9 Artists Who Shaped Korea’s Dansaekhwa Movement https://ift.tt/2i7hgnd

Blue-Umber ‘76, 1976
Yun Hyong-keun
PKM Gallery

In mid-20th-century South Korea, amid the economic hardship and political repression that followed the Korean War, a vanguard of abstract artists forged a radical new visual language. Pushing back against rigid, state-sanctioned academic realism and breaking decisively from centuries of traditional fine-art ink painting, these artists sought an art form untethered from past conventions.

The Korean art critic Lee Yil curated a selection of their works into a groundbreaking group show at Tokyo Gallery in 1975; he coined the term Dansaekhwa in 1980 to define these nonfigurative works executed in understated, neutral hues.

Though the term translates to “monochrome painting,” the label is a misnomer. Dansaekhwa was never about the passive application of a single color. Rather than treating the canvas as a flat window for representation, these artists rejected Western compositional logic altogether, elevating process over final result and prioritizing physical labor as a form of spiritual meditation.

Through disciplined repetition—dragging gouges through wet paint, soaking and tearing traditional Hanji paper, or squeezing pigment through coarse hemp from behind, for example—they rendered the physical surface an arena of endurance and material transformation.

Meditation 91007, 1991
Chung Chang-Sup
Axel Vervoordt Gallery

Over the past decade, a surge of international retrospectives, such as the 2015 “Dansaekhwa” exhibition at the 56th Venice Biennale (curated by art historian Yongwoo Lee) and major market interest, have cemented Dansaekhwa as one of modern art history’s vital movements. This November, Phaidon will publish Dansaekhwa: Korean Abstract Art and Its Cultural Impact as well.

As the international art world recalibrates following another bustling edition of Frieze Seoul, global attention remains fixed on South Korea’s rich modern art legacy. Driven by landmark gallery retrospectives and major international surveys, from Venice to San Francisco and Seoul, Dansaekhwa continues to stand out as the defining cornerstone of Korean abstraction.

The following nine artists offer essential entry points to the movement.

Kim Whanki

B. 1913, Kijwa-do, Korea. D. 1974.

26-I-70, 1970
Kim Whanki
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

Heaven and Earth 24-IX-73 #320, 1973
Kim Whanki
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art

Pioneering modernist painter Kim Whanki is revered as the foundational precursor to Dansaekhwa. He was active between Seoul, Paris, and New York throughout his long and transformative career. Kim primarily worked on monumental oil canvases, filling his expansive surfaces with tens of thousands of small blue dots enclosed within tight, hand-drawn square grids. These sweeping abstract compositions, rendered in translucent washes of indigo, navy, and oceanic teal, evoke vast starry night skies or shimmering water as they bridge traditional Korean nature motifs (mountains, moon jars, and sky painting specifically) with Western modernism. The watery, ink-like transparency of his oil pigment creates a deeply atmospheric, meditative depth that immediately sets his work apart from American field painters.

By translating spiritual harmony into systematic markmaking, Kim laid the ideological groundwork for the generation of Korean abstract artists that followed. Today, the artist holds an unrivaled position at the apex of the Korean art market, setting a historic auction record in 2019 when his painting 05-IV-71 #200 (Universe) (1971) sold for over $10 million and became the most expensive artwork ever by a Korean artist. His monumental legacy is preserved at the dedicated Whanki Museum in Seoul, while key works anchor the permanent collections of major institutions such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea, and the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art.

Kwon Young-Woo

B. 1926, Riwon, Korea. D. 2013

Kwon Young-Woo was a Paris- and Seoul-based master who abandoned traditional ink brushes early in his career and worked with paper as a sculptural medium. Kwon used his fingers, fingernails, wooden tools, and scratch awls to tear, puncture, scratch, and layer multiple sheets of white hanji paper. His medium-to-large-scale monochromatic compositions feature rhythmic, torn incisions and subtle three-dimensional relief, occasionally accented by soft blurs of blue or dark ink seeping through from the reverse side. The resulting works resemble delicate, highly tactile topographies; the physical destruction of the paper becomes the generative act of creation.

Kwon forced a radical reevaluation of paper’s role in Korean and broader East Asian art history, bringing it into a modern context. His work was featured in the benchmark survey exhibition “Dansaekhwa” at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. Today, his tactile paper compositions are preserved in the permanent collections of major global institutions, including the MMCA in Seoul, the British Museum in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Chung Chang-Sup

B. 1927, Cheongju, Korea. D. 2011

Seoul-based painter and longtime academic Chung Chang-Sup spent decades investigating the raw, organic possibilities of tak, the natural mulberry bark fiber used to craft traditional Korean Hanji paper. Foregoing conventional oil paint, Chung soaked raw mulberry fibers in water, kneaded the wet pulp by hand, and pressed it directly onto large canvas stretchers. As the pulp dried, it formed surface cracks, fibrous ridges, and subtle folds that revealed the medium’s organic origins. His finished works present thick, sculptural surfaces in muted, earthy monochromatic tones of ivory, warm tan, charcoal, and slate gray. They often feature squares and rectilinear shapes embedded in their centers.

Chung viewed his labor-intensive process as unifying his own breath and physical effort with the natural material. His tactile approach to material heritage gained global prominence when he was featured in the historic collateral exhibition Dansaekhwa at the Palazzo Contarini-Polignac during the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. His works are now held in renowned international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Korea, the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, and M+ in Hong Kong.

Yun Hyoung-Keun

B. 1928, Cheongju, Korea. D. 2007

Yun Hyoung-Keun was a Seoul-based artist who produced some of the most emotionally resonant and understated works of the Dansaekhwa movement. Working on large, unprimed linen and raw cotton canvases, Yun applied wide, vertical bands of dark, heavily diluted oil paint using a signature mixture of burnt umber and ultramarine pigment. These towering dark pillars feature soft, feathery borders where the watery paint bleeds naturally into the untreated fabric, creating deep, gate-like architectural voids of near-black alongside raw cloth.

The resulting paintings feel monumental yet remarkably quiet, visually echoing the natural bleeding of traditional ink wash on absorbent paper. Informed by personal trauma during Korea’s post-war political turmoil (he went to prison and was nearly executed for participating in student movements), Yun’s work treated canvas as an acoustic chamber for grief and restraint.

His international stature was solidified by a landmark posthumous solo retrospective at Palazzo Fortuny during the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. His market momentum continues this September with a solo exhibition at PKM Gallery in Seoul, accompanying the historic restoration and public opening of his longtime residence and studio in the city. New York’s Judd Foundation will also open a solo show of his work on October 8th. Yun’s oeuvre is represented in major permanent collections worldwide, including the MMCA in Korea, Glenstone in Maryland, and Tate Britain.

