Althea Viafora-Kress is an independent curator and art dealer living in New York City.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

I lived with old masters and they inspired my imagination to give form to my life through contemporary art.  By the time I was 20, I had a real passion.  I left the mausoleum walls of art and found myself at living spaces like White Columns, looking at art, meeting artists and curators.   I wanted to support artists and Peter Jay Sharp, Ahmet Ertegün and I became the majority backers to open a contemporary art gallery.  Some of the first artists we showed were Matthew Barney (Field Dressing video and Drawing Restraint), Eva Hesse (paintings), Elizabeth Payton (works on glass), Robert Smithson, Danny Lion, Christian Marclay and others.  I kid my backers and say we are foot notes.  I enjoy collaborating and adore people and new art supports this; the first person I invited to curate a show was Bill Arning and a wise person who knows art, Barry Rosen.  As with great people, great art transcends time and its momentary meaning.  I have friends who have been devoted to art for over 20 years and younger friends who are putting their energies with their peers on the LES, in Berlin, Detroit, London – places where they are making a difference not just for themselves as careerist but for communities at large.  Contemporary art is about the objects, the culture, the art production and care takers.  Art which is seen as great is priceless, and the market seems to keep supporting this.  As a cultural worker, I try to support this with whatever means I have, with work, wisdom or wealth.

What was your impression of the Frieze Art Fair coming to New York?

Frieze was incredible and brought together communities outside the fair booths.  Art Fairs, like old fashioned World Fairs represent the culture industry by the nature of how they position their selections.  How these local cultures contribute varies, Miami Basel contributes to community, the Armory contributes to relationships, Dubai contributes to education, Frieze contributes to more than celebrity orientation and profitable style.  The British took over Randall’s Island territory by the artistic avant-guards and the social moments around contemporary art. The market of knowledge showed up too, institutions, publications, symposium, along with the commercial – galleries brought some great works and the venue’s high ceilings and outdoor grass gave generously.  The results?  We attended and not just at 11am opening day, our international relationships thrived, our business was accomplished and talks were attended.  Thursday, clients and I took a town car and it was art fair perfection with the consumption of art acquisitions followed by a celebrity sausage. On Friday like Venice, the ferry gave us time to report our judgements with our peers and Sunday travel from home was by the Harlem school bus which took us to the baby dealers running the art fair booths.  We then relished the brilliant and packed Rob Storr talk on Gerhard Richter.  People showed up on this new art territory and speaking for myself I covered some new ground.  The Swiss Institute’s show was the best possible way to end the week.  As we experience expensive gallery after-parties and the steroid gallery spaces as a marketing technique to engage us towards consensus, the nights passed, and the next days consensus was Frieze passed with flying colors.  I am sure Frieze’s sphere of influence will continue to expand just as our other fairs’ networking markets will continue to interact and make their own adjustments to the new fair in town.

Tell us about a piece of art you live with?

Christian Marclay, ‘Bouche-oreille’, 1990, 2 terra cotta imprints.

You have an exciting project in India you worked on. Can you share some details?

Subodh Gupta’s, “Line of Control” was just installed at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi.  The indoor sculpture weighs 26 tons is stainless steal and measures 40 x 40 feet.  The acquisition began with a conversation about a possibility during Art Basel Miami.  The work was last seen during ‘Altermodern. Tate Triennial 2009′, and it was was time to have it experienced by the public again.  I worked with an adviser and the client closing the deal over the December holiday.  I then had the great fortune to work with a brilliant registrar; it took 10 flat bed trucks to move the elements out of storage and then packed for sea travel.  The crates arrived at Karin Nadar’s museum which is reported to be the first private museum in India.  Discussing her level of commitment to Subdoh Gupta and Indian art, I was beyond moved and thought of the earliest collectors in this country, such as Frick or the Morgans.  ‘Line of Control’ is living art about geographic boundaries and territory.  The collector has gifted its magic to the audience it is speaking to in spectacular material dimensions.  Kiran Nadar allowed it be removed from the commercial art world and be placed in a context where it means something extraordinary.  Iwan and Manual Wirth supported ‘Line of Control’ all along and I am grateful to have been given the freedom to support what I love and find a home for this work.  To allow artists and the art market to flourish we can also go beyond New York, Hong Kong, London, Berlin, and Beijing.  I am sure New Delhi will welcome you and I hope you will visit this work in person.

view: Tate Britain, 'Altermoder. Tate Triennial', London/UK 2009

view: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi/India 2012

An upcoming show you are excited to see?

Storm King Art Center, ‘Light and Landscape’ curated by Nora Lawrence (May 12th -November 11th).

Artist quote or words to live by?

I attended a talk Mitch Cope gave at Frieze.  What he is doing is relevant today. Mitch Cope is an artist and Co-founder of Power House Productions in Detroit.

“These seven artists have been working in the city as explorers, adventurers and pioneers for years to capture the city as it changes, evolves, devolves and transforms into something unbelievable, profound and heartbreaking. In the end they hope as a group to show Detroit as it is, not what it should be or what it was, but how it is. This in itself a provocative gesture as there are not many who feel content with the Detroit of today.”

David Kaiser is an independent art curator, art adviser, and a gallerist at frosch&portmann on the lower east side.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

I’ve always been obsessed with art, my nature demands it! I don’t have specific memories, but I’m pretty sure I emerged from my mother in the delivery room thinking about Courbet’s Origin of the World, ha!

Is the lower east side still in its infancy as an art destination?

I think it’s still in it’s nascent stages and it’s exciting to see it grow and evolve. There is a definite LES spirit and vibrancy buoyed by the New Museum and events like The Festival of Ideas for the New City that happened last summer. During the festival, A Swiss artist at frosch&portmann, Raffaella Chiara, moved to the LES for a month to draw inspiration from the rhythm of the neighborhood and created some amazing work. I think it’s the best neighborhood in the city to find awesome new emerging artists and galleries.

Tell us about an artwork or two that you live with.

One of my favorites is Gnostic Transfer of Grace by Paul Paddock, an artist we’ll be showing at Pulse New York in May. I love the figurative, dreamlike, ambiguous spaces he creates. They’re beautiful and also unsettling at the same time.

Gnostic Transfer of Grace by Paul Paddock

I also love Yves Klein’s Peintures, a series of monochrome prints I have hanging in my apartment. His estate produced a limited edition of them on the occasion of his 2010 retrospective, Yves Klein: With The Void, Full Powers. They are from a catalog that he originally produced in 1954 of an imaginary exhibition that he never really had. They are reproductions of works that never existed. He gives the illusion of the existence of these works in a hilarious and beautiful way. There is nothing more beautiful in the world than Yves Klein blue!

Yves Klein’s Peintures

Upcoming show you are excited to see?

I’m really excited to see the new Cindy Sherman photographs at Metro Pictures that is just opening now (April 28th – June 9th). Also, I just found out that Kalup Linzy will be performing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 14th and 15th. I can’t wait, I’m kind of obsessed with him.

Artist quote or words to live by?

The imagination is the vehicle of sensibility. Transported by the imagination, we attain life, life itself, which is absolute art. – Yves Klein
It’s very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present. Do you know what I mean? – Edith Bouvier Beale

Matt Bangser is a Director of Blum & Poe in Los Angeles.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with the intention of becoming a practicing artist.  My focus shifted relatively early on when I became increasingly interested in the business of the art world and how the market operated.  This is something that was largely overlooked in art school.  Through a variety of internships with artists and auction houses, I saw there was an equally rewarding opportunity to participate in the contemporary art world without maintaining a studio practice.  In fact, the access one has to great artists from the position of gallerist is second to none, and I find myself more immersed in the lives of artists here than I think I would be from any other position.

Since moving to LA, what differences have you noticed in the way people treat contemporary art versus attitudes/approaches in New York?

Since moving to Los Angeles in late 2009, I have seen an enormous surge in interest in the contemporary art community.  I think this is in large part due to the number of influential artists of several generations who are based here in southern California.  That paired with the strength of the public institutions, the quality of the art schools, and the relatively affordable studios have made L.A. one of the few serious hubs for contemporary art in the world.  If I had to generalize, I would say that there is still some catching up to do with regards to the way the public interacts with contemporary art in Los Angeles as compared to New York.  This is a by-product of two noticeable things.  One, the history of contemporary art in Los Angeles, has only recently been re-explored in a real critical way, through increased interest from curators, gallerists, etc. outside of Los Angeles, and two, it is much more challenging to view contemporary art in Los Angeles than it is in New York.  Here, it requires much more effort from a viewer, whereas in New York, you essentially turn any corner and you run into a gallery or a pop-up exhibition, or a museum.  Here, one must get in the car, and pointedly make an effort to GO SEE art – it doesn’t come see you.

