Independent Collectors

Seth Stolbun

The Houston native collector almost exclusively acquires works from artists that he has a personal relationship with

Ultraviolet Production House, Installation view from Showroom, Bahamas Biennale, Detroit, works pictured: Lean In To Walking: Customizable Resume Sand Impression Sandals, 2017; Family Growth Charts: Map your child’s yearly height in comparison to the projected rise of sea levels over the next 100 years, 2017; This Paintstaking 2,000 Piece Wifi Password Jigsaw Puzzle Will Likely Keep Your AirBNB Guests Busy Long Enough to Avoid Stealing Your Possessions, 2017; Automated Promotion or Dire Warning? This Scarecrow Playing A Live Feed of A Conversation Taking Place Inside at Full Volume Outdoors Will Get The Business You Place it In Front of Whatever Customers It Deserves (Brad), 2017
Ultraviolet Production House, Installation view from Showroom, Bahamas Biennale, Detroit, works pictured: Lean In To Walking: Customizable Resume Sand Impression Sandals, 2017; Family Growth Charts: Map your child’s yearly height in comparison to the projected rise of sea levels over the next 100 years, 2017; This Paintstaking 2,000 Piece Wifi Password Jigsaw Puzzle Will Likely Keep Your AirBNB Guests Busy Long Enough to Avoid Stealing Your Possessions, 2017; Automated Promotion or Dire Warning? This Scarecrow Playing A Live Feed of A Conversation Taking Place Inside at Full Volume Outdoors Will Get The Business You Place it In Front of Whatever Customers It Deserves (Brad), 2017

What began in 2010 with a focus primarily on multiples published by The Paragon Press UK, The Stolbun Collection has now turned its attention to featuring younger American artists, with collector Seth Stolbun working closely with select galleries in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

IC
How important is having the title of “collector” to you?

Seth Stolbun
The title isn’t important. The word has a lot of connotations that I don’t necessarily think have a lot of value any more, so I find it restrictive and I would say it’s a designation I avoid.

IC
Does your collection follow a specific theme or particular artists?

Seth Stolbun
I like to think of collecting as its own kind of creative practice. Officially, “The Stolbun Collection LLC” is an entity that owns only two artworks. Instead, it’s a conceptual and legal entity, the main purpose of which is to limit my personal financial liability. This allows me to take more risks through the LLC, while protecting the many artworks I personally own. The Stolbun Collection (TSC) is a very intentional misnomer that’s also a nod to institutional critique. Traditional institutional critique, often associated with conceptual and performance work from the 60’s and 70’s, seems to have lost some of its potency today since most art institutions invite critical works to show that they’re self-aware and responsive to artistic climate around them. Because of this I felt that with TSC I could become an “institution” and use it as the platform for what I want to critique and what I want to see.
With that in mind, while history is very important, I focus on artists that are my “peers” which I loosely define at about ten years, plus or minus, my age. Many of which directly engage with questions around the role of art institutions and systems of production and distribution can function today.

IC
Do you have a personal relationship with the artists you collect?

Seth Stolbun
I almost exclusively acquire work from artists that I have a personal relationship with. I’m not interested in making an acquisition of work from an artist I have not met and do not personally believe in. Most importantly I want to be able to have a long lasting relationship with them, especially at my relatively young age of 30. I want to help them build their career.
I also want to help bring artists together through my collection. One such example of this is Thomas Huston’s “Standard Moving Blankets for The Stolbun Collection.” Basically, Huston wrapped other artists’ works from my collection, creating what he called “temporary sculptures” that would only continue to exist in the photo documentation of the project. In the process of creating the two final wrapped works in the series, one a fragile glass piece by David Horvitz located in Los Angeles and the other a geocached work of art hidden in Central Park by Brad Troemel, Huston had the opportunity to meet and work with Horvitz and Troemel—two artists who were slightly his senior and whose practices he greatly admired. It was an unexpected added bonus to facilitate this collaboration between three artists I respect.
I think a lot of my collecting practice revolves around helping artists to do something they might not otherwise be able to by virtue of just having a more personal relationship with them. For instance, I had a studio apartment in New York’s Lower East Side that I wasn’t occupying, so I created an impromptu “artist residency” for my good friend and painter HyeGyeong Choi. It resulted in her solo show,Invasion of Privacy”, in which she took over the the apartment to make an immersive installation of her work, something she might not have had the leeway to do in a typical gallery show.
I host another annual residency, too, in Aspen, where I invite artists, writers and curators to work from my house there for a week to ten days. Andrew Norman Wilson’s latest project developed as a result of his participation in the residency I held last April; the video work, “Kodak,” premiered this past fall at Krieg in Hasselt, Belgium, and at the New York Film Festival. It will also be shown at the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam and in an solo exhibition Kunstverein Braunschweig. Having events like this residency gives me the opportunity to really strengthen existing relationships and always seems to surprise me with new and exciting opportunities. I plan to hold my next Aspen residency in early 2019.