Park Seo-Bo

B. 1931, Korea. D. 2023

Park Seo-Bo is recognized as the father of Dansaekhwa. He served as the movement’s theorist and organizing force, championing Korean art from his perch in Seoul until his passing. He is most famous for his lifelong “Écriture” series (1972–2023): In the 1980s, Park developed a technique of soaking sheets of traditional Hanji (mulberry paper) for weeks, layering it onto canvas, and pushing the wet pulp with his fingers, sticks, and rulers to build abstract, sculptural ridges, often referred to as Hanji “mountains.”

The artist’s early palette was restricted to unbleached white, inspired by the translucent purity of Korean Joseon porcelain, and deep matte black, recalling the soot lining traditional Korean kitchen hearths. Beginning in the early 2000s, Park introduced luminous hues drawn directly from nature, naming specific shades such as Maple Leaf Red, Canola Yellow, and Sky Gray.

Park saw this relentless, daily repetition as an exercise in self-erasure and spiritual healing for both the artist and the viewer. Seoul’s Kukje Gallery is currently celebrating his legacy with a retrospective that remains on view through October 18th. His footprint continues to expand with the recent opening of the Park Seo-Bo Memorial Museum in Seoul, alongside key acquisitions by prestigious institutions like Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Chung Sang-Hwa

B. 1932, Korea. D. 2025

Untitled 019-5-2, 2019
Chung Sang Hwa
Gallery Hyundai

Chung Sang-Hwa, who worked between Paris, Japan, and South Korea, was an internationally celebrated artist who approached painting as a labor-intensive ritual of construction and deconstruction. He coated large canvases with a thick mixture of kaolin clay and acrylic paste, let them dry, then methodically folded them into tight, uniform grid patterns. The rigid surfaces cracked, clay peeled away, and the artist refilled the empty geometric voids with oil paint.

Repeating this painstaking cycle dozens of times produced subtle, mosaic-like surfaces of off-whites, grays, or muted blues with intricate textural depth. Up close, Chung’s canvases reveal a complex relief of tile-like fragments that catch ambient room light. In 2021, Seoul’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) honored the artist with a sweeping solo retrospective. His works are permanently housed in major institutional collections across the globe, including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., M+ in Hong Kong, and the MMCA in Korea.

Ha Chong-Hyun

B. 1935, Korea.

Conjunction 23-67, 2023
Ha Chong-hyun
Tina Kim Gallery

Seoul-based master Ha Chong-Hyun has revolutionized the physical mechanics of canvas painting through his long-running “Conjunction” series. The artist eschews traditional front-facing brushwork, instead applying thick, muted oil paint in shades of taupe, dark ocher, rust brown, and charcoal to the back of coarse burlap or hemp fabric. Using significant physical force, he squeezes the viscous pigment forward through the open weave of the fabric until it oozes out the front, where he scrapes, smears, or shapes the paint using trowels and palette knives. The final works feature heavy, sculptural impasto trails protruding from rough, unpainted burlap.

Ha’s unconventional technique turned painting inside out, transforming coarse industrial sacking into a tactile battlefield. His work reached milestone prominence in 2022, when Kukje Art and Culture Foundation organized a solo show at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa as an official Collateral Event at the 59th Venice Biennale.

On September 25th, the artist will open a major presentation at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco: his first-ever North American retrospective. His pieces form an integral part of major permanent collections around the world, including MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Lee Ufan

B. 1936, Kyongnam, South Korea.

From Line, 1974
Lee Ufan
Upsilon Gallery

Lee Ufan is an internationally renowned painter, sculptor, and philosopher who splits his practice between Japan, France, and South Korea. Lee occupies a unique position in art history: while recognized as the key theoretical architect of Japan’s Mono-ha (School of Things) movement in the late 1960s, he simultaneously served as a vital international bridge for Dansaekhwa. Though scholars debate the artist’s exact categorization—his “Relatum” series of spare sculptures align with Mono-ha’s prioritization of physical, unmediated interactions between raw industrial materials and natural objects, while his rhythmic paintings share more with Dansaekhwa—Lee’s practice links both movements via a philosophical commitment to restraint and material dialogue.

To make his famous “From Point and From Line” series, Lee holds his breath for up to two minutes, synchronizing his body with his brushwork: His deliberate strokes of mineral pigment fade systematically across bare canvas.

Lee remains the most commercially successful living Korean artist, with benchmark works like East Winds (1984) achieving over 3.1 billion won ($2.7 million) at auction in 2021. His institutional footprint is secured by dedicated foundation spaces in Naoshima, Japan, Arles, France, and Busan, high-profile site-specific commissions at the Château de Versailles and the Hirshhorn Museum, and a retrospective organized by the Dia Art Foundation at SMAC Venice as an official Collateral Event of the 61st Venice Biennale this past year.

Lee Dong-Youb

B. 1946. D. 2013

Interspace, 2008
Lee Dong-Youb
The Columns Gallery

Interspace, 1980
Lee Dong-Youb
The Columns Gallery

Lee Dong-Youb represents the younger wave of artists associated with Dansaekhwa's initial push; he was included in Lee Yil’s seminal 1975 exhibition “Korea: Five Artists, Five Hinsek ‘White’” in Tokyo. The Seoul-based artist studied under Lee Ufan and was celebrated for his radically spare visual language. Lee’s signature “In-Between” series consists of expansive canvases covered in ultra-thin, translucent layers of pale white and soft gray paint. Applied with broad, whisper-light brushstrokes, his quiet gradations of tone leave vast, cloud-like central spaces that evoke open sky, architectural light, and infinite silence. The subtle shifts between pale pigment and bare canvas are so delicate that they require slow, contemplative viewing to register.

By stripping painting down to its most minimal atmospheric presence, Lee pushed monochrome abstraction to its logical extreme. The artist launched into prominence after winning the Grand Prize at the 1972 Seoul National Exhibition, establishing the second-generation trajectory of Korean monochrome abstraction. Today, his understated works are held in premier museum collections, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Gwacheon, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT), and the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA).

Browse more artworks by Dansaekhwa masters on Artsy.

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All the Art You Need to See During Armory Week 2026 https://ift.tt/N3aRBzv

Each September in New York after Labor Day, the art world returns from a much-needed summer break and dives headfirst into a bounty of gallery openings, art fairs, and major museum shows. This year, though, the city’s fall fairs—The Armory Show and Independent 20th Century—have shifted their dates back, gifting us a reprieve. Instead of cramming everything into one whirlwind week, the season’s newness unfolds across the month, with a little more headspace to take in all the art.