Can you tell us about a piece of art you live with?

George, 1998-99 by Rashid Johnson

My wife and I live with a small collection of work, and mostly by artists that we have gotten to know over the years.  I find this personal connection to the work to be important, and although not essential for everybody, for me it adds an extra layer of understanding to the work and allows me to access it from a more intimate place.  During my time at the Art Institute, I was fortunate to connect with artist Rashid Johnson, and subsequently became his studio assistant.  I live with several of his works, but the earliest and most sentimental is a portrait titled, George, 1998-99, which is part of a body of work he was making when we first met.  Fast forward 14 years and the work is now included in his first major museum show, Message to Our Folks at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

What did you make of Paul McCarthy’s acceptance speech at the New Museum gala?

I thought it was brilliant, refreshing, sad, and likely about as close as one might get to understanding the way his mind works.  Asking an artist to explain himself and what motivates his or her work can be a torturous process.  I think Paul handled it the way many wish they could, but don’t have the guts to.

A new show you either just saw or are excited to visit when it opens?

One exhibition I saw last year that has stuck with me was called, The Last Grand Tour, curated by Jessica Morgan.  This was a group show at the Museum of Cylcadic Art in Athens. The show focused on artists who have lived in Greece during the twentieth century, including Kippenberger, Spoerri, Marden, Samaras, Twombly and interestingly, Leonard Cohen.   I think it was particularly affecting because it felt so unexpected to see there, and because the history of art in Athens looms so large as you walk through the show.  I also happened to see the show shortly after Cy Twombly had passed away, and to hear Like a Bird on the Wire, while looking at Twombly’s work was, I think, emotional for any viewer.

Artist quote or words to live by?

“A Man’s Gotta Have a Code”

Kyle DeWoody is a co-founder and the creative director of GREY AREA, a project that explores the undefined space between art and design with an online store (shopgreyarea.com) and a new store/gallery/project space in SoHo.

Your mother Beth DeWoody is a big collector, but how did you personally get involved in contemporary art?

My mom is an avid collector and my father is an artist, so I grew up surrounded by art, but it wasn’t until I was 14 that I really got pulled in by art  intellectually and emotionally. The real trigger was one of William Kentridge’s films from his series 9 Drawings for Projection. The political and social themes were affecting but the technique was what really stuck with me. He’d use the same sheet of paper for successive charcoal drawings, so each scene had ghosts from the previous one. That’s when I became aware of process and the artist’s hand.

I never would have guessed that I’d be working in the art world though. It always seemed to hierarchical and serious. But I just love working with creative people and GREY AREA let’s me do so without subscribing to the system. We get to play outside it, and I think that’s what draws so many artists to us..

The Grey Area space was once Laurie Simmons studio?

Yes, it’s been confirmed, our current space was once the shared studio of Laurie Simmons and Carol Dunham and the back was sometimes rented to Cindy Sherman. So the history is pretty incredible. I’ve often been nostalgic for the New York of the late ‘70s and ‘80s when SoHo was overrun with artists and the art world seemed a more organic and perhaps pure thing. We’re excited to be part of the movement to bring art back to SoHo.

An artwork you live with?

I live with a lot of art, but one piece I constantly interact with is Anne Collier’s Woman with a Camera (Cheryl Tiegs/Olympus 1), 2008. It’s hanging in my entrance, so literally every time I walk through my front door Cheryl Tiegs takes a photo of me…

Where do you stand on art clutter?

I’d like to think that if I had a bigger apartment I’d have less “art clutter” as you call it, but I’m sure I would fill it up just as easily. If it’s curated in an intentional and beautiful way that gives each work its due, I don’t think it is clutter. I just really enjoy finding interesting things whether its art, books or found objects, and  to be able to basque in their glory.

That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a minimalist environment or fantasize about being one of those people who can fit their life in a suitcase. I do. One’s things don’t make a person who they are, but they do make an apartment into a home.

An upcoming show you’re excited to see?

Part of the reason Anne Collier is on my mind is because her show at Anton Kern (April 5th – May 12th). Then there’s Cindy’s show at MoMA which I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t had time to go see yet, but I’m a huge fan. I do have to mention our upcoming music-themed show at GREY AREA, opening April 28th. It’s going to be rad with music-inspired works and a line-up of awesome performances.

Artist quote or words to live by?

“My actions are my only true belongings.” – Thick Nhat Hanh

Sally Lyndley is a fashion nerd currently holding positions as Fashion Editor At Large for Love Magazine and as Editor-in-Chief of her new fashion website, ForThoseWhoNotice.com.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

When I moved to New York, my boyfriend at the time and I were really poor so we would go cruise the galleries on our days off, because it was free and something to do that seemed mildly cultured.  I started to fall in love at Gagosian. Richard Prince blows my mind, his Cowboy series is one my all time favorites. I’m saving my pennies for one of those bad boys.  Then I discovered Jeff Koons and then the Dan Flavins and the Donald Judds of the world, and it was game over. When I went to Dia Beacon for the first time, the Richard Serra sculptures made me cry. Ridiculous but true.  I stayed in the Gerard Richter mirrors room for like an hour. I am now a nerd for that kinda art. My first major job in NYC was for KCD, and I would spend weeks researching artists for ideas and figuring out who we could get to do some special collaborations for some of our fashion clients. I discovered and became educated about contemporary artists then. I was able to work with James Turrell on a project. I was in heaven. Still obsessed with the Roden Crater but I don’t think he’ll ever open it.

The general perception is that art steals from fashion but does fashion ever give anything back to art?

I think fashion steals from art!! The law firm, Sheppard Mullin, that represents me has these bi-annual mixers that are part cocktail party, part seminar twice a year for the fashion division, and I use to go for shits and giggles or free drinks and to try and meet lawyers who work on fashion investing, etc.  Well, last time I went they had a whole talk, given by my buddy Ted Max, about the copyrighting problems of art inside of fashion.  Ted spoke about the Mondrian dress that YSL did in 1965 and how that was blatantly a copyright issue, or knock off of Piet Mondrian’s work.  And before that Elsa Schiaparelli was always riffing on what her buddies were doing, the Surrealist, the Dada movement.  Basically this big badass lawyer was putting the smack down on all of these major designers for ripping on art. I was highly entertained. I don’t think it stops any fashion people from being “inspired” by art.  I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I know so many fashion designers who depend heavily on art for inspiration: Marc Jacobs, Dries Van Noten, Raf Simons, the list goes on and on. Traditionally, fashion, art and music have all kinda inspired each other as far as I can tell. You get these amazing movements of artists, musicians and fashion designers that are all part of the same posse who end up doing revolutionary work together and as individuals.  On this new site I am doing, ForThoseWhoNotice.com, we break down all of the inspiration behind the collections and the magazine shoots to look at where the ideas come from… 9 times out of 10 it’s art. As far as fashion giving anything back to art, I think Marc Jacobs collaborations with artists like Takashi Marukami, Richard Prince and now Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton is hopefully good for spreading the word about these great artists. And most fashion magazines, Vogue, etc., tend to do an art issue every year. And a lot of the wealthier designers, photographers and other fashion folks, collect art. Fashion works inside of aesthetic, whether it be what’s in your wardrobe or what’s on your walls. So it seems natural that fashion and art sit so closely together, and take from one another. I love that art’s distribution is so exclusive, sometimes I wish fashion was more like that but I guess that’s the point of couture.

Tell us about an artwork you live with.

I have a “Monkey Train” print by Jeff Koons in my home library/workspace. Reminds me that humans are 98% the same DNA as monkeys.  And when I get all riled up, it always makes me laugh because it is so stupid looking.  That’s what I love about Koons, his work is so silly, just have to laugh at it. Can’t take it seriously. People don’t know what to think of it.  So it’s funny to watch like my dad’s reaction. He just kinda shakes his head and mumbles, “whatever floats your boat”.  I also have a huge square beach towel that’s printed with an Elizabeth Peyton charcoal sketch of Sid Vicious. It was created for a charity project.  It’s hanging in my living room and people are kinda weirded out by that one too. I love it because it reminds me of how much of a punk I am. My roots growing up in suburbia are totally punk rock; I was obsessed with the Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious in “Sid & Nancy.”  And I listened to all of the American punk bands growing up, like Black Flag, Fugazi and Dead Kennedys. I love how Peyton puts this classical kinda spin on her portraiture. She paints a lot of my heroes.  I always like oxymoronic things, and classical takes on punk are always a recurring theme for me whether it is art, fashion or music. I also have this sculpture in my bedroom that I found in a chocolate shop in Portland by a local artist there. It’s a life size, rusted porcelain sculpture of a human heart. I love finding little pieces like that in a random city, sometimes makes it more special to me.