IC
Is there an artwork that you love but can’t live with due to size, medium, or value?

Seth Stolbun
For me, the more relevant and challenging question is thinking about how you live with a work that does not necessarily have a physical form. It may be digital, atemporal, performance, video, idea-based—the list goes on. You could hypothetically make a physical place for them them but they aren’t necessarily intended to function as traditional art objects to simply sit in a fixed place and be admired, so maybe you shouldn’t even have that concern.
One work that in my collection that underscores this for me is Julia Weist and Nestor Sire’s “Hulk_Paquete_HD.mp4” (2018). The work is a video capture of Julia talking with actor Mark Ruffalo over Skype about how he uses the internet. On its own and out of context, the video is pretty mundane—the only remarkable thing about it perhaps is that Mark is a celebrity. But when considered as a part of Julia and Nestor’s research and 2017 exhibition “17.(SEPT) [By WeistSiréPC]™” at the Queens Museum in New York, this video serves to further their investigation and infiltration into Cuba’s system of media (and information) distribution known as “El Paquete”, essentially an offline network in a country with very little access to the internet as we know it. The work was placed in an edition of “El Paquete” as a tool of educating Cubans about the possibilities of the internet.

IC
In your opinion, what mistakes do young collectors commonly make? And what mistakes did you make when first starting on your collecting journey?

Seth Stolbun
I’m going to formulate this response in relationship to “young” as in new and not focus on mistakes, but rather one core piece of advice. Do the work for yourself; take the time to go to as many galleries and art institutions as you can, meet as many artists and curators and critics as you can, educate yourself, read and learn as much as you can.
My one caveat is that I’m very skeptical of art fairs as a place to do any of what I just recommended and I have been on what I call an “art fair sabbatical” since March 2017 after William Powhida’s “After the Contemporary” debuted at the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, CT. I really value Powhida’s work for the incisive critique it often levies on the commercial art world, which is embodied in the art fair platform. I worked closed the artist on that show and it may represent the most substantial amount of work I have put into a single project to date. Thomas Micchelli’s reviewed the show in “Hyperallergic”, and I think what he says about Powhida’s work is not only why I liked working on the show but also gets at the heart of my distaste for fairs. Micchelli writes: “[It is a] multilayered, impudent, lacerating exhibition that pricks pretense and self-delusion on every level, from mega-rich collectors fancying themselves pillars of civilization to politically committed artists rationalizing their aspirations to the high-end gallery system.”
After working so closely on this show with Powhida, it was painfully clear the art fair was not the place to have an uncompromised art experience because these events, which are essentially just trade fairs, facilitate both the delusion of collectors and artists alike.

IC
What has the reaction been like from visitors of your collection since making it publicly accessible? Does this reaction impact you and what you collect?

Seth Stolbun
I’ve never had a permanent space. I’d say I take a much more “opportunity-based” approach. I’ve had temporary project spaces and exhibitions in Aspen, Chicago and New York and help facilitate exhibitions in some galleries and art institutions that I want to support. I hope what I do, whether in a project space or an art institution, furthers an artist’s, curator’s, writer’s or critic’s practice first and foremost.

IC
How has the attitude to collecting changed since you began?

Seth Stolbun
I have learned so much. I’ve had the opportunity to see through so much of the opacity of the art world, and I have met so many people that I can now call friends. I had no idea when I began that any of this would have been possible. While I’m really not concerned with my personal accumulation of art objects, I am concerned about continuing to find ways to play a small role in supporting artists, curators, writers, or critics. Ultimately I hope some of this work finds its way into the art historical canon.

IC
Which publicly accessible private collection would you recommend visiting?

Seth Stolbun
The Menil Collection, and I’d even go so far as to suggest reading Double Vision: The Unerring Eye of Art World Avatars Dominique and John de Menil by William Middleton.

The Stolbun Collection is featured in the BMW ART GUIDE by INDEPENDENT COLLECTORS.

For more information visit the Stolbun Collection.