That doesn’t mean September has been quiet. The month has already brought several sprints of gallery openings and a few major museum shows, with some of the fall’s biggest exhibitions still on the horizon. Now, with fair week upon us, it’s the perfect moment to catch up: hit the fairs, pop by galleries, and see what’s newly opened across the city. While you’re at it, it’s the perfect time to make a res at one of the city’s new art-forward restaurants, which we rounded up here. Nearly all are close to the venues listed below.

We’ve spent the past few weeks making the rounds. Here’s our 10-stop guide to the art to see during Armory Week 2026.

1. The Armory Show

Sep. 24–27 | Javits Center, 429 11th Ave | Hudson Yards

The Armory Show returns with its usual mix of international galleries, small and large, plus curated sections that keep things interesting (around 230 exhibitors are taking part this year). I suggest starting with Presents, the section for younger galleries, and Solo, with its single-artist presentations ranging from historical 20th-century names to emerging talents. Both Focus, curated by María Elena Ortiz, and Platform, dedicated to large-scale works, spotlight artists of the Caribbean and its diaspora.

The fair is doing plenty of programming, including Armory Live, a multiday series of talks, many featuring artists. And new this year is Armory After Hours, an evening event on Friday, September 25th, from 7 to 9 p.m., where you can explore the fair and experience a processional performance inspired by Caribbean carnival led by DJ and creative producer Adam “Foreigner” Cooper.

2. Independent 20th Century

Sep. 24–27 | The Breuer, 945 Madison Ave | Upper East Side

NYC 1920’s, 1989
Frank Diaz Escalet
Hollis Taggart

Independent 20th Century moves uptown this year to perhaps its most fitting venue yet: the Breuer building, now Sotheby’s headquarters. It’s an apt setting for the fair, which is less concerned with the century’s known quantities than its lesser-known artists and artworks. Several presentations even revisit artists who once showed in the building during its years as the Whitney, the Met Breuer, and the Frick. This edition brings 57 exhibitors, most presenting solo or two-person shows.

Highlights include the Andy Warhol Foundation’s presentation of the artist’s little-known homoerotic drawings; and several galleries will spotlight women of Abstract Expressionism, including Olney Gleason, Berry Campbell, and Bueno & Co.

3. The Guggenheim

1071 Fifth Ave | Upper East Side

The Guggenheim just opened a major new show: Taryn Simon’s “Father Country I Do Love You,” which takes over the entire rotunda. Nearly a decade in the making, the show spans 42 works, including photography, video, sculpture, and many, many stories, built around the real life of an unnamed federal agent—whose career touched everything from fingerprinting Jodie Foster to 9/11. Simon shares stories from his time on the job and connects them with bigger questions of power and politics. The show is on view through March 14, 2027.

While uptown, I recommend a quick stop at some nearby galleries: Danh Vō at White Cube, Thea Djordjadze at Sprüth Magers, and Bea Scaccia at Gagosian (which opens September 22nd).

4. Chelsea Gallery Shows

Chelsea

Before or after Armory, head south to take in Chelsea’s standout shows. Three I would recommend are:

• Anthony McCall at Sean Kelly: You have to experience McCall’s light installations in person to begin to understand their magic. The show spans his landmark early work, Line Describing a Cone (1973), through to a new installation.
• Sara Anstis at Olney Gleason: Anstis’s tiny, intricate pastels are oh so delectable. She draws on mythology, medieval imagery, folklore, and Old Master painting, but the works are inarguably entirely her own—filled with mysterious ladies, skinny dogs, and dreamlike scenarios.
• Eric N. Mack at Paula Cooper: In “You Red the Shirt Off My Back,” Mack presents fabric-based installations and sculptures that translate the language of painting into three dimensions, while also bringing art and fashion into conversation.

5. Tribeca Gallery Shows

Tribeca

No New York art week is complete without a trip to Tribeca, arguably the city’s most interesting gallery hub. Here are three shows worth stopping by:

• Melissa Joseph at Charles Moffett: “Casserole Culture” brings together 15 new works exemplifying Joseph’s mesmerizing capacity to “paint” with wool. Ranging from small sculptures with found objects to massive needle-felted paintings, the works delve into the artist’s personal experiences, family, and upbringing.
• Edith Dekyndt at Marian Goodman: “Notes on What Is What,” her first show since joining the gallery’s roster, incorporates video, installations, and drawing to explore and surface imperceptible elements of the everyday.
• Emma McIntyre at David Zwirner Tribeca: McIntyre’s new paintings and works on paper combine oil and oxidized iron, displaying her mastery of balancing control and spontaneity.

6. MoMA PS1 + Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair

Sep. 24–27 | 22-25 Jackson Ave | Long Island City, Queens

It’s an ideal time to get yourself to MoMA PS1. The museum is opening a new show of Teresa Margolles on September 24th, while Precious Okoyomon’s living installation is still on view in the courtyard. Meanwhile, Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair takes place over the weekend. The beloved annual event returns with its plethora of books, zines, and other printed wares from independent publishers and small presses. You can buy tickets for opening night on Thursday, September 24th, from 7 to 10 p.m., or for a visit throughout the weekend (the fair runs through Sunday).

7. New Museum

235 Bowery | Lower East Side

The New Museum kicks off its fall season on September 24th with a full slate of new exhibitions. Leading the lineup is “Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony,” the first U.S. museum survey of the esteemed artist, taking over two floors of the museum with new pieces alongside signature works like Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016) and The White Album (2019). Alongside it is “Diego Marcon: Arrivederci, Piggies!,” marking the artist’s New York solo museum debut, and the group show “The Bowery: Devil’s Mile” reflecting on four centuries of art and visual culture of the mile-long thoroughfare where the museum is located.

8. Amant

315 Maujer St | East Williamsburg, Brooklyn

If you live in Brooklyn or you’re eager for an adventurous outing in the borough, I recommend a trip to East Williamsburg art foundation Amant. Two exhibitions have just opened: “Sentient Earth” is a group show bringing together artists tapping into the earth as a living, thinking being. Meanwhile, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy takes over another part of the space with “The Mud Room: Itinerant Artists, Folk Spectacles, and Painted Walls,” which presents a wonderfully theatrical ceramic studio.

While there, check out Zoli, Amant’s restaurant next door, which boasts great design, an excitingly unusual menu, and Pierre Huyghe aquariums behind the bar. And a couple of blocks away, pop by Carvalho—the gallery is showing a two-artist show of paintings by Alicja Biała and textile sculptures by Diana Orving.

9. ICP

84 Ludlow St | Lower East Side

If you need a break from fairs and galleries, head downtown to the photography institution ICP to catch the final weeks of two distinct and intriguing shows. “Yves Saint Laurent and Photography” traces the four-decade relationship between the designer and the camera, with works by Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and many more illustrious names. “Photobooks USA 2000–25” gathers more than 50 photo books from the last 25 years that trace salient themes and issues of American life, including race, migration, and labor.

