Spotlight on MAC Fine Art

Art Business News, April, 2004 by Carol King

Although MAC Fine Art is barely four years old, the fine art publisher and distributor is hacked by a combined 50 years of solid art industry experience.

"We have the best wholesale staff in the nation," stated Mary Ann Cohen, president of the Dania Beach, Fla.-based operation. "Because of the experience we have behind us, we are leaders in selecting artists and presenting new offerings," she said. "We have the savvy to recognize sophisticated art and the know-how to be innovative with what we offer and how our products are marketed."

Company principals include Director of Wholesale Susan Gibson Howard, whose 12-year history in the art business includes teaching art, managing galleries and frame stores and directing a gallery for Circle Fine Art. Account Representative Simon Lindner previously held a fine-art sales position with Colville Publishing. And the company's Web master, graphic designer, framer, operation manager, accountant and gallery director all came to MAC with several years of experience in the art industry, Cohen said.

Cohen, herself, has more than 20 years in the business. The former art teacher and gallery owner entered the wholesale fine-art arena in the early 1980s, working with West Coast-based Collectors Editions. She moved to Florida in 1997 to assume the position of director of publishing for Fine Art Editions.

In 1999, she bought the publishing division outright, and put a stamp on the business that is all her own. In 2002 she made it official by changing the business' name to MAC Fine Art. "I felt that the name Fine Art Editions was not unique enough," she said. Cohen selected the name MAC to reflect her own monogram.

In addition to adding artists while maintaining a fine-art print operation, Cohen established a retail gallery in Fort Lauderdale in 2001, which is used as a testing ground for new talent and publishing efforts. The gallery currently is doing business as Deligny Fine Art International, hut will soon undergo a name change to MAC Fine Art Gallery.

Last year, Cohen moved the company headquarters from its original warehouse setting to an 8,000-square-foot showroom adjacent to the Design Center of America in South Florida, a site that attracts clients from the interior design and art consulting trades.

"The new location, which was built to Mary Ann's specifications, is very impressive and much more visible," noted Gibson Howard. "The facility includes private offices, a conference room, a full-service frame shop and a shipping dock.

The showroom offers a state-of-the-art gallery that is open to the trade and houses a wholesale division. "This new location has attracted so much attention that we are considering adding weekend hours to cater to the abundance of walk-in traffic that we receive," said Gibson Howard

MAC publishes the works of Tomasz Rut, Alex Gockel, Otto Aguiar, Maxim, Vincent Dopico-Lerner, Hua Chen and Holland Berkeley, among others. "We have a diverse group of artists," noted Cohen. "We don't stay within a specific genre. For instance, Gockel's works are abstract and figurative while Berkeley's artworks are atmospheric landscapes. Rut's paintings feature a Renaissance look. We have one of the most creative line-ups of artists there is."

MAC publishes its artists in-house, making use of a multimedia department that features a digital photography studio and a full-color giclee printing and correction facility. MAC offers etchings, serigraphs and giclees and keeps editions under 250. Wholesale prices for MAC's print offerings range from $375 to $1,400. Originals wholesale for $250 to $25,000, on average.

On a daily basis, foot traffic at MAC's showroom attracts fine-art gallery owners, designers and architects who in turn supply the artwork to hotels, restaurants, corporations, and public and private buildings.

However, Cohen has taken a nautical turn in exposing her artwork to retail buyers. Through contacts in the travel industry, her artists' works are seen, and sold, aboard NCL, Holland, America and Princess Cruise Lines. In addition to being showcased in the cruise ships' decor, MAC produces proprietary releases that are sold during at-sea auctions as well as featured in the ships' Free-art galleries. "This allows the artwork to be exposed to a new and diverse crowd," Cohen said. "We are also working with our artists to create permanent installations within the cruise ships."

MAC's publishing operation makes a distinction between land- and sea-based sales. Prints that are sold on shore are published in editions of 95, while the proprietary releases sold at sea are generally in editions of 250.

"We find that creating separate editions for each market allows both venues to offer unique works to their clients," Howard said. "The on-ship editions gives us the opportunity to introduce new artists' works to a broad cross-section of the population without undermining the relationships we have with our retail galleries.

"In fact, the ships can be credited for converting art enthusiasts, who are sometimes intimidated with a gallery setting, into first-time collectors. This interplay benefits everyone," she said.