William Powhida, Installation view from After the Contemporary, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT, works pictured: Twenty Five Years of Impenetrable Discourse, 2017; Didactics, 2017; After the Contemporary Wall Texts, 2017
William Powhida, Installation view from After the Contemporary, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT, works pictured: Twenty Five Years of Impenetrable Discourse, 2017; Didactics, 2017; After the Contemporary Wall Texts, 2017
HyeGyeong Choi, Installation view from Invasion of Privacy, The Stolbun Collection LES, works pictured: (L) Nudle Party in NYC Subway to G Choi Ave; (R) She Bad
HyeGyeong Choi, Installation view from Invasion of Privacy, The Stolbun Collection LES, works pictured: (L) Nudle Party in NYC Subway to G Choi Ave; (R) She Bad
HyeGyeong Choi, She Bad, 2018
HyeGyeong Choi, She Bad, 2018
David Horvitz, Untitled (Dead Horse Bay/San Pedro), 2016
David Horvitz, Untitled (Dead Horse Bay/San Pedro), 2016
Andrew Norman Wilson, Kodak (Screenshot), 2018
Andrew Norman Wilson, Kodak (Screenshot), 2018
Julia Weist and Nestor Siré, Hulk_Paquete_HD.mp4 (Screenshot), 2018
Julia Weist and Nestor Siré, Hulk_Paquete_HD.mp4 (Screenshot), 2018
Ultraviolet Production House, Have A Cord Problem And a Spare Half Hour? Try Using Some of That Excess Length To Liven The Room With a Scene From Your Favorite Planet Earth Episode Including The Commercials That Aired During It, 2017
Ultraviolet Production House, Have A Cord Problem And a Spare Half Hour? Try Using Some of That Excess Length To Liven The Room With a Scene From Your Favorite Planet Earth Episode Including The Commercials That Aired During It, 2017
Thomas Huston, Standard Moving Blankets for The Stolbun Collection, 2016-17, Home Depot Standard Moving Blankets, (Documentation of Huston wrapping Brad Troemel’s Counterfeit and Real Princess Di Beanie Baby for transportation in one of his blankets - Troemel also pictured)
Thomas Huston, Standard Moving Blankets for The Stolbun Collection, 2016-17, Home Depot Standard Moving Blankets, (Documentation of Huston wrapping Brad Troemel’s Counterfeit and Real Princess Di Beanie Baby for transportation in one of his blankets - Troemel also pictured)

USA (55)

West Collection

Since 1996, Al & Paige West have been building an impressive collection, including works by artists such as Donald Judd, Martin Boyce, and Candice Breitz.

Valeria Napoleone

The Italian-born collector actively seeks out under­represented positions and therefore only acquires works by women artists.

Christine and Andrew Hall

Interview with the collectors behind Hall Art Foundation

Gary Yeh

IC talks to Gary Yeh.

de la Cruz Collection

Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, the co-founders of the renowned collection that bears their name, are always quick to highlight the importance of education when discussing the role the De La Cruz Collection plays in the Miami community.

The Broad Collection

Walking down the Grand Avenue in Los Angeles, right by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), you can’t help but be struck by the angular construction of The Broad and its bright white honeycomb exterior.

Marciano Art Foundation

Maurice and Paul Marciano, founders of the GUESS jeans brand, in their five-thousand-square-meter exhibition space

The Mallin Collection

Nestled on 15 acres in the scenic town of Pound Ridge, New York, Buckhorn Sculpture Park features gardens, woodlands, a lake and an orchard.

Transformer Station

Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell’s transformation of an electrical power station in Cleveland

The Goss-Michael Foundation

A place that grew out of a romantic connection between Kenny Goss and the late pop music legend, George Michael

Franks-Suss Collection

Initially focused on China, collectors Simon Franks and Robert Suss soon widened their purview

Mera & Donald Rubell

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Thoma Foundation

Two intimate art spaces in Chicago and Santa Fe encourage dialogue between work and viewer

Martin Margulies

Interview with the collector behind the Margulies Collection

The Donum Collection

Wine tasting and Crouching Spider by Louise Bourgeois

March 8th 2022

The Stolbun Collection presents “March 8th 2022”, likely the only exhibition at Ferndale–Seth Stolbun’s rental home, as captured by his iPhone

Rubell Family Collection

Curator Joey Lico teams up with artist Alexis Diaz to visit the mighty Rubell Museum in Miami

Saint Georgina Slays The Dragon

A new collection on IC, see inside The Bennett Collection, which is focused on figurative realism, specifically the realistic, painted depiction of women by women.

Flippin The Script with Armand-Paul Family Collection

In “Flippin The Script” we warmly welcome the Armand-Paul Family Collection in New York to IC, with its focus on the African and Latin diasporas, and interest in performance.