Have you ever got something off the Exhibition A site?

I bought the Rene Ricard “But You Said You Love Me” print.  Love it. It’s in my bedroom; goes so well with the rusted heart sculpture.  Scary thing for new boyfriends to see but whatever.  My dry sense of humor, I guess.  I also purchased one of the first prints you guys did, Hannah Liden’s “Blown Out Candles (Graphite)” for a friend for Christmas. I think art like this makes for great gifts, if you know someone’s taste.  Some people won’t buy themselves art. I also want “Unknown Pleasures” and the print of the handrails coming out of a lit swimming pool that are up on the site right now (Ed: Dike Blair’s “Pool”). Oh, and the other Rene Ricard print you guys have (Ed: “Untitled: ‘Then Love Takes Us…’”). I met him years ago at Zac Posen’s studio and whoa, what a character. Yes, I am obsessed with Exhibition A.

An upcoming or recent show you’re excited about?

Yayoi Kusama at the Whitney (July 12th–September 30th, 2012). Kinda obsessed with her. She’s like an old Japanese punk. And Michael Clark at the Whitney (March 14th-April 8th). I have also been crashing these weird little art shows that people do in their houses in North County San Diego, the small sleepy surfer towns.  There’s a lot of crap, but every once in a while you’ll find something totally awesome.  The last treasure I found was a Dutch Masters style portrait of Bill Murray from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.  The price tag said “one zillion dollars.”  I finagled the seller into giving it to me for $50. Obviously, I am not a super serious collector, I just like what I like, whatever means something to me.  As my dad says “Whatever floats your boat.”

Artist quote or words to live by?

“I have no motif, only motivation. I believe that motivation is the real thing, the natural thing, and that the motif is old-fashioned, even reactionary (as stupid as the question about the Meaning of Life).” Notes, 1985 Gerhard Richter or “There’s probably more in the American tradition than people give the place credit for.” Donald Judd

Co-founder of contemporary culture biannual The Last Magazine and creative agency Berger & Wild.

How has The Last Magazine evolved since you started it?

We started with a focus on new talent. I think we still do but I feel we are paying more attention now to what’s going on outside our little bubble.

Image: from the "New Yorkers" series, 2011 by Darren Hall for The Last Magazine.

Do you live with any artwork at home?

Have a beautiful photograph by Martien Mulder that was a gift from my business partner Tenzin Wild. The rest are my own pictures of Richard Serra sculptures from different exhibitions.

An upcoming show you are excited to see?

E.V. Day and Kembra Pfahler’s Giverny show at The Hole. Still havent seen Cindy Sherman’s show at the MoMA.

Artist quote or words to live by?

Every good painter paints what he is. – Jackson Pollock

Photo by Alexandre Stipanovich

Clément Delépine was born in Paris and raised in Switzerland. He now lives in New York and is currently Gallery Manager at Swiss Institute and a contributor to Sang Bleu Magazine and Novembre Magazine.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

I remember in 2000-2001, the “Jackass” show first aired on TV. This vulgarity left everyone pensive. I think the main sociological concern was that these guys weren’t claiming anything. A close friend of mine wrote an essay about this phenomenon and what she called “the ballet of stupid bodies”. She taught me about the Viennese Actionism, Gina Pane, and other artists who used their own body as political weapons in an extreme and subversive way. I was totally fascinated.  I guess this was the starting point.

Working at Swiss Institute do you feel the ghost of Jeffrey Deitch in your Wooster Street space as it was home to his former gallery?

It could have been a heavy heritage to carry on but on the other hand, we didn’t move into a Renaissance Palazzo. This space hosted tremendous shows which gives us room to maneuver. It’s not oppressing. It still happens today that people come to Swiss Institute looking for Deitch projects. When I explain to them that the space is “under new management” they usually start sharing their memories of the Black-Acid Co-op installation or the Nest in the Grand Street gallery space. Eventually everyone is satisfied with the fact that the space is dedicated to contemporary art again. Fortunately, Jeffrey Deitch is still alive, I don’t feel his ghost.

Tell us about a piece of contemporary art you live with.

I have a print by Slavs and Tatars which explains how Azerbaijan had to change alphabet due to the consecutive changes of political influence over the past century.

An upcoming show you are looking forward to?

Ugo Rondinone curated a show up at Barbara Gladstone which I’m very curious to see. Also, Eli Hansen who is part of Heart to Hand, the show we have on view now at Swiss Institute, will have a show at Maccarone at the end of the month.

Nicolas Trembley is an art critic, exhibition curator, and the Syz Collection curator. He lives in Paris and Geneva.

How did you first get involved in contemporary art?

I first got involved with video art.  I had a publishing company called bdv (bureaudesvideos.com), we produced VHS’s with artists like Fischli/Weiss, David Lamelas, Thomas Hirschhorn, etc.  I was working at the video art department at the Pompidou center.

Tell me about this ceramics show you have coming to New York?

It’s called Sgrafo vs Fat Lava. It’s my world tour.   It started in Geneva and then went to Paris.  It just finished at Gisela Capitain in Cologne.  In March the show will be at Zachary Currie in NY.  I’m curating a collection, thesyzcollection.com. The vases are like a test site for how to build a collection.  All the vases were bought on eBay.  They are supposed to be ugly German vases, but depending on the context, and where you put them, they become beautiful sculptures.  It’s democratic.

Can you tell us about an artwork you live with?

I have a red bull from Karlsruhe Majolika on my chimney; I believe it gives me power!

Recently you flew to Malaga for an opening at the Picasso Museum. What’s your all-time favorite art trip you’ve taken?

I’d love to try the Caribbean Biennial on the island of St Kitts! But Malaga was cool too!

How did you first meet Sylvie Fleury and have you worked together before?

I directed her first videos in a car wash.  She was cleaning her “Caprice” Chevrolet in high heels while listening to Christmas songs!

Artist quote or words to live by?

Never give up!

Lisa Cooley owns her eponymously named gallery which is moving to a bigger space on Norfolk Street this month.

How did you inititally get interested in contemporary art?

I got butterflies in my stomach going to the Menil Collection when I was 14 years old. I was really rolled-over by a John Cage exhibit called rollywholyover.

What’s the first artwork you bought or were gifted?

The first things were trades with people you’ve never heard of.  A new purchase that I’m in love with, is a John Fahey painting I got from Audio Visual Arts.

What is behind the move to the new space on Norfolk Street? And what will you miss about the old one?

We have to grow with our artists, and they are becoming more ambitious and more determined by the minute! They needed more space, so I figured out how to get what they needed. I will miss our great floors at Orchard Street, all though I won’t miss moping them (splinters).

An upcoming show you are really looking forward to seeing?

To be honest, I can’t wait to see our new exhibition in our new space. I have no idea what it will look like!  Also, Christies is showing a group of Forest Bess paintings at Rockefeller Center – I want to see that.

Artist quote or words to live by?

Dale Cooper: “Harry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it, don’t wait for it, just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair or two cups of good hot black coffee.”

Photo by Jacqueline Hodgson

Elena is a writer, art market observer and gallerist at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City.

How did you first get involved in contemporary art?

My first memories of art were the halls of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, where I grew up.  In the vast museum, which stretched along the embankment, one could always wander into a room of Picassos or Rembrandts and find oneself quite alone. It was there that my love of art began. The room with two Matisse’s, Dance and Music, was always my favorite. At the time, they seemed enormous and overwhelming.  I remember how the flat color planes seemed to radiate with depth.

What was the first piece you ever bought or were gifted?

I organized a student art show in my college and after that a couple of artists gave me works as thanks.  I have always appreciated the work which I got from artists, since it’s the most personal.

Tell us about what drew you to the Dasha print you got from Exhibition A?

When I saw the print, I was intoxicated by it. I loved the voyeurism it evoked and the fantastically ambiguous tension – the figure blurring into sweeps of color and lines which seemed to melt away. Even the title, I don’t want any problems, none what so ever, lolls you in playfully but is really quite deviant.

I was also intrigued by how she makes art history tactile, without subscribing to anything in particular. This work definitely echoes Schiele and Matisse.  It occurred to me whether Dasha, who was also born in Russia, might have looked upon the same canvases as me and drawn inspiration from a common source, half way around the world.  That is a question I would love to ask her.

