It’s Snowing Art Advisers: Best Of 2014, And Predictions For 2015
The Best of London in 2014 Let us put aside the oodles of money, the stupefying levels of celebrity worship and the trend of early retiring art brats and focus on the good stuff: the art, the artists, the museums, and the galleries, like it’s 1999 instead of 2014....
It’s Snowing Art Advisers: Kenny Schachter’s Best of 2014, and Predictions for 2015
Installation view of Korakrit Arunanondchai, 2557 (Painting with history in a room filled with men with funny names 2), 2014, at Carlos Ishikawa. The Best of London in 2014 Let us put aside the oodles of money, the stupefying levels of celebrity worship and the trend...
“You Definitely Need To See This Work In Person”: At Art Basel in Miami Beach
© Art Basel For weeks I’d been telling myself, and anyone who would listen, that I was going to skip the 2014 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. It had been a busy fall. October’s Frieze London fair is at least on my home turf, but then there were whirlwind trips to...
‘You Definitely Need to See This Work in Person’: Kenny Schachter at Art Basel in Miami Beach
Miami Beach.For weeks I’d been telling myself, and anyone who would listen, that I was going to skip the 2014 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. It had been a busy fall. October’s Frieze London fair is at least on my home turf, but then there were whirlwind trips to...
Meet London’s Subway Gallerist
Subway Gallery (Foto: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter) I paid a visit to the Subway Gallery situated in a 1960s-era kiosk under London’s Marylebone Flyover, in a subway station run by a vintage Westernwear-wearing cowboy, artist, and gallerist personifying British...
Meet London’s Subway Gallerist
Exterior of the Subway Gallery, London. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. Photo: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter I paid a visit to gallery situated in a 1960s-era kiosk under London’s Marylebone Flyover, in a subway station run by a vintage Westernwear-wearing cowboy, artist,...
How Awkward Is It to Sit Next to Larry Gagosian at David Tang’s Birthday Party?
The entrance to the Dorchester Hotel in London (photo: dpa) I was a last-minute stand-in for an ill guest at David Tang’s 60th-birthday party on Tuesday at the Dorchester Hotel, where he is also the proprietor of the restaurant China Tang. It was a celebrity...
How Awkward Is It to Sit Next to Larry Gagosian at David Tang’s Birthday Party?
David Tang. Photo: KGC-42/? Corbis. All Rights Reserved. I was a last-minute stand-in for an ill guest at David Tang’s 60th-birthday party on Tuesday at the Dorchester Hotel, where he is also the proprietor of the restaurant China Tang. It was a celebrity smorgasbord...
Of Spec-u-lectors and Drug-Dealing Art Advisers: At the New York Auctions
An elevator painted like the 1963 portrait 'Liz #3 (Early Colored Liz)' by US artist Andy Warhol during a preview of a contemporary art auction at Sotheby's in New York (photo: dpa) In The Graduate, the hapless protagonist is given career advice in a single word:...
Of Spec-u-lectors and Drug-Dealing Art Advisers: Kenny Schachter at the New York Auctions
Jeff Koons’s Balloon Monkey (Orange) (2006–13) outside Christie’s last week. In The Graduate, the hapless protagonist is given career advice in a single word: Plastics. Today, that word would be art. Just as in the ’60s there appeared to be a great future in plastics,...
French Connections: Kenny Schachter at FIAC
FIAC. LILI ROSBOCH FOR ARTNEWSOn the heels of the Frieze art fair in London, I was off to FIAC in Paris, a breather before November’s monster modern and contemporary art auctions in New York. FIAC, which has been spiffed up over the past decade and returned to its...
French Connections: At FIAC in Paris
(c) Marc Domage On the heels of the Frieze art fair in London, I was off to FIAC in Paris, a breather before November’s monster modern and contemporary art auctions in New York. FIAC, which has been spiffed up over the past decade and returned to its exquisite digs in...
Frieze London: Oktoberfest in a Cutthroat Art World
Photo: Courtesy Frieze London It must have been an omen of sorts. When I arrived at the extravagant new London headquarters of Phillips auction house last week to preview the house’s inaugural sale there, I was greeted by the slapstick sight of a smartly dressed...
