What was the first artwork which you purchased?
BREAK by John Kushmaul 1999 (@johnkushmaul). It was framed and a bargain at approximately $150. It has since hung everywhere I have moved.
Are you more interested in emerging or renowned artists?
I’m more interested in renowned artists. My budget is more interested in emerging artists. I love to find an artist before they’ve made it or even before they have gallery representation. I like to get in early. If you’ve ever seen the documentary Herb And Dorothy, about the Vogels, they are my art heroes — art stacked in every nook and cranny of their NYC apartment. An absolute dream.
How has social media changed your collection?
I now learn about most artists through Instagram. But, when I first started looking at art in 1999, it was just local art galleries and whatever random small-town fair might pop up. My worldview was very limited- there was no worldview. The internet was just creaking along, a dial-up arthritic dinosaur. Then I discovered eBay. I spent hours drinking super-cheap wine and scrolling through art. I bid on a lot of art. I’d think, “$9, hell yeah I’ll bid $9 for the chance to see that” (or at least bump the price up). I had art packed everywhere, I still have a lot of it and some of it is still hanging.
(Left to right)
Andrew Salgado (@andre.salgado.art) Sad Tommy, 2015, BEERS LONDON
AL Resnick, 1983 Edward Michael Casey, EBAY
Al Resnick was the longest resident of Casa Casuarina, a grungy 3-story apartment complex in Miami until the building was bought by Gianni Versace, restored, and turned into the Versace Mansion. The eBay listing had pictures of the artist in his apartment on the couch with his paintings covering the walls; it also warned that the building had been tented and treated for a termite infestation and there was evidence of termite damage on some of the pieces. Indeed, there was some termite damage and they all smelled of cigarettes. I love his work and can’t find anything on him with a Google search. I don’t want him to be forgotten. So, here are a couple of more.
In 2010, the end of my dabbling in EBAY - I bought a reproduction of Repin’s Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks from Kyiv for under $200. I didn’t pay attention to the dimensions (see previous wine comment). It arrived in a giant tube, and I was like “What is this? I didn’t purchase a carpet.” It was ginormous and in terrible shape, I cleaned cement powder and cigarette tar off of it with a wet clean white T-shirt. It now takes up an entire wall of our bedroom.
(Left to right)
Master copy of Repin -Reply of the Zaporozhian by V. Koshevoy 1952XX
Johan Barrios (@johanbarrios) Accumulacìon, 2017 from Anya Tish Gallery
Then I transitioned to magazines - New American Paintings and American Art Collector. American Art Collector is where I first saw Andrea Kowch. Her work was all I could think about. I kept emailing Richard Demato at RJD Gallery about her, but there was nothing available. He finally sold me something, maybe because he saw how in love I was with her work or maybe so I would just leave him alone.
Open Window, 2015 Andrea Kowch, RJD Gallery
When I first discovered ARTSY, it was like upscale eBay, and again I was stuck at my computer for hours. I’d start at Recently Added and scroll through until I reached the art from my previous visit.
But the real game changer for me was Instagram. There have been numerous occasions where an artist has posted a painting they were still working on or had just finished, and I’m like hey, hey, hello, look at me, excuse me, where is this piece going? Many times I’ve enquired about it before the gallery has received or maybe even seen it. This happened with the Brad Kunkle painting WEAVER. I’d followed Brad’s progress on the painting and then a pic of it finished, still on the easel, popped up on Instagram on 4/14/2016. I immediately emailed Steve at Arcadia Contemporary. Several years later I was watching Netflix’s Anne With An E and was shocked to see Weaver pop up in the opening salvo. It was pretty exciting.
Weaver, 2016 Brad Kunkle (@bradrkunkle) 2016 from Arcadia Contemporary
For a while, Weaver hung next to a painting I had previously acquired by Casey Baugh of Brad Kunkle in a leather jacket. Which I found very pleasing.
Braille to the Night (cropped) 2015 by Casey Baugh from Arcadia Gallery
Or sometimes I’ll screenshot an IG post and message it to the gallery and enquire that way.
Woman with Fan and Caryatid Vessel, 2018 Jonathan Chapline (@jchapline) The Hole
Sometimes, I’m fortunate enough to visit an artist in their studio and have bought work that way. I once texted a selfie of myself, my husband, Shaun Downey, and his wife (also a great painter) in front of one of the paintings in his studio to the gallery owner - “Hey Steve, I want this, please.”
I recently bought an unfinished work from Amy Werntz (@amywerntz_art) when I visited her studio. Amy does amazing, I mean amazing work. Two of my favorite paintings of hers are held by my nemesis, The Bennet Collection. If you have a chance to see them, do. Just kidding about the nemesis part. But, The Bennet Collection also has my two favorite Andrea Kowch paintings, so there is maybe a little truth in that.
What is your ultimate goal for your collection?
That most of it would stay together and go to the permanent collection of a museum that loved it as much as I do. It’s arrogant to think that, but the work is all pretty new and I think it will hold up over time. Once, someone on Instagram called me a modern-day Frick. Which is the best compliment I’ve ever received.
Or, if the art could stay in the house after I’m dead, my husband of course lives on long after me, remarries an average-looking but very nice guy, and then finally when they both croak, the house turns into a small local museum run by fitness models and bartenders. That would be dreamy, too.
Who is an artist you let get away and now are unable to collect?
