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Paige Wery is the owner and curator of The Good Luck Gallery, the only commercial space in Los Angeles dedicated to showing Self-taught art including Outsider, Folk and Visionary work.
Before opening The Good Luck Gallery in early 2014, she spent six years as the publisher and advertising director of Artillery Magazine, a contemporary art print publication based in Los Angeles.
Paige has served on the board of MOCA Contemporaries, the executive board of Art Table’s Southern California chapter and on the founding board of the Los Angeles Downtown Art Walk.
[…] Paige Wery is a curator and owner of The Good Luck Gallery in Los Angeles. Hers is the only commercial gallery in Southern California dedicated to outsider, folk, and self-taught artists. Prior to opening the gallery, Wery spent six years as the publisher of Artillery Magazine, an L.A. based contemporary art magazine. During that time she became frustrated with the lack of hands-on art she encountered. This coupled with a longtime interest in outsider art led her to found the gallery despite discouragement from others in the industry. Four years later, the gallery is going strong. The name is a tongue in cheek reference to Wery’s search for space in China Town. Many sarcastically wished her good luck believing she would never find a place to set up shop. She did. Her very first show was the work of 103-year-old artist Harry Steinberg. Steinberg is now 107 and still works in his studio as does his wife who is in her nineties. Wery works with a number of older artists. She is preparing to open a show with an 85-year-old artist from Nova Scotia, Canada. Wery believes strongly that art is about far more than sales. It is about artists working on a craft they love. It is about the stories behind the work. Wery’s mission when the gallery was launched was to work exclusively with self-taught artists. But when the art of Jacques Flechemuller captured her imagination she was forced to reckon with this strict guideline. Ultimately she changed the mission to a focus on outsider/self-taught art and exhibited Flechemuller’s work. Despite this redirection, Wery has launched the careers of quite a lot of self-taught artists. In the process, she has proven wrong all those who told her this couldn’t be done. To listen to Paige Wery tell the fascinating stories behind some of the artists her gallery represents, listen to the full interview. […]