Baby Monkey No. 5 by Sharon Montrose

Baby Monkey No. 6 by Sharon Montrose

Wednesday greetings collectors and welcome to the second (and last!) day of Monkey Week, with editions by none other than Sharon Montrose. Who else could be more perfect, really? It's been proven that even the most gimlet-eyed among us aren't immune to the charms of Ms. Montrose's menagerie of Piglet No. 2, Lamb No. 3, Baby Giraffe No. 5 and Baby White Tiger No. 5. It being Monkey Week and all, it seemed just the right moment to add these two simian sweeties—Baby Monkey No. 5 and Baby Monkey No. 6—to 20x200's cast of creatures.

These fellas pair well with yesterday's new edition from Amy Jean Porter for reasons that go beyond this obvious monkey business. My chat with Choire about Mandrill was focused on how delight is a perfectly fine reason to love a piece of art, and we lamented how hard it can be to get people to buy into such a thing. I referenced a blog comment that I wrote about how yes, baby animals do indeed make me happy, and that alone affords images of them a place in my home. The enduring popularity of Sharon's editions would lead one to believe that I'm hardly alone in feeling this way, and their broad appeal is one of the not-so-secret weapons of what we curate here and why:

As for how we make our selections: it's less about making a buck and more about offering an array of work that will engage a broad audience. We love working with artists like Roger Ballen, but we also love the idea of people who feel intimidated and/or alienated by the art world discovering something that they love via our site. Once they're there and engaged, they can dig in deeper and learn more (perhaps better appreciate?) the challenging stuff.

Sharon's work is beloved by the many and the varied: from stylish and savvy parents who are enamored with the idea of starting their kids collecting from the crib and hang them in nurseries, to bona fide, grown-up sophisticates who install Sharon's prints alongside work by some of the heaviest hitters in the art world, to members of New York's finest, which brings me to one of my favorite municipal-workers-can-be-art-collectors-too stories:

Not too long ago, an NYPD car sidled up to the curb in front of Jen Bekman Gallery. The car's driver, a cop, recognized the name on the awning, and strolled right up to the gallery's front desk without a shred of that "galleries-are-so-intimidating-and-what-if-they're-rude-to-me" hesitation, excited to check the place out and happily divulging his affection for his growing 20x200 collection by... you guessed it: Sharon! Montrose!

I love that an NYC police officer is collecting art from us! That he walked into our gallery to let us know how much he enjoys the site and had things to say about one artist in particular is freaking awesome. The postman in Oregon had never heard of Ballen before his conversation with Matt; I'd like to think that him loving 20x200 means that he's much more inclined to consider that work like that could have a place in his home too. One thing that's so cool to me about the whole idea of engaging all kinds of people is that once they're engaged and grow to trust us, there's an opportunity to expand horizons, challenge preconceptions and evolve taste.

Today's monkeys aren't necessarily as effortlessly engaging as Sharon's previous editions have been—in fact, a few members of team 20x200 have been downright creeped out by them. Conversely, some people who've not been as easily captivated by our animal menagerie are awfully charmed by these two. So, in their own way, these editions are challenging too... and we see that as a good thing.