Kehinde Wiley - hand to forehead. I saw his work around 2009 in a Magazine — The Advocate maybe? Two groovy men with glorious afros in a background of flowers. I immediately emailed the gallery. The work in the magazine was already sold, but they sent me an image of another painting that was still available. ( I searched my old AOL email, but couldn’t find it) It was good, but I was not as in love with it as the one in the magazine. And, the price would have depleted ninety-five percent of my savings. (The painting is probably worth more than 20 times that now) It seemed fiscally irresponsible, so I begrudgingly declined and used the money to work on paying off debt. Now, I can’t walk by a Wiley in a museum without gritting my teeth to suppress the screams from escaping my head. If only I had seen that 1999 Wiley in person, I might have done it.
How has collecting changed for you through the years?
When I first started collecting, If I saw something I liked and I could afford it I bought it. Now, I first go and check out all the other works of that artist and make sure that the work I like is not a one-off.
There is also now a space crisis. If I like the work, there has to be space, or I have to be able to move stuff around to make space.
I’m slowing down at work, so my resources and space will soon be depleted. My fantasy would be to transition to collecting for someone else, curate a show, or be hired to inject life into the Momentary in Bentonville, AR - an amazing space and a great concept but something that never lived up to the modern art fantasy I had when it was first announced.
Which artwork in history has inspired you the most?
Géricault’s “The Raft of the Medusa.” It’s a gigantic oil painting that has everything for me - beauty, drama, movement, a story, darkness, emotion, perfect structure, and execution. I went straight to it in the Louvre so if I were to have dropped dead in the next hour and saw nothing else, I would have seen it.
I just have to say Wyeth’s Christina’s World does the same for me for the same reasons. I also love it so much.
Is there any particular type of art that has consistently attracted you, or anything that unites all the works you have acquired?
Mostly figurative works with emotion and movement that suggest an underlying story. And the occasional hot dude that does most of the above.
Anna in Gold, 2021 by Mary Sauer (@marysauerart), Arcadia Contemporary
Untitled, Taner Yilmaz (@tnrylmaz), Artist’s studio
The Nameless Queen, Stephanie Rew (@stephrew), Thompson Gallery
Afternoon, 2019 Jeffrey Chong Wang, Arcadia Contemporary
Reflections, Jeffrey Chong Wang (@Jeffrey_Chong_Wang), Arcadia Contemporary
Solstice, 2016 Jordan Sokol (@jordan_sokol), Arcadia Contemporary
Which artists are on your radar to collect in the near future?
If I have collected an artist's work, I will talk nonstop about them. I will promote them. I’ll tell anyone who will listen how great they are.
If someone is on my radar? You won’t hear a peep from me. I’m not about to create demand and drive prices up. Unless they were, upon birth, immediately out of my price range. I’m looking at you, Salman Toor.
Who is your art crush?
If I could go back in time I wouldn’t say no to a throuple with Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Don’t tell my husband.
Seriously though, I would say every artist in my collection is an art crush. If they had any idea how many paintings I scroll through every day, and something made me stop and fixate on their work they would, they should, blush. Blush and then run because the stalk is on.
I enjoy having the opportunity to meet the artists in my collection. I’ve more recently started taking a selfie with them and taping it to the back of the painting. I think that will be a fun discovery for someone in the future. I kick myself that I didn’t start it sooner.
Superman Has Feelings, Too, 2021 Tania Rivilis (tania_rivilis)
Afterlife/Osiris, 2016 Andrew Salgado (@andrew.salgado.art) Beers London
Self Portrait #144, 2004 Philip Akkerman (@philip_akkerman) Richard Heller Gallery
Self Portrait #117, 2001 Philip Akkerman (@philip_akkerman) Richard Heller Gallery
Robinson, 2020 Bruno Leydet (@brunoleydetmtl) Craven Contemporary
Hotel Borgne, 2020 Bruno Leydet, Craven Contemporary
Made in the Image of God, 2017 Michael Reeder (@reederone) Thinkspace
Back to crush. It is dumfounding to me that when people come to our house they don’t see the work and immediately have the same crush.
Look at the light on that Downey. He is a freaking modern-day Vermeer. Stop and look right now, the glow on her face and the lace of her dress. Apologize to Shaun, for not paying attention to what is going on right in front of your face.
Binoculars, 2018 Shaun Downey (@shaundowneyart) from Arcadia Contemporary
How did you just walk past that Sarazhin and not stop, mouth gaped wide, and give your best Pavlovian dopamine drool? Look at those confident brush strokes and the movement and tension between him and his wife. Yes, that is him and his wife. She is an amazing artist, too. It’s all right there and you just strolled by. Open your eyes.
One Moment of Silence, 2016 Denis Sarazhin (@denis_sarazhin) Arcadia Contemporary
Excuse me. Don’t just halfway glance at that Ortega. Get up close and look at it. You know he sets up an entire model town with little model houses, trees, people, cars, gets the lighting just right, and then paints the whole damn thing. There’s a YouTube video about it, but you probably haven’t even bothered to check. Isn’t it amazing? Say it’s amazing or get out of my house.
In a Strange Land, 2022 Alberto Ortega (@alberto_ortega_paintings)
Those are paint chips arranged by hue. Don’t just stand still. It’s meant to be interactive. You have to move around to get all the views. It changes with the light and your perspective.
OLPH 2, 2015 by Peter Combe (@petercombe_art) Robert Fontaine gallery
