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{{Short description|Film producer, collector, and art dealer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person {{Infobox person
| image = Stefan Simchowitz.jpg | image = File:Stefan Simchowitz (cropped).jpg
| caption = | caption = Simchowitz in 2015
| name = Stefan Simchowitz | name = Stefan Simchowitz
| birth_name = | birth_name =
| birth_date = October 8, 1970 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1970|10|8}}
| birth_place = ] | birth_place = ]
| death_date = | death_date =
| occupation = ], ], advisor | occupation = ], ], advisor
| years_active = 1995–present | years_active = 1995–present
| party = ]
| spouse = | spouse =
| domesticpartner = Rosi Riedl | domesticpartner = Rosi Riedl
| children = | children =
| parents = | parents =
| influences =
| influenced =
| website = | website =
| awards = | awards =
}} }}


'''Stefan Simchowitz''' (born in ] on October 8, 1970) is a ] based ], ], and art advisor.<ref name=Glazek>{{cite news | last =Glazek | first =Christopher | title =The Art World's Patron Satan | newspaper =The New York Times | date =December 30, 2014 | url =https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/magazine/the-art-worlds-patron-satan.html | access-date = January 2, 2015}}</ref> He is a vocal proponent of social media as a legitimate way of discovering, distributing, and popularizing the fine arts, primarily using ] and ] as platforms for self-promotion, discovering new artists, and endorsing those he already manages. '''Stefan Simchowitz''' (born October 8, 1970) is a ]-based ], ], and art advisor.<ref name=Glazek>{{cite news | last =Glazek | first =Christopher | title =The Art World's Patron Satan | newspaper =The New York Times | date =December 30, 2014 | url =https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/magazine/the-art-worlds-patron-satan.html | access-date = January 2, 2015}}</ref> He is a vocal proponent of social media as a legitimate way of discovering, distributing, and popularizing the fine arts, primarily using ] and ] as platforms for self-promotion, discovering new artists, and endorsing those he already manages.


==Early life and education==
⚫ Simchowitz believes that conversations on social media hold a degree of influence over the artworld comparable to other canonical forums for artistic discussion and legitimization, including art reviews written by critics for key publications.<ref>{{cite news | last =Wagley | first =Catherine | title =Is Greed Good for Art? | newspaper =LA Weekly | date =June 26, 2014 | url =http://www.laweekly.com/publicspectacle/2014/06/26/can-greed-be-good-for-art | access-date =January 2, 2015}}</ref> Supporters see his method as concerned with diversifying the number of systems which recognize and produce credible artists. A number of them, including, but not limited to ], ], ], ], Zachary Armstrong, ], ], and ] have all been advised by Stefan Simchowitz. In November 2015, he was ranked No. 95 in Art Review Magazine's POWER 100, a list of 2015's "most influential people in the contemporary artworld."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title = Stefan Simchowitz / Power 100 / Art Review|url = http://artreview.com/power_100/stefan_simchowitz/|website = artreview.com|access-date = 2015-12-03}}</ref>
⚫ Simchowitz spent his early years in ], but otherwise lived a mobile childhood. He graduated from ] with a bachelor's degree in ], finishing the program in three years.<ref name="bloomberg.com">{{Cite web|title = Stefan Simchowitz: Executive Profile & Biography - Businessweek|url = https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=29539945&privcapId=123705&previousCapId=123705&previousTitle=MediaVast,%2520Inc.|website = Businessweek.com|access-date = 2015-12-03}}</ref> Shortly after, he attended the ] in ]. Simchowitz would go on to produce and assistant produce fifteen films.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Crow |first=Kelly |title=The Art World Loves to Hate Him. He's Building an Empire Anyway. |url=https://www.wsj.com/style/design/stefan-simchowitz-art-dealer-los-angeles-6dd51d25 |access-date=2023-09-29 |website=WSJ |language=en-US}}</ref>


