Industry Insiders: On The Radar
Author:Lindsey ShookWe caught up with three of the California art scene’s leading women to gather their insight on the artists we should be paying close attention to. Check out the full story in our summer issue!
HOLLY BAXTER, VP of Restoration Hardware Contemporary Art – Global
Former international art advisor and gallery owner Holly Baxter has served as the force behind Restoration Hardware’s Contemporary Art program since 2013. She travels around the globe to identify and support today’s international artists and introduce their work to curators, critics, collectors, and institutions. With 18 artist documentaries and two critical art journals on her resume, Baxter herself is a force to watch.
Holly Baxter portrait by Richard Kern.
“I’m really excited about a young artist (above), Gijs Van Lith from the Netherlands, who had his first U.S. solo exhibition at RH Contemporary Art in September 2014. Van Lith’s canvases are painted countless times, as he applies layers of paint and then sands them down creating surfaces that are both colorful and deconstructed. He has been nominated for more than 11 prizes and awards, and his work is in several collections, including the royal family of the Netherlands.”
JESSICA SILVERMAN, Owner of Jessica Silverman Gallery – San Francisco
In 2008 Jessica Silverman opened the Jessica Silverman Gallery with a mission of introducing emerging international and California artists to the San Francisco Bay Area. With a concept-driven roster that embraces both abstract and figurative work, notable museums such as MoMA, LACMA, and the Whitney Museum of American Art look to Silverman for innovative work to add to their collection.
Jessica Silverman portrait by Margo Moritz.
“I am really excited about the paintings and sculptures of LA-based artist Erica Mahinay, who is enjoying a spectacularly successful show at Fused Space titled ‘Thin Skins, Infinity Pools, And Sand Slumps,’ the show contains works that function as sensual abstractions on one level and evocative figurations with allegorical associations on the other. With the kind of intense physicality that is an antidote to our screen-dominated daily lives, the works address issues of splendor, narcissism, tragedy, and desire.”
MICHELLE JOAN PAPILLION, Owner of Papillion – Los Angeles
Art dealer and gallery owner Michelle Joan Papillion is known for developing both artists and patrons. Her internationally acclaimed art gallery in LA’s Leimert Park hosts a number of shows for emerging artists, helping them become the next great stars.
Michelle Joan Papillion portrait by Bridget Fleming.
“I am following Bay Area artist Samuel Levi Jones, an abstract conceptual artist who had his break-out year in 2014 when he received the Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize of $50,000. Using a very minimal aesthetic, Jones takes encyclopedias and breaks them down, exposing the desecrated covers of the books, which he sews together to create a new work. His art speaks to notions of power and recorded histories. In his reassembling of the book covers, he examines which histories have been recorded and which have been omitted.”
