But is it worth it?

Why buying the right art is good for your soul and your wallet

And why working with a gallery helps you find the right art.

As a gallerist, one of my main jobs is guiding collectors, like you, through the process of building their collections. Helping them understand where to start, what to consider, and where to go next as they discover, collect, and care for world-class original art.

First and foremost, I believe you should buy art because it speaks to your soul. Because it ignites thoughts, feelings, and questions that you want to cultivate in your physical and mental space. But, when that purchase also comes with a large price tag like it does with work from any well established and significant artist, you might wonder: is it really worth that much?

Let's talk about what makes artwork high value and why working with a gallerist can help you discern when a piece is a good investment and worth that price tag.

There are three factors that most frequently play into the pricing of an artwork:

 1) Rarity: how hard is it to obtain this object and/or the materials it is made out of.

2) Relevance: is this piece a cutting-edge commentary on the current moment.

3) Skill: the training and knowledge required to make it.

Original art, in analog mediums, will always be rare to some degree because nothing made by human hands can ever be exactly replicated. Also, by nature, work that is made by a human is limited in its lifetime production because, eventually, all artists die. An established artist's work always significantly appreciates once it becomes a finitely limited resource. (Side note, if I mysteriously die in my 40's it's because I faked my own death so I could increase the price on my work)

What might be less obvious about rarity is how unique a piece is within the larger oeuvre of an artist. This is where a gallerist's perspective is invaluable. They can give insight on whether or not the piece is a stand out piece in a way that will mark it as a key or turning point in the artist's career, and therefore more valuable in the long run, or if it is a divergence that will feel out of place and insignificant with time.

When it comes to relevance, the joy for you as a collector is considering for yourself how the piece speaks to the current moment as you are experiencing it. Does it speak in a way that is timeless or fleeting?

If the artist is established, it is clear that they have the conceptual skill set to continue to create work that is relevant across decades. The insight a gallerist can provide on relevance becomes more critical when the work is coming from an early or mid-career artist. A gallerist has the perspective to understand if the fledgling artist has the work ethic and critical thinking skills to sustain decades of relevant conversation with their work and thereby exponentially increase the value of their work over time. The best time to collect an artist is often early in their career, but knowing who to collect and how early to collect takes insider knowledge.

Let's use these principles to consider some of the work on display at the gallery this month.

J. Kirk Richards has produced another beautifully painted (skill) and questioning body of work with "Do You Consider Yourself Worthy". Each piece comes in a spectacularly crafted and one of a kind (rarity) frame featuring shell and pearl accents as a nod to ideas of immutable worth and the pearly gates of heaven. The series is a reflection on the Latter-day Saint temple recommend interview questions and Kirk's wrestling with them. In a moment when ideas of tension between institution and individual, purity and parity, and spirituality and self-determination are in the spotlight both within Latter-day Saint circles and beyond, the show provides culture specific commentary with relevance beyond the confines of a denomination.

Do You Consider Yourself Worthy

The collection of work by Jorge Cocco Santángelo on display offers a narratively broad scope of work in Jorge's unmistakable and groundbreaking (rare) sacrocubist style. Jorge is 90 years old and this work represents the culmination of decades (skill) of breaking outside the bounds of what American audiences expect from Christian art (relevance). As work from an artist towards the end of his career, these pieces become a more limited resource by the day.

Jorge Cocco Collection

But what if you are not in a place to collect work at the price point of Kirk and Jorge's? The great news is that collecting early in an artist's career is one of the best times to collect and we have work from dozens of excellent ascendant artists.

Here are a few whose work echoes similar themes and styles as Kirk and Jorge and that as a gallerist I will put my full weight behind.

Jenna Conlin - Jenna's work is built on the foundations of classical technique but is not bogged down by an unquestioning servitude to exact realism. Her exuberantly applied paint drifts in and out of representationalism in a way that captures both the narrative of her deep philosophical themes as well as their emotion.

Lovetta Reyes Cairo - Lovetta's ethereal paintings often hold in tension soft and whimsical imagery with weighty themes of mortality, grief, and doubt. Her illustrative and unidealized figures feel both universal and uniquely human.

Brandon Gonzales - Brandon's fresh crisp colors and bold gouache application bring new life to age old scriptural scenes. They invite the viewer into a never before seen cinematic perspective of what might otherwise be dog-eared imagery.

If any of these artists' work intrigues you, or you would like a FREE consultation on how to best build and care for your art collection, don't hesitate to reach out.

Until next month! Happy collecting!

Aloha,

Esther H. Candari, MFA