Donna Huanca – Obsidian Ladder

Skin painting artist Donna Huanca participates in the current MAF project series, exploring gender and sexuality in contemporary life.

We Still Have Wild Birds Here

Overlooked American artist Gene Beery (b. 1937), declared and depicted reflections in his paintings with a relevant truth and irony that is no less today.

Life Cycle

The Marciano Art Foundation hosted Ai Weiwei for the third MAF Project in their Theatre Gallery.

The Wig Museum

LA's MAF was inaugurated in 2017 with a solo show of Jim Shaw, curated by Philipp Kaiser.

Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation

Delve into the digital art of the collection exhibited across two spaces.

Art Now, Art Forever: Damon Zucconi

As collectors dedicated to following artist careers in depth and breadth, Clayton Press and Gregory Linn describe their on-going relationship to the work of Damon Zucconi, whose works are frequently accessible online.

www.Simco Web Works

In context of exposing art digitally and exposing digital art, we wanted to present artworks that have only and always existed on the web, as URLs, here in the collection of Stefan Simchowitz.

Responding to Nature

Tucked away in the vineyard’s of San Francisco you’ll find the secret sculpture park of Nancy and Steve Oliver.

Go Figure / Alec Soth

This summer, the Pizzuti Collection will feature two exhibitions featuring works taken from the private collection of Ron and Ann Pizzuti.

John Morrissey

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Roberto Toscano

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Stefan Simchowitz Collection

L.A.’s most controversial art collector opens up his private collection of contemporary painting.

Carole Server

The New York-based collectors with an enthusiasm for patronage and education.

Force and Form

The private collection studying contemporary visual culture.

Elayne & Marvin Mordes

The sun has just risen over the eaves when we meet on Park Avenue one peaceful January morning and Marvin and Elayne Mordes seem just the way we’d had hoped – warm, open and sympathetic.

Buckhorn Sculpture Park

Located in the scenic town of Pound Ridge, New York, you’ll find the private home of collector couple Sherry and Joel Mallin and their Buckhorn Sculpture Park.

Visions From India

The exhibition “Transforming Vision” includes some of the most prominent Indian artists working today, with all forty works coming from the Pizzuti Collection.

Clayton Press & Gregory Linn

Since 1980, Clayton Press and Gregory Linn – New Jersey collectors – have evolved from being energetic art aficionados to art market specialists.

Steve Shane

Manhattan-based collector Steve Shane is completely in love with art.

Soul Of A Nation: Art In The Age Of Black Power 1963-1983

HEAR this Online Exhibition, exclusively put together with an abundance of images, to view whilst listening to a curated playlist by Quincy Jones.

The Broad Survey Of Shirin Neshat

Downtown L.A.’s The Broad presents Shirin Neshat in an immersive survey.

PHANTASMAGORIA

Exhibition at the Stolen Collection

The Herskovic Collection

A fanatic collector of Abstract Expressionist Painting.

The Dikeou Collection — Part III

A variety of artworks by both established and emerging artists.

The Dikeou Collection — Part IV

A variety of artworks by both established and emerging artists.

The Dikeou Collection – Part II

Artworks by both established and emerging artists, ranging from installations, sculpture, photographs, videos, drawings, to painting.s.

The Dikeou Collection – Part I

Founded in 1998 by the siblings Pany and Devon Dikeou, the Dikeou Collection is located in downtown Denver.

Times of Change

New York-based collector Gregory Vinitsky has been dedicated to collecting contemporary since the 1970s.

Working Hard for Art

An art consultant and curator by day, the Brooklyn-based Collector is a self proclaimed “gutsy newcomer”, working with emerging artists to help her push her collection further.

Chaotic Contemporary

Chicago based collector Troy Klyber, is a contemporary art collector that loves to engage in a bit of chaos.

No Man’s Land

Just in time for the opening of Art Basel Miami Beach 2015, the Rubell Family Collection/Contemporary Arts Foundation has opened its new exhibition, “NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection”.

Letters to Pia

Having been given the chance to acquire intimate images of Morrisroe’s muse, Pia Howard, Boston-based collector Adam Larson speaks to IC about his relationship with the following photographs, and of course about Pia.

Select Works from the Stolbun Collection

The Stolbun Collection has turned its attention to featuring younger American artists

R F Jefferies – Don’t Postpone Joy

A look inside the collection of San Diego-based collector R F Jefferies.

THE OJIKUTU COLLECTION

Exquisite showcase of treasures of African art, culture, and history