Studio-Online.com
Video Interview with Patricia Correia, 2009
Patricia
Correia was born in 1955 and raised in San Diego, California, to Spanish
and Portuguese immigrant parents. In 1974, while studying fine art
at the University of Hawaii, Patricia joined her brother and artist
Steven V. Correia, to help establish Correia Art Glass (CAG), one
of the first art glass studios to spearhead the Art Glass Movement
in the early 1970’s.
Click
here for Patricia Correia's full Biography & Resume (PDF)
In Patricia’s first sales trip to New York City in 1974, she
generated over forty thousand dollars (annual production) in sales
for Correia Art Glass, creating a new American market for contemporary
decorative arts. Eight years later, in 1982, she sold Correia Art
Glass national and international and sales increased to 1.2 million
dollars annually. While living in New York City from 1982 to 1987,
Patricia Correia presided over national sales and sales training for
Correia Art Glass showrooms in New York City, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
As Vice President of Sales, she directly sold to the top major retail
chains such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Harrods in London,
and Cartier in Paris. In addition to her outstanding sales records,
she placed Correia Art Glass glasswork in the permanent collections
of major American cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Corning Museum of
Glass, and the White House during the Carter administration. By combining
creative marketing and sales through the focus of the arts, Patricia
Correia advanced the cultural and artistic community's perception
of collecting glass and cultivated new audiences for decorative art.
In 1987, after thirteen years of national and international marketing
and with sales at just under two million dollars annually, Patricia
Correia felt it was time to pursue a greater challenge and a more
focused market. She parted from Correia Art Glass and helped co-found
Steven V. Correia Crystal, moving from decorative blown glass to optical
crystal sculpture. As President, she actively ran the company and
focused on marketing and sales of fine art sculpture to Fotune 500
corporations and non-profit organizations for special recognition
and awards programs. SVC Crystal catered to a unqiue group of collectors
and hundreds of corporations such as Pepsi/Taco Bell, Nynex, Amgen
Pharmaceutical, Smith-Barney, EDS, Dupont Merck, and the Weisman Foundation.
Through this focused marketing, she brought crystal sculpture to a
wider segment of the corporate community, while heightening the general
public's awareness. In 1988, during her term as President, Patricia
Correia was responsible for selling and overseeing a $250,000 special
project. This project featured a kinetic laser light sculpture that
was site-specific for the San Diego Design Center 10-acre complex
(previously owned by Qual Comm Inc.). This environmental sculpture
was visible at a thirteen-mile radius from its epicenter and served
as the gateway for the city of San Diego, California and was the largest
permanent sculpture at the time.
In 1991, Ms. Correia pursued a different career path in the arts and
opened Patricia Correia Gallery (PCG) in Venice, California, where
in three and a half years, she established a respected presence in
the community and the Los Angeles art scene. In 1994, upon invitation
from the City of Santa Monica, California, Patricia Correia Gallery
relocated to Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica, California,
where the gallery resided for 17 years until it’s close in December
of 2008.
From 1991 to 2003, Patricia Correia Gallery worked with California
artists, primarily from the Los Angeles area. The gallery focused
on providing a platform for these artists to create and exhibit contemporary
fine art in all medias while promoting artists to the public, private
collectors, institutions, and museums, nationwide and internationally.
In 2001, Patricia Correia Publishing (PCP), the digital print studio
subdivision of Patricia Correia Gallery, was launched. This new division,
which specializes in limited edition fine art prints and specialized
print projects, provides the means for artists to explore new territories
and push the boundaries of their own art making practice through digital
printmaking. Patricia Correia Publishing operates on an invitation-only
basis.
Patricia Correia Gallery redirected its course in 2003, focusing on
Chicano artists throughout the United States, while still concentrating
on international contemporary art. Many of the artists represented
by the gallery during this project participated in the founding of
the Chicano Art Movement, which had been evolving over the last 40
years throughout the United States. These visual artists have participated
in public artworks, grants, art biennials, gallery and museum exhibitions,
and featured in museum collections both nationally and internationally.
In 2007, at the height of this project, Patricia Correia Gallery was
invited to work with La Casa Encendida Art Center in Madrid, Spain,
to bring together a Chicano exhibition. This exhibition, titled Pintores
de Aztlan, featuring nine Chicano/a artists, was accompanied by a
215-page catalog. Though this five-year Chicano/a project at Patricia
Correia Gallery concluded in 2008, Chicano art continued to remain
part of the gallery’s curatorial specialty.
In 2006, during the PCG/Chicano project, Patricia Correia Productions
was created to encompass all the separate projects under one roof
(Patricia Correia Gallery, Patricia Correia Publishing, and FaufiTown
Projects). From 2006 to 2008, FaufiTown Projects sponsored new and
emerging artists and participated in numerous art fairs including
MACO (Mexico Arte Contemporaneo, Ciudad de Mexico, DF), Art Basel,
Basel, Switzerland & Art Basel Miami Beach; FL.
After
closing the gallery in December of 2008, Patricia Correia became Patricia
Correa Projects in 2009, which works with emerging and established,
museum-collected artists, nationally and internationally. Patricia
Correia Projects’ focus is currently on sales of contemporary
fine art, dealing exclusively with collectors and institutions, from
her private gallery in Topanga Canyon, California, just north of Santa
Monica.