On Thursdays, the museum hosts ICP Late Night and stays open until 8 p.m. with $5 admission. This week, on September 24th, photographer Landon Nordeman will be shooting Instax portraits outside on Ludlow and Broome Streets.

10. SPRING/BREAK Art Show

Sep. 24–28 | 555 West 57th Street | Hell’s Kitchen

The free-wheeling art fair SPRING/BREAK is taking place this year in midtown at the former offices of CBS News, with more than 120 presentations organized by independent curators and artists. Revolving around the theme of “Hide n Seek,” early highlights include a show inspired by making art with kids, curated by Todd Bienvenu and featuring works by artists like Julie Curtiss and Katherine Bradford, a video work by Half Gallery founder Bill Powers, a presentation of sculptures by Stuart Lantry curated by Shona McAndrew, and a presentation exploring the perils of AI on writing, co-curated by novelist Jennifer Egan.

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These Collectors Turned Family Tragedy into a Legacy of Supporting Artists and Cancer Patients https://ift.tt/JgyfDzB

Susan and Michael Hort are among New York’s most prolific collectors of emerging art. Over the decades, they’ve taken risks on countless artists, Marlene Dumas and Cindy Sherman among them. In the New York art world, the couple is synonymous with their Tribeca home, filled with wall-to-wall art by blue-chip names and little-known artists alike.

But before the Horts were fixtures of the city’s gallery circuit, they were the parents of an art-loving daughter, Rema Hort Mann. On Saturdays, Rema would regularly pull her parents around the city to exhibitions, an entourage of young artist friends in tow. “I remember saying to Michael, ‘Do you think we could have dinner alone on a Saturday night without Rema and her five friends?’” Susan Hort said with a laugh during a recent conversation.

Rema died of stomach cancer in 1995 at 30. In the wake of her death, her parents resolved to honor her life and founded the Rema Hort Mann Fund, a nonprofit organization with a two-pronged mission of supporting both cancer patients and the emerging artists Rema so championed in life. “It was very important that Rema’s name stay alive,” Susan said, “and let something good come out of her death.”

The fund quickly became a family affair. Their son Peter, one of the couple’s three surviving children, had become closely involved with the fund’s quality-of-life grants for cancer patients. Tragically, Peter, who was a lawyer and judge, died suddenly in 2022, at 51, of bile duct cancer. His wife, Jamie Cohen, stepped into his role.

This year, the Rema Hort Mann Fund is marking its 30th anniversary with a gala on October 28, 2026. In this milestone year, the Horts have added a new, third grant to the fund: the Artists Living with Cancer Grant. The grant, which merges the fund’s two longstanding missions into one, was inspired by this year’s gala honoree, celebrated contemporary artist Jacolby Satterwhite, who has lived with cancer and its complications since he was 11 years old. The artist is the recipient of inaugural Artists Living with Cancer Grant for $25,000, jointly funded by Rema Hort Mann Fund and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

A memory-fueled mission

The Rema Hort Mann Fund has centered its mission around two grants, the Peter Hort Quality of Life Grant and the Emerging Artist Grant.

The Quality of Life Grant supports people in cancer treatment, covering things like childcare, phone bills, travel, and housing. Its primary mission is to ensure that cancer patients are not alone during treatments and to strengthen their emotional support networks and financial resources.

The inspiration for this grant came from a friend of Rema’s who was battling brain cancer. The friend met the Horts for dinner and told them she was going to stop treatment.

“Her boyfriend had just left her. Her parents lived in the Northwest. She wanted one last good summer,” recalled Susan. “That’s where the idea for the grants came in. Maybe if her parents had been able to visit her and she had this connection, she would have fought. It’s very hard to fight when you’re alone.”

The grant, which has long been overseen by family friend and board member Dr. David Biro, offers unrestricted grants of up to $10,000 and has supported over 2,400 people battling cancer (recipients must be nominated by their hospital social worker). For this grant, it’s been important to the family for the fund to be fast-acting and responsive to immediate needs. “So people don’t have to wait,” said Susan.

The fund’s other grant, the Emerging Artist Grant, offers no-strings grants to burgeoning talents. Each year, over 100 artists receive a nomination-only invitation from dozens of accomplished arts professionals. Following a competitive selection process, an independent jury awards 10 recipients $12,500 each. One artist receives an additional $2,500 in honor of Peter Hort. Last year’s recipients include Taína Cruz, Daniel Castro, and Aiza Ahmed, among others.

For Susan and Michael Hort, the Emerging Artist Grants pay the greatest homage to Rema’s irrepressible passion for artists and her bohemian worldview.

“She was amazing,” said Michael simply. “She loved artists. She was always hanging out with them. She was also brilliant,” added Susan. Nicole Eisenman, for instance, attended Rema’s wedding to her husband Billy Mann, taking photographs of the couple as a gift.

Rema was a high-powered professional. She worked at a major accounting firm as a management consultant, then earned her master’s at The Wharton School—but she always maintained an independent streak.

“She was definitely more of a hippie than they wanted,” Susan recalled of Rema’s corporate job. “At one point they said to her, ‘If you want to be taken seriously as a woman, you have to cut your hair.’ She came to me and said, ‘What do I do?’ I said, ‘You want to cut your hair?’ So she left, and she went and worked for HBO in its infancy.”

These memories have fueled the couple’s drive to keep the fund a strong presence over the decades, sustaining it through auctions, year-end donations, and personal money during leaner years. “When we didn’t have quite enough money, my husband and I put in money to make sure the grants would be paid,” Susan noted.

Meeting the moment

This year’s new grant, the Artists Living with Cancer grant, merges the two longstanding pillars of the Rema Hort Mann Fund. The goal is to support artists so they can continue their practice while seeking treatment. The grant provides a one-time grant for selected visual artists suffering with cancer and living in the New York metropolitan area.

As with much of the Horts’ charitable work, the inspiration came through personal connection.

Susan had met Satterwhite years ago, at one of her own birthday parties, where he performed. “He had so much fun, he refused to charge me,” she recalled.

Satterwhite is best known for sprawling, maximalist video and performance works that blend 3D animation, personal family ephemera, and live movement. His practice has been shown at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney, and he was named to The Artsy Vanguard in 2019.

Soon after the birthday party, Carole Server, a board member of the fund, who knew Satterwhite personally, told Susan Hort about the artist’s battle with cancer and envisioned a way for the fund to support artists in similar positions.

