I am an artist and I am concerned about an arts organization operating in NY that may be taking advantage of artists and was wondering if others have had negative dealings with them. I want to get the word out to warn artists to be very cautious about this organization, as I think their practices are questionable, and they may be doing a scam.

The organization, N Y Bienniale Art (NYBA), is promoting and event that is supposed to occur in New York City September 27 through October 25, 2009, called the NY Biennale 2009, and they are putting out a call-for-artists for a show called Free Zone Area. the director's name is Pietro Franesi. I have been dealing with them for almost 9 months via email, because they were supposed to give me a solo show for this event in 2008. They first advertised on Craig's list looking for artists for solo show and I responded and they told me that I was chosen, via several confirmations emails that I received. It was then canceled after I got an e-mail from his organization saying that Pietro Franesi was hit by a cab. They informed artists that they would do the same NY Biennale art show for 2009, which was supposed to occur in many different locations throughout the city, but then six months later I received an e-mail to apply for a new show called Free Zone Area, and it said that all of the solo shows had been canceled.

What I am concerned about is that in the call-for-artists for the Free Zone Area show they are charging a nonrefundable $250 application fee to be wired to a bank, but don't have a location for the show, and when I ask them what the location is, they never respond. They also do not have an address for the organization, NY Bienniale Art, and on one site - http://www.nyinfoart.com/events_page.htm - it states that "NYBA is a not-for-profit organization to promote quality art from around the world to New York", but when I talk to the New York charities Bureau they are not registered.

All of their websites give the appearance of them being a legitimate organization, and they have also put on some actual shows at actual locations, so maybe they are just conducting themselves in an unprofessional manner and are disorganized because they don't know any better, but my dealings with them has not been very positive. They do give a lot of information about themselves (the director's name with a photo, and all of his staff, with their photos) but remember - There is no actual address for their organization, no location address for the NY Biennale events they are promoting, and they are not registered as a charity in the city of New York even though they are claiming they are non-for profit.

On another website - http://nybiennaleart.splinder.com - they have posted the call for artists for the Free Zone Show, plus they e-mailed the call to the artists that were participating in the NY Bienniale Art 2008.

Here is the actual website call for artists page: http://nybiennaleart.splinder.com/post/18342104/FREE+ZONE+AREA
There also other call-for-artist with other high application fee charges on this page: http://nybiennaleart.splinder.com/post/18342515/CONTESTS

Here is the part from their announcement about wiring the money:

An application fee of $250 must be sent to:

CHASE BANK
ACCOUNT: 789413952

DOMESTIC WIRE ( BY USA )

021000021

INTERNATIONAL WIRE ( BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES )

CHASUS33

OBJECT: PARTICIPATION FEE FREE ZONE NYBA 2009
Send to curator@nybiennaleart.org the number of your wire transfer

The application fee payment must be made in US dollars and is non-refundable.

Here are also all of their other sites and email addresses, and last phone contact info:

http://www.nybiennaleart.org
http://nybiennaleart.splinder.com/
http://nybiennaleart.blogspot.com/
http://it.netlog.com/nybiennaleart/
http://www.youtube.com/user/NYBiennaleArt

Skype: nybiennaleart

Email
director@nybiennaleart.org
curator@nybiennaleart.org
press@nybiennaleart.org
staff@nybiennaleart.org
contest@nybiennaleart.org

+1 646 3342917
+39 331 1112596

Pietro Franesi also owns a gallery called NY1Art, Centre for Contemporary Art Research - 515 West - 25th Street - NY

http://www.4artcollectors.org/index.htm

also located at:

- L1 Address: Oktyabrskaya street #29 Moscow

- L2 Address: Nevsky pr., 71 St. Petersburg

- L3 Address: 10 Great Portland Street, London