Insider Tips for Collecting Contemporary Art

Our London guide Marine Tanguy's motto is "don't invest in art, invest in artists". She practices this affirmation as the founder of MTArt: the first artist agency promoting influential visual artists and specialising in talent management.    

Marine with a piece by Ignacio Munoz-Vicuna

What is your personal philosophy when it comes to collecting art for yourself?

I love living surrounded by inspiring artworks. It has to be inspiring visually, something so intricate and complex visually that I never get bored of it and also something with a deeper meaning which adds a reflective mood to my house. 

Can you tell us about one of your favorite pieces you have collected?

I've included images of some of my favorite artworks in this post. The first one is by Ignacio Munoz-Vicuna, Van Gogh used yellow to brighten up his mood and so do I with this artwork. The second picture in my lounge portrays the works of both Francesco de Prezzo and Alexandra Lethbridge, Francesco here had painted theses two paintings for hours and months until he destroyed them with white paint - it illustrates the temporarily of our effort - while Alexandra entertains my guests making them reflects upon their use of the gaze as an emotional content. I.e look at this girl and can you guess if she is surprised, happy or excited? Her gaze, now blocked by the artist, was your emotional context. The last works by Will Thomson are displayed in my spare bedroom often used by my artists, it is meant to be reflective, calm and inspiring with the blue colour he used. 

Marine with works by Francesco de Prezzo and Alexandra Lethbridge

What is your advice for other collectors of contemporary art today?

Buy what you love, meet the artists and support them. We need to support the amazing artists of tomorrow. 

Marine with a work by Will Thomson

Take a tour with Marine in London to learn more about the art she loves and her collecting philosophy! 

Barcelona Art Guide - October

I.

Exhibition: No Title
Artist: Andy Warhol
Venue: HG Art Gallery
Dates: Until October 28th, 2017

The exhibition spans Warhol’s career, from his painting of Donald Judd to his later portraits of Mao Tse-tung. Other major paintings and pieces represented include a Polymer paint on cotton of the celebrated Tuna Disaster, the blue dollar, Querelle, Marie-Louise Jenerette, Joseph Beuys, Lenin and a unique signed and dated Keith Haring t-shirt. The exhibition focuses on Warhol’s adoption of the silkscreen technique, a move that made him realize his seamless integration of high art and mass culture. This exhibition is accompanied by a unique takeover of the HG Gallery Store offering a selection of exclusive products and memorabilia devoted to Andy Warhol. There will also be special events and a brief introduction of Andy Warhol's journey.

Andy Warhol at HG Art Gallery

II.

Exhibition: Poesia Brossa
Artist: Joan Brossa
Venue: MACBA Barcelona
Dates: until February 25th, 2017

Joan Brossa (Barcelona, 1919-1998) was first and foremost a poet, but we believe it is necessary to see this in relation to his way of working, his poiesis. This exhibition establishes a dialogue and confronts Brossa’s work with the artists Marcel Marien, Nicanor Parra and Ian Hamilton-Finlay. Brossa was a poet, but his works stood at a crossroad of languages. Frequently collaborating with other artists, musicians, filmmakers, dancers, comedians and even magicians, his work constantly went against the grain and beyond the limits between disciplines. Brossa developed his artistic practice in the 1940s in a social-political context marked by Franco’s dictatorship and in a cultural milieu characterised by the absence of avant-garde and innovative proposals. From the beginning, Brossa’s work was one of aesthetic renewal, based on literary and artistic research. Up until his death, his extensive production never ceased to develop new forms of expression and ways of experimenting with different media.

Joan Brossa at MACBA Barcelona

III.