“When she came to me, and I heard it, I said, ‘That’s perfect,’” Susan said. The grant “is more needed now than there ever was.”

The Horts have a history of supporting art world figures amid health struggles, particularly those who are uninsured. When their friend, the iconic New York dealer Pat Hearn, was diagnosed with liver cancer in 1997, she was denied treatment coverage. The Horts participated in the memorable “Emergency Sale” of artworks donated by artist friends, dealers, and collectors alike. In the New York Times, critic Roberta Smith detailed Hearn’s insurance struggles and the sale, an article that led her insurer, Oxford, to reconsider the claims. Sadly, Hearn passed away in 2000, at the age of 45.

The Horts believe artists’ need for health care support has only grown in the years since. “It’s more needed now than it ever was,” said Michael. “Health care is much more expensive and not only that, artists aren’t making as much.”

Since the grant was announced, the couple has heard from countless artists. “Everybody’s struggling right now. I have artists who are very successful and say to me, ‘This is the first time this show didn’t sell out,’” said Susan. “So if the very successful artists are having that experience, you can imagine what’s happening to the younger, not-quite-as-established artists.”

“I hope this grant creates a shift in the art world,” Satterwhite told the Art Newspaper earlier this year. “The art world can be very fickle and fleeting, but artists give their whole lives to their work. When serious illness interrupts that, there should be more space for care, dignity, and support."

An art world legacy and its future

Room for Demoiselle Two, 2019-2025
Jacolby Satterwhite
Kadel Willborn

Today, Susan and Michael’s art collection exceeds 5,000 works, spread across their Tribeca triplex and their New Jersey home.

For decades, the couple has collected by a mantra of buying early and buying deep. They were collectors of blue-chip artists like Peter Doig long before the market caught on. They hold sometimes over a dozen works by a single artist. “If I have one piece by an artist, I’m not really collecting that artist,” Susan said of their approach.

Now the couple is focusing on a new horizon—the future of the collection and the fund. “We realized we're getting older,” Susan said. The couple has begun handing day-to-day control to a new executive director, Elysia Borowy. Meanwhile, their daughter now sits on the board, and a growing bench of grandchildren have expressed interest in collecting art.

The next chapter of the collection is already under construction. The Horts are opening a pavilion with the nonprofit arts space Art Omi in upstate New York in 2027. The family is committing to two rotating shows a year, in a space that Art Omi will fund and staff, sparing their children the financial costs of a private museum.

In a full-circle moment, many of the artists the Horts collected in the early years of their careers are now donating work to this year’s gala benefit. Among them are Cristina BanBan, discovered in a small London gallery years before her market took off, Nicole Eisenman, whom the Horts began collecting in 1992, and Marlene Dumas.

Every dollar raised by the gala will go directly to supporting artists and patients. The board covers the fund’s operating costs out of pocket. For the Horts, the continuation of the fund for another 30 years is self-evident in its purpose. “We see it continuing, because there’s still a need,” said Susan.

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Time features Amy Sherald on the cover of its inaugural “Most Influential People in Art” issue. https://ift.tt/34x6XR0

Amy Sherald is the cover subject of Time’s newly launched Time100 Art list, photographed by Tyler Mitchell, who is himself named to the list. Time editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs noted in his letter to readers that it has been 50 years since a living painter appeared solo on the magazine's cover, since Robert Rauschenberg appeared in November 1976 .

He called the gap in attention to fine art’s influence part of the impetus for the inaugural list, which also recognizes collectors, museum leaders, gallerists, curators, and other figures shaping the field, “even more exciting to debut.” Time CEO Jessica Sibley said the list also recognizes people “ whose vision is expanding the possibilities of art and shaping the global conversation.”

The issue includes an accompanying profile of Sherald by Time editor at large Belinda Luscombe, tracing the artist’s practice and the trajectory that led to her best-known work, the official portrait of Michelle Obama commissioned by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in 2018. Sherald described color as central to her method, noting that she paints every canvas red before painting over it in the gray tones that define her portraits: “I consider the red kind of like the blood behind the figures there,” she said. “Color is my natural language. Using my voice is only the third best way that I communicate.”

The profile also traces her path to that commission, from a formative encounter with a painting by Bo Bartlett to the artist’s heart transplant at 39 and her artworks’ runaway auction prices, including The Bathers (2015), which sold for $4.26 million at Phillips in 2021.

The profile also revisits Sherald’s decision last year to withdraw her touring survey “American Sublime” from the National Portrait Gallery after Smithsonian officials expressed reservations about exhibiting Trans Forming Liberty (2024), a painting featuring a trans woman. “‘American Sublime’ has its own narrative,” Sherald said. “Deviating from that narrative would be deviating from the core person of who I am and why the work exists in the world, and I just wasn’t willing to do that.” The show was subsequently picked up by the Baltimore Museum of Art, where it broke attendance records.

The broader Time 100 Art list spans artists including Petra Collins, Simone Leigh, KAWS, JR, Banksy, David Hammons, Jenny Holzer, and El Anatsui; collectors and patrons such as Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz, Bernard Arnault, and Ronald Lauder; museum and institutional leaders including Max Hollein, Michael Govan, and Thelma Golden; and gallerists and market figures such as David Zwirner, Larry Gagosian, and Amy Cappellazzo.

Time will host the inaugural Time 100 Impact Dinner: Leaders Shaping the Future of Art on October 5th in New York, with appearances from list honorees including Keys, Swizz Beatz, and Lauder.

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Artist Cj Hendry’s collaboration with K-beauty brand Sulwhasoo now open at NY’s Brant Foundation. https://ift.tt/pG7R51r

Cj Hendry and Korean luxury beauty brand Sulwhasoo have unveiled Secret Garden, a collaborative installation on view at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Manhattan’s East Village through September 20th. Inspired by the hidden garden at The House of Sulwhasoo Bukchon, the brand’s flagship destination in Seoul, the installation is built from flat-pack wooden sculptures and puzzle-like forms that coalesce into a forest-like landscape visitors can walk through, draw on, and color. Sulwhasoo presents the project as part of their global “Beauty Crafted in Time” campaign, which marks 60 years of the brand’s research into ginseng.

Visitors receive a complimentary box of custom crayons to color the structures and make their own drawings within the installation. When heading out, visitors are given a co-branded tote containing a sample of Sulwhasoo’s Concentrated Ginseng Rejuvenating Cream, alongside limited-edition items Hendry designed for the partnership, available for purchase on-site. “Secret Garden is about taking something that begins as an individual piece and seeing how it becomes something much larger when everything comes together,” Hendry said in a statement. “I loved the idea of creating a garden that people could actually enter, explore and make their own through color and drawing.”