Oktoberfest in a Cutthroat Art World: Kenny Schachter at Frieze London
An untitled work by Sigmar Polke from 1998, which sold for £1.06 million ($1.69 million) on a £600,000–£800,000 ($955,000–$1.27 million) estimate at Christie’s London. It must have been an omen of sorts. When I arrived at the extravagant new London headquarters of...
Collectors v. Dealers: Mutual Antagonism, Growing Mistrust
Collector, curator and art world gadfly, Kenny Schachter just published on his Facebook page a telling email exchange between a young collector and a dealer. Schachter is put off by the dealer’s arrogance. The title of the post could have been: “Dealer to Collector:...
From Artaud to Artnet: Philippe Vandenberg’s Beautiful Misery
‘Art is a wound turned into light’, as Braque said.‘The image I create is an attempt to come and fill the lack inherent in life.’ [1] Vandenberg’s kamikaze is a more beneficent art world suicide bomber packed with explosives embedded in canvas, densely laden with...
Flaming Wades on Wheels: Kenny Schachter at the Le Mans Classic
The Le Mans Classic car race, on July 5, 2014 in Le Mans, France. (Courtesy of Jean-Francois Monier/AFP/Getty Images) As a coda to the art season, I thought I’d take a palette-cleansing trip to the biennial Le Mans Classic to check out the races and pick up an...
The Naked Truth About Basel: A Diary
‘Trademarks’ (1970) by Acconci. (Courtesy the artist and Greider Contemporary) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor...
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Art World: A Mea Culpa
‘Untitled’ (2013) by Israel Lund, which sold for $125,000 on a $30,000–$40,000 estimate at Christie’s last month. (Courtesy Christie’s) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and...
Play-by-Play, Day-by-Day: A Recap of Frieze and the Auctions
Xin Li. (Patrick McMullan Company) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition of GQ. The...
Won’t See You Tuesday…
Unimaginable in today’s art market: buyerless artworks by stars Alex Israel, Wade Guyton and Richard Prince, laid to rest. (Rendering by Kenny Schachter). Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect...
Art & Money: The Great Divide
A delicious Lucien Smith pie painting. Photo: Salon 94. Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition...
Day Tripper: Kenny Schachter at the London Day Sales
An untitled Kippenberger from 1996 that sold for about $703,000 at Christie’s. (Courtesy Christie’s) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and...
Avoidance Behavior: Gallery-Going in St. Moritz
Andy Warhol’s eye-popping 1986 self-portrait, at Caratsch.Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition...
Further Adventures in the Wade Guyton Market
‘Untitled’ (2006) by Guyton.Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition of GQ. The opinions...
X-Rated: On the Hunt for a Guyton, Wary of the Self-Gazump
An untitled painting by Wade Guyton in ‘Empire State’ at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome in April. (Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha...
What Goes Up Must Go Up: A Sneak Peek at Kenny Schachter’s Fall 2013 Gloom, Boom & Doom Report
A Kandinsky being handled at Christie’s London last week. (Photo by Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid, and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he...
Nothing But Time, Paul Thek Revisited, 1964-1987
Kenny Schachter is a private dealer and curator living in London. His latest curatorial project is a show of Paul Thek’s work at Pace Gallery that will be on view from September 25th to November 9th at 6 Burlington Gardens. The show, Nothing But Time, Paul Thek...
Ecstasy at Kunsthaus Zurich
Installation view of ‘The Hubert Looser Collection.’ (Photo by Lena Huber/© Kunsthaus Zürich) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid, and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is...
Jay-Z, Baby
Pace is the place for art’s celebrity arms race Turning up today is Jay-Z and band with plenty of fawning art stars in hand like self absorbed kids playing in sand No matter your chops nothing will stop the gallery from showing you the art world from blowing you There...
Kenny Schachter’s Basel Diary, Part 2
Lucio Fontana canvases at Helly Nahmad's Art Basel booth. No more disclaimers this time around, let’s just jump back into the thick of it, starting—where else?—with more dinners and parties, of course. During the relentless march of fairs and biennials, the art world...
It’s Groundhog Day at Art Basel 2013
The scene at Art Basel 2013. Forget about you, dear reader, how will I manage not to bore myself to tears with this? Art Basel feels like round 87 in a long, drawn-out boxing match and I shudder to think that I have to put fingers to the keyboard so quickly after the...