Exhibition: Dream or reality, the world of Giorgio de Chirico
Artist: Giorgio de Chirico
Venue: Caixa Forum
Dates: until October 22nd , 2017

This exhibition, organized with the collaboration of Fondazione Giorgio and Isa de Chirico, reveals the creative phases of Giorgio de Chirico with the evolution of its manifestations, from the personal transformation of classical art into its piazzas, the mythological world or the figure of the Gladiator in the recitation of death, to portraits and interior landscapes, along with the role of nature. It is structured around six thematic sections based on the main phases of the work of the great artist, characterized by an incessant investigation in different planes: the technical, the aesthetic and the artistic idea.

Giorgio de Chirico at Caixa Forum

Take a tour with Angel in Barcelona to discover more!

New York Art Guide - October

I.

Exhibition: Modigliani Unmasked
Venue: The Jewish Museum
Dates: Until February 4th, 2018

The exhibition puts a spotlight on Modigliani’s early drawings. They were made shortly after he arrived to Paris in 1906, when the city was still roiling with anti-Semitism after the long-running tumult of the Dreyfus Affair and the influx of foreign emigres. Modigliani Unmasked exposes the ways Modigliani responded to the social realities that he confronted in the unprecedented artistic melting pot of Paris.

Amedeo Modigliani, Head, c. 1911. Modigliani Unmasked at the Jewish Museum

While you're at the Jewish Museum make sure to stop for brunch at Russ and Daughters!  It's a New York institution and one of the most delicious spots in the city. This traditional, family-owned, New York Jewish-European deli, specializing in smoked fish, caviar, fresh bagels and other delicacies.  Russ & Daughters at the Jewish Museum, is the 3rd location in addition to their original deli at Houston Street and a restaurant on the Lower East Side. 

Russ & Daughers at the Jewish Museum

II.

Exhibition: Generation Wealth [Retrospective of Lauren Greenfield]
Venue: ICP (International Center of Photography)
Dates: Until January 7th, 2018

The retrospective of photographer Lauren Greenfield at ICP encompasses 25 years of her documentary photography.  This show reflects stories about corruption, beauty, body image, fantasy, competition, and excess. It was originally shown at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles and has now made its way to the ICP in New York City.

Generation Wealth, Lauren Greenfield

Generation Wealth, Lauren Greenfield

Join our public art tour in Chelsea on October 14th or schedule a private tour with Maya to discover more!

Lisbon Art Guide - October

After a busy September full of new exhibitions, it’s time for even more events. What I recommend, is to follow and visit various art festivals in the city. Besides the one which I mention below, check out Temps d'Images Lisboa, which is dedicated to performative and visual arts in an experimental and interdisciplinary way. Secondly, doclisboa a film festival with the aim to search for a freedom in film and explore the new problems that cinematic image implies.

I

Exhibition: 8.ª Abertura de Ateliês de Artistas
Artists: Various Artists
Venue: Various Locations 
Dates: 13th to the 15th of October, 2017

Between 13th and 15th of October there will be an amazing opportunity to visit artists studios in Lisbon. It’s eight edition of the event, which is called 8.ª Abertura de Ateliês de Artistas and there are more than eighty participants opening their ateliers in order to introduce visitors to what they do. It will be great opportunity for research about Portuguese artists of all mediums, styles and age. Also, perfect occasion to learn more about not touristic spots and neighborhoods of the capital.

8.ª Abertura de Ateliês de Artistas

II

Exhibition: Sottile sfumatura di rumore
Artist: João Ferro Martins
Venue: Galeria 3+1 Arte Contemporânea 
Dates: Until November 11th, 2017

Sottile sfumatura di rumore is a solo exhibition by João Ferro Martins, one of my favourite Portuguese artists. In this project he transformed the gallery space into a film set, full of unpredictable objects, making connections between them and his previous artworks. Visiting it is like a game, a puzzle for the viewer, what happened here or what will happen in the future? The works reflect a rich universe and the disquieting formal exploration that Ferro Martins pursues in sci-fi, technique, notions of performance and art history in a production that points generically to cinematographic practice. 

3+1 JFM Untitled -green light 2017.

