Fall Art Preview 2023 https://ift.tt/5G6KAzM

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What’s Happening in the Art Market This Fall? https://ift.tt/b7Hie9T

Glasbacherwald, 2022
Oliver Staeuber
ArtRewards

It’s hard to believe, but the end of summer 2023—a summer that felt like it barely got going—is almost upon us. For the art world, this means the return of, well, the art world: Major auctions, art fairs, and gallery openings will return en masse for a fall season that seems to expand with events every passing year.

For those just getting back into the swing of things, Artsy has you covered. Here, we offer a quick rundown of all the major fairs, auctions, and art market happenings taking place over the remaining four months of 2023.

September

In September, the kids return to school, and art insiders return to the fair hall. Things really get going in the first week of the month, when a number of fairs are taking place around the world. In South Korea, the second edition of Frieze Seoul takes place September 6th–9th, with more than 120 galleries participating. The fair will share the COEX exhibition center with the Korean International Art Fair (KIAF), which takes place September 7th–10th, with more than 200 exhibitors.

In Australia, meanwhile, Sydney Contemporary will take place at Carriageworks from September 7th–10th with more than 90 galleries; and in New York, The Armory Show—which was recently acquired by Frieze—returns to the Javits Center with more than 200 exhibitors from September 7th–10th. Independent 20th Century and Art on Paper take place during the same period in the Big Apple, while Photofairs New York opens the day after, and similarly ends on September 10th.

Other notable art fairs taking place in September include Viennacontemporary (September 7th–10th), Positions Berlin (September 14th–17th), Menart Paris (September 14th–17th) and ArtRio (September 13th–17th).

Auction calendars begin to fill up too, with a handful of sales on the books. Sotheby’s will host “Contemporary Discoveries” in Hong Kong on September 5th; an Old Master and 19th-century sale in London on September 13th-20th; “Modern Discoveries” in London on September 20th-27th; and “Contemporary Curated” in New York on September 28th. Christie’s will host “Contemporary Edition” in London on September 12th-28th;“20th/21st Century” in Hong Kong on September 24th; and “Post War to Present” in New York on September 29th. Phillips will host the second edition of its David Hockney sale in London on September 20th, and its “Evening and Day Editions” sale in the British capital on the same day.

In the gallery world, watch out for the new flagship space of Pilar Corrias Gallery opening on Conduit Street in London and Hollis Taggart’s expansion of its Chelsea space in New York.

October

In October, Europe becomes the hub for major art fair happenings. Frieze London will host its 20th edition alongside Frieze Masters October 11th–15th, hosting more than 160 and 120 galleries, respectively. 1-54 also takes place in London’s Somerset House from October 12th–15th and features 50 exhibitors.

It’s then over to France for Paris+ par Art Basel, which returns for its second edition in the Grand Palais Éphémère with more than 150 galleries from October 18th–22nd. Asia NOW and AKAA Paris will also take place in the French capital from October 20th–22nd.

In New York, meanwhile, IFPDA Print Fair—the world’s largest print fair—hosts its 30th edition from October 26th–29th, with more than 90 exhibitors. Other notable fairs taking place in October include Art Taipei (October 20th–23rd), Art Toronto (October 26th–29th), Art Collaboration Kyoto (October 28th–30th).

Auction sales thicken, too. Christie’s will host three sales of the Rothschild collection on October 11th, 12th, and 13th in New York, as well as post-war and contemporary sales in London on October 13th and 14th, respectively. Sotheby’s will host contemporary evening and day sales in Hong Kong on October 6th and 7th respectively, then its “The Now” evening auction and contemporary evening auction in London on October 12th, followed by a contemporary day auction the next day in the British capital.

Phillips will also host its 20th-century and contemporary art day and evening sales in London and Hong Kong, taking place on October 6th and 7th and October 12th and 13th, respectively.

In the gallery world, Alison Jacques and Tiwani Contemporary will both expand into new spaces in London’s Mayfair, while White Cube opens its long-awaited outpost in New York. Fellow mega-gallery Hauser & Wirth will also open a new four-story branch in Paris.

November

As the nights draw in, the art world calendar marches forward. Teeing off the month is the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show (November 1st–5th), which takes place at the Javits Center in New York with 78 galleries. Shortly afterward, Artissima (November 2nd–5th) brings more than 180 galleries to Northern Italy; while in Nigeria, ARTXLagos returns for its 8th edition over the same period. It’s then Paris Photo (November 9th–12th), which hosts up to 200 photography-driven exhibitors at the Grand Palais Éphémère. The world’s oldest art fair, Art Cologne (November 16th–19th), also returns with 190 exhibitors in the storied Western German art town.

Other notable fairs taking place this month include Art San Diego (November 3rd–5th), ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art (November 9th-12th), Art Jakarta (November 17th–19th), and Abu Dhabi Art (November 22nd–26th).

At auction, Phillips hosts its New York sales with its 20th-century and contemporary art evening and day sales happening on November 14th and 15th, respectively. Meanwhile in the gallery world, Ortuzar Projects is set to expand to a new space on West Broadway in New York.

December

December in the art world means two things: Christmas and Miami Art Week, which features a number of fairs stretching until December 10th. Art Miami and UNTITLED Art Miami Beach kick off on December 5th, followed by NADA Miami and Design Miami the day after. The week concludes with Art Basel in Miami Beach (December 8th–10th), the largest art fair in the Western Hemisphere. Programs and details for these fairs have yet to be announced in full.

Other fairs taking place in Miami over the course of the week include CONTEXT Art Miami (December 5th–10th), Scope Miami Beach (December 5th–10th), SATELLITE Art Fair (December 6th–9th), and Aqua Art Miami (December 6th–10th).

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Meet the Galleries of Paris's Newest Contemporary Art Street https://ift.tt/K0Wdp4a

At the tip of the Marais, right below Place de la République, sits Rue Béranger. The street, which was historically populated by merchants (mainly selling clothes), is now home to several galleries that are pushing the limits—both literally and figuratively—of the famed Parisian art district.

In the last few years, four galleries—193 Gallery, Bim Bam, cadet capela, and DS Galerie—have made their home on Rue Béranger. 193 Gallery was the first to move in 2020, taking over its first of two spaces on the street. “There were spaces left abandoned that we’ve given a new life, spaces that have been adapted to our current times, an area for contemporary art,” said the gallery’s director César Levy.

It wasn’t necessarily just because of availability that Levy chose Rue Béranger (there’s a constant turnover of businesses in Paris): “It was really because I wanted to stay in the north Marais, as it’s the most dynamic area at the moment with regards to contemporary art in Paris,” he said.

The Marais is an area that spans the majority of both the 3rd and 4th arrondissements, spreading from the river Seine, next to the islands, up to Place de la République. It is a highly attractive area for young galleries in Paris as it’s known to be the hub for galleries that take a more radical approach to programming, tending to favor young and early-career artists as opposed to the more blue-chip names often shown by galleries in the 6th and 8th arrondissements.

