Yesterday, Ballard underground comics and art shop/gallery Push/Pull received news that the Department of Revenue had taken all of the money out of their checking account. According to the GoFundMe made yesterday, owners Maxx Follis-Goodkind and Seth Goodkind said they'd been behind on paying taxes but were working on a payment plan with the state. The deadline to agree on a plan was in October, so it came as a shock when all their money was taken from their bank account yesterday morning.
The GoFundMe asks for community members to help them out however they can. "We would hate to see everything we've worked so hard for gone," writes Follis-Goodkind. "Any funds raised will go to paying our current rent (since our bank account is zero and it's the first!) and with paying the balance on our taxes and other bills until things are back to normal." They say the money will help them survive the summer.
The visual art feature I wrote for our Sex Issue (which comes out tomorrow) reviews and discusses artist Alli Good's solo show at Push/Pull. Good, who hails from Asheville, North Carolina, paints figures who are complicated, sexual, grotesque, and pulsating with color and desire. It's a beautiful, wild exhibition that's interestingly curated within the space.
With the recent report about how fucking expensive rent is here (with no signs of getting better) and the difficulty of finding stable, well-paying work in the arts, a context emerges through which we can look at this gallery running into trouble, especially as we've seen Mount Analogue, Marianne Ibrahim Gallery, The Alice, and now Prographica all pack up shop due to lack of interest and rent problems.
As of this writing, Push/Pull has raised just over $3000 of a $6000 goal. If interested, you can contribute here.
