Conversations with artists, art collectors, advisors, museum directors and curators.
Cover art by Richard Somonte
John Buchanan
John “Jack” Buchanan, born 1931 in Glens Falls, NY, joined the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as Museum Archivist on November 7th, 1966.
A few years later the new Director of the Museum, Thomas Hoving, appointed him Chief Registrar of the Museum and for the next twenty-two years Buchanan was in charge of worldwide art movements: packing, shipping, security in transit, and fine arts insurance In that capacity he traveled widely throughout the U.S., Europe, the Soviet Union, Middle East, India, China, Japan, and Mexico.
He moved several “Blockbuster” exhibitions. They included, Tutankhamen, Treasures of the Vatican, Manet, Treasures of Early Irish Art, Great Bronze Age of China, Mexico, and several others. He planned the movement to and from the Soviet Union of the first exhibition (American and European paintings) an American museum sent to that country and worked closely with couriers (curators and conservators) in Helsinki, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), and Moscow. During his tenure as Chief Registrar, he worked on exhibitions in the Soviet Union on six occasions, and during one trip he worked with Tom Hoving and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
In 1972 Hoving appointed Buchanan as his Special Assistant –while remaining Chief Registrar, thus he wore two hats. As Special Assistant he decided which matters should be brought to the Director’s attention, and which he could handle himself or farm out to others. He also worked with Hoving on gaining political and then financial support for the construction of the New American Wing, which meant hobnobbing with Democratic politicians in smoke-filled clubhouses.
Hoving became the Interim Director of the Queens Museum. Buchanan was the Deputy Interim Director and when Mr. Hoving retired, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, C. Douglas Dillon, assigned Buchanan to serve as Special Assistant to the first paid President of the Museum, William B. Macomber. He remained Chief Registrar and still traveled with exhibitions. In 1983, following twelve years of wearing two hats under Hoving and Macomber, with the special exhibition schedule booming, Buchanan decided to hand over the Special Assistant duties to a colleague and resumed wearing one hat.
Upon his retirement, Buchanan returned to the study of history and published three books with John Wiley & Sons: the widely acclaimed “The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas" (1997); the controversial “Jackson’s Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters” (2001); and the “The Road to Valley Forge: How Washington Built the Army That Won the Revolution” (2004), which received the Thomas Fleming award for best book of 2004 by the Philadelphia American Revolution Round Table.
Mr. Buchanan has appeared on C-Span and the History Channel, and has contributed several book reviews to the Journal of Military History as well as acted as referee for proposed articles in JMH. He has also published short stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and his self-published Cold War novel, The Rise of Stefan Gregorovic (2010), was described by a critic as “one of the most gripping narratives I’ve ever read.”
Erwin Redl
Erwin Redl is based in Bowling Green, OH and New York City. He states that: “Since 1997, I have investigated the process of “reverse engineering” by (re-)translating the abstract aesthetic language of virtual reality and 3‑D computer modeling, back into architectural environments by means of large-scale light installations. Space is experienced as a second skin, our social skin, which is transformed through my artistic intervention. Due to the very nature of its architectural dimension, participating by simply being “present” is an integral part of the installation. Visual perception works in conjunction with corporeal motion, and the subsequent passage of time.”
The formal aspect of his work becomes easily accessible through conscious aesthetic reduction to a minimalist vocabulary. Interpretation and understanding of this characteristic is dependent upon the viewer’s subjective references. Equally, the various interactions between the visitors within the context of the installation re-shape each viewer’s subjective references and reveal a complex social phenomenon.
Redl’s large scale light installations have been featured in major museums, as well as in the public space around the world. Recent projects include “White Out,” which as installed in Madison Square Park, New York City and at the Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City and “Circles Unity” presented the winter in the tunnel below the Tampa Convention Center, Tampa, Florida.
David Brognon and Stéphanie Rollin
If you’d like to learn more about Brognon and Rollin you can visit their website or Instagram profile.
David Brognon and Stéphanie Rollin have been working together since 2006 to “probe the existential fault lines of society, to observe the fallen and the alienated.”
Their projects and installations end up being multi-disciplinary in nature and the building blocks of each work is determined by the context and the protagonists of the corners of society they are exploring. Their mediums can range from film, sculpture, sound to large scale installations, both in the gallery and in the public space.