The history of the area is one of change, from the leatherwork factories that used to occupy the slim buildings, to its changing over to concept stores and boutiques, as well as its reputation as a gay neighborhood. It is difficult to squeeze past the crowds on the skinny sidewalks on the weekends, and there is a current jokey sentiment that the only people who own and live in the Marais are foreigners.

Rents have also gone up. Most galleries coming into the area don’t have the money to be near the two more traditional art nexuses—that surrounding the Centre Pompidou, in the southeast; and that of Rue de Turenne, which runs north to south near the west boundary line. Logically, the younger galleries have situated themselves farther north, where real estate is cheaper but is still within the bounds of the metropolitan area.

Some have left the Marais entirely, jumping a few blocks north or east to Belleville or Bastille, much like the spreading of galleries from Chelsea to Chinatown in New York. “It is the evolution of the Marais because, progressively, things extend,” said Thomas Havet, director of DS Galerie, which is on number 15 of Rue Béranger and opened six months ago. “It’s normal too because the heart of the Marais is already saturated. There are no more opportunities there so things have to change, and so, we, as a young emerging gallery, we have to change too.”

In a city where whether you belong to a certain set matters a lot, are the Rue Béranger galleries at the border of the Marais galleries or simply part of the extension outwards? “For a Parisian, it’s not really a Marais street,” said cadet capela director Mathieu Capela, who opened his space on the street last September. But at the same time, “I don’t see the galleries on the other side of Place de la République as part of the same circuit,” he said. “We cannot go farther north. And I think that if we go past it, we would be in another quarter, with another feeling. That may be a little snobbish, a little Parisian, but that would be another kind of gallery.”

At the same time, Rue Béranger’s closeness to Place de la République is an advantage. It has one of the largest metro stations in Paris, with five lines running through it, and is an easy place for people to go into the Haut Marais, the literal upper part of the district. “When I first visited the location, I thought to myself that I was going to be a bit isolated,” said Bim Bam director Baimba Kamara, who opened the space in March.

Kamara realized the street was in fact in the middle of the hubbub, and also had the advantage of its potential gallery spaces being easily viewable from the street front. Frequently, because of Parisian architecture, many galleries are inside courtyards that visitors sometimes need to ring doorbells to access, let alone having to know a gallery is there in the first place.

The unconventional spaces on Rue Béranger that were available are also relatively large. 193 Gallery’s first space, which used to be a goldsmith and jeweler, is 3,800 square feet; its second, a former printer, is 2,500 square feet—far larger than its original space on another popular street for galleries, Rue des Filles du Calvaire, which was 600 square feet. Bim Bam’s space (2,200 square feet) was an organic grocery store that was completely redone, including new walls and raising the dropped ceilings. DS Galerie’s 1,100 square feet has two levels, a white cube on the ground floor and a “salon” (as Havet called it) below, where it shows “more experimental propositions.”

Meanwhile, cadet capela has three rooms in its 3,200 square feet, two of which have glass ceilings. “It isn’t so easy to find large spaces,” Capela said. The gallery has its other location on Rue Chapon, another gallery street with far smaller spaces, and its Rue Béranger space used to be a fashion showroom, which fell on hard times during the pandemic as Fashion Week was canceled for almost three years.

Rue Béranger is, after all, integral to the Haut Marais fashion scene: Valentino’s show takes place every season in the Carreau du Temple, two blocks away; and many galleries in the surrounding area rent out their spaces for shows. The street is in a prime position to thrive from the international set, from both fashionistas and tourists who flock to the nearby Marché des Enfants Rouges and Café de la Poste—both within a 10-minute walk of the Rue Béranger galleries.

But it’s also in a spot that can incorporate those from demographics not often represented in art: There are large Indian, North African, and Kurdish communities on the other side of Place de la République. Levy said his gallery has been frequented a lot by those from the banlieue suburbs outside the Paris boundary line: “We have the possibility of bringing in other populations and a mix in these areas of the Marais that remain somewhat elitist,” he said.

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8 Must-See Museum Shows Opening This Fall https://ift.tt/H1biodP

As the art world returns from its late-summer sabbaticals, museums across the world are gearing up for a hearty crop of autumn exhibitions. From mid-century standbys and first-time retrospectives to rigorously researched group shows on feminist and Indigenous art histories, here we feature eight of the most intriguing museum exhibitions opening this fall.

“Mark Rothko”

Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris

Oct. 18, 2023–Apr. 2, 2024

This massive Mark Rothko retrospective, opening at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris this October, gathers more than 115 works by the famed abstractionist. The show promises a cogent, chronological survey of the 20th-century titan’s emotional and artistic development. Head curator Suzanne Page and co-curator Christopher Rothko (the artist’s son) have worked over the elder Rothko’s wide-ranging oeuvre, from his early portraiture through his stark final canvases, to ensure an effective and affecting retrospective—the first of Rothko’s to show in Paris in more than 20 years.

The exhibition opens with the only existing self-portrait of Rothko, which the artist painted in 1936, and continues through his early realist visions of New York’s urban vistas, as well as his 1940s foray into biomorphic abstraction à la Paul Klee. As for classic Rothko canvases, there will be plenty on display—more than 70, in fact. That includes funkier, more compositionally jumbled numbers like 1949’s No. 21, as well cohesive sets like his “Seagram Mural” series, nine of which are on loan from Tate Modern.

The chronology concludes with a hanging of Untitled (Black on Gray) (1970) from his somber final series of works, which will here be staged alongside a number of sculptural works by Alberto Giacometti, an artist that Rothko admired during his lifetime. Altogether, this exhibition promises an unrivaled opportunity to become absorbed by Rothko’s eternally enthralling simplicity.

“Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick”

The Frick Collection, New York

Sep. 21, 2023–Jan. 7, 2024

The Frick’s fall presentation is a delectable selection of early works by the contemporary portraiture master Barkley L. Hendricks, whose own history with the Frick brings a particular sense of resonance to this finely wrought show.

“The Frick was one of Barkley’s favorite museums,” said Aimee Ng, who co-curated the exhibition alongside curator and writer Antwaun Sargent, in an interview with Artsy. “When he was an art student in 1966, he visited those temples of European art—the Prado, the Rijksmuseum, the Louvre—and it was a turning point for him. The Frick represented that for him in the U.S. It was sort of the kernel of the greatest works of European art history.”

Hendricks’s iconic painting style, rich in sartorial and sculptural detail, makes for an enthralling continuation of that lineage. Come for shimmery, near-religious portraits like 1969’s gold leaf–flecked Lawdy Mama, or the white-out cool of 1976’s Steve; stay for the distinctly Frick-flavored echoes of the Old Masters, whose style is a clear inspiration for this master of our own time.

“Inside Other Spaces. Environments by Women Artists 1956–1976”

Haus der Kunst, Munich

Sep. 8, 2023–Mar. 10, 2024

This intriguing group survey, opening in September at Haus der Kunst in Munich, takes an art historical core sample of the nebulous concept of immersive art, which, in the process, draws a series of linkages between the pioneering work of women working at the interstices of art, architecture, and design throughout the 20th century.

