Musée Magazine picking out different works that I liked and I had them hung up. So I kind of re-hung the show, and I thought that these look really great together. I bought the whole bunch of them and felt that it looked better than the way it was originally hung and became a kind of pattern. I have a definite, distinct, visual thing that influences me, and it’s hard to explain what that is. Do you buy any work from emerging artists that are not represented by galleries? Sure, a lot of times. I will go to group shows or different events, I will meet an artist, ask if they are in a gallery, and many times they will reply “no”; so I’ll go to their studios. My first Cohenda Whiley painting was right from his studio. I was introduced to him by Simon Watson. Simon and I have gone around quite a bit to look at artists in their own studios. It’s fantastic. He has been very helpful in placing them. There is an artist that I am trying to help right now, he’s not really young, but he needs a gallery and I’ve been trying to do that too. What do you do, rotate your art? Yes, I’ll re-hang. Not everything, but here and there, constantly. What advice would you give a young collector? Look, look, look. Go to shows and museums to see what they are looking at, go to fairs, and trust your gut. There is plenty of art at very inexpensive price levels. I buy drawings for only a few hundred dollars, the Affordable Art Fairs are great. Don’t buy with the idea that it is going to go up in value or not, buy what you love and what you want to hang up.
202 Musée
Magazine No. 3
What advice would you give to emerging photographers starting out in their career? Take pictures that have meaning to you. It’s like what you would say to a writer “write what you know”; photograph what you know. Again you need to look, look, look. Be influenced by things but develop your own style. I think all artists should go to openings so they can network and meet people. What would you say to people who are intimidated by contemporary art? Get involved with a museum group. There are different levels of membership. The Whitney has the contemporaries that you can join for not very much each year, and it’s great for networking and meeting new people. You start to get invited to studio visits and different events where you will be with the curators. Again, keep going to shows and don’t be intimidated, it’s not like you have to understand. Some people think that you have to look at something and understand it. Now, conceptual art may have a message within the work, however, a seasoned art looker might not see the message until they hear it. Don’t be afraid to ask questions in galleries. Go to someone and say, “I think this is really nice, but I would like to know more about what the artist is saying within the work”, and they will be happy to talk about it. Read the info sheets they have, that’s basically how you do it. What’s really interesting is that sometimes you will see the work differently from what you find out is behind it. It becomes much more interesting when the gallerist or the artist says to you what they were trying to do, or what they were saying, and their influences. Then you go “oh wow, that’s so interesting”.