==Controversy== == Career ==
⚫ Simchowitz believes that conversations on social media hold a degree of influence over the artworld comparable to other canonical forums for artistic discussion and legitimization, including art reviews written by critics for key publications.<ref>{{cite news|last=Wagley|first=Catherine|date=June 26, 2014|title=Is Greed Good for Art?|newspaper=LA Weekly|url=http://www.laweekly.com/publicspectacle/2014/06/26/can-greed-be-good-for-art|access-date=January 2, 2015}}</ref> Supporters see his method as concerned with diversifying the number of systems which recognize and produce credible artists. A number of them, including, but not limited to ], ], ], ], ], Zachary Armstrong, ], ], and ] have all been advised by Stefan Simchowitz. In November 2015, he was ranked No. 95 in Art Review Magazine's POWER 100, a list of 2015's "most influential people in the contemporary artworld."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Stefan Simchowitz / Power 100 / Art Review|url=http://artreview.com/power_100/stefan_simchowitz/|access-date=2015-12-03|website=artreview.com}}</ref>
⚫ Simchowitz is a popular target for critics who claim that his particular penchant for promoting young, undiscovered artists through bulk acquisitions of their work to later ] for profit, destabilizes established workings of the art world<ref name=Saltz>{{cite news | last =Saltz | first =Jerry | title =Saltz on Stefan Simchowitz, the Greatest Art-Flipper of Them All | newspaper =New York Magazine | date =March 31, 2014 | url =http://www.vulture.com/2014/03/saltz-on-the-great-and-powerful-simchowitz.html | access-date = January 2, 2015}}</ref> — age-old, value-determining systems composed of a long-standing and tight network of critics, ], ], ] and ] that collectively define the nature of 'good' art. He subverts the establishment by selling his curated acquisitions directly to a diverse network of wealthy clients who trust his taste implicitly.


⚫ Stefan Simchowitz engages in a hybrid practice that includes ], art advising and ]. He believes that "the ] of art is that it’s not just the artist who produces the work but the spectator and the audience that essentially refines the art in its raw state into a refined product."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=How I Collect: Cultural Entrepreneur Stefan Simchowitz on the Merits of Flipping, and Being a "Great Collector" {{!}} Artspace|url=http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/how_i_collect/stefan_simchowitz_interview-52164|access-date=2015-12-03|website=Artspace}}</ref> As such, once he discovers a young, talented, generally unknown artist with whom to work, he sets about generating a market for them and their work, building demand, which eventually drives up prices. This part of his practice functions not unlike that of an ]. In the meantime, Simchowitz provides a patron-like role for the artist, providing them with the finances needed to live, maintain a full-time studio and produce work. He believes that the artist must be committed to their creative work on a full-time basis and that financial hardship, as well as the need to make ends meet, can be detrimental to the challenge of making good art. However, in exchange for footing the bill, Simchowitz buys any new work at a discount.{{cn|date=July 2024}}
⚫ In the media, he has received both ample praise and heavy criticism. He has been called the ] of the art world,<ref name="Glazek" /> and "a ] from the Brotherhood of Darkness,"<ref>{{cite news | last =Drury | first =Dan | title =Stefan Simchowitz vs. the Art World | newspaper =New York Observer | date =May 7, 2014 | url =http://observer.com/2014/05/stefan-simchowitz-vs-the-art-world/ | access-date = January 2, 2015}}</ref> by Jerry Saltz. Art Review's entry on Simchowitz states that "if the artworld needed its ], its ], its ], it got 'Simcho': a brash, publicity-hungry yet highly intelligent collector-adviser-dealer...".<ref name=":0" /> Andrew M. Goldstein of Artspace argued that "his approach to collecting and nurturing artists systematically abrogates—annihilates—a whole series of beliefs that lie at the foundation of the art world's critical, institutional, and commercial structures."<ref>{{Cite web|title = The Big Idea: The Sacred Cows of the Art World (Or, Why Everyone's So Nervous About Stefan Simchowitz) {{!}} Artspace|url = http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/the_big_idea/the_sacred_cows_of_the_art_world-52180|website = Artspace|access-date = 2015-12-03}}</ref> Simchowitz's trademark transparent and honest attitude leads some to believe that he is simply lifting the veil off of previously hidden activities already prevalent in the artworld. ], director of ], attributes Simchowitz's success to the fact that he does exactly what the galleries do, except at a significantly faster clip, and the "he has taken a market that was built on opacity and been much more transparent. He goes to an artist's studio; he puts the stuff on ]."<ref>{{Citation|url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFY7b5HmpZ4|access-date = 2015-12-03}}</ref> Spiegler characterizes Simchowitz's practice as similar in function to galleries of past, in that he holds exclusive access to his collector base. As such, the approach has been characterized as paradigm-shifting in the context of the ] artworld, while snuggly fitting into an extended historical lineage of the artworld's many businessmen.