The exhibition, which was curated by Marina Pugliese and Andrea Lissoni with Anne Pfautsch, was the product of three years of meticulous research—not only into the histories and practices of the artists on display, but also into their archival materials and plans, which the curators used to guide the recreation of these otherwise ephemeral works from the mid–20th century.

These works include Judy Chicago’s Feather Room, originally displayed in 1965, which Lissoni described in an interview as an environment that conjures experiences of “floating,” “moving,” and “pure pleasure” as visitors move through a room piled with downy feathers. There’s also Tania Mouraud’s We used to know (1970), “an environment you cannot really enter because it’s too hot and too loud,” according to Lissoni; as well as Aleksandra Kasuba’s Spectral Passage, a chromatic passageway that the artist originally constructed for San Francisco’s de Young Museum in 1975.

Between all of these works courses a highly original stream of curatorial thought that prods variously at notions of immersion, fabrication, and corporeality.

“Marisol: A Retrospective”

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Oct. 7, 2023–Jan. 21, 2024

The long, varied career of the multihyphenate mononymic artist Marisol is highlighted in this wide-ranging touring retrospective, which was organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and opens at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in October. It will travel to the Toledo Museum of Art, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and the Dallas Museum of Art over the next two years. The presentation marks the most comprehensive survey of the artist’s work to date.

“Marisol” brings together more than 250 works by the artist, highlighting in particular the peculiar, Pop-adjacent sculptural practice that brought her widespread attention in the 1960s. These blocky, disjointed human figures with multiple faces and finely rendered fabric details are placed in conversation with showcases of Marisol’s later drawing practice, as well as the costume and set design she did for such leading dance studios as Louis Falco and Martha Graham.

What emerges is a well-rounded portrait of a talent that burned bright in the public eye during the Factory-flecked ’60s, and the ways she maintained her radical production for decades after that.

“Rirkrit Tiravanija: A Lot of People”

MoMA PS1, New York

Oct. 12, 2023–Mar. 4, 2024

Rirkrit Tiravanija’s distinct brand of social artmaking gets the retrospective treatment at this forthcoming MoMA PS1 exhibition, opening in October. “A Lot of People” gathers more than 100 works by the artist, including a number of little-seen early works from the 1980s and ’90s. These works include sculptures, installations, and editions, as well as his investigations into news media as its own artistic medium, including everything from Philip Guston appropriations printed on newsprint, to the “Demonstration Series” (2001–present), in which Tiravanija hand-draws photographs from the International Herald Tribune.

The highlight of the exhibition, though, looks to be the restaging of some of Tiravanija’s most famous participatory artworks, such as untitled 1990 (pad thai) (1990), in which the artist makes and serves pad thai to audience members; and untitled 1994 (angst essen seele auf) (1994), which features a bar serving beer and cola. Five of these works will be staged at one-month intervals throughout “A Lot of People,” giving audience members a chance to participate directly in works by one of contemporary art’s most inventive thinkers.

“The questions that Rirkrit probes within his works continue to be relevant,” co-curator Ruba Katrib told Artsy. “I think they are even more profound when looking at them in retrospect—because you are looking back at the contributions of someone who was responding to the future before it fully arrived.”

“Histórias indígenas”

MASP, São Paulo

Oct. 20, 2023–Feb. 25, 2024

This large-scale survey, organized by the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) in collaboration with the Kode Bergen Art Museum, gathers works by more than 170 Indigenous artists from across the Americas, Oceania, and Scandinavia, covering a staggeringly large scope of geographies, typologies, and chronologies.

The nearly 300 works on view in “Histórias indígenas” are divided across eight sections that variously place these artworks in both art historical and thematic conversations with one another, while leaving open the possibility of new readings and histories.

“It is important to consider the meaning of the word ‘histórias’ in Portuguese, which is rather different than ‘histories’ in English,” a press release for the exhibition stated. “The term ‘histórias’ encompasses both fiction and nonfiction, historical accounts as well as personal ones, of a public and private nature, on a micro or macro level, and thus possesses a more polyphonic, speculative, open, incomplete, processual, and fragmented quality than the traditional notion of History.”

“Suki Seokyeong Kang: Willow Drum Oriole”

Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul

Sep. 7–Dec. 31, 2023

Mat 120 x 165 #23-66, 2022-2023
Suki Seokyeong Kang
Tina Kim Gallery

Tender Meander #20-03, 2018
Suki Seokyeong Kang
Kukje Gallery

This exhibition by Suki Seokyeong Kang at Seoul’s Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art highlights the artist’s uniquely recombinant and historically inspired artmaking practice. “Willow Drum Oriole” will feature a bevy of new works by Kang, including new approaches to existing works such as her “Mat” series, which Kang initiated as part of her U.S. museum debut, “Black Mat Oriole,” at ICA Philadelphia in 2017. There will also be a number of new sculptures, video works, and paintings, all of which the artist will bring together into “choreographed scenographies” that “connect each space like an archipelago,” according to a statement from the museum.

Kang—who is represented by Tina Kim Gallery and Kukje Gallery, and was featured in The Artsy Vanguard 2019—creates works that draw on traditions of fabric-making, court dance, and Korean notational systems, among many other historical precedents. In “Willow Drum Oriole,” such works will be placed in conversation with pieces from the Leeum’s Korean art collection, allowing for a fruitful, cross-temporal meditation of tradition and contemporaneity.

“Nicole Eisenman: What Happened”

Whitechapel Gallery, London

Oct. 11, 2023–Jan. 14, 2024

Nicole Eisenman’s tender, distended style of figuration is explored in detail at this survey of more than 100 works, opening at the Whitechapel Gallery in October. “What Happened” gathers a host of works from across Eisenman’s career, including paintings, sculptures, monoprints, animation, and drawings, organizing them chronologically to map the artist’s persistent movement between the realms of the intensely personal and the fiercely political.

“We’ve told a story in eight chapters,” said Mark Godfrey, who co-curated the exhibition alongside Monika Bayer-Wermuth, in an interview with Artsy. He described these chapters as starting from Eisenman’s time in New York in the 1990s, where she was making work about lesbian life and mythical feminine heroines, and moving through her politically motivated work during the Trump years, with various stops along the way to examine sex, war, economic collapse, and the mediation of intimacy by screens. Scattered throughout are revisitations of site-specific works, such as a number of public murals Eisenman produced throughout the ’90s, as well as large-scale sculptures like the astounding Maker’s Muck (2022).

“You get a sense of her continual response to the world around her, the changing world of politics, economics, the way queer people represent and organize themselves,” Godfrey said of the exhibition. “You get a sense of an artist who is constantly moving through different interests in styles of art history, materials, and mediums.”

Browse available works in the collection “Spotlight on Fall Museum Artists.”

