During Latinx Heritage Month, Art Zealous is proud to be featuring Domingo Comms, a new art communications advisory founded by arts communication and marketing specialist Veronica Petty.
Like many frequently jet-setting professionals with international concerns, Veronica Petty found herself actually existing “at home” for the first time in almost ten years in March at the beginning of the present pandemic.
During those ten semi-nomadic years passed, Veronica was overseeing marketing and communications efforts for large international art fairs and events including Money20/20 Europe, Affordable Art Fair New York City, and PULSE Art Fair. Shortly after work from home became the new normal, her new interior design and arts communication advisory business Domingo Comms came into being.
As a full-service, fully-customizable advisory, Domingo Comms boasts interior styling, art advising and communications as areas of expertise. During a time when more professionals are working from home, the need for interior decorating and styling – and affordable artwork – has expanded dramatically. “I started this project because I realized that I hadn’t spent time at home in 10 years,” Veronica admits. “People are looking around, especially the clients I’m working with, and they’re saying ‘I just can’t believe I lived with either empty walls or homegoods pieces.’”
A FRESH APPROACH TO ART ADVISING & INTERIOR DESIGN
Domingo’s Interior Design service is informed by three powerhouse pillars of Veronica’s pedigree: her background in affordable art, interior design techniques, and storytelling.
Her first job was with Innovate UK, a program run through the UK government where she was placed in charge of revitalizing charity shops for a local organization. “It was my job to take classes on visual merchandising and learn interior design, upcycling furniture and all these other things that I had no idea about,” Veronica recalled. This experience opened her eyes to the possibilities of interior design and laid a strong foundation of understanding when it comes to visual merchandising and aesthetics.
“Making connections between something that’s beautiful, meaningful, and long lasting and how value increases over time whether that’s for you personally or financially” is an appropriate stand-in for Domingo Comm’s mission statement should Veronica ever need one. Her deeply personal approach to pairing clients with affordable, contemporary art while designing spaces that are both multi-functional and homey enough for our present living patterns is what makes Domingo such a standout new advisory.
During her one hour consultations, which Veronica is currently offering for $90, she gets to know her clients intimately with special focus on exploring their background and identity with the ultimate goal of discovering how they see themselves and what they want to say with their home and art. “A lot of times before they even answer those questions, people aren’t really sure they have those stories,” Veronica observes about her clients in those consulting sessions. “Once we start talking, they end up with a renewed sense of who they are.”
For example, one client is a couple with a small dog and new baby living in a one-bedroom, transitional apartment. “They’re from Argentina. They have a new baby and want to make it as home-y as possible,” Veronica explains. “So we designed a corner where she could breastfeed comfortably, there’s room for the dog nearby, and the artwork is strategically placed so that when she goes back to work it’s featured as a home office space. She works across the Latin American audience so we picked work that could be used as a conversation piece for new clients.”
Veronica offers longer, more expansive interior and art services as well. Many clients are looking just for specific artwork, working across any specifications. With her background in communications and marketing, Veronica has found that galleries and artists are reaching out more frequently for this type of service. “A lot of galleries and artists are reaching out to me looking to market themselves better,” she notes. “Domingo Featured Artists was really built out of that need.”
BRINGING LATINX ART & CULTURE TO THE FOREFRONT WITH FEATURED ARTISTS
Domingo’s Featured Artists program showcases artworks from up-and-coming local New York, Latin American, and Latinx contemporary artists, an area of heritage that Veronica is acutely attuned to as a Latinx woman. Born and raised a New Yorker to a Colombian mother and white, New York City Firefighter father, her understanding of the Latinx experience informs her art advising from a perspective of identity.
Particularly now, and especially in the wake of Latinx Heritage Month, Veronica recognizes the need for deeper engagement and discussion when it comes to identity. “My mom always rejected the homogenous term of Hispanic or Latinx, being adamant about being Colombian. I grew up with that as well – feeling like I’m not Colombian enough or American enough. We really should be using this time to talk about the incredible diaspora of Latinx cultures and heritage. I want to use this as a platform for my artists to talk about their specific experiences.”
“I can reach out to working Colombian artists in Bogota who are still there and working and I feel secure that I’m being authentic,” she continues. “It’s not about labels or a marketing strategy, I see their work and it speaks to me personally, and that was a gift from my mother – that she really wanted me to feel a connection to being Colombian. And I can turn to Latinx artists in the city and the US and I know their experience and that work speaks to me. I have to start practicing and embracing that because I want to be part of that conversation.”
Domingo Featured Artists serves to combine all these things while highlighting the works that speak to Veronica personally and what she wants to make Domingo about from a mission point of view. “It’s a resource for my clients,” she says. “Building a community so that when a client buys from a Domingo Featured Artist that they’re part of a community. It’s more than just the services, but a family.”
In regards to how we’ll continue to interact with Latinx art going forward, Veronica firmly believes that the dialogue is just beginning. “There’s so much work to be done breaking through barriers and talking about individual experiences of Latinx culture that can be expressed in art,” she muses. “The beauty of Latinx culture is the music and the beauty, the color and the richness is just amazing.”
THE FUTURE OF INTERIOR DESIGN & ART AS A BROADER DIALOGUE
“There’s a movement happening out in the world, this is a timely moment to address these things in art,” Veronica continues, referring to our current sociopolitical climate as a time of artistic renaissance. “I’ve never felt so encouraged to be myself. For the first time, to put myself out there and really embrace my identity. Especially with living abroad for so many years, and growing up in New York, I just feel that this moment is really powerful.”
The same can be said of interior design and how people are living at home, spaces where stability and comfort are starting to be valued over efficiency and ease. The capacity for beauty, and particularly affordable works by emerging artists who are creating works that are reflective of our current cultural ethos, is expanding. Veronica, expressing her deep affinity for bringing art and art lovers together, states “I want to give people resources and practical advice so that they can do it forever.”
As for the artists Veronica works with, there’s no shortage of inspiration to be found in our present, collective experience. “Artists are just so excited, telling me that they just can’t stop creating,” she says. Domingo Comms’ artist roster certainly validates that sentiment.
Find out more about Domingo Comms and Domingo Featured Artists through our ongoing series featuring artists, installations, profiles and more as we cover Latinx Heritage Month from September 15-October 15, 2020. Follow Art Zealous on Instagram to keep up!