⚫ Simchowitz gained attention when a 2014 ] article about speculation in the contemporary art market reported on his purchase on-the-cheap of 34 paintings by the ] artist ]<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-01-05|title=Stefan Simchowitz Isn't as Controversial as He'd Like You to Believe|url=http://hyperallergic.com/172910/stefan-simchowitz-isnt-as-controversial-as-hed-like-you-to-believe/|access-date=2015-12-03|website=Hyperallergic}}</ref> near the beginning of his career in the early 2000s, paying as low as US$1,500 for some canvases.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|last=Kazakina|first=Katya|title=Art Flippers Chase Fresh Stars as Murillo's Doodles Soar|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-06/art-flippers-chase-fresh-stars-as-murillo-s-doodles-soar.html|access-date=2015-12-03|newspaper=Bloomberg.com|date=7 February 2014 }}</ref> Since then, between 2012 and 2014, the value of a Murillo work surged by nearly 3,000 percent.<ref name=":2" /> In the current auction climate, a typical piece by the artist can command as much as US$400,000 at auction.<ref name=":1" /> However, Simchowitz rarely sells the work which he collects, and currently sits on a collection of over 1,500 contemporary works that he values personally at around US$30 million, with "five percent of the works accounting for fifty percent of the value."<ref name="Glazek" />
== Education ==
⚫ Simchowitz is Jewish,<ref></ref> spent his early years in ], but otherwise lived a mobile childhood. He graduated from ] with a bachelor's degree in ], finishing the program in three years.<ref name="bloomberg.com">{{Cite web|title = Stefan Simchowitz: Executive Profile & Biography - Businessweek|url = https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=29539945&privcapId=123705&previousCapId=123705&previousTitle=MediaVast,%2520Inc.|website = Businessweek.com|access-date = 2015-12-03}}</ref> Shortly after, he attended the ] in ]. Simchowitz would go on to produce and assistant produce fifteen films.


⚫ In addition to dealing and collecting, Simchowitz also works as an art advisor. He serves a roster of clients whom he advises about the acquisition of contemporary art, offering advice, not only on works produced by artists under his representation, but also on art outside his immediate reach (pieces typically for sale at galleries and auction houses).{{cn|date=July 2024}}
⚫ === Producer ===
⚫ After college, Simchowitz started a ] company responsible for a number of feature films and shorts, such as ] critically acclaimed drama, ].<ref name="bloomberg.com"/>


Simchowitz is a noted photographer, describing his work as "The Simcoportrait". The Simcoportrait is a self created genre of photography in which he has collapsed documentation of anything and everything into a single thing - this includes still life, landscape, street, self portraiture, and documentation photography. The Simcoportrait is merely a portrait of the subject in whatever genre of photography it may fall.  What is unusual about his practice is that it accompanies him everywhere as a live documentation under the seemingly nondescript amateur everyday photographer. There is a formal discipline to his image taking and image making that is reflected in the obsessive compulsion to capture and create. Simchowitz's "Simcoportraits" have been published in Flaunt and Vogue.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-02-07 |title=Boys Will Be Boys • Stefan Simchowitz |url=https://www.vogue.it/en/photography/photostories/2017/02/07/stefan-simchowitz-2/ |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Vogue.it |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Jasmine Little's Retrograde at Night Gallery |url=https://www.flaunt.com/blog/jasmine-little-retrograde |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=www.flaunt.com}}</ref>

On March 6, 2021, Simchowitz opened his first art gallery under his namesake, Simchowitz.com.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2024-01-03 |title=Divisive Los Angeles dealer Stefan Simchowitz runs for US Senate |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/01/03/divisive-los-angeles-dealer-stefan-simchowitz-runs-for-us-senate |access-date=2024-04-13 |website=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events}}</ref>

== Other ventures ==

⚫ === Producer ===
⚫ After college, Simchowitz started a ] company responsible for a number of feature films and shorts, such as ] drama, '']''.<ref name="bloomberg.com"/>
==== Filmography ==== ==== Filmography ====
* The Farewell (2011) * The Farewell (2011)
Line 53: Line 61:


====MediaVast==== ====MediaVast====
In 1999, Simchowitz co-founded the visual content provider MediaVast. Later in 2007, Getty Images acquired the company for a reported US$207 million. At the time of the sale, the repository held approximately 8.5 million images.<ref>{{cite news | title =Company Overview of MediaVast, Inc. | newspaper =Bloomberg Businessweek | location =New York | url =http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=123705 | access-date = January 2, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last =Daurat | first =Cecile | title =Getty Agrees to Buy MediaVast to Add Celebrity Images | newspaper =Bloomberg | location =New York | date =February 22, 2007 | url =https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-02-22/getty-agrees-to-buy-mediavast-to-add-celebrity-images-update2-.html | access-date = January 2, 2015}}</ref> In 1999, Simchowitz co-founded the visual content provider MediaVast. Later in 2007, ] acquired the company for a reported US$207 million. At the time of the sale, the repository held approximately 8.5 million images.<ref>{{cite news | title =Company Overview of MediaVast, Inc. | newspaper =Bloomberg Businessweek | location =New York | url =http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=123705 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090408204444/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=123705 | url-status =dead | archive-date =8 April 2009 | access-date = January 2, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last =Daurat | first =Cecile | title =Getty Agrees to Buy MediaVast to Add Celebrity Images | newspaper =Bloomberg | location =New York | date =February 22, 2007 | url =https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2007-02-22/getty-agrees-to-buy-mediavast-to-add-celebrity-images-update2-.html | access-date = January 2, 2015}}</ref>


===2024 United States Senate Campaign===
== Career ==

⚫ Stefan Simchowitz engages in a hybrid practice that includes ], art advising and ]. He believes that "the ] of art is that it’s not just the artist who produces the work but the spectator and the audience that essentially refines the art in its raw state into a refined product."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title = How I Collect: Cultural Entrepreneur Stefan Simchowitz on the Merits of Flipping, and Being a "Great Collector" {{!}} Artspace|url = http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/how_i_collect/stefan_simchowitz_interview-52164|website = Artspace|access-date = 2015-12-03}}</ref> As such, once he discovers a young, talented, generally unknown artist with whom to work, he sets about generating a market for them and their work, building demand, which eventually drives up prices. This part of his practice functions not unlike that of an ]. In the meantime, Simchowitz provides a patron-like role for the artist, providing them with the finances needed to live, maintain a full-time studio and produce work. He believes that the artist must be committed to their creative work on a full time basis and that financial hardship, as well as the need to make ends meet, can be detrimental to the challenge of making good art. However, in exchange for footing the bill, Simchowitz buys any new work at a discount.
In October 2023, Simchowitz declared his candidacy for the ] as a centrist ].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Armstrong |first=Annie |date=2023-10-26 |title=Marfa Invitational's Status as a Charitable Foundation Is Revoked, an Art Collector Runs for U.S. Senate, and More Juicy Art World Gossip |url=https://news.artnet.com/news-pro/marfa-invitational-simchowitz-senate-2385740 |access-date=2023-11-02 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}}</ref> He primarily campaigned on ] and his belief that ] would allow everyone to live comfortably.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-03 |title=LA DEALER STEFAN SIMCHOWITZ AIMING FOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN'S SENATE SEAT |url=https://www.artforum.com/news/la-dealer-stefan-simchowitz-pursues-dianne-feinsteins-senate-seat-545839/ |access-date=2024-04-13 |website=] |language=en-US}}</ref> He admitted that he had low chances of winning, this was proved true as he finished 25th out of 31 candidates in the ] with 0.1% of the vote.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/sov/2024-primary/sov/complete-sov.pdf |title=2024 California Primary Results |access-date=13 April 2024 |archive-date=13 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240413044714/https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/sov/2024-primary/sov/complete-sov.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Controversy ==
⚫ Simchowitz is a popular target for critics who claim that his particular penchant for promoting young, undiscovered artists through bulk acquisitions of their work to later ] for profit, destabilizes established workings of the art world<ref name="Saltz">{{cite news|last=Saltz|first=Jerry|date=March 31, 2014|title=Saltz on Stefan Simchowitz, the Greatest Art-Flipper of Them All|newspaper=New York Magazine|url=http://www.vulture.com/2014/03/saltz-on-the-great-and-powerful-simchowitz.html|access-date=January 2, 2015}}</ref> — age-old, value-determining systems composed of a long-standing and tight network of critics, ], ], ] and ] that collectively define the nature of 'good' art. He subverts the establishment by selling his curated acquisitions directly to a diverse network of wealthy clients who trust his taste implicitly.