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The Most In-Demand Artists Who Aren’t Painters https://ift.tt/VEDQ7W4

The Woman's March, 1798
Nan Goldin
Baldwin Contemporary

Geometry Pattern 1, 2014
Faig Ahmed
Montoro12 Contemporary Art

From gallery shows to the homes of art collectors, painting is always popular in the art world. The medium has held sway among buyers for almost as long as it has existed. And this is borne out in the data: Paintings sell at a higher volume and a higher price than other mediums by far, with nine of the 10 most expensive works ever sold at auction being paintings; and of the 50 most expensive works sold under the hammer this year, only two are not paintings.

So what does the art market look like without paintings? Here, we take a look at Artsy data to explore the most popular and in-demand artists who aren’t primarily painters.

The most in-demand artists on Artsy who aren’t painters

When it comes to the artists whose works had the most inquirers on Artsy from January 2023 through July 2023, just nine of the top 100 artists were non-painters. The list of nine is as follows:

• David Yarrow
• Nan Goldin
• Faig Ahmed
• Jaume Plensa
• Anthony James
• Herb Ritts
• David LaChapelle
• Antony Gormley
• Robert Mapplethorpe

Much like we found in The Women Artists Market Report 2023—which surveyed gender disparity across the art market as a whole—the artists whose works are attracting the most inquirers are primarily white men, with only one woman artist making the list. This suggests that the art world still has a long way to go when it comes to promoting and spotlighting more works by female, non-Western, and BIPOC artists.

Freud´s Children , 2001
Jaume Plensa
Memoria Gráfica

Stripe Story, 1995
David LaChapelle
Theart5company

Of the list above, five are photographers, three are sculptors, and two are textile artists. All are established artists; Faig Ahmed, who was born in 1982, is the only ultra-contemporary artist (born after 1974) on the list. Ahmed—whose work was featured in Azerbaijan’s first pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007—has experienced strong demand for his surrealistic textile works that incorporate traditional carpet weaving techniques.

Several artists on the above list have also had major career moments recently. Following her activism around the opioid crisis, Nan Goldin’s art reached new audiences with the 2022 release of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, the Oscar-nominated documentary about her life and work. New representation with Gagosian, announced this past March, reflects this career milestone. British sculptor Anthony James also set a new record at auction last year for Great Rhombicosidodecahedron (2020), which sold for $302,400 at Sotheby’s in March 2022.

ICOSAHEDRON 60", 2020
Anthony James
ArtLife Gallery

Lucinda's Hand, 1985
Robert Mapplethorpe
Caviar20

To help us understand the current moment in the art market for non-painters, we also pulled out artists who have experienced the largest percentage growth in inquirers on Artsy between January 2022–July 2022 and January 2023–July 2023. Of the top 100 artists with the most growth in inquirers on that list, 14 were not painters. That list is as follows:

• Annie Morris
• Olafur Eliasson
• Fan Ho
• Alma Berrow
• Faig Ahmed
• Leandro Erlich
• Albert Watson
• Lynda Benglis
• Gregory Crewdson
• Melvin L. Nesbitt Jr.
• Isabel Miramontes
• The Haas Brothers

This list has a greater proportion of women artists—four total—as well as a greater number of sculptors, with six inclusions. This is followed by three photographers, one textile artist, one mixed-media artist, and one installation artist.

The list contains a mix of established names such as Fan Ho and Olafur Eliasson alongside more emerging artists such as Alma Berrow (a sculptor).

Double Albatross, 2014
Lynda Benglis
Xavier Hufkens

Notably, ultra-contemporary sculptor Annie Morris displayed the highest percentage growth of these non-painters, with a 675% rise in inquirers year over year. This rise reflects the British artist’s recent ascent at auction, where her “Stack” sculptures—made using foam and sand spheres covered in vibrant pigment—have sold consistently for six-figure sums over the past 18 months. The artist’s current auction record was set in March 2022, when Stack 10, Copper Blue (2017) sold for £201,600 ($270,076).

Sculptor Lynda Benglis is another artist who achieved a new record at auction last year with the sale of Moretti (1988) for $1.1 million at Sotheby’s last May. Other names above, such as Albert Watson, Olafur Eliasson, and Gregory Crewsdon, have recently had work featured in major museum shows.

The artists who aren’t painters who gained the most followers on Artsy this year so far

When it came to the artists who gained the most followers on Artsy in 2023, eight of the top 100 were not painters. The list is as follows:

• Zanele Muholi
• Nan Goldin
• Invader
• James Turrell
• Wolfgang Tillmans
• Hiroshi Sugimoto
• Bisa Butler

This list—made up of predominantly established artists—contains three photographers, a textile artist, a sculptor, a mixed-media artist, and an installation artist.

Aphelile X, Durban, 2020
Zanele Muholi
Galerie Carole Kvasnevski

Flower for Faith, 2014
Bisa Butler
Richard Beavers Gallery

Several of the names above have had significant career moments over the past year. The South African photographer Zanele Muholi, who tops the list, had a major museum retrospective at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, and will have another survey show at Tate Modern in the U.K. next year.

Fellow photographer Wolfgang Tillmans also had a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York late last year; that show has traveled on to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, and will open at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art this November. Tillmans will also open a new show with David Zwirner in New York this September.

Acclaimed textile artist Bisa Butler rounds out the list. Butler, who is known for dynamic, figurative quilts, made a splashy debut at auction earlier this year when her work Whirlwind (2016) sold for $69,850 at Phillips in May. The artist also had solo shows this year at the Gordon Parks Foundation and Jeffrey Deitch.

We also looked at the top 100 artists with the largest percentage growth in followers on the Artsy platform between January 2022–July 2022 and January 2023–July 2023. Of this list, just four non-painters were in the top 100. These were:

• Sarfo Emmanuel Annor
• Anya Paintsil
• Seontae Hwang
• Genesis Belanger

Cwympo ni'n dau, wel dyna i chi dric! (We both fall over that’s the trick), ca. 2023
Anya Paintsil
Hannah Traore

Vision Ahead, 2022
Sarfo Emmanuel Annor
The Bridge Gallery

All but one name on this list—Seontae Hwang—are ultra-contemporary artists, who more frequently experience these sharp rises in interest. The young Ghanaian photographer Sarfo Emmanuel Annor, who tops the list with a 500% growth in followers year over year, has already had two solo shows this year with the digital gallery The Bridge.

Annor is followed by Welsh textile artist Anya Paintsil, who is represented by tastemaking New York gallery Hannah Traore and London gallery Ed Cross Fine Art; and has appeared at a number of fairs this year including NADA New York and EXPO Chicago. The inclusion of Korean glass artist Seontae Hwang and American ceramic artist Genesis Belanger show that there is also sustained interest in more sculptural and craft-influenced works.

Browse available works in the collection “The Most In-Demand Artists Who Aren’t Painters.”

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Tastemaking Gallery Capsule Shanghai Champions Talent over Trends https://ift.tt/l2n7Ypb

For Enrico Polato, following artistic trends is not part of his approach as a gallerist. Rather, trends matter only in the sense that he seeks to deviate from or subvert them—something that has shaped his program at Capsule Shanghai, the gallery he founded in 2016.