In 2013 they won the Pirelli Art Prize in Art Brussels and they are the subject of a monograph by Frac Poitou-Charentes. Artist Ian Breakwell describes their practice as culmination of small epiphanies of everyday life, those moments of grace in the darkness or the commonplace. They delicately enhance the brilliance of the habitually neglected.
Alain Servais
If you’d like to learn more about Alain you can follow him on Twitter.
Alain Servais is a major collector of contemporary art based in Brussels. A self-proclaimed collector of difficult works, he originally came from the financial sector, where he worked as an investment banker. He takes a holistic view of the systems powering the global art industry and tries to apply market models to predict future trends within the creative realm. He believes that art has the capacity to change society for the better. His collection is truly global in its scope and he also supports innovative artist projects around the world. He is a regular on the global Biennale circuit and is a key figure in analyzing the systems of exchange within the art world.
Joe Dunning
If you’d like to learn more about Joe you can check out the Dunning and Partners website, or follow him on Instagram.
Joe Dunning founded Dunning & Partners after a 14-year career in the commercial arts sector with Christie’s and Sotheby’s in both London and New York.
He specialized in strategy, innovation and business development, designing and leading numerous initiatives within the auction, private sales and advisory arms of the business. He also ran the Sotheby’s Prize, an annual $250,000 award to facilitate museum exhibitions that explore overlooked or under-represented areas of art history.
He has established pioneering partnerships with museums around the world.
He has also served as auctioneer and advisor for numerous not-for-profit organizations, with a particular focus on the arts and education, raising over £6 million.
He is a mentor with Creative Access and has worked closely with the National Theatre in London, Free Arts NYC, Urban Arts Partnership and the New York Academy of Art.
He has a BA in Modern Languages from Oxford University and an MA in Cultural and Creative Industries from King’s College, London.
Kelly Crow
If you’d like to learn more about Kelly you can read her writings on The Wall Street Journal’s website or you can follow her on Twitter.
Kelly Crow is a staff reporter covering the art market for The Wall Street Journal. She reports on sales at auction houses including Sotheby’s and Christie’s as well analyzes the funding and art-buying activities of the world’s major museums, art fairs, artists and collectors around the world. Ms. Crow has covered the art market beat for the Journal since 2006.
Before joining the Journal in 2005, she wrote for the New York Times, based at the City desk where she helped cover city government, neighborhoods and the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. She also helped Pulitzer-Prize winner James B. Stewart report DisneyWar, a 2005 nonfiction narrative about the Walt Disney Company during Michael Eisner’s final years as CEO of the company.
She has helped teach classes at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she earned her master’s degree in 2000. Ms. Crow started her career in 1995 at The Edmond Evening Sun in her hometown of Edmond, Oklahoma. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Patrick Sun
Patrick Sun founded Sunpride Foundation in 2014, with a goal to raise awareness for the LGBTQ community and to nurture a more equitable world through art.
In 2017, Sunpride Foundation and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA) co-hosted Spectrosynthesis - Asian LGBTQ Issues and Art Now, the first LGBTQ-themed exhibition staged in an art museum in Asia. Two years later, the foundation and Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) presented Spectrosynthesis II – Exposure of Tolerance: LGBTQ in Southeast Asia, marking the largest-ever survey of regional contemporary art exploring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer creative history in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Patrick graduated from McGill University in Canada with a degree in business. Patrick started his career in the real estate development business in Hong Kong and founded his own company Kinwick Holdings Limited. Since, 2002, he has been active in promoting equal rights for the LGBTQ community in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Patrick has developed his own art collection since 1988, starting from his earlier interest in modern Chinese paintings to his recent focus on contemporary art. With an aim to support the LGBTQ community, Patrick’s collection comprises works from artists in the community or works that examine this theme. His collection includes works by Shu Lea Cheang, Sunil Gupta, David Medalla, Arin Rungjang, Ming Wong, Wu Tsang, Danh Vō and Samson Young, among others.
Patrick is a member of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s Asian Art Circle and Tate’s Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee. Most recently, Patrick was included in the 2020 edition of ArtReview’s Power 100 list, an annual ranking of the most influential figures in the contemporary art world, for his leading role in LGBTQ activism in Asia.
Beth Rudin DeWoody
You can learn more about Beth’s collection by visiting The Bunker Artspace website.