⚫ In the media, he has received both ample praise and heavy criticism. He has been called the ] of the art world,<ref name="Glazek" /> and "a ] from the Brotherhood of Darkness,"<ref>{{cite news|last=Drury|first=Dan|date=May 7, 2014|title=Stefan Simchowitz vs. the Art World|newspaper=New York Observer|url=http://observer.com/2014/05/stefan-simchowitz-vs-the-art-world/|access-date=January 2, 2015}}</ref> by Jerry Saltz. Art Review's entry on Simchowitz states that "if the artworld needed its ], its ], its ], it got 'Simcho': a brash, publicity-hungry yet highly intelligent collector-adviser-dealer...".<ref name=":0" /> Andrew M. Goldstein of Artspace argued that "his approach to collecting and nurturing artists systematically abrogates—annihilates—a whole series of beliefs that lie at the foundation of the art world's critical, institutional, and commercial structures."<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Big Idea: The Sacred Cows of the Art World (Or, Why Everyone's So Nervous About Stefan Simchowitz) {{!}} Artspace|url=http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/the_big_idea/the_sacred_cows_of_the_art_world-52180|access-date=2015-12-03|website=Artspace}}</ref> Simchowitz's trademark transparent and honest attitude leads some to believe that he is simply lifting the veil off of previously hidden activities already prevalent in the artworld. ], director of ], attributes Simchowitz's success to the fact that he does exactly what the galleries do, except at a significantly faster clip, and that "he has taken a market that was built on opacity and been much more transparent. He goes to an artist's studio; he puts the stuff on ]."<ref>{{Citation|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFY7b5HmpZ4|access-date=2015-12-03|title=Marc Spiegler: '10 Questions every gallerist should be asking themself now'. Talking Galleries 2015 |date=12 November 2015 }}</ref> Spiegler characterizes Simchowitz's practice as similar in function to galleries of past, in that he holds exclusive access to his collector base. As such, the approach has been characterized as paradigm-shifting in the context of the ] artworld, while snuggly fitting into an extended historical lineage of the artworld's many businessmen.


In 2013, along with Dublin gallerist Ellis King, Simchowitz sued Ghanaian artist ]. Mahama had been paid by the dealers, but refused to authenticate derivative works they produced from Mahama's installations of Ghanaian coal sacks. In 2016, Simchowitz ] with Mahama.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-05-11|title=Stefan Simchowitz Settles Lawsuit with Artist|url=https://news.artnet.com/market/stefan-simchowitz-ibrahim-mahama-lawsuit-settled-494660|access-date=2021-03-06|website=Artnet News|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Stefan Simchowitz settles bitter legal case with Ibrahim Mahama|url=http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/stefan-simchowitz-settles-bitter-legal-case-with-ibrahim-mahama|access-date=2021-03-06|website=www.theartnewspaper.com|date=10 May 2016 }}</ref>
⚫ Simchowitz burst into the public stage when a 2014 ] article about speculation in the contemporary art market reported on his purchase on-the-cheap of 34 paintings by the ] artist ]<ref>{{Cite web|title = Stefan Simchowitz Isn't as Controversial as He'd Like You to Believe|url = http://hyperallergic.com/172910/stefan-simchowitz-isnt-as-controversial-as-hed-like-you-to-believe/|website = Hyperallergic|access-date = 2015-12-03|date = 2015-01-05}}</ref> near the beginning of his career in the early 2000s, paying as low as US$1,500 for some canvases.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title = Art Flippers Chase Fresh Stars as Murillo's Doodles Soar|url = https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-06/art-flippers-chase-fresh-stars-as-murillo-s-doodles-soar.html|website = Bloomberg|access-date = 2015-12-03|first = Katya|last = Kazakina}}</ref> Since then, between 2012 and 2014, the value of a Murillo work surged by nearly 3,000 percent.<ref name=":2" /> In the current auction climate, a typical piece by the artist can command as much as US$400,000 at auction.<ref name=":1" /> However, Simchowitz rarely sells the work which he collects, and currently sits on a collection of over 1,500 contemporary works that he values personally at around US$30 million, with "five percent of the works accounting for fifty percent of the value."<ref name="Glazek" />


In 2017 the Dutch art collective ] published a documentary about Simchowitz under the disguise of being a German television crew.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.keepingitrealartcritics.com/wordpress/ | title=Keeping It Real Art Critics }}</ref>
⚫ In addition to dealing and collecting, Simchowitz also works as an art advisor. He serves a roster of clients whom he advises about the acquisition of contemporary art, offering advice, not only on works produced by artists under his representation, but also on art outside his immediate reach (pieces typically for sale at galleries and auction houses).