“If there’s a kind of art that’s trendy at the moment or more favorable in the market, rather than being attracted to follow the trend, I try to withdraw from it and do something different because I prefer to have an independent voice,” the Italian gallerist told Artsy.

Located in a 1930s residential space in the former French Concession area of downtown Shanghai, the gallery’s philosophy is based on a simple premise: Polato wanted to work with emerging artists, and he wanted to do so in a space where he could nurture and grow with them.

“The idea behind Capsule—why I called it that—was I had in mind a time capsule, a program that talks about the present, talks about contemporary times, but also is a portrait of what we’re living now for people in the future,” he explained. “That portrait isn’t of current whims, but of individual bodies and practices that signify something different, with a narrative thread that can be followed across entire careers, as times and trends change.”

In the beginning, Polato worked with a number of Chinese artists who were living abroad or returning from overseas, and expanded this approach to bring international artists into his adopted home. “The idea was really to work with artists on a long-term basis,” he said. “So I’m quite happy and proud that most of the artists I started my journey with are still part of the program of the gallery today.” The gallery predominantly focuses on solo exhibitions that allow its emerging artists to shine. With a gallery space comprised of multiple small rooms, Polato loves being able to showcase these works in a space that mirrors a practical living environment.

The next stage would be to champion this local talent on an international stage by showing them at art fairs across the globe. With the art world opening up fully since the pandemic, the gallery has been more than making up for lost time this year.

Polato indicates that by the end of 2023, Capsule will have participated in at least 12 art fairs, including several for the first time. Thus far, this includes Art SG in Singapore in January; Zona Maco in Mexico City in February; Art Basel in Hong Kong in March; miart in Milan and Art Brussels in April; Taipei Dangdai and Frieze New York in May; and Liste Art Fair Basel in June. With the idea of “fairtigue” permeating the art world prior to the onset of the pandemic, the format of engaging collectors and selling art is a strategy that is very much in play for the gallery.

The gallery’s booth curation is similar to its approach to gallery shows: “Over the past few years, I have tried to give a chance to every artist ​in the program to have a solo show at the gallery in Shanghai and a solo presentation at an international fair,” Polato said.

For a gallery whose roster is heavily made of emerging and mid-career artists, participating in a large number of fairs with solo presentations can be considered a gamble, but Polato is philosophical in playing the long game: “One of the main takeaways of these experiences as a gallerist is that you need to take some risks, or you will never know how things can actually be,” he said. “I participated in fairs in places that I wasn’t familiar with at all, where I didn’t have any sort of connections, but in most cases, I managed to establish new ones.”

While he has experienced varying degrees of sales at fairs, some fairs have opened up connections to local areas. “There are so many variables and it’s hard to make conclusions right after a fair is over—in some cases, people have reached out months after the fair,” he noted. “Nothing comes in an easy way, but everything comes with some strategy as a foundation. You just need to jump in the water and learn how to swim.”

Reply #2, 2020
Cai Zebin
Capsule Shanghai

Untitled, 2018
Wang Haiyang
Capsule Shanghai

Today, the gallery’s program includes artists such as Feng Chan, Alice Wang, Wang Haiyang, Daniel Chen, and Cai Zebin. In Shanghai, Capsule has shows planned with Hong Kong–based Leelee Chan in September, and New York–based Chris Oh in November. Polato’s next big wager is on a space in Venice—one he says is “90% confirmed” and will hopefully open in 2024. Once again, it is set to be an “unconventional” and “challenging” space, with a main exhibition room and smaller areas for showing projects, allowing for two or three ideas to run concurrently.

“It’s a space that reflects the same vibes and spirit of the location in Shanghai, and we are in the last phase of negotiations,” Polato said. “I’ve been thinking [of having] an extension of the gallery space in Europe for a long time, and I’ve finally found something I fell in love with.”

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How Jessica Silverman Helped Open Up the Bay Area Art Scene https://ift.tt/aQmUdY5

At her pop-up show “A Growing Season,” Jessica Silverman is on hand to point out different works by more than 30 artists that her gallery works with. The show, which is on view until September 19th, takes place on the fifth floor of a space next to her gallery in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and commemorates 15 years since the gallery was founded in 2008. It explores themes of “growth, transcendence, and maturation,” and includes a 10-foot-long painting by Julie Buffalohead, works on paper by Loie Hollowell, and a seven-foot-tall sculpture by Rose B. Simpson, depicting a cast bronze Madonna and Child.

“She’s a Native American artist, and she’s a single mother and the kind of motif of mother and child come up a lot in her work,” Silverman said of Simpson, who lives in Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico and has worked with the gallery for several years. “The idea was to kind of translate this smaller-scale ceramic into a large-scale bronze because the imagery was just so powerful, and it holds up beautifully. It’s kind of amazing.”

Now in its third space, Jessica Silverman Gallery has become one of the leading gallerists of a burgeoning Bay Area art scene. She decided to open her own space while doing a gallery internship in Berlin, after receiving her MA in curatorial practice at San Francisco’s California College of the Arts. “They brought in work from all over,” Silverman said of her time in Berlin. “San Francisco seemed a little insular, and I wanted to show artists not from here.”

Combining her love of business and art, Silverman opened her first gallery in 2008 in the lower Nob Hill district of San Francisco when she was in her mid-twenties. Its current, 5,000-square-foot location in Chinatown now has 10 employees and represents nearly 30 artists. The gallery is also internationally known and regularly participates in fairs like Art Basel in Miami Beach and Frieze.

Cup-ing Therapy, 2022
Rupy C. Tut
Jessica Silverman

In those 15 years, Silverman has evolved with the art scene in the Bay Area region to encompass emerging artists. This includes San Francisco resident Chelsea Ryoko Wong, whose painting of people in the desert in Joshua Tree, Hot Rocks on a Hot Day, hangs in “A Growing Season,” along with Oakland artist Rupy C. Tut’s Cupping Therapy, showing a table set with cups, saucers, and snacks for teatime.

“I live here, and I like spending time here,” said Silverman. “And the best way to get to know an artist’s work is to visit their studios.”

Another local artist who joined Silverman’s gallery earlier this year is David Huffman. His work Summit is a pyramid of 650 basketballs in a rainbow of colors with “you make me feel mighty real” written at the base, after the title of a gay anthem by San Francisco singer Sylvester.

Huffman says Silverman is unique among Bay Area gallerists for her gallery’s diversity, both in subject matter and the artists she represents.

“The Bay Area has not really done well with that sense of inclusion, and she’s also found new types of art that really hasn’t been represented, because of her eye,” Huffman said. “She’ll have someone like Judy Chicago, for instance, who to me is an art history artist. She’s masterful and amazing, and in some ways has not been given her due until fairly recently. Jessica saw that and wanted to be a part of putting more light on that, and I don’t know of any other gallery out here that has had that kind of daring.”