A Dealer’s Diary of Frieze Week NYC
The crowd at Jeff Koons's opening at David Zwirner Gallery The art fairs that have proliferated in every town and time zone the world over have come to take up such a signficant portion of how I view art that remembering my bearings at one—am I in Brussels this week,...
An Auction House Morality Tale
Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition of GQ. The opinions expressed here are his own. Some...
You Can Ring My Bell: Kenny Schachter at an Art World Quiz Show
Oliver Barker, Quizmaster. (Photo by Lucy Ward) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid, and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition of GQ...
Off to the Turtle Races: Kenny Schachter, Our Man in Maastricht.
Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid, and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition of GQ and Swiss money manager Marc...
Art Cologne – A Premature Call
In 2009 I wrote about the death of the Cologne Art Fair, having served on the selection committee for 2 years prior, but it was a premature call. It’s still a great place to see art without the usual European and American art mongering suspects breathing down your...
Status Anxiety: Kenny Schachter Dives into Facebook’s Art-World Trenches
Kenny Schachter’s Facebook profile image. In the age of hunched-over iPhone overachievers, Facebook has birthed a hybrid form of participatory art chat, a free-for-all dialogue sometimes charged with a level of meanness that would do an HBO series proud. These heated...
Miami Art Week 2012
A rainbow ring in the clouds over Art Basel Miami BeachNews reports leading up to the 10th iteration of Art Basel Miami Beach were more concerned with where to find the parties rather than the art. But the insurance value of the art clocked in at $2.5 billion, so...
A Trip to Beijing With Zaha Hadid
Patrik Schumacher, director of Hadid Architects, and Hadid. (Courtesy Kenny Schachter) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid, and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek. He is also...
Toxic Shock: Kenny Schachter on the Final Two Episodes of Bravo’s ‘Gallery Girls’
Amy. (Courtesy Bravo) Seeking a professional opinion on the Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in. Last time around we set him up for a GChat with a real, live Gallery Girl, and thought...
The Adventures of Amy: Kenny Schachter (the Hans Ulrich Obrist of Awful) GChats With a Real Live Gallery Girl
Amy. (Courtesy Bravo) Seeking a professional opinion on the Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in. With Episode Five, we detected that he was, in his way, warming to the show a bit,...
Free at Last: Kenny Schachter on Episode Five of Bravo’s ‘Gallery Girls’
Two of the Gallery Girls meet the Sucklord. (Courtesy Bravo)Seeking a professional opinion on the Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in. Episode four had him mad as hell, and all but...
Playing to the gallery
Tour de force: Richard Serra’s huge ‘Promenade’ is erected in Paris’ Grand Palais as part of the annual Monumenta exhibition, 2008. Correct me if I’m wrong, but an artist has not, as of yet, actually cured cancer – though many certainly behave as though they have. I...
I’m (Especially) Mad as Hell: Kenny Schachter on Episode Four of Bravo’s ‘Gallery Girls’
Terence Koh and Holzer. (Courtesy Bravo)Seeking a professional opinion on the Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in. His most recent recap, of episode three, had us convinced that the...
The Gold Standard: FERRARI AND PICASSO
We are facing an unprecedented confluence of international macroeconomic conditions that have collided with the unintended result of pushing prices for rare and desirable collectibles far into the stratosphere. Never before have these forces raged with such ferocity...
Gallery Gossip Girls: Kenny Schachter on the First Two Episodes of Bravo’s ‘Gallery Girls’
(Courtesy Bravo)Seeking a professional opinion on the new Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in on the show’s first two episodes. Stay tuned for further musings on the program from Mr....
Logical Volume Identifier: Kenny Schachter on Episode Three of Bravo’s ‘Gallery Girls’
‘Gallery Girls.’ (Courtesy Bravo)Seeking a professional opinion on the Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in. After his recap of the first two episodes, we weren’t entirely certain he...
A Streetcar Named Desire
Laptop on desk, photo of the family, Carrera RS (911 and 964 variety), 930 Turbo…Yup, just your normal everyday office. Kenny Schachter’s working environment is a shrine to Porsches and modern art.My car obsession, bordering on a fetish, sprang from being an alienated...
Kenny Schachter’s ART Basel Wrap-Up
Got off to an early start this year prior to the onset of the ART Basel fair(s), at 5am, and headed off to Zurich for a jump on the proceedings. I received more .pdf’s offering pre-fair fare than on any prior occasion, which can’t foreshadow a good thing for sellers...