Panelists Adrianna Cole of Hannah Hoffman Gallery and Sean Green, CEO and Founder of ARTERNAL joined Komo Founders, Charlie Manzo and Sarah Schwarzbeck for an intimate conversation on The Art of Collecting: Where Passion Meets Investment at NeueHouse Venice Beach in March.
About Komo Art: Komo began in 2018 as an art advisory specializing in collection management, curatorial projects, and artist commissions. Built from 25+ years of cultivating relationships with artists, collectors, galleries, and institutions around the world, the Komo team recently launched a community and platform for artists and makers featuring curated collections of their work on komoart.com.
Panelists:
Charlie Manzo, Director of Advisory at Winston Art Group has over 20 years of experience in the art world. His knowledge of the contemporary art market was established through roles at major galleries such as Pace Gallery, Gagosian, and Metro Pictures. Charlie has been a gallery director, independent curator, and artist liaison. In 2018 he co-founded Komo as a private art advisory focused on building private collections worldwide and has placed works by artists like Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Agnes Martin, Mary Corse, Cindy Sherman and more. He is an expert in post-war & contemporary art and has an ardent love for Minimalism.
Sarah Schwarzbeck, Komo Co-Founder, grew up with art, but studied business and spent the first ten years of her career in the culinary/tech spaces, building and scaling early stage food companies. After meeting partner Charlie Manzo and starting their own art collection together, she found the most meaningful moments were the moments of connection with artists in their studio and she experienced first-hand the power of learning about the why behind the work in its ability to transform the way that work was seen and understood. She and Charlie launched Komo in 2018 as an art advisory and accelerator with the goal of connecting artists with emerging and established art collectors.
Sean Green is the founder and CEO of ARTERNAL, a groundbreaking technology company whose vertically integrated software powers global art commerce. ARTNERNAL's suite of products serve the world's leading galleries, auction houses, and art advisory firms, as well as individual and institutional collectors.
Adrianna Cole has worked in the contemporary art world for over ten years and from all angles, including with galleries, art advisors, and with curators. She has gathered worthwhile experience curating exhibitions that engage all levels of the arts community from the experienced collector to the curious novice. Influenced by her personal research interests, Adrianna also curates a series of exhibitions that take place in domestic spaces that have the intention to expand collectors' intimate relationship with contemporary art. Cole is currently the Director at Hannah Hoffman Gallery.
Key Takeaways:
1. When you first begin your collecting journey, really take the time to train your eye. In order to train your eye you need to see a lot. Art fairs are a really great way to do this in a short amount of time. They're not necessarily the most ideal way to view art because there there is so so much art and so many people - it can be stimulation overload. But there’s a lot to see in one centralized place and you’ll get the most exposure to art from all over the world.
Patience is key - you don’t need to go out and buy the first thing that you see, even if you feel compelled to. Take a year to just take photos of art you love, and after that first year go look at those photos and determine what you still respond to and you’ll learn a lot from that process and that time.
2. The balance of passion and investment-driven collecting is different for everyone and depends on the motivation for collecting in the first place. You have to think about what’s motivating you to collect or what’s motivating your interest in art. It could be that you feel really passionate about a young artists or gallery you want to support, or you feel strongly about a specific style or movement. For some people the balance is 80/20 passion/investment, for others it's closer to 50/50, and for others still, collecting may be 100% passion-led. There's no rule or formula we recommend beyond always starting with something you love and never leading with investment-intent as the market holds no guarantees.
3. Empty yourself out and be sensitive to how something feels - access that gut reaction and go from there. For some people, it's very much about the energy and the aesthetic for it and usually the story is just as gorgeous, but it can be secondary to the way something makes you feel.
Stay tuned for more Komo events like this by subscribing to our newsletter at komoart.com