As a Twitter user, how do you see that informing someone’s overall art experience?

Initially, I thought Twitter was similar to all the other social clutter, but over time I have grown to regard it as an incredible medium across which to discuss art.  All social media hype aside, it allows you to engage with people you wouldn’t interact with otherwise and has radically changed the ability for dialogue between artists/critics and their audiences.  It lets people connect over ideas rather than social circles, in real time. It livens stale criticism with fresh though and educates in an effortless manner while catalyzing connections in the real world.  The interactions are meaningful because you are forced to be concise (a virtue in art writing), and because your opinion is put forth in a public domain.

I love to follow the livestream during an art opening or performance – you get instant access to everyone’s initial responses. To me that’s really neat and as a writer, I find it invaluable.

Tell us about an exhibition you are looking forward to seeing.

When the MoMA finally installs Marclay’s The Clock. I have been waiting to fill in the missing hours I have not yet seen.  I am also excited for the MASS MoCA show this summer – Oh, Canada! which will be a survey of the contemporary arts scene north of the border (my second home!)

Do you have a favorite art trip you’ve gone on?

I think all my trips end up as art trips – whether intended or not. Last summer, when hiking the narrow canyons of Zion National Park in Utah, I gained a wholly different appreciation for Richard Serra’s work, which I had seen only a week prior at the Chelsea Gagosian.

The Sarah Lucas and Louise Bourgeois Nuds show at the Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens also stands out as a recent highlight. Set amongst the Bronze Age and Cycladic artifacts, the show was brilliantly insightful and more provoking that the ‘juxtapositions’ museums usually strive for.

Artist quote or words to live by?

I make the rules of the game, then attempt to play it. If I seem to be losing, then I change the rules. – Michael Snow 1961

Follow Elena on Twitter @elenasoboleva

Sheri L. Pasquarella is the owner of SLP, a Manhattan-based consultancy in three parts: art advisory services; creative business consulting; and SLP Collect, a web-based art inventory tool for art and furniture collectors that launched in 2006.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

Do you remember the first artwork you ever bought or were gifted?

A portrait of me at age 7 by my father. It is the focal point of my “Sheri” wall in my bedroom – a salon-style hanging of works of primarily emotional or personal importance.  If you didn’t know that was the “curatorial vision” behind it, it would make no sense to you.  It includes works by Justine Kurland, Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Alexis Rockman, Scott Marshall, and Katy Plummer.

How does somebody end up becoming an art advisor?

It’s a funny job because there are so many people doing it with so many different skill sets, educational backgrounds, etc.  Some have PhDs; others rely on their impressive social connections.

Luckily for me, I started with actual exposure to building a contemporary art collection.  This was at Marlborough, in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  I’d been promoted to an Associate Director, and a good portion of this job entailed assisting Tom Cugliani, who was the Curator of the Royal Caribbean/ Celebrity Cruise Art Collection.  Marlborough maintained a contract with the company, and the two of us worked on filling a minimum number of spaces per new construction cruise ship with contemporary art from around the world. This was not buying some giclee prints and calling it a day.  It was a who’s who of art since 1970, and excellent examples of their work.  Tom’s vast knowledge of Post War art led to an outstanding collection for Celebrity – impressive for the diversity of great art that’s in it and for its substantially proven upsides, financially speaking. It was exciting, difficult and special and I remain grateful to both Tom and to Marlborough for that.

It was also eye opening to me about the business of art, and it is how I developed a strong background in recent art and its market.  I also made a million acquaintances.  This confluence of circumstances led directly to my conception, and ultimately co-founding, of NADA (the New Art Dealers Alliance).

After leaving Marlborough in 2002, I became the Director of the now-defunct Gorney Bravin + Lee.  It was shortly thereafter that I started NADA.  About a year following that, I met Stanley and Nancy Singer through the gallery; they liked GB+L and loved the first NADA fair.  They asked me to be their advisor, so I did that while still being the Director of a gallery.  All the while, I was the President of a n-f-p that was growing by the second but had no full time staff other than me.

By 2005 the gallery was closing and I had far too much going on to start over again at another gallery without making major sacrifices.  So I didn’t, I started SLP.  This started with the conversion of 27th street (between 11th and the Highway) into art spaces with my friend and NADA co-founder John Connelly.  I had a ground-level space there from which I ran my consultancy.

From day one, SLP had three types of service.  Hence the original name:  SLP Art Culture Commerce.  However, it is the art advising service that I have been typically most known for – as the nature of the work is itself requires that I engage with the community (dealers, artists, museum professionals, etc) on a daily basis.

For people who don’t know what that entails, can you shed some light on what you do?

Again, there is great diversity out there for how this is done.  Here is how we do it:

It starts as all of my work does here, including the creative business consulting.  Someone has gotten my phone number from someone else.  They call me.  I say “Thank you for calling; how can I help you?”

As we speak and then meet up in their home or office.  I’m genuinely trying to asses how it is that I can help them:  what are their goals and values, and how can I help them define or reach them in a way that is different, better, more productive or more satisfying?  It’s a lot of listening, as people are often not able to define these things concretely in the beginning.

With art collectors, there are historically 5 ‘assessed’ motivators.  These are:  aesthetic preferences, investment, speculation, scholarly study [or intellectual curiosity], and as a social activity.  As the person speaks, I listen for how they prioritize these 5 things in the way that they speak.  For example, someone may specifically tell you that they are doing it for love of art, but generally if they mention money a lot as they are talking, it often means that they prioritize investment over, let’s say, intellectual curiosity.

After we’ve gotten a good sense of one another, I share my thoughts of how I think I can help. If they like what they hear, we sign an agreement.  This states our mutual obligations — clearly defines what we’re both going to be doing in order for them to get to where they’d like to be.

There are so many sides of what happens next, we can break it down vaguely to two:  the art and the art object; and the business.  Again, how these come into play are individualized according to the client’s current and future priorities.  There is a single commonality, something I stress as the #1: the collector finds artists or work in which they are sincerely, if not passionately, engaged.

The emphases in the process are on commitment, knowledge, and realism.  I begin writing for them, or sending them links, articles, books, or making OCD lists of artists in Excel.  Whatever format will be most efficient for the individual on the other end to digest the volume of info I’m giving them.  Then they begin to think and look.  We go look at art together, everywhere:  museums, galleries, art fairs, online, artists’ studios, art schools, etc. Each acquisition opportunity is unique: some sales happen in a matter of moments, others may take over a year or two to find the right work.

Over time, there is a shared interested in how a collector functions in and participates with the cultural sector.  At present, I am working on 4 collections, each of whom have been with me for at least 5 years.  They are all quite different and wonderful.  And they are all majorly active in museums and philanthropy, which is something I help them with too.

The way they deal with money also affects the relationship.  With those that preference ‘aesthetics,’ for example, the negotiations and budget are fairly easy and straightforward.  For other clients, however, I may become a part of their asset management team, and have to guide more complex financial activities – like art 401ks, 1031 exchanges, the establishment of a foundation or family office, estate planning, the resale of works, etc.

It’s really gratifying to work with people for an extended duration of time. The rewards include watching their collections become bigger or more refined, forming deep relationships with them, their families, and their personal or professional orbits, and watching artists within the collection grow, and see how the works change as the environment and context of the home or property evolve.

Any upcoming shows you can’t wait to check out?

In museums, definitely the Whitney Biennial.  I always look forward to it, but this year is particularly special because of Jay Sanders.  He is so fantastically agile and idiosyncratic.  It is great that the Whitney gave him this opportunity, and I look forward to seeing how his unique point of view translates to a museum environment.

In galleries, I’m looking forward to the Pier Paolo Calzolari show that will be at both Boesky and Pace Galleries, opening April 27th.  Calzolari has been under the radar in this country for a while.  He’s been active since the late 1950s, but has not had a gallery show since he stopped working with Gladstone like twenty years ago.  There is a marvelous lineage of Italian 20th Century art – from the Futurists to Arte Povera and beyond, great artists like Manzoni, Fontana, AIighiero e Boetti, Mario Merz, Alberto Burri, Guiseppe Penone, and Calzolari, who is a peer of the latter. I think when you see Calzolari’s work, you’ll note its relationship to new art.  His use of salt as well as complicated freezing apparatus relate very beautifully to an another artist whose work I admire: Banks Violette.  Calzolari began working with these materials around the year Banks was born, oddly enough.

Boesky and Pace are literally knocking down the wall that separates their galleries on 24th and 25th street, respectively.  The level of commitment, particularly on Boesky’s part, is exciting.  I cannot wait to see the results.

