It is not news that the art scene in Los Angeles is booming. After artists moving their studios there, a number of art galleries are also opening their branches in the western art hub. Such development also owes thanks to the dedicated institutions and the strong art collector base there. As the art crowd drink champagne in LA this week, here are some of the art collector you can try to spot out at the numerous art events.
Tina Perry-Whitney and Ric Whitney
The collector couple have been collecting art for over a decade in various mediums: installation, sculpture, painting, and photography by emerging, mid-career, and established artists. Their collection has a specific focus on collecting work by African-American, African disaporic, and Latinx artists, such as Genevieve Gaignard, Derek Fordjour, Nari Ward, Joe Goode, Henry Taylor, Sadie Barnette, David Shrigley, and Thinh Nguyen. Tina serves on the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) Board of Trustees and is a founding board member of The Mistake Room, LA’s independent, non-profit global platform for contemporary art and ideas. Ric serves on the Board of Directors of LAXART, another non-profit art space.
Troy Carter
@troycarterofficial
The former global head of Spotify and founder of Atom Factory is a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and on the board of CalArts. He caught the attention as an art collector when he spent $730,000 on an oversized canvas by Rashid Johnson, titled Untitled Escape Collage, at the Aspen Art Museum’s 2018 ArtCrush gala. The painting was part of a collection that comprises works by Glenn Ligon, Sam Gilliam, Charles Gaines, Lorna Simpson, Theaster Gates, and Lauren Halsey. He often make his purchases in the artist’s studio.
Laura Harrier
@lauraharrier
Laura Harrier is a Chicago-native actress perhaps best known for her role as “Patrice Dumas” in the Spike Lee-directed award-winning film, “BlacKkKlansman.” She has revealed that she loves artworks that tell stories and is drawn to photography from the 60s and 70s. She is keen to buy art from black artists as she thinks it is important to support them. She enjoys discovering artists on Instagram.
Alberto Chehebar & Jocelyne Katz
@albertochehebar & @joy_cat
Alberto Chehebar’s love of art really started with Keith Haring back in the mid-80s in New York. For the past 18 years, he and his partner Jocelyne Katz have been not only collecting art, but also building relationships with artists. Works by George Condo, KAWS, and Jonas Wood are found throughout their light-filled space in LA, along with mid-century modern furniture. Besides, Alberto is very active on Instagram; his profile is filled with artworks they collect or they have seen in numerous art spaces.
(Read previous interview: The Excitement on Letting a George Condo Post Fly)
Jason Swartz
@jason007swartz
Splitting his time between California and Milan, Jason Swartz has rich experience in the global music festival business as well as in tech and social media. He started collecting contemporary art in 2018 with a work by Tschabalala Self, which was then donated to MOCA Los Angeles last year. He has also donated other artists’ works to the collections of the Hammer Museum, Pérez Art Museum Miami, and others. He is currently on the Acquisitions Committee at MOCA Los Angeles. Getting to know artists is a big part of his passion.
(Read previous interview: A Desire to Collect Pieces of History)
Jack Siebert
@jacksiebert
Since 2015, Jack Siebert and his mother Leslie Siebert have been building up a contemporary art collection, with a focus that has evolved from Los Angeles-based artists to emerging women artists. Established artists, including Louise Bourgeois, Mary Heilmann, Sue Williams, and others are hung alongside today’s rising stars, such as Shara Hughes and Hilary Pecis. Jack does studio visits weekly and has built close relationships with the various artists in their collection. Jack has also ventured into curating shows of emerging artists, including the group show “Immersed” in LA this week.
(Read previous interview: Artists from My Generation Develop As My Eye Develops)
Andy and Carlo Brandon Gordon
@bgbeverlyhills
On the Board of Trustees of LACMA since 2004, Andy Brandon-Gordon, with his husband Carlo, has a restaurant called Nerano in Beverly Hills. There they showcase a selection of works from their own art collection as well as Jane and Marc Nathanson’s collection. One such work was a light-box piece called “Empathy for Everyone” by the artist Sam Durant, which the Brandon-Gordons gifted to LACMA in 2018. The first pieces in their collection two Michael Reich photographs they purchased together from a gallery in London.
(Read previous interview: “Empathy for Everyone” in Their Haute-Dining Restaurant)
Michael Sherman
@the3sugars
In 2011, Michael Sherman decided to fill a new home he purchased in Los Angeles with art. He bought pieces by Wes Lang, whom he met in New York, and Noah Davis — and that was how he began collecting art. A film producer in profession, he later produced a documentary on Maurizio Cattelan and worked with Rashid Johnson on his adaptation of “Richard Wright’s Native Son”. His collection is heavily focused on self-taught painters as well as artists from his hometown of Baltimore. Other major artists in the collection include Deana Lawson, Rafa Esparza, and Lauren Halsey. He is a trustee at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Leroy Bennett
@leleroybennett
Leroy Bennett is a digital art collector and has an obsession with digital and video art. As a profession, he works with light and sound in production design. He is the creative visionary behind a number of world-class productions including Lady Gaga’s 2019 Las Vegas Residency and her upcoming 2022 stadium tour, Ariana Grande’s 2019 Coachella performance, Beyonce’s 2013 Mrs. Carter Show World Tour and Super Bowl performance, and multiple tours by Prince in the 1990s.
(Read previous interview: I Know Exactly What I Want When I See It)
Lizzie Grover Rad & Sean Rad
@lizziegroverrad & @seanrad
Fashion designer Lizzie Grover Rad and Tinder co-founder Sean Rad own a house in LA with amazing interior design and a collection of artworks by Georg Baselitz, Landon Ross, Paul Sietsema, Mary Corse, Mark Verabioff, Max Cobalto. It also showcases a wonderful design collection. It is also reported that a George Condo painting is displayed in Lizze’s office. Lizzie launched her fashion label’s debut collection last year, for which she collaborated with feminist artists late Aline Kominsky-Crumb and her daughter her daughter Sophie Crumb to confront the issue of abortion through comics and fashion.
By Ricko Leung