“Sulwhasoo has always believed that true beauty is crafted over time—shaped by care, intention, and the patience to allow something meaningful to unfold,” said Emily Coppock, Sulwhasoo’s U.S. General Manager, in a statement. She added that Hendry “felt like a natural partner,” calling her work’s ability “to transform time, precision, and process into something joyful and unexpected,” a fitting reflection of the anniversary campaign. Following its New York run, Secret Garden will travel to Seoul for a presentation from September 30th through October 8th.

The installation is the latest in a run of experiential projects the Australian, New York–based artist has staged across the city this year, including “Pastel,” an interactive bead-pit installation at Salon 94 Design in August, and her recurring Flower Market, which returns to Rockefeller Center’s Center Plaza September 24th through 27th.

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From Miuccia Prada to Jonathan Anderson, 10 Fashion Designers Who Collect Art https://ift.tt/u1lEXCo

With the exception of nature, art is arguably fashion’s most enduring source of inspiration. Throughout history, designers have turned to paintings, sculptures, weavings, and other media, whose prints and patterns, contours and compositions, are echoed in their garments.

The fruitful relationship between both creative fields has spawned several exhibitions this year alone. Most notable of them is The Met Costume Institute’s spring 2026 blockbuster, “Costume Art,” while other highlights include “Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art” at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and “Art X Fashion” at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Parallel to the surge of fashion exhibitions, cultural institutions have become draws for fashion brands to host their runway shows. Likewise, it seems each season brings a fresh handful of artist collaborations.

Art has undeniably become the ultimate cultural currency for fashion brands; however, for several designers, art has always played an integral role in their personal lives. Many notable names have filled their homes with exquisite objects that naturally mirror their eye for color and form. Several describe collecting as an “addiction,” whether it’s for blue-chip contemporary art or charming mementos encountered during travels.

Proving how art goes beyond the runway, the following designers take patronage to the next level. Some have made their collections public; others have deliberately used their platform to elevate undersung and up-and-coming talents. All have made their homes bespoke havens for visual inspiration through the works with which they choose to surround themselves.

Below, we spotlight 10 fashion visionaries whose love of art extends well beyond the runway.

Miuccia Prada

Miuccia Prada, 2017
Martin Schoeller
CAMERA WORK

Exhibition view featuring Alberto Burri, Plastica, 1962 and Alberto Burri, Plastica 8, 1963, 1962-1963
Alberto Burri
Fondazione Prada

Collecting has long been a serious enterprise for Miuccia Prada and her husband Patrizio Bertelli, who began purchasing art during the early 1990s.

With a predilection for the avant-garde, they became early collectors of works by Damien Hirst, Carsten Höller, and Anish Kapoor, while also being drawn to Italian artists, such as Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burri. In 2020, Prada told Numéro about the process of educating herself on art and eventually forming friendships with artists was rigorous yet rewarding: “Getting into a relationship with art is like starting one with an extremely intelligent person: it opens up new horizons for you.”

In 1993, Prada and Bertelli established PradaMilanoArte, which exhibited and published catalogues of contemporary art. Two years later, the project became Fondazione Prada, which now operates two venues in Milan (the famed Rem Koolhaas–designed flagship opened in 2015) and one in Venice. While the spaces feature works from Prada and Bertelli’s extensive collection (artists include Robert Gober, Louise Bourgeois, and Walter De Maria), their rich program frequently showcases loaned pieces. The foundation’s repertoire has expanded to encompass architecture, cinema, science, and technology.

Unsurprisingly, the fashion designer has collaborated with countless artists at Prada (the label’s co-creative director, Raf Simons, is also an avid art collector). Miu Miu, Prada’s sister label that is more geared toward the female gaze, has provided yet another outlet for the Italian entrepreneur to share her passion for the arts. In 2011, Miu Miu introduced the Miu Miu Women’s Tales short-film series, spotlighting female filmmakers and perspectives. Miu Miu has also been the official partner of the Art Basel Paris Public Program since 2024.

Dries Van Noten

One of this year’s buzziest openings was Fondazione Dries Van Noten in Venice, unveiled just in time for the city’s Biennale in May. After stepping down as creative director of his eponymous label in 2024, the Belgian designer diverted his attention to restoring Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a historic 15th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal, with his partner Patrick Vangheluwe.

“The Only True Protest is Beauty,” the foundation’s inaugural show, was curated by Van Noten and Geert Bruloot, who organized “The Antwerp Six,” the radical group of Belgian fashion designers, including Van Noten, that emerged during the 1980s. The show featured more than 200 objects, including archival Christian Lacroix and Comme des Garçons looks, alongside cutting-edge design works by Misha Kahn, poignant sculpture by Joyce J. Scott, macabre jewelry by Attilio Codognato, and dozens of curiosities rarely seen in prominent art and fashion spaces.

The intoxicating mix of work on view reflects Van Noten’s idiosyncratic taste, which has long guided his personal collection and designs for his namesake company. “The line in our collection is that there is no line,” Van Noten said in a 2026 video for BRAFA Art Fair, where the designer has sourced numerous objects, such as a pair of mid-17th-century bronze sculptures of Apollo and Mercury. A lover of antiques, Van Noten has also acquired many artworks and furnishings via auction, as well as in frequent travels across the globe.

Van Noten’s artistic influences on his fashion collections were equally diverse. Victor Vasarely, Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Elizabeth Peyton, and Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais have all served as inspiration, as have more niche international practices such as suminagashi, a traditional Japanese marbling technique. Japanese artist Azuma Makoto’s frozen floral arrangements melting on the runway made Van Noten’s spring/summer 2017 collection particularly memorable. Additionally, Van Noten introduced an impressive in-store gallery in the company’s Los Angeles boutique, which has staged shows by Dustin Yellin, Laila Gohar, Martin Creed, and Brian Rochefort, among others.

Marc Jacobs

During his tenure as creative director of Louis Vuitton from 1997–2013, Marc Jacobs catapulted fashion-art partnerships into the mainstream, thanks to iconic collaborations with artists like Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, and Yayoi Kusama. Jacobs has continued tapping artists he admires, such as Genieve Figgis, Rachel Feinstein, Marilyn Minter, Derrick Adams, and David Shrigley for his namesake label.

In recent years, he’s found a muse in Anna Weyant, who painted his portrait for the cover of Vanity Fair’s Style 2026 issue, published this August (the story coincides with Jacobs’s sale of Marc Jacobs International). Earlier this year, Jacobs commissioned Weyant to make paintings for his spring 2026 show. A few months prior, the duo collaborated on a two-day pop-up exhibition with The Cultivist and Capital One, in which they transformed Manhattan’s Academy Mansion into a life-size dollhouse. And in 2024, as guest editor for Vogue’s December 2024 issue, Jacobs invited Weyant to paint model Kaia Gerber as one of the issue’s alternate covers.