Stairway (with feather), 1972

Artist quote or words to live by?

cf: Talkin’ World War III Blues by Bob Dylan

Kai Regan is a photographer, director, and creative at ALLDAYEVERYDAY in New York.

How did you get interested in contemporary art?

I feel like being interested in contemporary art is part of understanding the who, what, where, and why humans try to communicate things about themselves and the attempt to speak to something bigger than us.

How has photography changed since you started working professionally in that field?

Digital has changed the way we devour images. Now we constantly are looking for something new vs. something good.  We can’t help that our minds are fed so many images they eventually start to lose potency. I see so many more photographers, but I don’t necessarily see better work.

We collaborated on an emerging artist portfolio for Blackbook magazine in 2005 with what are now some of the biggest players in the art world. Tell us a story about shooting Banks Violette or Dash Snow for that project.

So Dash was in LA at the time serving a community service wrap for doing some sort of graffiti. I flew out to shoot him in some crazy downtown LA loft where he was working on his collages.  We spent hours setting up the loft to look the way we wanted it. We wanted the portrait to feel like he was surrounded by all the things that inspired his show.  I think the photo achieved that. Dash’s work was always about “things” where he found a way to make them tell a story.  The details made him, him.

Portrait of Dash Snow in Blackbook

Dash Snow Collages

Do you live with any artwork at home?

I have a few of Dash polaroids at my house, and few other collectables through the years.

Dash Snow Polaroids

An upcoming show you’re excited to see?

Frieze in New York this year should have some really great things to see come May.

Artist quote or words to live by?

Fuck you, it’s magic.

Michael Nevin is founder & editor in chief of The Journal, an arts biannual, and also runs their gallery in Brooklyn.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

I grew up in Park Slope and my parents would take me to the Brooklyn Museum every Sunday. At home we had a poster of a Hopper painting from the museum and it became burned into my memory. I think that my interest began there.

What have you learned from opening The Journal Gallery? And is it moving?

The gallery started more or less for the fun of it. I’ve learned to always keep the sense of chance involved, don’t be afraid to slip up, or else it becomes boring. That and being open to the ideas of others. I think that collaboration is important. There are currently some big and exciting changes happening at the gallery.

You do an artist book supplement with every issue of your magazine. Tell me how the supplement with Richard Prince came about.

I asked Richard in a letter if he would do something for the magazine. A week or so later, he sent work in an envelope wrapped with scotch tape. It looked sketchy, like a letter bomb, but it lead to the supplement What’s In My Library, which came with the journal 23. That was also the first supplement cover that Peter Miles (the journal‘s designer) did for the magazine.

Advice to newer collectors?

Buy what you can’t live without.

An artwork or two you live with?

We have a Rita Ackerman drawing from her “Fire By Days” series. She is an incredible artist and a great friend. I’m also quite attached to a Chris Martin Bread Painting, which was a gift from Chris.

Rita Ackerman, "Fire By Days", 2011, Enamel on Paper (Monotype), 36" x 27"

An upcoming show you’re psyched to see?

Urs Fischer “Beds and Problem Paintings” at Gagosian LA. I saw the paintings at his studio last week and they are insane.

Artist quote or words to live by?

Just do it.

Nicholas Farhi is a 24 year old artist living in Harlem who works with the OhWow Book Club in New York.

How did you get involved in contemporary art?

Probably building shoebox dioramas with my mom while she was in vet school and playing drums in a garage band for almost a decade got me interested.  I grew up in Ithaca, NY where I was surrounded by friends whose parents are professors at Cornell. I suppose all of the encouragement I got to toil with my bare hands kept my curiosity growing from an early age and now I am studying painting at the State University of New York. I miss my drum sets as of late. I guess my longing to exclaim and crescendo got me hooked into the contemporary side of art.

When did you synch up with the OhWow crew and tell us what the highlights have been from that experience?

Aw, man. Too many highlights to describe! I guess I got involved at first working for Rafael De Cardenas who opened my eyes up to architecture. His studio changed my life at the time and the way I work and he kind of tossed me to A-ron and we’ve all been family ever since.

"Untitled (Blue Painting)" by Lucien Smith

Please give us an idea of a few pieces from your collection.

When you come into my place, I have a lot of things sprawled out over my walls, so I guess running a store is similar kind of. So much like the work and stuff I do for OhWow currently reflects my love and thoughtfulness that I have put into my growing art collection. That’s a deepness I learned there. I got a Leo Fitzpatrick at half gallery last year that’s just breathtaking. And I also was given two paintings from Lucien Smith that are rich. I love these two zines that are intriguingly small from my friend Maggie Lee. I also have some favorite old books. I have a Ludwig Bemelmans “The Best of Times” published by Simon & Schuster in 1947; it’s a graphic novel of one of his pleasure tours of Europe. He was an illustrator for Conde Nast and his drawings light me up as much as his words do. His hand pours over the pages. And a few others that I’d like to keep a secret for now.

Maggie Lee's Suede's Slick Sad Swirld zine 2011

An upcoming show you’re excited to see?

There’s a show that my friend Stefania Pia is curating in the summer, and “The Printed Image in China, 8th-21st Century” coming up at the Metropolitan Museum, and a few more, too.

An untitled collage by Leo Fitzpatrick

Artist quote or words to live by?

My father read “The Eagle That Is Forgotten” to me, a poem by Vachel Lindsay, and it’s about living to live and love, and a line from it goes like this: “To live in mankind is far far more, than to live in a name.”

A chocolate painting by Farhi

Bibi Cornejo Borthwick is a photographer who was born in Paris, but now lives and works in New York.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

I think growing up in New York City invites you to feel curious and interested by what’s current or “contemporary.” I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up in a family of artists who are constantly creating. I think everyone is interested in contemporary art in some way, even if we don’t necessarily realize it.

Can you tell us about an art-related project or two that you’ve been working on?

This year I’ve really taken time to focus on my photography. I always knew it was something I loved and was passionate about, but this year nothing really made sense unless I could photograph it. I launched my website and with that has come a few interesting projects. A lot of my work is based off of taking people’s portraits so that’s given me chance to sit down and have one on one time with people in a way that’s everything for me. Aside from my photography, my boyfriend and I relaunched his company, CNNCTD+. We’ve been working on a few creative marketing projects and our biggest project yet is a show we’re producing that will be on display at the New Museum in May. The show will be the audio of 100 people whom we think influence NYC culture. Each person’s audio will be recorded onto a Playbutton.

A show you’re really looking forward to?

I just saw Lola Schnabel’s beautiful show at The Hole, and I’m excited for Andre’s at Half Gallery, and I always look out for street art because I think that’s really where people can be free.

A portrait of her father Mark Borthwick by Bibi

Work other than your very talented father’s photographs that you live with?

I have some work of Hisham Bharoocha, I have some drawings of my brother’s that I love, and aside from that, my boyfriend and I have designed our apartment with street signs, ATM machines, Polaroids all over, and letters my mom has written me.

If you could have any artist take your portrait?

Ohhh that’s a tough one! Aelita Andre, the four year old painter, is amazing.  I’d love to do anything with her haha! However, I think if I really had that choice, I’d choose to have been photographed by Richard Avedon, Robert Capa, or Harmony Korine.

Artist quote or words to live by?

If you love what you do, you shouldn’t work a day in your life.

Photo Credit: Filippo Brancoli Pantera

How did you get interested in contemporary art?

When I was 26 and in Milan, I created and directed a free publication called PelleNOLeather. Every month, the cover featured works by different artists (Dormice Lab, Guido Averna, Valentina D’Amaro…) in collaboration with several distinct Milanese art galleries including Galleria Cardi & Galleria Battaglia. That was a defining moment for me that led me to appreciate art on another level and scout new artists to collaborate with.

Stefania's art

As a child I derived my own art experience in an independent way since my courses were different than the usual. I was able to express myself on a more personal level. Soon paint collages, photography, and film became my focus. I have to say, I approached contemporary art through film, where watching everything around made me feel anything was possible.

Tell us about an artwork or two you live with?

I admire wall projections of short films from Joseph Cornell while creating my own soundtrack when I’m in the mood or project them on their own where they become silent, beautiful images that become a backdrop while I work or I cook.

An art show you are really looking forward to seeing?

“Images Rendered Bare. Vacant. Recognizable” at Stadium; Jeff Keen at Elizabeth Dee; I also can’t wait to see “Spies in the House of Art” at the Met; Kate Steciw, Letha Wilson, and Aude Pariset at Toomer Labzda; Corey McCorkle and Dan Graham at Murray Guy; and David Lamelas at Maccarone.

