We were lucky to catch up with Tom Pergola recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tom , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I’m an Italian from New Jersey just out of New York City and i’ve always been ambitious and driven in everything I do. My mother always said to me “you can’t sit still” so I have to keep moving on through ups and downs. It just comes natural and I don’t know any other way.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
It started in High School when I took a class in art and realized I had some talent but it wasn’t until the 90s that I embarked on a career in fine art. Back in the 70s I worked for and helped develop one of the largest fine art publishing companies and gallery chains in the US. After leaving the company after 6 years I realized that there were no good art videos out there, interviewing and describing the art process by artists that the company represented so I taught myself how to make art videos, edit them and supply the background music being i’m also a musician and songwriter. The videos were short and to the point, about 8 minutes long. They were so successful in helping the company sell their artwork that I became in high demand for my videos and I was commissioned to do about 30 of them for other fine art publishing companies and art galleries. My videos helped generate millions of dollars in art revenue. At that point, being I knew the business of fine art very well I decided to go into managing artists. Some of them became extremely successful with their artwork. In the 90s I started experimenting with resins and made the move to make artwork sculptures incased in resin. I called them assemblage plastiques. One thing I learned about the art world is that if you can bring a smile on people’s faces you’ve already won more than half the battle to sell your artwork. I used everyday themes in my pop art wall and table sculptures, such as grocery bags overflowing with groceries, jelly beans and other candies falling out of paper bags, padlocks on top of bagels called Bagels and Locks, golf balls falling out of bags with a hole drilled into one of them called Hole In One and many many more fun themes. I was quickly accepted by the fine art community and did numerous trade shows around the country, exhibited in some of the best fine art galleries in the US, was in the collection of celebrities, appeared on TV shows, was sponsored by and did hundreds of limited pieces for companies such as Kelloggs and Corona Beer and appeared in high end golf magazines and sold my pieces at their tournaments and much more. Some time in the 90s I decided to end my art career due the the facts that there were some problems I was having with the resins and the galleries decided to only accept artwork from artists on consignment which I wouldn’t do. My expenses were too high having a three thousand sq. ft. facility to produce the artwork, three employees 2 business partners and a salesperson. I was producing and selling hundreds of pieces of my artwork, doing commissions and doing trade shows, plus there was the cost of supplies and more so at that point I realized I made my mark in the fine art world and became successful but it was time to stop. Now almost 30 years later, they’ve fixed the problems with the resins and i’ve decided to reboot my art career. I’ll be attending LA Art Expo on February 14 thru 19th 2024 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, booth # 1314. It’s a high end fine art show featuring modern and contemporary art. I’m excited to show my new pieces which can be seen on TomPergolaFineArt.com and hope to meet lots of new people there!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
My qualities are having experience in the business world of fine art as well as knowing what people would like to see in the artwork they purchase. My skills are what I developed in making my pop art wall and table sculptures.
My knowledge comes from watching what people buy as far as fine art from galleries to trade show experience.
My advice is to use color and themes that people are familiar with and keep your priced reasonable to start.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
My particular challenge is to produce my artwork being every piece in hand made and there is a drying time for the resins to cure.
Contact Info:
- Website: TomPergolaFineArt.com
Image Credits
Jelly Beans by Tom Pergola
