GEORGE “JO JO” MARENGO - The WORLD ART FOUNDATION (WAF) – WORLD ART EXPO 2009

[Brajanne]

I received this mail from the facebook group "Fantastic Art" , written by Christian De Boeck:


Our advice to artists is to have nothing to do with Marengo and the World Art Foundation (WAF) and World Art Expo 2009. After having his membership of this group deleted he has joined again in order to spam the group with his sales pitch for the foundation and expo. He has now been permanently banned from this group. Anyone wishing further information as to why is welcome to contact us.

What pretender Marengo has done is phish all the artists from my and other friends and their friends lists on Facebook, MySpace and elsewhere in order to send them the same standard laughable sales letter. He then, when he hasn’t even looked at your art, sends you the same insultingly stupid message: ”George Marengo wrote at 10:34pm Heiz [sic (actually, my friends name is HEINZ)], your work is amazing. I am happy to invite you to join the World Art Foundation“, when he clearly hasn’t bothered to look at your work or even spell your name correctly. (But you call this “professional”.) The bottom line is that his awards would be vanity awards with no standing in the serious art world. His magazines are also vanity publications filled with fluff pieces, i.e., thinly veiled advertorials for the party that the article is about. I would be embarrassed to be associated with such a project and no reputable established artist will be associated with it, and neither should you.”

Read the “fine print” in World Art Expo “Exhibition Rules” http://www.worldartfoundation.org/ExhibitRules.html, for example:
“1 – Accomplished artists with a limited budget but wish to exhibit. You may exhibit at the World Art Expo by sending ONE PIECE of artwork. You will receive all the proceeds (100%) if your art is sold during the expo. Unsold art, however, will be donated to the world Art Foundation’s Museum Fund*. (See more information at the bottom of this page.)”

So what incentive has Marengo got to sell your work when you have already paid an exorbitant fee (minimum $2,500 non-members $1,500 members if you commit this December) to exhibit and he gets to keep your work if it isn’t sold. This is simply criminal and scandalous.

BTW. The Hyatt Regency Irvine has been approached by several friends of mine to make enquires about the World Art Expo, which brought to light the fact that the hotel knows nothing about this event and hasn’t been booked for it. The first WORLD ART EXPO was supposed to take place this year. It didn’t…wonder why!?

And have you read this shit which, besides his bad taste, ignorance and stupidity about art and artists, reveals all the other money making scams he has in mind: http://www.worldartfoundation.org/Contest.html

To date not a single artist I now and am friends with has signed up for membership of the WAF or the WORLD ART EXPO – and if they have they will now most certainly have second thoughts.

Octavian Florescu wrote: “I checked out his website http://www.worldartfoundation.org/ and so far I found everything as being very professional, including the selection of artists. I would be happy to see more websites at this level of professionalism.”

Christian De Boeck wrote: "The website might look “professional”, so do millions of others and thousands promoting scams of one kind or another. And what “selection of artists” are you talking about? When you click on the links nothing comes up. The WAF has no members. So why don’t you show us all the way and become the first to join!?"

The facts: when I first clicked on the links to artists nothing came up, so Marengo must have got his web designer out of bed to quickly update the site with some artist’s pages under Artists, Surrealists, Masters. None of my artist friends are members of the WAF and will not be attending the WORLD ART EXPO 2009, should it take place, which we very much doubt. It’s all a thinly veiled scam to make money out naïve, up-and coming artists. Also, just by the way, none of my friends consider themselves “surrealists”, which goes to show just how much Marengo knows about art.

I had a look at Florescu’s website http://www.florescugallery.com/ and see why he might have a problem getting his work shown by a legitimate gallery. His work is the worst kind of amateur kitsch no respectable gallery would be interested in. This is the kind of shit any other artist will become associated with that is so naïve as to sign up for Marengo’s expo should or should it not eventually take place, once he has your money in his bank account.

[Madalena Lobao_Tello]

Brajanne
Thank you so much!
This is a very important information!

[Cloo]

yes; thanks for this info Brajanne !
I also received lots of messages from this mr. Marengo concerning participation at the World Art Expo 2009....

ciao
Cloo

[Marcy Heleny Lanfranco Orlandini]

It is good to know it.
A few days ago I became a member of WAF,but only paying 30 dollars for fee.
Thank you for this information.
I´ll be more carefull about all groups on Facebook.

[Monika Macken]

Thank you Brajanne! This is good to know....

[Trina Batchelor]

I didn't know about this- thanks for sharing Brajanne !

[Rebanta Goswami]

Thanks a lot Brazanne.

You have done a great job by exposing the reality before us.

[Brajanne]

As artists we have to face a many frauds, abuses, bad contracts, ... the art market can be very hard. It is good that we share that kind of information woth each other.

[Michal Ashkenasi]

Dear Brajanne ,
I did not encounter this scam and thank you very much for the warning !!
I wouldn't have reacted to it because of the amount of money he asks for "participating " , but it is good to know and to warn other artists !
Hug , Michal

[Mustafa]

hi Brajanne, thank ypou very much for information..
Mustafa.

[Aram Grigoryan]

Thank you Brajanne!

[Thom Roslan]

Hello Brajanne......

Thank you for the info regarding this "fake" association.....It is very hard indeed to trust anyone over the I-Net. I get queries all the time to join festivals, shows & expo's for enormous fees and I just SPAM them.....

Thanks again for the update.

Ars Gratia Artis,

Thom

[Sambuddha Duttagupta]

Hi Brajanne,
Thanks for this important information. In fact I was out of touch with internet since 2 weeks.Tonight while I was checking my inbox I found this email from you & simultaneously a post in my page at Indian Art News which I am uploading as an image here.

Again thanks for sharing.