Stefania's apartment

Advice to a young artist trying to get their work shown?

I believe it’s a continual challenge and that a true artist doesn’t consume themselves with the pressure to show. They should produce art persistently with ardent discipline. Art is a personal sensibility and love of discovery matched with curiosity, which is a natural part of the process. When you’ve fully realized your goal, your artwork will talk by itself.

Artist quote or words to live by?

“Everything you can imagine is real.” -Pablo Picasso

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” -Pablo Picasso

Andrew Roth is a dealer of rare books of art and photography from the 20th Century, publisher of art and photography books under the imprint PPP Editions and a curator/gallerist at ROTH on East 70th Street in NYC.

How did you first get involved in contemporary art?

Through the book. I’m interested in contemporary art and artists whose work is informed by and positioned within historical context.

You are a leading art book expert in America with your 101 list. Can you name a few titles you would add to this illustrious group if you were revising it today?

Though my interest has expanded to other areas of artist book production, not merely photographic, I would definitely add: Ilya Ehrenberg and El Lissitsky Moi Parizh (Moscow, 1933); Takashi Homma Tokyo Suburbia (Korinsha, 1998); Boris Mikhailov Unfinished Dissertation (Scalo, 1998); Mitch Epstein Family Business (Steidl, 2003); Robert Adams Turning Back (Fraenkel/Marks, 2005); Collier Schorr Jens F. (Steidl/Mack, 2005); Zoe Leonard Analogue (MIT, 2007); Ari Marcopoulos Directory (Rizzoli, 2011).

Please tell us about one or two artworks you live with.

An early, oversized photograph by Collier Schorr of Jens F. sitting in a tree, bare chested with red lipstick on, hangs prominently across from the bed in my guest room. A sanguine portrait of a warrior with broken nose by Leon Golub from his Gigantomachy series from the early 60s hangs in my living room on one side of a picture window, on the other side of the window there is a photogram of a primitive mask by Adam Fuss.

How did your Dash Snow “Movie List” project come about and is it still up at your gallery?

I always wanted to make a book with Dash. We flirted with several ideas. Neville Wakefield introduced us back when he was preparing for the Whitney Biennial in 2008. Last year, Dan Colen and Jade Berreau showed me the original zine material from the Snow estate. The only maquette that was never produced as a zine was “Movie List.” It was so compelling as an object that it seemed right to turn it into a limited edition book. It was also a challenge to figure out how to replicate the original in ink, and as a board-book. The exhibition I have up right now features the original “Movie List” maquette and highlights of Dash’s other zines, both original maquettes and the photocopies. It is fairly exhaustive and is up until Friday, January 13.

An upcoming show you are excited to see?

Well, of course it is the one we are mounting at the ICA in London of “In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists Since 1955.” It will open on January 24th and run through March 25. It is a version of the exhibition we made to accompany the book I published and co-edited with the collector Philip Aarons, first mounted on the ground floor of the old DIA building on 22nd street at X-Initiative in the fall of 2009.

Artist quote or words to live by?

“Write about what you know.” -Paula Fox.

Also, if there are any prints we have released that you liked in particular I’d be curious to know which ones.

Terence Koh’s “Big White Cock!”

Michelle Finocchi is a public relations consultant specializing in the engagement of contemporary art with fashion, entertainment, and consumer culture. Her clients and collaborators include David Zwirner Gallery, designer Cynthia Rowley, artist Richard Phillips, online art market Paddle8, design studio JF & SON, and online art magazine Triple Canopy.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

Growing up in the aura of Manhattan — aka New Jersey — afforded me lots of trips to museums and galleries. But I always had to get back on the school bus or train, and, like an addict, always wanted more New York. As a kid, I counted the days since my last visit and would have died to sleep over in the period rooms at the Met. The world’s coolest high school studio art teacher, Mr. Williams, would drop us off in Chelsea or SoHo and let us roam. In college at Columbia I wrote some semi-embarrassing criticism as the art editor of the school newspaper, reported for a radio program called “Art Attack” (no joke) and interned at Artforum magazine. My senior thesis, on the conservation of contemporary art, led to a brief stint at Vito Acconci’s studio — where he graciously allowed my partner and I to pour over miles of notes, meticulously typewritten on index cards, documenting his seminal performance pieces.

Do you live with any artwork at home?

Most of the art on my walls or in my library are the works of friends or clients: Richard Phillips, Josephine Meckseper, Hannes Bend, Marc Hundley, TM Davy, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Emilie Trice and Michael Wang (whose solo show “Carbon Copies” – http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/michael-wang-foxy-production – is now on view at Foxy Production in Chelsea) among them. Some are original works, but at this stage I mostly collect signed artist monographs, limited-edition posters, catalogs, and Exhibition A prints — Che Lovelace’s “Roadside Fire” and Mark Borthwick’s “Rape Me, Nature Escapes Me” are a couple of my favorites. I just bought a hot pink and turquoise candlestick set from the “Sherry Shop” at Ann Liv Young’s show at Louis B. James, and a drawing by Moses Soyer, an Ashcan school artist, from a junk shop on the Lower East Side. One of my all-time favorite projects was working on JF & SON’s ready-to-wear collection with Amy Yao, “Another Masterpiece!!” The poster image, shot by David Benjamin Sherry and Michele Abeles in collaboration with Amy and Lisa Jo, hangs at home.

What is the challenge doing art PR versus fashion PR?

Both art and fashion have their unique structures for generating press coverage — with art, coordinating exhibition previews, listings and reviews, and in fashion, it’s market and re-see appointments, sample loan-outs for magazine shoots, etc. But I think there are more similarities than differences. Working with artists and designers is always inspiring and sometimes exhausting, in parallel ways. The mayhem of Art Basel Miami Beach rivals that of New York Fashion Week. What’s really interesting to me is where art and fashion overlap in the media. As the art world has opened itself to wider audiences via consumer brand collaborations, online sales, TV programming and other means of democratization, the number and types of publications covering art have broadened. Over the past few years, the landscape has really changed.

Any upcoming shows you are looking forward to seeing?

Doug Wheeler, who makes “infinity environments,” opening at David Zwirner on January 14. Some of my favorite works are those that create an encompassing space for the viewer, like Mike Nelson and James Turrell. Keith Haring at the Brooklyn Museum. The artist’s 1997 retrospective at the Whitney made a big impression on me. LA MOCA’s Land Art show in April. I’m a huge Michael Heizer fan. I always look forward to the Whitney Biennial.

Artist quote or words to live by?

“Sleep when you’re dead,” by my musician friend Doran Danoff. Or Cynthia Rowley’s version: “Eat when you can, sleep when you can.”

The Hole’s Kathy Grayson is a curator and writer and painter who is now also an art dealer.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

My mom was a tall bureaucrat who worked for the Department of Energy in DC in the 90s and she took me to the Hirshhorn, where they had this Charles Ray super tall lady wearing a bad 90s business suit (it’s called “Fall”). And my mom, who has no real relationship to art, loved this piece so much. She saw herself in it and her response to it made me see the power of art.

What was your experience of Art Basel Miami this year?

This year, sales in the booth were great, thank goodness. We got to do this fun conceptual booth project with two booths that looked exactly the same, staffed by identical twins. Then every night, we threw a huge awesome event. Salem at Delano, Salem, Neckface and Matthew Stone at Gusman Center, Matthew Stone outdoor sculptures and dinner at Mondrian, Kembra and Playboy on roof of the Dream Hotel. Seriously, we did so much and I was so proud of my team. I can’t believe we pulled it all off.

If Santa was going to give you art as a Christmas gift, what would you ask for?

I want this David Benjamin Sherry photograph of a fruit bowl and a cock and balls. It’s called “Touched By the Hand of God.”

What’s up at The Hole next?

Lola Schnabel opened her first painting solo show in NYC on December 16th, and we also opened a huge abstract painting exhibition with Sam Moyer, Scott Reeder, Matt Jones and Kadar Brock the same night.

Artist quote or words to live by?

If it’s fun, you never get tired.

A show you’re looking forward to seeing?

I still havent @#$%ing gone to see the Maurizio Cattelan show and he’s one of my favorite artists.

Walter Robinson is an artist who also happens to be artnet.com‘s Editorial Director.

How did you first get involved in contemporary art?

Reading Artforum in the Columbia University library, watching cute grad students like Anna Chave and Francis Beatty go into the stacks.

Did I just see a piece of yours at MoMA?!