Silverman works with artists at all stages of their careers, from ones who are emerging to established names such as filmmaker Isaac Julian, and Chicago, whose stained-glass logo from her “Holocaust Project” is featured in the 15th-anniversary show. The work depicts a triangle in a rainbow of colors, which the artist said was “structured as a journey into the darkness of the Holocaust and out into the light of hope.”

Silverman says she focuses on certain qualities in the artists she chooses to represent. “I would say consistency and that they have an ongoing studio practice that they take seriously,” she said. “I’m looking for artists who move between conceptual rigor and visual sensibilities. I want them to have interesting ideas, but I’m also really dedicated to materials.”

In July, Silverman hosted two solo exhibitions, a show of photographs by Julien, “Once Again. . . (Statues Never Die).” That same month, the gallery’s upstairs hosted “ONCE MORE WITH FEELING,” with collages by Jeffrey Gibson, who will be the first Indigenous artist to represent the United States pavilion with a solo show at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

Silverman says she is ambitious for her artists and wants to be in more art fairs and for the gallery to keep expanding. That’s what attracts Huffman to her. “I trust her instincts, and they always seem creative to me and never stale. I wanted to be a part of that, like her saying, ‘Let’s do a pyramid,’” he said. “I feel like her ambition to do pop-ups to do all these fairs—she’ll do all the top stuff, but she’ll do the middle stuff, and she’ll do the bottom stuff. And I just trust it.”

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10 Young Collectors on How They Got Started https://ift.tt/O0cNqjw

Collecting art can be a tricky endeavor for those starting out. For the next generation, the art world landscape they inhabit is changing at a rapid pace as they embark on their own path.

The drives behind why people buy art are multifaceted. For the young collectors that Artsy spoke to, collecting is about purpose, whether that is through activism, in highlighting specific communities, or relying on one’s intuition.Artsy spoke with 10 prominent young collectors, aged 35 and under, who shared their passions and motivations behind their art buying journeys.​​

Georgia Powell

Curator and Collection Manager

London and Ginoles, France

The Temple Garden, 2022
Soumya Netrabile
Anat Ebgi

One could say that collecting is a trait that Georgia Powell began demonstrating in childhood. “I was the annoying child that when we’d go to the beach…I’d just collect things,” she recounted to Artsy. “The back of the seat of the car would be filled with shells on the way home. I’ve always needed to be surrounded by things that I think are interesting or beautiful.”

Collecting art was a natural progression for the curator and collection manager when Powell began managing The Redfern Gallery in London at the tender age of 21, after graduating from university. Powell later went on to co-found the art consultancy CURA Art, where she is currently a director.

R & J , 2021
Amy Beager
Offshoot Arts

Red Bow II, 2022
Clara Adolphs
Chalk Horse

Learning to trust her gut instinct has been an integral part of building the foundation of Powell’s collection. Following her intuition enabled the themes of the collection to develop organically and helped her to discover that she was “naturally drawn to abstract and figurative paintings.” This realization has led to adding the works of artists such as Soumya Netrabile, Hormazd Narielwalla, Clara Adolphs, and Amy Beager to her evolving collection.

When exploring the term “collector,” Powell puts emphasis on the responsibilities attached to the term, rather than the status. “At what stage do you call yourself a collector? There are all of these different associations with that word,” she said. “I teach a lot at Christie’s Education, and I’m constantly encouraging people not to cling onto that word, but to think about the responsibilities that surround that role. I’m constantly preaching about the practicalities of collecting like being conscious of things like long-term preservation.”

Millie Jason Foster

Director, Gillian Jason Gallery

London

Walking through London’s Soho district, it’s hard to miss Gillian Jason Gallery’s storefront, which is adorned with large windows populated by bright and bold artworks of female and nonbinary artists. It is also home to a familial venture that led to Millie Jason Foster’s first introduction to art collecting. “I really started building my collection when my mother, Ellie, and I decided to take on my grandmother’s gallery and solely [champion] the artworks of women,” said Jason Foster, who is a director at the gallery. Growing up, she witnessed her grandmother, Gillian Foster, who founded the gallery in 1982, spotlighting “brilliant women at a time where female artists really were not being championed,” Jason Foster said.

Today, the gallery’s portfolio includes artists such as Milan Young, Bethany Hadfield, Savannah Marie Harris, and Elisabeth Frink. The family matriarch not only helped to spark Jason Foster’s interest in art at a young age but also shaped her artistic taste and how she views her collection as a whole.

Venus, Apollo, and Hurdles, 2022
Milan Young
Gillian Jason Gallery

“I’m very much drawn to original works on canvas, oil, and acrylic on canvas,” she said. “I don’t necessarily have a particular medium. I have clients and friends who say, ‘Well, how do you decide what goes in your collection? Does one piece fit with another?’ And I always say to them that collecting is like building a wardrobe. You have amazing statement pieces that you buy because you think they’re brilliant. But when you put everything together it’s still in essence of you and what your tastes are.”

Jason Foster approaches her collection from both an academic and a personal angle. With a background in investment banking, she is interested in art as an alternative asset, but doesn’t imply art is merely a financial transaction—it’s also a social transaction and personal investment, she noted.

“I have a lot of friends in corporate jobs who [ask], ‘How can I give back socially?’” she said. The answer? Support artists, especially up-and-coming female artists: “I always think about it from a personal perspective. Do I love the piece of art? Do I want to look at it on my wall every day?”

For Jason Foster, the joy of collecting comes from purchasing pieces and then witnessing the progression of the artist’s career over time. It’s an approach to collecting that encompasses the very ethos and mission of her family’s gallery.

Malcolm Jenkins

Entrepreneur, Executive Producer, Philanthropist, Racial Justice Advocate, Retired 2x Super Bowl Champion, 3x Pro-Bowler

Philadelphia

Singer, c. 1966,
Ernie Eugene Barnes
Hindman

Last year, retired professional football player Malcolm Jenkins added another title to his long list of achievements: art collector. He is proving himself to be a quick learner. “I love to learn, and it’s always been something that I’ve been passionate about,” he told Artsy. “For me, it’s just like I’ve been working on these things subconsciously for some years. And now it’s just about putting some structure and education around it, and moving with intention.”

Before embarking on his career as an art collector, Jenkins had an impressive career as a professional football player. He played 13 seasons in the NFL as a safety, and helped both the New Orleans Saints and the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl.

The seed for Jenkins’s love of art was planted in childhood. “I grew up around my aunt who was an artist. I grew up seeing her art and collecting,” he said. Following his retirement from the NFL, Jenkins’s career as an art collector quickly evolved after a 2022 trip to a Venice art studio. “I started to really see collecting seriously and wanted to understand art on a deeper level. I dove headfirst into that kind of space and saw so many different artists from around the world,” he recalled. “That exposure just really opened me up to collecting.”

