James Wormser and Kate Ostreicher dated at Staples. They graduated from college a year ago. Now they run an art gallery — Lot F — out of their Boston loft.
Yesterday, the Boston Globe ran a long story on their work getting “edgy, street-inspired artists noticed.”
The article called the loft’s monthly party “a must.”
Kate Ostreicher and James Wormser
James — an Emerson College grad — is described as “an unlikely orchestrator, the anti-curator…. (His) object is to sell art, of course, but he calls his approach ‘laid-back.’ He doesn’t speak in terms of aesthetics or visual styles, but favors words like ‘sick’ and ‘insane’ to describe the work he displays.
“Much of it is street-art inspired. Some of the artists are best known by their graffiti tags, others have MFAs. In Wormser’s vernacular, as long as they ‘kill it,’ they have Lot F cred.”
The Globe said that James “is pedaling [sic] a sensibility, the idea that collecting art is as accessible and viable as collecting limited-edition sneakers or skateboards — if not exactly the same thing.
“While works have sold for several thousand dollars, $400 to $500 is the average price. And barely a year since its launch last September, the Lot F ethos extends far beyond the walls of his loft.”
James works with bars, restaurants and stores all over Boston to promote and display his artists, the Globe says.
Through Karmaloop, an online streetwear site, he has sold his artists’ work to customers in Italy, Australia and Korea.
Yesterday's Boston Globe story.
Karl Baehr, one of James’ professors at Emerson College, calls him “serious…. He’s not above getting out there and doing it. You can sit around and dream up dreams all day long. Entrepreneurs have to make things happen.’’
James comes by his creativity naturally. His mother — Westport native Liz Milwe — is a noted choreographer. His father — Peter Wormser — is an architect who designed New York’s Vietnam Veterans.
Just as his parents influenced him, James Wormser is now nurturing a new generation of artists.
“I have someone constantly looking out for opportunities for me,’’ praises neo-graffiti artist Todd Robertson. “I can focus on what I’m doing artistically now that I have James to help me out in a business sense. He’s built a home we all live in.’’
Right there in a funky — and very popular — Boston loft.