MoMA’s film & video curator, Barbara London, is an absolute genius.

People are so fixated on the best of 2011, but what will be best of 2012? Predictions, please.

Larry Gagosian will open a new gallery; I guarantee it.

How does art criticism operate differently online as opposed to more traditional print media?

Print is dead!

Do you live with any artwork at home?

I have a black thumb. Everything I plant dies.

Artist quote or words to live by?

“Come over to the winning side.” -AA slogan

Cheryl Dunn is a documentary filmmaker and photographer who has spent her career documenting the city streets, and the people who strive to leave their mark there.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

I studied art history in college and have always made things. Whenever things got hard, I would go look at art and feel the eternal energy that emotes from works and knew that I needed to surround myself with art to be sane.

What was the first piece you ever bought or were gifted?

Of significance,  I suppose something from Alleged Gallery from back in the day, Ludlow Street. Whatever little money I had, I always tried to buy one  little thing from all of my friends’ art shows.

We bumped into each other at OWS and you were filming down there. Can you tell us a little about that project?

I was doing some additional shooting for a feature documentary about NYC street photographers called ” Everybody Street. ”  This film was a commission from a museum about a year and half ago and after the duration of the show, I decided to make it feature-length.  I just felt I needed to get the work — and words of the master in the field of street photography — out to a larger audience. Some of these artists are the foundation of the medium itself and thankfully have preserved our fleeting visual history of the NYC streets and its eccentric and varied inhabitants.

How has the New York art scene changed over last 10 years or so, as you see it?

It has always has been in constant flux, but as real estate prices go up and up, it’s kind of like the economy – no middle class. It’s either mega- or small-ish. Hard for anything else to survive. But artists keep coming and are driven to make work more than ever.   It’s just not in a concentrated zone. Galleries are just spread all over so it’s hard to have a handle on a whole scene like you could in the past.

Artist quote or words to live by?

Get away from the computer, grab the camera, and go have a dance around the block.

Harmony Korine is a writer, filmmaker, and artist whose credits include “KIDS,” “Gummo” and most recently “Trash Humpers.” He lives in Tennessee with his wife Rachel and daughter Lefty. Last week, it was reported that his next movie “Spring Breakers” will star James Franco and Selena Gomez.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

After watching that TV show “Hard Copy” with Cady Noland… and also meeting Al Jolson’s crippled son at a museum by my house. He was giving lectures.

Fair to say that Josh Smith is one of your best friends in the art world?

Josh is great… we started buying up abandoned parking lots across the United States. He just bought a great one in Kentucky; it was a crime scene and he got it for a discount.  I bought one in Delaware with transluscent parking lot curbs.

What was your experience of Art Basel Miami this year?

I saw a redheaded artist get run over by a Hummer the first day.  He seemed to like it.

Art show you’re looking forward to seeing?

The J.B. Murry retrospective at the African American Folk Art booth at the Nashville Tennessee fairgrounds in conjunction with the local community college for the blind.

Favorite artist quote?

“I’m addicted to Altoids. I call them ‘acting pills.’” – Harrison Ford

Aron Morel is, by our estimation, the best independent art book publisher in England today, having released titles for Terry Richardson, Craig McDean, Ryan McGinley, and Corrine Day. He also plans to become a chocolatier.

When did your interest in contemporary art begin?

Not sure… I remember reading Dante when I was 15, which took me through a few circles – around Rimbaud over Eliot and down to the Pompidou Centre for a Francis Bacon show. I suppose it just branched off from there… Art is a great way to communicate about the everything and nothing that we are!

How did you come about to publish art books?

I was idle in a limbo state and trying to publish poetry booklets. Somehow before the poetry books ever came about they branched out into my other passion in the visual arts. For a number of years prior to this, I had an obsession with collecting poetry and photography books, so I just applied myself to what I liked and understood.

Do you live with any artwork at home?

I have a few pieces from people I’ve published – Asger Carlsen, Corinne Day, Craig McDean, etc. and would love to be gifted more! I also have a small collection of stones – a prehistoric flint tool, sea fossils I found in a desert, meteorites, cobblestones from around the world (New York, London, Istanbul, Berlin, Paris, etc.). I like these stones a lot. They are simple testimonies to cosmic history (4 billion years of history), culture, and Man’s intuitiveness. I enjoy having the flint tool next to a computer – two awesome tools crafted from the pulp-based wizardry of Man’s cranium.

I like to consider them art or are they just artifacts?

Ryan McGinley once called you a poet. Do you have a favorite artist quote or words to live by?

That’s a tough one… I don’t think I can live by one axiom – I like flux and change. Just to tick this part of the form, though, how about: “Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.” -A. Ginsberg

Some art books you have ready to release in 2012?

There’s a lot for 2012, starting with Aurel Schmidt, Asger Carlsen, David Armstrong, JH Engstrom, Antoine D’Agata, and a few major surprises, but I wouldn’t want to spill all the beans yet!

A recent gallery show that really stayed with you?

I really enjoyed the NOFOUND fair during Paris Photo; it’s not really a gallery show though. It was their first year and I think they did a spectacular job with their selection of galleries – from the Haunch of Venison to smaller galleries. I also think the few galleries that showed also did an outstanding job at presenting their work. It’s probably the best fair I’ve ever been to!!!! As for specific gallery shows, I’ve seen pictures of Terry’s exhibition at the Half Gallery and Ryan McGinley also described it to me. That’s one show I wish I would have been able to go to!!!!!

Photo Credit: The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Self Portrait (Adam Lindemann), 2011

Adam Lindemann: private investor, influential collector of art and design, art columnist for the NY Observer and author of Collecting Contemporary and Collecting Design (Taschen), + more!

What is your favorite art biography or who is your favorite art writer?

In order to sound extra smart I’ll say Charles Baudelaire, bien sur! Did you know he was only paid to write about art because no one wanted his poetry? “Les Fleurs du Mal,” his most famous book of poetry, was published posthumously! I like my own writing, too. I think it’s fun to read and has a lot more information than the reader realizes; there’s always a lot between the lines. I read everyone else too , or try to. I don’t like to feel out of it.

If you could update your “Collecting Contemporary” book now, how has the landscape changed from the time when Taschen first released it?

Wow, in 2006, everything was so much about shiny and perfect, like Koons’ celebration sculptures and Hirst’s pill cabinets. Today, I think fresh art is a bit ugly, rumpled, and sad. That’s why I liked Urs Fischer’s work several years ago, and I’m interested in beautiful ugliness today. If I did a new book now, it would have to be a “Who’s NOT Who,” or a “Who’s of Tomorrow”…but I plan on publishing my NY Observer columns early next year , with plenty of trash talk inserted under the title “Behind the Scenes of the New York Art World.”

You mentioned to me at one point wanting to inject more finance terminology into your New York Observer art columns. Can you explain that impulse and cite an example or two?

Years ago, I worked for two years on a Wall Street trading desk where we used terms like “pump and dump,” “front running,” “dead cat bounce,” and “averaging Down killed more Jews than Hitler.” The art market involves trading and promoting, as well as dumping. I don’t like to follow the hypocritical way people refuse to deal with prices;  the art business likes to act as if money isn’t to be discussed in public, and that’s absurd .

We discussed briefly the ascent of Jacob Kassay and new minimalism in general as a quest for the automatic. Is this an ongoing trend and what is the appeal here?

I wish I knew, but something’s happening here, so I’m not arrogant enough to dismiss it. The idea of an exploration into automatic “process” art is interesting, because it’s not personality driven. Let’s see where it goes from here…

Will you go to Art Basel Miami this year and what can someone really hope to get out of it by attending?

I probably will. Hopefully I’ll go to some good parties and talk to at least one interesting person I didn’t already know.  Miami Basel is pretty embarrassing at this point. It’s a trashy town sweep that uses art as an excuse to drink and get ugly.

An upcoming show you’re looking forward to seeing?

Chamberlain at the Guggenheim will be great, Llyn Foulkes at the Hammer, and I hear Piotr Uklanski will do a show in St. Barth’s for Christmas. That’s fun.

Artist quote or words to live by?

I still like Damien Hirst’s line: “Art is about life, the art market is about money.”

Diane Roka is a Philadelphia-based artist and writer. She is a contributor to the online music magazine “Perfect Sound Forever.”

How did you get interested in contemporary art?

I went to Rutgers in New Brunswick for art school, so it was a short train ride to NYC. We had to write papers for our seminar classes on what we were seeing in the galleries, but a lot of what was out at that time was this very austere, minimal, conceptual art, and I just didn’t get it. My friends and I would go up to Soho and goof around in these very posh galleries and go back and write papers where we’d throw in words like “juxtaposition” and “simultaneity.” We thought it was all a scam, the “Emperor’s New Clothes.”

