How and when did your art-collecting journey begin? What was the first place that sparked this passion?

I started my collecting journey with designer toys (Bearbricks, KAWS toys, Michael Lau) about 20 years ago, these were small, cute and affordable items. I remember displaying them in different rooms at home at the time. In 2007, I bought my first Bearbrick 1000% (70cms high, which is quite large) in Paris at the Colette concept store, it was a limited piece celebrating Colette’s 10th Anniversary featuring signatures of several street artists (KAWS, André, Futura… ). I was very happy with that one, it was one of my favorite items at home. It was displayed in my living room and I was just enjoying the piece, unfortunately, this white Bearbrick turned yellow over the years due to sun exposure. At that time, I was not thinking too much about protecting such toys. In 2012, I moved from France to the Netherlands with my wife and kids and this is when I started to collect more art, with first prints and lithographs, and later drawings, paintings, sculptures… I even bought a huge and heavy plan chest back then to store all the prints and drawings.

KAWS figure, Piet Parra figure, Aokizy artwork

Collection Corner: Bearbrick, Takashi Murakami, Jordy Kerwick, Edgar Plans

Your collection covers a diverse range of genres including fine art, art collectibles and furniture. How did you pave your way through these different genres, and how do you discover new artists today?

I have always been interested about art and design in general, my parents were as well, so I guess I grew up with it and it’s somehow part of my DNA. I also always enjoyed browsing design / architecutre magazines when I was younger (in my 20s) and getting inspiration for my future home. Today, I mostly discover new artists via Instagram, I follow several artists, galleries, studios collectors, art curators… I have several friends that share similar interests as me so I also get insights from them, I try to visit as many exhibitions as possible in both galleries and museums, I also attend some fairs, I sometimes visit artists’ studios…. I also read a lot of art books, I like to understand the artist’s stories, their backgrounds, try to educate myself to understand better their works. What I also really like as a collector is all the research type of things before finding a great piece, you get some leads, you speak with people, you get lucky sometimes… this process is exciting.

Looking back, what has been the most memorable piece you’ve acquired, and what is the story behind it?

There are several cool stories behind some of the pieces I own but if I could highlight one, I would pick this one. Several years ago, I was looking to get a small ceramic sculpture from Joakim Ojanen, a Swedish artist that I’ve been following for quite some time. I had some opportunities with some galleries back in 2018-2019 but for various reason, it didn’t work out until end of 2019 where he had a show in Sweden with Larsen/Warner. I contacted them and was able to acquire a small work.

The piece was part of an exhibition in the Teckningsmuseet of Laholm (a museum in a small Swedish city) so I had to wait few months before the end of the exhibition to get the work. In the meantime, I was in discussion with the gallery regarding shipping, and since it’s a ceramic sculpture, I was a bit worried as these types of works are fragile. The shipping quote was expansive, almost as much as the work itself. I spoke with some friends about it and actually, one of my friend also wanted to buy a sculpture from Joakim Ojanen, so he contacted the gallery and was able to buy some works as well. Together we decided to organize a small trip to Sweden in order to collect the pieces directly. At the end, we spent the week-end in Denmark/Sweden, collected our sculptures directly at the museum, and visited Malmo/Copenhagen, that was a very cool trip and it was just few weeks before the Covid lockdown so great memory of what was life before Covid.

Could you share a glimpse into your home? How do the pieces you live with interact with your daily space?

I have works in most rooms at home, but also a lot in my garage/storage… I also like to change from time to time, so I re-arrange the walls, place new painting and remove some… I just enjoy watching the pieces, discussing about it with guests and with my kids. It just feels good being surrounded by these different works. It brings brightness at home, simply.

You seem to have a strong connection to both Korean and international contemporary art. What draws you to these specific scenes?

I’m very curious by nature and since a very young age had interest in Asian culture, mostly via movies. As a teenager, I really enjoyed watching Hong Kong polar from John Woo, Tsui Hark, Japanese crazy movies from Takashi Miike and Korean masterpieces from Park Chan-Wook or Bong Joon-Ho to name a few; I also lived in Asia for a while (in Korea) and also lived in the US, so I guess it helped built his broad interest in different cultures.

In 2000, I met my wife who is Korean and that clearly accelerated my interest for Korea and the Korean cultural scene, it was very fun to see how huge was the emergence of the Korean culture in the past 20 years on the global scene from almost an unknown country in the early 2000’s to a mega powerhouse today in Music, Movies or Series. In parallel, I have been following several Korean artists and over the years, bought several works and I’m happy to see that several of these artists are very successful lately.

Is there a special attachment to Space Invader? What is it about his work that resonates with you?

I’m a fan and I always liked to see his works in the different cities I visited, It often reminds me memories from my childhood (video games, cartoons characters…). I try to make cool pictures each time I see a nice mosaic from Invader and even created a special hashtag on Instagram #cutsinvaded so I can easily browse through my pictures

You’ve long been a prominent tastemaker on Instagram, blending art with cars, food, and travel. What does the platform mean to you, and how do you see the relationship between fine art and lifestyle curation?

I’ve been using Instagram since 2012 or so, I always liked the platform despite all the changes it went through, I just like to share cool pictures with my friends, I used to have a blog where I was sharing posts about music, movies, food, things I like or dislike… so Instagram was in the continuity of that in a sense. I try to post on a variety of topics, obviously some are more popular than others, but it doesn’t really matter to me, I just keep posting what I find interesting and worth sharing. I also really like to see other people’s posts and discover new things, new places, new experiences…. Sometimes a random picture just makes me smile, excites me, motivates me to learn more about specific topics… Some accounts that I follow are very inspiring and give me ideas.

Looking ahead, how do you see your collection—and your identity as a collector—evolving in the future?

Lately, I tried to become more selective in the number of works that I own and the artists that I collect, as well as the different art media that I have; the idea for instance is to focus more on originals works and less on other things. I don’t have yet fixed preferences for style or colors or whatever, I’m still very open, if I like something, I just go with my feeling.

In my collection, there are what I would call safe bets, meaning artists that I really like and have always liked, and if possible, I would always look to acquire new works from these artists to expand the collection either via galleries, auction houses or second-hand sales. Then, there are artists that I dream about and for which, you never know, there could be some nice opportunities some day and finally, you have a lot of emerging artists that I also try to follow and also would happily add some works when possible. So overall, I would say my collection is constantly evolving, but with still a solid anchor around 4-5 artists that are my all-time favorites…

EP9. Vincent

EP8. drawingmary