GEFFKEN-MIYAMOTO

Shortwave: Carlson art fabricators closes

by Oliver Geffken. Average Reading Time: about a minute.

The renowned art fabricator Carlson has been forced to close due to economic pressures. The company, based in San Fernando, California, and founded in 1971, rose to prominence after producing Jeff Koons’s stainless-steel Balloon Dog sculptures.

The renowned art fabricator Carlson has been forced to close due to economic pressures, Bloomberg reports. The company, based in San Fernando, California, and founded in 1971, rose to prominence after producing Jeff Koons’s stainless-steel Balloon Dog sculptures (1994–2000). It also won production commissions from, among many others, Doug Aitken, John McCracken and Charles Ray. The company had been hoping for a resolution to its financial woes – it was soliciting business as recently as two weeks ago – but has now been forced to abandon in-progress work and lay off its 95 employees.

jeff-koons-balloon-dog-yellow

© Librado Romero/The New York Times

The use of high-end fabricators like Carlson became increasingly popular in the past decade as billionaire art collectors hunted for pricey large-scale artworks to fill private museums and foundations.

Carlson’s reputation rose along with the contemporary art market. The company was featured in a profile in the New York Times in 2007, the same year Artforum magazine devoted an issue to “The Art of Production.”

To give our 2 cents: couldn’t be found an art billionaire willing to help Carlson?!

Via ArtReview

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