Acquiring and Admiring: What Collectors Are Buying Now
CGN has conducted dozens of collector interviews over the years. The chance to see works of art in people’s homes is an opportunity to see art outside of a commercial or institutional space and to understand the personal nature of collecting.
With this year's EXPO CHICAGO coming around again in late April, we wondered, what works continue to join an evolving collection? The following Chicago-based collectors were kind enough to update CGN, in their own words, about what they’ve recently acquired and the artists they are admiring now.
– GV
Luke Agada
Andrea Carlson
TRISSA BABROWSKI AND SUNDEEP MULANGI –
“Two of our recent highlights include a painting by Luke Agada and a work on paper by Andrea Carlson.
Luke, a fairly recent graduate of the MFA program at SAIC, trained as a veterinarian in his native Nigeria. His dreamy, surrealist works often incorporate animal shapes that speak to his former career. We’ve been watching Luke’s work grow and evolve over the last several years and with this painting, he really seems to be hitting his stride.
Andrea Carlson’s landscapes are unlike anything being painted right now. You truly do feel as if the land is a living, breathing entity filled with the past; the cacophony of colors and text only adds to this effect. Her exhibition at the MCA this winter was one of the highlights for us, and we count ourselves fortunate to have added this particular work to our collection.”
Read CGN's 2024 interview with Trissa and Sundeep here.
Leah Ke Yi Zheng
ZACH SMITH –
no.64 <-> no.6 <-> no.50 <-> no.44 <-> no.14 <-> no.1, 2024
“This is a work I recently acquired. Leah is one of Chicago’s top emerging artists. Her silk paintings are simultaneously subtle and transcendent. I first came across her art at Apparatus Projects, a now-defunct non-profit exhibition space that was in the Midland Building near Pilsen. I am thrilled to live with her work and excited to see her practice unfold.”
Read CGN's 2023 interview with Zach here.
Anna Elise Johnson, Zzyzx Road at Magic Hour V
Maha Al-Zahrani
MICHELLE EDWARDS –
“I always keep a sort of ‘hit list’ and number one on it right now is a rock sculpture by Anna Elise Johnson at Sebastian Campos’s The Mission Projects. It’s been top on my list for too long and will be my next purchase. I have been following Sebastian and his wife Jennifer’s program since way back to their space on Chicago Ave.”
“My most recent “hang” is a gift from Maha Al-Zahrani, a Saudi Arabian artist who studied at SAIC. She gifted it to me after we became friends the Society for Contemporary Art. It means so much to me for that reason. I call her the Saudi Elizabeth Peyton, and I look forward to purchasing one of her paintings next.
I also recently attended the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s DARKROOM benefit in February. It was a great event, but sadly for me I was outbid on the artwork I wanted. I highly encourage aspiring collectors to attend fundraisers with auctions because it’s fun, you meet people and the process of bidding is infectious but not intimidating. That is how I got started collecting, and I have heard similar stories from some active, high profile collectors.”
Read CGN's 2024 interview with Michelle here.
JULIA AND LARRY ANTONATOS –
“Our most recent acquisition is a print that we bought at an artist-run space in Morocco that reminds us of the architectural profiles we saw there. In addition to loving the boldness of the images, we also liked that proceeds from the sale benefitted the nonprofit cultural organization that runs the space, ThinkTanger, which is doing very cool work shaping Tangier’s development.”
Raymond A. Thomas
D.E. SIMMONS –
My Conscience Bares Witness To The Truth, mixed media on canvas, 2024
“I have been following Raymond for about two years and this just spoke to me, and the title nailed it. A St. Louis native, Thomas graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1984, where he studied painting, filmmaking and graphic design. Thomas also served as art director and creative manager at Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Company Inc. for over 23-years. Thomas has won numerous artistic awards, including “best painting” and “best of show” at the Black Creativity juried art exhibition held the Museum of Science and industry in Chicago in 2013.”
Read CGN's 2013 profile of Diasporal Rhythms here.