Beth Rudin DeWoody is an art collector and curator who resides between Los Angeles, New York City, and West Palm Beach. She is President of The Rudin Family Foundations and Executive Vice President of Rudin Management. Her Board affiliations include the Whitney Museum of American Art, Hammer Museum, The New School, The Glass House, Empowers Africa, New Yorkers for Children, and The New York City Police Foundation. She is an Honorary Trustee at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Photography Steering Committee at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach.
DeWoody has curated numerous exhibitions, and her collection has been the subject of exhibitions featured at the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; Parrish Museum, Southampton; and the Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, among other institutions. In 2017, DeWoody opened The Bunker in West Palm Beach to feature rotating shows from the collection and to showcases a wide range of contemporary art by both well-known and emerging artists, displayed alongside iconic pieces of furniture and other curiosities.
Joseph Awuah-Darko
You can learn more about Joseph by following him on Twitter and Instagram and by checking out the Noldor Residency website.
Joseph Awuah-Darko is an African contemporary art connoisseur, collector and thought leader. He has continuously looked to his Ghanaian upbringing and extensive travels to cultivate the ties between an established European art scene and Africa’s emerging cultural industries. Awuah-Darko founded the Noldor Artist Residency, an annual 4-week program that invites emerging African artists to work in a dedicated studio space and retreat in Accra, Ghana. Awuah-Darko received an undergraduate degree from Ashesi University, studied global art market dynamics at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and has worked at Sulger-Buel Gallery in London. He currently lives between Accra, Ghana and London, England.
Meg Lipke
You can learn more about Meg by visiting her website www.meglipkestudio.com, following her on instagram at @meglipke, or by visiting www.broadwaygallery.nyc
Meg Lipke received her BFA from the University of Vermont, in Burlington, VT and her MFA in painting from Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY. She has had solo exhibitions at Broadway Gallery in NY; Gold/Scopophilia, in Montclair, NJ, Lane Meyer Projects, in Denver, CO; Freight & Volume, in NY; and Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY. She has been included in numerous group exhibitions including shows at the College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY; Gold Montclair, Montclair, NJ; Marxhausen Gallery of Art, at Concordia University Nebraska; Kathryn Schultz Gallery, at the Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA; Galerie MR-80, Paris, FR; University at Buffalo Art Galleries, Buffalo, NY; and Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY among many others
Her work has been featured in Two Coats of paint, Artforum, the Philadelphia enquirer, The New Yorker and the Brooklyn Rail.
Meg is represented by Broadway Gallery in New York City.
Larry Ossei-Mensah
You can learn more about Larry by following him on Instagram at @larry.ossei.mensah or by checking out www.artnoir.co
Larry Ossei-Mensah uses contemporary art as a vehicle to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. The Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic has organized exhibitions and programs at commercial and nonprofit spaces around the globe from New York City to Rome featuring artists such as Firelei Baez, Allison Janae Hamilton, Brendan Fernades, Ebony G. Patterson, Modou Dieng, Glenn Kaino, Joiri Minaya and Stanley Whitney to name a few. Moreover, Ossei-Mensah has actively documented cultural happenings featuring the most dynamic visual artists working today such as Derrick Adams, Mickalene Thomas, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Federico Solmi, and Kehinde Wiley.
A native of The Bronx, Ossei-Mensah is also the co-founder of ARTNOIR, a 501(c)(3) and global collective of culturalists who design multimodal experiences aimed to engage this generation’s dynamic and diverse creative class. ARTNOIR endeavors to celebrate the artistry and creativity by Black and Brown artists around the world via virtual and in-person experiences. Ossei-Mensah is a contributor to the first-ever Ghanaian Pavilion for the 2019 Venice Biennial with an essay on the work of visual artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
Ossei-Mensah is the former Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at MOCAD in Detroit. He co-curated in 2019 with Dexter Wimberly the critically acclaimed exhibition at MOAD in San Francisco Coffee, Rhum, Sugar, Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox in Spring/Summer 2019. Ossei-Mensah currently serves as Curator-at-Large at BAM, where he curated the inaugural exhibition When A Pot Finds Its Purpose featuring the work of Glenn Kaino at the Rudin Family Gallery. He will be co-curating with Omsk Social Club 7th Athens Biennale in Athens, Greece in 2021.
Ossei-Mensah has had recent profiles in such publications as the NY Times, Artsy, and Cultured Magazine, and was recently named to Artnet’s 2020 Innovator List.
Image courtesy of Aaron Ramey