Then, one time I went in by myself and I saw Rauschenberg’s “Glut” exhibit at Leo Castelli. I was the only one in the gallery, and I remember that when I walked in, I felt like I was in the middle of a tornado, or a car accident. I was walking around, the twisted car parts and crumpled street signs were in the air everywhere, and I thought, “This I get.”

Please tell us about some artwork you live with.

For years I had no money at all, but I found a way to buy some art. I was a part-time art teacher for 3-5 year-old kids at an arts preschool in Philly called Moonstone, and Shelly Spector’s daughter Nola was one of my students. Shelly took me under her wing a little bit and let me show at one of her Red Dot shows where everything sells for under $100. My drawings were alongside work by the Space 1026 artists, and it felt great because I knew they were doing really good work. I bought prints by Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Thom Lessner, and Randall Sellers, and I bought a little art book by Thom Lessner and Lori D. and a little accordion book by Heather Rae Morton.

Later on I started to show at B Square Gallery, and I continued to buy from the other artists that showed there. I bought a few monotypes by Romy Burkus, an encaustic by Heather Bryson, and a mixed-media piece by Bruce Glider. Artist friends like Le Anne Lindsay and Dominique Messihi gifted me with prints, and Barbara Schaff gave me a beautiful landscape painting as a thank you for curating an exhibit of her work.  My brother Bill is a really talented artist and I have one of his paintings of a Mexican prison in my kitchen.

Shelly Spector curated a show of Jim Houser’s work a few years ago for The Painted Bride, and I worked up my nerve and bought one of his paintings.  It was my first expensive (for me) purchase.  Recently I bought a Duncan Hannah collage from Half Gallery featuring a movie still of the actress Silvana Mangano in Bitter Rice, and her glamorous stance in the rice field is inspirational.

What is your favorite art moment in your hometown of Philly?

My brother works at Penn, and one day he e-mailed me at work and said, “I just saw a show at the ICA that you would really like. It’s this artist named Karen Kilimnik and she has your sense of humor.” So I met him there on my lunch hour the next day, and we were the only two people walking around this huge space, looking at the show. I’m not always a fan of installation art, but she had created this dark, funny world in there, and I felt like I was taking a tour inside the brain of someone twisted and great.

What’s an upcoming show you’re really looking forward to?

Thomas Campbell at Half Gallery and Zoe Strauss at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Artist’s quote or words to live by?

I studied drawing with Emma Amos and she hated a fuzzy line. She called it “wishy washy.” She would say, “Use a strong, definite line, and you can get away with a lot.”  And “Don’t erase your mistakes; they make it interesting.”

Joshua Leonard is a Los Angeles based actor and filmmaker whose projects include “The Blair Witch Project,” “Beautiful Losers,” “Humpday,” “Higher Ground,” and, most recently, was both director of and actor in “The Lie,” an adaptation of the T.C. Boyle story. “The Lie” opened this weekend at The Village East Cinemas in New York City.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

My folks were creative, so there was always stuff to look at when I was a kid. But it wasn’t until I moved out to LA in my early 20s and made friends who were already collecting that it became a larger part of my life. Galleries like New Image in LA and The Luggage Store in SF were showing artists from our peer group. The familiar context and lack of pretention were really inspiring to me.

A piece or two that you live with?

The two pieces I come back to the most are a Leigh Ledare photograph of a prostitute curled up on her child’s bed and this Dan Attoe painting of a woman crossing an empty street in an empty town. Both break my heart in just the right way.

What shows are you looking forward to?

I’ve had my head in the sand making this movie for the past year and a half. It’s pathetic how out of the loop I am. I hear Raymond Pettibon’s show at Regen Projects is great. I look forward to seeing that when I get back to LA.

Artist quote or words to live by?

“Art offers the possibility of love with strangers.”  -Walter Hopps

Cultural Curator at CORE: club since 2006. Formerly from the publishing world, having worked as Americas Bureau Chief for Wallpaper* Magazine, and all Wallpaper* Group magazines.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

Through osmosis, really. You could say it was a combination of pure curiosity and the fact that I have several friends who are important collectors. Their collections and passion for art helped spark my interest and curiosity. I have a strong appreciation for various creative disciplines, the visual arts being one of them.

As the cultural curator at CORE: club what have you learned from the many art lectures you’ve held there?

Wow, that is a difficult question to answer. Honestly, there’s so much I’ve learned and I’ve been inspired by so many artists. I’d have to say Bill Viola, Nan Goldin, David LaChapelle, and Gregory Crewdson really moved me, among many others. I love learning about an artist’s inspiration and process. After our recent conversation with Gregory Crewdson, I was inspired to watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind again. It’s such a source of inspiration for him. Marina Abramovic also blew me away. She has this unique perspective and way of seeing things. I’m a big fan!

Do you live with any art at home or work that really stays with you?

I recently renovated and pared down my apartment to its bare essentials. So in homage to my skateboarding days growing up, I currently have the Marc Jacobs collection of skateboards and a Richard Prince x Supreme skateboard on my walls in my living room. I also have a second Richard Prince x Supreme skateboard on my “inspiration wall” behind my desk at work, along with a ton of mementos from the various experiences I’ve curated.

An upcoming show or art talk you’re looking forward to?

I’m dying to see the Carsten Holler and Maurizio Cattelan exhibits and Tom Sachs’ exhibit at the Park Avenue Armory next year. Now, if I can only muster up enough energy to deal with the crowds!

Artist quote or words to live by?

“Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” -Steve Jobs

Photo Credit: Michael Worful

Jason Polan is drawing Every Person in New York and is a founding member of Taco Bell Drawing Club and The 53rd Street Biological Society.

How did you first get involved in contemporary art?

I have been drawing since I was little and have always been a fan of a lot of different artists. Some of the earliest work I got was by comic book artists. I bought a little drawing by Jack Kirby about 15 years ago that I still enjoy and think about. I have been lucky that I have been able to trade work with a bunch of artists I like a lot.

Tell us about a piece or two in your collection.

I have a piece by Richard Renaldi that I like a lot of a smashed water tower. I also have a couple by Jason Fulford. His work is so good. One is a photograph of a library bound Ed Ruscha book. I have a drawing by Gabrielle Bell that I recently hung on my wall that I like to look at. Some other favorites from Rich Jacobs, Kiki Smith, Mike Mills, Katie McDonough, Amy Stein, Basil Wolverton, Jason Murphy, Derek Erdman, Michael Worful, Jane Mount, Marcel Dzama, David Shrigley, Jay Ryan, Hugo Guinness, Bill Thelen, Tucker Nichols, Eric White, and Gary Panter.

Artist quote or words to live by?

Support artists you like.

Upcoming show you’re excited to see?

Alec Soth at Sean Kelly Gallery early 2012.

Your greatest art world moment…?

Raymond Pettibon did a drawing of me after I did a drawing of him, which I was very excited about. I also got to meet Robert Rauschenberg a couple years ago and I think about the things he has made a lot.

Juliana Balestin works for the graffiti artist André at his Chinatown studio. She also writes for Purple Magazine and its online blog. She has previously worked at Metro Pictures with artists Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo.

How did you first get interested in contemporary art?

I was an art history student at NYU.  By chance, I took an internship at Paul Kasmin Gallery in Chelsea and it got me really excited for the art world and to work in galleries. During my senior year of college I heard Metro Pictures needed a gallery assistant so I lied and said I had already graduated in order to get the job. It was a little nuts going to school and working there but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to work for the gallery that shows Cindy Sherman, Martin Kippenberger and Jack Goldstein. I also met Olivier Zahm around this time who encouraged me to go see shows and think critically about art.

Tell me about an artwork you live with.

I’ve been lucky enough to receive some artwork as gifts from artists like Robert Longo and Sterling Ruby. I really treasure those pieces and try to give them a good home!

A show you are looking forward to seeing?

The young American artist Brock Enright will open a show on the 4th of November at Kate Werble Gallery in New York. He’s the future of art and once you see his work you’ll never be the same.

The favorite artist interview you’ve ever done and why?

Banks Violette. His artistic practice is extremely intelligent. I appreciate an artist who acknowledges and understands his place in the greater context of art history. We also have a mutual love for the late artist Steven Parrino so I got to hear some wonderful firsthand stories from him. My favorite part of any interview is hearing artists speak about their mentors and contemporaries. It’s a completely unique perspective from dealers and critics.