Cycle of Life, 2023
Khari Turner
Ross-Sutton Gallery

Wanting to expand his art education and explore how to collect with passion, Jenkins began working with an art advisor who helped to shepherd him through the art world as he built his collection, expanding his art knowledge and connections along the way. “He’s been bringing me to all the [studio] rooms, and allowing me to meet others who have been teaching me [about the art world], which is the biggest part for me,” Jenkins said. While Jenkins has learned about the business side of the art world, which is often based on educational decisions and data, he never loses sight of the passion behind his collection and what drives him to select specific art pieces. “Ernie Barnes is the whole reason I even got into art,” Jenkins said. “His images are ones that have been seared in my brain since childhood. Finally getting [his work] in my collection, I was elated!”

Jenkins also highlighted artist Khari Turner. “I love his work because he’s infusing water from different places in the country that are historically linked to African ancestry, and literally infusing it with the ink on the canvas,” he said.

As Jenkins spoke of these artists, he noted that the emotional investment in these artists outweighs the financial investment. Meeting the artists and networking is “the fun part”: “I’ve seen it work where a prominent collector will attach to certain artists, and that ecosystem raises that artists’ profile. I think that’s important, especially when it comes to Black artists and Black art collectors,” he said. “I’d like to make connections with artists as they’re emerging because I get to see their careers develop and take that journey with them.”

Laurence Milstein

Co-Founder, PRZM; Trustee, Parrish Art Museum; Vice-Chair, Frick Young Fellows Committee

New York

Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1883–1884
John Singer Sargent
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Laurence Milstein wears his passion for art on his sleeve. “Authors are often encouraged to write the books they want to read. I think something similar can be said about collecting—support the art you want to see in the world,” he told Artsy.

This sentiment has helped shape Milstein’s art collection. “The focus of my collection is around queer contemporary artists,” he said. “As a young collector, I’ve tried to use whatever small influence I may possess to support voices that historically have been minimized, both in the art world and society at large. I believe in living with art that brings joy or invites reflection—and building a home filled with queer artistic expression feels like an extension of this mission.”

Milstein’s passion for art is rooted in his childhood. “Growing up, my mom would—on special occasions—allow me to cut class and go with her to the [Metropolitan Museum of Art] simply to explore various wings of the museum,” he recalled. “I was always fascinated by John Singer Sargent’s Madame X and his then-controversial choice to paint—and later repaint—the sitter’s dress strap slipping off her shoulder.”

Reclining Nude (Babacar Mané), 2022
Kehinde Wiley
Templon

Milstein’s enthusiasm for art has also been vital in helping him jump over the hurdle of ageism that he says he has faced in the art world. “One learning curve has been demonstrating the seriousness of my collecting efforts despite perceptions around age,” he said. “I’ve found that speaking to the authenticity of purpose can be a strong way to signal passion—emphasizing how each piece is being collected to be loved and displayed, not to be carted away.”

As well as co-founding the Gen Z consultancy PRZM, Milstein is also a vice-chair of the Frick Young Fellows Committee, where he helps govern a dynamic group of supporters between the ages of 21 and 45 who receive access to the Frick Collection. His perseverance has proven to be one of his collection’s biggest assets, having helped him secure works by artists like Kehinde Wiley, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Derrick Adams.

Raphaël Isvy

Collector and Curator

Paris

Raphaël Isvy may have begun actively collecting art in early 2016, but he has “always been obsessed” by the concept of collecting, from Pokémon cards to sneakers.

“Art was the ultimate goal of my collecting journey,” the collector and curator told Artsy. Developing his artistic taste was easy in Paris: “Living in a city like Paris…that’s an open museum full of culture [that] has trained my eye to like nice cultural things!” he said.

After a 10-year career in finance and asset management, Isvy decided to put his passion for art in the driver’s seat. “Art was a side passion at the beginning. But I quickly understood that to improve my chances to get the best paintings, I needed to build a strong network and to be everywhere: fairs, shows, studio visits, and dinners,” he said.

Troll, 2021
Robin F. Williams
P.P.O.W

With You I Want To Live, 2007
Tracey Emin
Phillips

“When you start building a solid network of collectors, galleries, and artists, you quickly figure that time is the most important value in the art world,” Isvy continued. “At some point, it was nearly impossible to combine both worlds, in addition to [my] growing family. Last November, I decided to quit everything and fully focus on art: collecting, dealing, curating, and finding artists for some galleries I work with.”

Isvy’s efforts and career change have proven to be valuable to the expansion of his collection. His vast collection of 150 pieces includes works by George Condo, Tracey Emin, Robin F. Williams, and Robert Nava.

While his passion for art is the driving force behind his collection, Isvy’s journey as a collector hasn’t consisted of a few learning curves. “If collecting was simple, it wouldn’t be a niche,” he said. He noted that having access to work by in-demand artists can be a challenge. It is also important to “find [works that are] both representative of the artist and of your taste,” he said, and how to determine a balance in terms of “style, medium, colors, artist gender, years, and movement” across one’s collection.

“All those things are hard to master, and you need to make mistakes to understand, improve yourself, and be better at collecting,” he added.

Sophia Cohen

Associate Director, Gagosian; Chair, Guggenheim Young Collectors Council; Steering Committee, Milken Institute

New York and Los Angeles

Sophie, 2021
Anna Weyant
Unit London

It’s no surprise that Sophia Cohen was drawn to art at a young age. Growing up as the daughter of prominent art collector Steve Cohen, she developed a keen eye for art that grew organically. “I developed an urge [to buy art] and I bought what I could afford. I remember I started when I was 13,” she told Artsy.

“I bought a $500 small canvas with my allowance,” she said. “I think growing up with objects created a mindset for me that I wanted to be surrounded by objects. The excitement of building something of my own, creating my own narrative with my collection, was just too enticing.” Today, Cohen’s collection includes works by Anna Park, Anna Weyant, Rashid Johnson, and Jonas Wood.

Growing up, Cohen found herself “pushing back against art a bit,” she said. “When I got my undergraduate degree, I studied archeology. I was a working archaeologist before I actually started my art career. It was a really beautiful and innocent way for me to approach art because I was able to [study] it from a basic human object standpoint, and then from there navigate to where I wanted to be in the art world.”

Oh Glory!, 2022
Anna Park
Blum & Poe

Through her studies, Cohen noticed the overlaps between the art world and archeology: “When I got my masters in art, I wrote my thesis on Michael Heizer. [His] father was an archaeologist, and my paper [focused on] how archaeology influenced his art practice and land art,” she said.

Archeology gave Cohen a greater appreciation for the materials that help create various pieces of art and the tactile elements of those materials. It has influenced how she treats “objects and the people behind them, and being thoughtful about that,” she explained. The experiences Cohen gained during her academic and archaeology careers led to her position as associate director at Gagosian, where she works today.

Huma Kabakci

Independent Curator, Cultural Producer, and Second-Generation Collector

London

Huma Kabakci’s collection represents the talent and narratives of countless artists and illustrates the story and timeline of her family lineage. “I didn’t begin the collection; my late father did in the 1980s,” she told Artsy. “He had a gallery in central Istanbul. I remember spending a lot of time in his gallery and artist studios. I was very curious from the start to learn more and to make sense of my dad’s passion.”

