Combining Art & Business: My Story
I didn’t become an art dealer just out of my love for the arts.
My corresponding love for business drove me to understand that I had something valuable to offer to the art world.
As a child, I enjoyed painting and very much appreciated my own paintings–what child doesn’t? I particularly enjoyed painting with watercolors, which is something I still do on occasion. Actually, in my early 20’s I quite fancied myself as an artist!
Perhaps that is why I became attracted to the art business during my college years. While a student of business in Boston, I would regularly visit museums and galleries and admire the work of many artists. But it wasn’t until I volunteered for Boston’s public television auction for WGBH that I began to truly understand art as a business.
Acting as a liaison between art galleries, gallery owners, and the artists themselves was fascinating and I soon discovered that the world of art consists of two types of people–those who are passionate about art and artists, and those who are passionate about running a business. I noticed that many gallery owners, who were experts when it came to paintings and choosing work for their galleries, unfortunately, didn’t understand the business side of art at all. That was when it struck me: Why not create a career around combining these two interests? That was the moment I decided that the art business was my chosen path.
Running my own business one day was always at the back of my mind. The combination of my studies in business, the experience I gained working for the management consulting firm Bain & Company during my college years, and the influence of my entrepreneurial father, all seemed to push me in that direction! I was always fascinated by art and the influence it had on me, especially abstract and contemporary art. Naturally, I would follow this route .
Soon after completing my studies, I worked as an art consultant for an art publisher/gallery owner in Soho, where my passion for art along with my business experience helped me succeed and grow. Five years later, having gained even more experience, knowledge, and confidence, the time had come for me to run my own business. I co-founded dotCom gallery, which was the first online/offline art gallery of it’s time. We were ahead of the curve with our e-commerce initiative and eventually put it to rest due to the art world’s then lack of comfort with online transactions.
Being an independent art consultant/dealer was my next step and an interesting period of my life. Doing corporate as well as private installations meant that there was a lot of networking involved that led to numerous connections; artists and clients.
I didn’t know this at the time, but it would be one of those connections that would offer me my very first interior design project that triggered my interest and future in this captivating profession!
Soon enough major design magazines, including the most prominent one- Interior Design Magazine- became aware of my designs and featured them extensively across their pages. More to come…