After moving to a Frank Lloyd Wright–designed house in Rye, New York, Jacobs sold the contents of his West Village townhouse at Sotheby’s in 2019. Assembled over nearly 20 years were artworks by Ed Ruscha, whom Jacobs called “the greatest living American artist,” John Currin, Peyton, Lisa Yuskavage, and Urs Fischer; important design works by François-Xavier Lalanne, Jean-Michel Frank, and Jean Dunand; as well as a trove of Boucheron jewels. Also featured were works by Karen Kilimnik and Mike Kelley, the first artists Jacobs collected.

In terms of filling his current home, the designer told Vogue in 2024, “I daydream about continuing to fill this reimagined interior with art, Arts and Crafts, Deco, Chinese and Japanese art, and Roman antiquities.”

Tory Burch

The collecting bug runs in Tory Burch’s family, but like her parents, acquiring art was a matter of style, not value. The designer, who was an art history major, told Gagosian Quarterly in 2025, “When I look at the art I have, it’s so eclectic—everything from Old Masters to Helen Frankenthaler, René Magritte, Peter Doig, Gertrude Abercrombie, Madeline Hewes, Giacometti, Folk Art and flea market finds.”

Antique cow creamers and Indian reverse-glass paintings from her travels delight Burch just as much as Régence chairs from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy or a bronze apple inside which Claude Lalanne cast the lips of Burch and her husband Pierre-Yves Roussel. Burch is additionally well-versed in design, with pieces by Diego Giacometti, Karl Springer, Carlo Bugatti, and Tony Duquette in her collection.

Reflecting her pottery and china obsession, Burch collaborated with Dodie Thayer, known as the “Pottery Queen of Palm Beach,” on a lettuce-ware collection for her homeware line. In terms of fashion, Burch has designed notable collections inspired by historical women artists, such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Sonia Delaunay, or in partnership with contemporary female artists, like Francesca DiMattio (the look Burch designed with friend Rashid Johnson for director Janicza Bravo at the 2025 Met Gala is another standout). Always looking for opportunities to uplift women’s voices and creativity, Burch is notably a major donor of the forthcoming Smithsonian Institution’s American Women’s History Museum, as well as a member of its advisory board.

Duro Olowu

One look at Duro Olowu’s Instagram, and it’s clear the designer is a serious art aficionado—it’s no surprise with legendary curator and director of the Studio Museum in Harlem Thelma Golden as his wife. Still, the Lagos-born, London-based designer is a lifelong collector of photography, ceramics, and decorative objects in his own right. Having traveled frequently to London and Geneva with his family, Olowu was exposed to a wide array of visual culture, as illustrated by his personal collection. Rare books and African textiles meet paintings and sculpture spanning continents and periods. Among his favorite contemporary pieces are those by Lisa Brice, Michael Armitage, and longtime collaborator Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Olowu’s fashion collections have culled inspiration from Kees van Dongen, Édouard Vuillard, the Surrealists, Barkley L. Hendricks, and Baya, the self-taught Algerian artist who exhibited her paintings of kaleidoscopically clad women at just 16, capturing the attention of Pablo Picasso. When it comes to displaying his vividly patterned garments in his London boutique, Olowu opts to juxtapose them with treasured possessions, ranging from artworks by Stanley Whitney to mid-century Yoruba beaded “Diviner’s” bags and Vallauris pottery.

As a curator, Olowu follows a similar approach. Since 2012, Salon 94 has been a consistent venue for him to organize shows marrying his own designs with antique African garments and works by artists that inspire him. In 2022, he curated the first New York solo exhibition of Chicago artist Robert Earl Paige, also known for introducing West African–inspired textiles to American audiences during the 1970s, at Salon 94. “I always feel it’s important for any show I curate to reflect this deep conversation between all the mediums that continue to exist amongst artists in real life,” he told Aperture in 2024.

Two other seminal museum moments include “Making and Unmaking”—a show that centered the practices and processes of artists who use textiles, that Olowu curated in 2016 at London’s Camden Arts Centre—and “Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago,” a 400-piece exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The latter marked the first time a non-art professional guest curated a show in the institution’s 50-year history. In 2022, the Olowu also curated “Duro Olowu Selects” at the Cooper Hewitt Museum where he explored and interpreted select objects from the New York museum’s collection.

Tommy Hilfiger

When it comes to Pop art, Tommy Hilfiger’s credentials reign supreme, and fascinatingly, the designer’s ties to the movement run deep. After meeting during the late 1970s, Andy Warhol invited Hilfiger, then just finding his footing in New York, to his famed Factory. “I couldn’t afford any of [his art] back then, even though it was very inexpensive. But I loved the fact that he brought fashion, art, pop culture and entertainment together. I always thought when I started making money, I’d collect art and buy Warhols,” Hilfiger told DuJour.

The opportunity came around the time that the designer launched his eponymous company in 1985, thanks to his friend Prince Rupert Loewenstein, who was the financial advisor for the Rolling Stones. Hilfiger bought a series of Warhol’s Mick Jagger screenprints, which both the Stones’ frontman and the artist had signed.

Tommy Hilfiger, New York, 1996
Harry Benson
Staley-Wise Gallery

Hilfiger later sold the series in a 2021 auction of his and wife Dee Ocleppo Hilfiger’s collection at Sotheby’s, which also included works by the likes of Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Indiana. The couple had previously sold two collaborative paintings by Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat at Sotheby’s—on the occasion, he told the auction house, “What really impressed me was that [Warhol] was the purveyor of Pop culture, and what I call FAME: fashion, art, music, entertainment, and he really inspired and influenced me tremendously.” As evidenced by their home tours and other auction sales, the Hilfigers have amassed works by Keith Haring, Hirst, Jean Dubuffet, and Tracey Emin, among many others.

Hilfiger themed his fall celebrity-filled 2022 campaign around Warhol’s Factory, while the spring 2023 collection had a nautical Pop treatment, recalling the artist’s time in Montauk. Hilfiger has also tapped Richard Quinn for a limited-edition collection, as well as the estate of Haring.

Jonathan Anderson

In his personal collection, as well as throughout his time at Loewe, Dior, and his namesake label, Jonathan Anderson has proven himself as the king of craft. The Northern Irish designer inherited his grandfather’s ceramics obsession and counts Lucie Rie, John Ward, Jennifer Lee, and Sara Flynn among his favorite practitioners. Other areas of his collection run the gamut. Works by Peter Hujar, David Wojnarowicz, Paul Thek, and George Dureau speak to Anderson’s interest in the theme of gender fluidity, while Arts and Crafts furnishings (especially made by Charles Rennie Mackintosh) feed his passion for the homemade.