In her mission to better understand the passion behind her father’s collection, the curator and cultural producer immersed herself in books about curation and art as a young adult. “I then wanted to know more about art, history, and the history of collecting, but also the future of collecting and collection management,” Kabakci said. While studying advertising and marketing in London, she landed a gallery internship at age 18. It was during this time that she was “exposed to a lot of great artists before they became great, like Ai Weiwei, Kader Attia, and Susan Hefuna,” she said.

Hefuna’s work struck a particular chord with Kabakci. “She’s an Egyptian artist living in Germany, so I was so excited to share all of these artists with my dad,” she said. “We found [older, rare work] by Susan Hafuna. That was our first purchase together.”

Triton Octopus, 1953
Fahr-El-Nissa Zeid
Istanbul Modern

After her father’s death, Kabakci inherited his collection at the age of 19. Wanting to make educated and conscious choices to preserve and expand the collection, she went on to complete an MA program in curating contemporary art. Today, Kabakci’s collection features nearly 800 works of art by artists such as Hefuna, Moataz Nasr, Ardan Özmenoğlu, and Fahr-El Nissa Zeid.

Kabakci’s father believed a collection should be “intergenerational [for at least] four generations,” likening it to a relay race. “I agree [to an] extent that it has to be a living, breathing collection and it changes,” she said. “But at the same time, that’s a lot of pressure for the next generation.”

Kabacki has since added her own signature to her family collection by researching, reading, and meeting other second-generation collectors. “I was recently invited to a residency in Italy and Galatina and I met inspirational thinkers, curators, artists, but also second-generation collectors. They were there just to engage in inspiring conversations, and inspire the next generation of collectors.”

Amar Singh

Human Rights Activist, Arts Patron, and Entrepreneur

London

For Winter Warmth, 1986
Lynne Drexler
Karma

Amar Singh is determined to shift the landscape of the art world. “The top 20 most expensive works in the world are all by white men,” he told Artsy. “That gives you a view into the landscape of the world we live in. There are remarkable painters, who are gay, who are lesbian, who are female, who are Black females, but they just haven’t been included in the conversation.”

The human rights activist and art patron realized there was “a lot of gatekeeping within the art world,” he said. “It has to be shattered down. As a human rights activist, as a collector, and [an] art patron, I built my collection to highlight the works of overlooked communities and artists.” Singh has built an impressive collection that includes the works of female, LGBTQ+, and minority artists who are often excluded from the mainstream art world. The London-based art dealer also supports underrepresented artists through his gallery, Amar Singh Gallery, and philanthropic efforts.

The Window, 1964
Yvonne Thomas
Berry Campbell Gallery

In 2021, Singh partnered with Christie’s in a sale of six works, where part of the proceeds went to Vital Voices, a women’s rights foundation. The sale generated over $1.2 million and consisted of works by Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Yvonne Thomas, and Lynne Drexler.

Singh highlights Drexler as an example of a female artist who has long been overdue credit for her contributions to the art world. “In 2017, a work on paper by Lynne Drexler cost a few hundred dollars, that’s it,” he said. “That literally is the definition of being overlooked. This has drastically changed in a short period of time.” Nowadays, works by Drexler consistently fetch six-figure sums at auction.

“With all of this comes a whole new wave of culture,” said Singh. “This is the point people are missing. It’s not just about collections. We have our first man of color, who is Indian, as the prime minister of the United Kingdom. The U.K. now celebrates Diwali in a way it never had before because he is Indian. We’re seeing the cultural shifts and impacts.”

Joseph Awuah-Darko

Director, Noldor Artist Residency

Accra, Ghana

Water So Blue: Follow The Leader, 2021
Modupeola Fadugba
Gallery 1957

Joseph Awuah-Darko’s vast experience as a collector is evident in his statements and convictions. “Any collector knows that there is no such thing as a spontaneous decision,” he told Artsy. “More often than not, it is a decision where you have to consider a number of different factors.”

It could be said that community and mentorship are the core of Awuah-Darko’s collection. “It unfolded very organically. This journey began through my obsession with studio visits. I was building these organic friendships with artists and being introduced to their work, being introduced to contemporary African art,” he said. It was through these casual introductions that Awuah-Darko began to “nurture and acquire emerging artists continent in a meaningful way.”

One artist who has been a pillar of Awuah-Darko’s collection is Modupeola Fadugba, a self-taught Nigerian multimedia artist. “She was one of the first artists I ever acquired. She has really been one of the artists I’ve looked to,” he said. “Her mixed-media medium has inspired the way I collect.”

Golden Huddle, 2022
Modupeola Fadugba
Gallery 1957

Within the art community, Awuah-Darko also found mentorship in fellow collector Shane Ackroyd. “I really look up to Shane,” he said. “He is someone who is very focused in his convictions about the types of artists he supports. And I think for me, I’ve learned I’ve similar convictions about making those studio visits and getting to personally know the artists.”

The community and mentorship he gained within the art community inspired him to found the Noldor Artist Residency, Ghana’s first independent artist residency and fellowship program for contemporary African artists. “The Noldor Artist Residency is an annual four-week program inviting an emerging African artist with limited access to resources to expand on [their] practice in a dedicated studio space and retreat in Accra, Ghana.”

His journey of collecting, community, and mentorship has strengthened Awuah-Darko’s intuition, a tool he leans on when deciding what pieces to add to his growing collection. “The final decision should be down to your own internal convictions about an artist’s work, and should not be a borrowed belief in an artist,” he advised.

Sylvia Wang

Head of Asia, TRLab

Hong Kong

Impromptu No. 5, 2014
Cai Guo-Qiang 蔡国强
Fundación Proa

Sylvia Wang attributes a visit to Art Basel in Hong Kong in 2017 as the beginning of her art collecting career. “I’ve always adored innovative creations in fashion, design, and other aesthetic approaches,” she told Artsy. “The decision to start art [collecting] was also inspired by the strong boom of contemporary art and the increasingly mature market in Asia.”

As the Head of Asia at NFT platform TRLab, Wang has witnessed this boom of contemporary art and the changing landscape of the Asian art market firsthand. She credits her studies at the University of Hong Kong for shaping the theme and direction of her collection.

“I majored in international relations [at the University of Hong Kong], and that’s why I’ve always been fascinated by artworks discussing geopolitics, which is also one of my collection’s directions,” she said.

Wang fuses modern technology and her academic background to create the backbone of her collection and its expansion. She turns to modern art platforms to source the latest information about the art industry, which in turn helps to forge the path forward for her collection’s future. She also leans on art history as a continual source of influence. “Art history is always the foundation for collectors to trace back and look ahead,” she said. “Whenever you have doubts, think about whether the work’s prominent or pioneering enough to be recorded in art history in 10–20 years.”

As a collector, exploring platforms like Artsy has enabled Wang to draw inspiration from artists such as Cai Guo-Qiang: “I always admire Cai Guo-Qiang’s exploration through various mediums including drawing, installation, performance, and of course, the most famous ‘Gunpowder Drawings,’” she said. “It also encourages me to appreciate new forms of art.”

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