Independent Collectors
Stefan Simchowitz Collection
L.A.’s most controversial art collector opens up his private collection of contemporary painting.
One of the most talked about figures in today’s contemporary art world, Los Angeles-based art collector and dealer Stefan Simchowitz is someone you either love to hate, or hate to love.
Simchowitz, who was once hailed “The Art World’s Patron Satan” in a New York Times headline, has gained a reputation within the art world as one of the most influential, and disputed, contemporary art collectors of modern times. An avid supporter and collector of young and undiscovered artists, the collector has also been widely criticized for his unconventional collecting practices.
Whatever your opinion on his acquisition of art may be, it is his outspoken opinions about the inner-workings of the art market that have thrust these once private dealings and hidden activities into the limelight, helping to create a more transparent and honest dialogue within a world that is notoriously secretive. In 2016 Simchowitz famously shamed dealers and their “fictional powers of persuasion“, demanding for them to let go of their archaic business models and for the art market to become more democratic.
In his first online exhibition on IC, Stefan Simchowitz shares a selection of artworks from the continuously growing Stefan Simchowitz Collection.