III

Exhibition: Bill Fontana. Shadow Soundings. 
Artists: Bill Fontana
Venue: MAAT- Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia
Dates: Until December 2nd, 2018

In Oval Gallery of MAAT visitors can find a new sound and video installation by American artist, Bill Fontana, which was created especially for Lisbon. The exhibition space is built of seven projections with dynamic sound and a livestreaming video component. Fontana used sonority from the 25th of April Bridge which crosses the Tagus river (iconic symbols of Lisbon) and amplified them until they acquired a musical quality. 

Bill Fontana. Shadow Soundings. 2017.MAAT.

Los Angeles Art Guide - October

I.

Exhibition: No Title
Artists: Bernd and Hilla Becher
Venue: Sprueth Magers
Dates: Until October 21st, 2017

Bernd and Hilla Becher present “a language of heavy industry” in a typographic and poetic fashion where form and function are at play within each individual photograph and structure. A near perfect example of abstraction in repetition, the architecture becomes sculptural and the formalism comes alive. They create beauty from structures typically not considered beyond their function, nor even considered architectural entities in their own rights, yet the photo studies somehow create visually and conceptually beautiful urban landscapes.

Bernd and Hilla Becher @ Sprüth Magers

II.

Exhibition: wave form walks the earth
Artist: Elaine Cameron-Weir
Venue: Hannah Hoffman Gallery
Dates: Until November 4th, 2017

 
Elaine Cameron-Weir’s wave form walks the earth, possesses a dystopian, futuristic and simultaneously medieval narrative. Made of chain mail, her hanging piece, Dressing For Altitude (2017, Pewter, stainless steel, leather, sandbag) references the body or the body that could have once worn such a costume. When looking, one becomes almost obsessively aware of weight - the weight of the metals, weight of the sandbag that holds it mid-air, the weight of all of this on top of a human body. Visceral, formal, these sadomasochistic leather bindings and metallic mechanisms are aestheticized and eroticized.  

Elaine Cameron Weir @ Hannah Hoffman

III.

Exhibition: No Title [Group Show]
Artists: Thomas Demand, Katharina Fritsch, Robert Gober, Brice Marden, Ken Price, Martin Puryear, Charles Ray, Paul Sietsema, Anne Truitt, Terry Winters
Venue: Matthew Marks Gallery LA
Dates: Until October 21st, 2017

Matthew Marks’s group show presents an array of sculptural and wall works that all somehow play with lifelike forms and color. One of the highlights of the exhibition is Katharina Fritsche’s Still Life 7 (2017), in which a yellow statue of Saint Aloysius stands modestly next to a black-painted apple, strawberry and seashell. Each of these items in black represent the feminine and also the temptations of the chaste Saint. It is the velvety pigment that is the most mesmerizing of visuals – inviting to the touch. The second highlight is Ken Price’s Fung (2009). Whether considering his shapes, materials, or process, our consideration of Price’s sensual sculptures take on an otherworldly allusion, while directly referencing our own organs and the corporal forms we recognize in ourselves. It’s the brilliant variety of color that enraptures and ensnares.

@ Matthew Marks

IV.

Exhibition: No Title [Group Show]
Artists: Various Artists
Venue: Regen Projects
Dates: Until October 28th, 2017

The group show at Regen Projects presents a sprawling, cultural dialogue between two great artists and makers. Abraham Cruzvillegas and Gabriel Kuri have curated a very necessary, very insightful artistic history of the Latin American cultures that define our city and impact culture worldwide. Ariel Schlesinger’s Bubble Machine, an engaging kinetic sculpture, utilizes humor to call one’s attention to violence, something that rings true especially in our current political climate. Cuban Samba, by Simabuku, elegantly brings together found materials. A simple arrangement of a tin can that emanates the sounds of raindrops on metal, he recalls the memory of a beautiful chance encounter and creates a poetic sculptural installation out of something that typically points towards damage and destruction.

@ Regen Projects

Take a tour with Sharón in LA to discover more!