Jam Recordings, the president of DreamWorks in Los Angeles and many others. You attract people who are like you, he told us during a relaxed conversation in his Atlanta office. Were all about raising the stakes and Gallery owner Bill Lowe is moving his gallery to Two Peachtree Pointe in Midtown after 18 years at TULA. paving the way. He admits theres a down side. Empire builders are never The new building articulates my aorta. Hes thrilled to be across the content. We always want more. vision of who we are today, Lowe says. street from the hip new urban campus Enter another empire builderhis John and I have similar personalities; of SCADthe Savannah College of Art new landlord, John Dewberry, former we share a commitment to quality. and Designand just north of the High Georgia Tech quarterback with major Lowe boldly adds, I contemplate global Museum. He lives two blocks away in real estate holdings in the heart of domination of the art world. So my Ansley Park. Midtown. Thanks to Dewberrys castle must reflect that. If I move, it Lowe recalls the early days when incentives, designed to lure the has to have a huge WOW factor to another generous soul took a big risk prestigious gallery to his new building, engage our tribe [Lowes nickname for on him: Lily Friedlander. She still Two Peachtree Pointe, The Lowe his family of artists and loyal owns TULA, a former electrical plant Gallery moves uptown in March, collectors]. she converted into artist studios and leaving behind two decades of history Lowe sees his new Midtown address galleries in 1983. Lil has been a at TULA, a secluded warehouse with as the epicenter of Atlanta and the guardian angel for me, Lowe shares. more than a dozen galleries in south stretch from Pershing Point to 10th She was crazy to lease to me 20 years Buckhead at the end of Bennett Street. Streethis new gallery siteas the ago with my limited resources. Without 76 ATLANTA STYLE AND DESIGN | WINTER 08
  • 2. 1. 2. 4. 3. Photograph by Greg Mooney (left) 1. Steven Seinberg, Edge 2, oil and graphite on canvas. make the average person comfortable 2. Dusty Griffith, At Peace, wax, oil, acrylic on panel. with art, Lowe believes. I find the 3. Bill Lowe, Ted Turner, Rhett Turner and Eva Lowe. common ground and make art make sense. He wonders how clients and 4. Margarita Checa, The Beating of Life, olive wood their children could have the sensual and mahogany. art experience he is going for if there her, I would not be in business today, gallery and sell privately. Yet one of were no gallery. After all, Lowe readily he acknowledges. his favorite gallery owners in San admits, I do sexualize everything. I And in a climate where many gallery Francisco understands what drives want people to leave here jazzed owners around the country are finding Lowe when he says, You have too because theyre thinking about how the brick and mortar thing is archaic, much ego to do what you do without a that painting will change their world. Bill Lowe admits. Everyone says they public stage, dont you? Anything important we do in our lives make more money once they close the If I do have a gift, it is my ability to stems from a personal passion and 78 ATLANTA STYLE AND DESIGN | WINTER 08
  • 3. strong desire. If someone loves a painting enough, they find a way to own it. Speaking of passion, over-the-top drama and sexuality, opening receptions at The Lowe Gallery are legendary. A recent party celebrating the gallerys 18th anniversary was a scene straight from Sex and the City. Free cosmopolitans at multiple bars, hundreds of young fashionistas, spectacular catered food, loud techno- music, and muscular dancers pumping above the crowd on elevated pedestals. Are we still in Atlanta? All the other TULA galleries were open, yet the energy was clearly at Lowe. In fact, he is the only Atlanta art dealer with a second location in another city. He chose trendy Santa Monica in West L.A., of course. And its thriving. We asked if he finds client tastes are different in Los Angeles and Atlanta. The answer is, Not really. We attract people who share our highly emotional taste in art, Lowe says. Interestingly, most of his west coast clients have east coast origins. Growing up in Alabama, Im painfully southern, he smiles, eager to promote emerging southern artists whose work often hangs right next to more established artists, to see if they can hold their own. In the end, Lowe believes great art can have a healing, nurturing effect. He calls it psychic surgeryliterally. Im obsessed with harmonics and unseen energies, he explains. Art is selected for its power to speak straight to the heart, an aspect often ignored by a purely intellectual approach. A great painting can open the viewer right up. It can reconfigure their energies. Thats the surgery part, Lowe adds, believing this unique approach gives his gallery a distinctive point of view. When the $145 million Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre opened in September, their board unanimously 80 ATLANTA STYLE AND DESIGN | WINTER 08
  • 4. selected The Lowe Gallery to oversee the site-specific public art. I have 80 artists who could have done a stunning installation, yet Jimmy ONeals work stood out, Lowe recalls. I thought his southern roots were meaningful. The result is a 28-foot-wide painting and assemblage titled The Nine Muses which draws on Greek mythology, yet is very contemporary. The Lowe Gallery recently lent their southern sensibility to Blackberry Farm, a luxury spa destination in Tennessees Smoky Mountains, named among the finest in the world. Nine huge paintings were installed in an 18th- century barn, converted to the finest, most expensive organic restaurant in the southeast. This fall, richly colored, oversized photographs by filmmaker Rhett Turner filled the main gallery. Im going to try to be more restrained at this opening because of the nature of the work, Bill Lowe confides. Turners powerful portraits introduce natives from Yemen and Libya. Remarks by the artists fatherTed Turnerwere uncharacteristically brief. This is a great gallery, and, son, I am so proud of you, is all he said. It is a genuinely emotional moment. (Isnt that what everyone wants to hear from a fatherespecially if that father is an empire builder?) The crowd continues to pour in. Its just another day of highly charged emotions and live theater at The Lowe Gallery. About that global domination, I dont really want it, Lowe concedes as our conversation comes to a close. It would be way too much work. Perhaps his dream to dominate the art scene in Atlanta and L.A. is enough for now. Lisa Frank is an Atlanta writer and public relations consultant with a special interest in the arts and environmental issues www.frankrelations.com. ATLANTA STYLE AND DESIGN | WINTER 08 81