As Loewe’s creative director from 2013–25, Anderson embraced Spain’s rich history of artisanship and Surrealism, churning out one viral trompe l’oeil garment and accessory after another. He also worked with or created collections inspired by Vincent van Gogh, William Morris, Lynda Benglis, Anthea Hamilton, Ken Price, and Joe Brainard. One of his greatest contributions, however, was establishing the influential Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in 2016 to foster new talent across the applied arts.

For his Dior haute couture debut in early 2026, Anderson channeled the bulbous vessels of one of his all-time favorite ceramists, Magdalene A.N. Odundo, into voluminous, sculptural dresses—the collaboration was then exhibited in a weeklong presentation at the Musée Rodin. This July, Anderson again worked with Benglis, another beloved artist (he owns more than five pieces), perfectly capturing the movement and luster of her wired sculptures in striking garments and headpieces.

For JW Anderson, his namesake brand, the designer has partnered with the Tom of Finland Foundation, the estate of David Wojnarowicz, and Gilbert & George. Around the same time he transitioned to Dior, Anderson shifted the direction of JW Anderson, leaning into his love of culture by selling art and objects he specially selected for both the company’s brick-and-mortar and online stores.

It’s far from the first time Anderson has put on his curatorial hat. He has curated shows bringing together art and fashion for the Hepworth Wakefield in northern England, as well as London’s Offer Waterman gallery. In 2025, he also organized an exhibition of work by Winifred Nicholson and Andrew Cranston at the Holburne Museum in Bath, England, while for London’s Thomas Dane Gallery, he and Kenny Schacter co-curated a Paul Thek solo show.

Ulla Johnson

All the years that Ulla Johnson’s mother (a painter, restorer, and conservator) dragged her to museums around New York City paid off. In 2019, the fashion designer told Architectural Digest that she was obsessed with the pioneering fiber artist Sheila Hicks since she was five. Now the 92-year-old artist’s woven works have pride of place in Johnson’s home, shared with her children and art-consultant husband, Zach Miner. With works by Françoise Grossen and Analia Saban, the couple’s collection is a testament to Johnson’s passion for textiles and supporting living and women artists (her dream is to build an important collection of fiber art by women artists for public view).

Elsewhere in Johnson’s collection are artworks by Kathleen Ryan, Ugo Rondinone, and Marina Rheingantz, as well as furnishings by design icons such as Charlotte Perriand, George Nakashima, Pierre Paulin, and Mario Bellini. All are layered with baskets, ceramics, and shells found during travels, echoing the bohemian spirit of the designer’s ethereal garments.

Art is often the starting point for Johnson’s fashion collections. Her impressive list of contemporary artist collaborators includes Alma Allen, Shara Hughes, and Julie Hamisky, who, like her grandmother Claude Lalanne, electroplates flora and fauna into enchanting jewelry. Johnson additionally spent several years working with the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and Helen Frankenthaler Foundation to conceive collections inspired by the pioneering female Abstract Expressionists. The designer told Gagosian Quarterly of her spring 2026 muse: “With Frankenthaler, the way she worked with the canvas—the putting it on the floor, this sort of thrust from the shoulder, the way the paint moves, the soak-stain technique—it just felt so applicable to fabric. And there’s this sense of being borderless, which is also how we work.”

Erdem

Erdem, 2019
Erwin Olaf
Patricia Conde Galería

Warhol also played a key role in Erdem’s career, as one of the first drawings he bought, nearly 20 years ago, was a 1950s illustration of a woman in profile by the artist. After initially collecting contemporary photography (including works by Nan Goldin, Rineke Dijkstra, and Candida Höfer), the Turkish British designer gradually expanded into other categories and time periods.

“Older paintings, drawings, and sculpture entered the collection and began to sit alongside contemporary work. I think that changed the way I looked at everything. The collection has grown very instinctively. One thing leads to another, often in ways you couldn’t have anticipated,” Erdem told Artsy, citing, for example, that he went through a long phase of collecting busts, particularly those by Wilhelm Lehmbruck. “Pavel Tchelitchew and Patrick Procktor are important to me, as is that interconnected world of Tchelitchew, George Platt Lynes and Jared French. There’s also Derek Jarman, Wolfgang Tillmans, Cecil Beaton, Kaye Donachie and David Hockney. I’ve recently been collecting Lisa Brice too.”

Since he founded his brand in 2005, the designer has frequently woven artistic influences into his practice. As with his personal collection, Erdem, a self-proclaimed bibliophile, loves nothing more than a research rabbit hole when developing his fashion collections. They are frequently based on intriguing female heroines throughout history, including Deborah, the late dowager duchess of Devonshire (a major collector herself), which inspired an exhibition on their connection at Chatsworth in 2024.

Another standout was Erdem’s spring 2023 collection, which shined a light on cultural preservation and restoration based on the designer’s visits with experts at the British Museum, Tate Britain, the National Gallery, and the V&A. For his fall 2025 collection, Erdem collaborated with Donachie, who was a few years ahead of him at London’s Royal College of Art, and from whom he previously commissioned a portrait of his late mother for his boutique. This summer, it was announced that another commission, the artist’s portrait of the designer himself, has entered the permanent collection of London’s National Portrait Gallery.

Cynthia Rowley

When Cynthia Rowley started dating her now-husband Bill Powers during the early 2000s, it was love at first artwork upon learning that they each acquired works from the same Chris Johnson drawings series.

Having come from a family of painters, Rowley originally aspired to follow in her mother’s and grandmothers’ footsteps, and she attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Realizing fashion was her calling, she has built a life pouring her love of art into her designs and personal collection, built with Powers, the founder of New York’s Half Gallery. The couple also founded the print edition company Exhibition A in 2010, which they sold in 2019.

Their home aesthetic is as bright and pattern-filled as Rowley’s line. One highlight is a Peyton portrait of a teenage Queen Elizabeth. “I love that drawing because it feels like something I would have hoped to do when I was in art school,” Rowley told the New York Times in 2018 of the work, featured in the artist’s first show at the Chelsea Hotel in 1991. Other contemporary pieces in the collection are by Richard Prince, John Currin, George Condo, Henry Taylor, Dana Schutz, Rob Pruitt, Tom Sachs, and Rene Ricard, while earlier iterations of their kids’ rooms featured works by Japanese artists such as Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara.

Rowley has produced a handful of limited-edition products, including a collaboration with Olaf Breuning, sold through Gagosian Shop during the 2010s. She has also teamed up with artists Will Cotton, Ryan McNamara, and Josh Smith on clothing, paintings, and performance art.

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