==References== == References ==
{{Reflist}} {{Reflist}}


==External links== ==External links==
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Latest revision as of 20:08, 17 December 2024

Film producer, collector, and art dealer

Stefan Simchowitz
Simchowitz in 2015
Born (1970-10-08) October 8, 1970 (age 54)
Johannesburg
Occupation(s)art collector, art curator, advisor
Years active1995–present
Political partyRepublican
PartnerRosi Riedl
WebsiteSimchowitz

Stefan Simchowitz (born October 8, 1970) is a Los Angeles-based art collector, art curator, and art advisor. He is a vocal proponent of social media as a legitimate way of discovering, distributing, and popularizing the fine arts, primarily using Facebook and Instagram as platforms for self-promotion, discovering new artists, and endorsing those he already manages.

Early life and education

Simchowitz spent his early years in South Africa, but otherwise lived a mobile childhood. He graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in economics, finishing the program in three years. Shortly after, he attended the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Simchowitz would go on to produce and assistant produce fifteen films.

Career

Simchowitz believes that conversations on social media hold a degree of influence over the artworld comparable to other canonical forums for artistic discussion and legitimization, including art reviews written by critics for key publications. Supporters see his method as concerned with diversifying the number of systems which recognize and produce credible artists. A number of them, including, but not limited to Sterling Ruby, Oscar Murillo, Paa Joe, Lucien Smith, Petra Cortright, Zachary Armstrong, Kour Pour, Jon Rafman, and Marc Horowitz have all been advised by Stefan Simchowitz. In November 2015, he was ranked No. 95 in Art Review Magazine's POWER 100, a list of 2015's "most influential people in the contemporary artworld."

Stefan Simchowitz engages in a hybrid practice that includes art dealing, art advising and art collecting. He believes that "the alchemy of art is that it’s not just the artist who produces the work but the spectator and the audience that essentially refines the art in its raw state into a refined product." As such, once he discovers a young, talented, generally unknown artist with whom to work, he sets about generating a market for them and their work, building demand, which eventually drives up prices. This part of his practice functions not unlike that of an art gallery. In the meantime, Simchowitz provides a patron-like role for the artist, providing them with the finances needed to live, maintain a full-time studio and produce work. He believes that the artist must be committed to their creative work on a full-time basis and that financial hardship, as well as the need to make ends meet, can be detrimental to the challenge of making good art. However, in exchange for footing the bill, Simchowitz buys any new work at a discount.

Simchowitz gained attention when a 2014 Bloomberg article about speculation in the contemporary art market reported on his purchase on-the-cheap of 34 paintings by the Colombian artist Oscar Murillo near the beginning of his career in the early 2000s, paying as low as US$1,500 for some canvases. Since then, between 2012 and 2014, the value of a Murillo work surged by nearly 3,000 percent. In the current auction climate, a typical piece by the artist can command as much as US$400,000 at auction. However, Simchowitz rarely sells the work which he collects, and currently sits on a collection of over 1,500 contemporary works that he values personally at around US$30 million, with "five percent of the works accounting for fifty percent of the value."

In addition to dealing and collecting, Simchowitz also works as an art advisor. He serves a roster of clients whom he advises about the acquisition of contemporary art, offering advice, not only on works produced by artists under his representation, but also on art outside his immediate reach (pieces typically for sale at galleries and auction houses).

Simchowitz is a noted photographer, describing his work as "The Simcoportrait". The Simcoportrait is a self created genre of photography in which he has collapsed documentation of anything and everything into a single thing - this includes still life, landscape, street, self portraiture, and documentation photography. The Simcoportrait is merely a portrait of the subject in whatever genre of photography it may fall.  What is unusual about his practice is that it accompanies him everywhere as a live documentation under the seemingly nondescript amateur everyday photographer. There is a formal discipline to his image taking and image making that is reflected in the obsessive compulsion to capture and create. Simchowitz's "Simcoportraits" have been published in Flaunt and Vogue.

On March 6, 2021, Simchowitz opened his first art gallery under his namesake, Simchowitz.com.

Other ventures

Producer

After college, Simchowitz started a film production company responsible for a number of feature films and shorts, such as Darren Aronofsky's drama, Requiem for a Dream.

Filmography

MediaVast

In 1999, Simchowitz co-founded the visual content provider MediaVast. Later in 2007, Getty Images acquired the company for a reported US$207 million. At the time of the sale, the repository held approximately 8.5 million images.

2024 United States Senate Campaign

In October 2023, Simchowitz declared his candidacy for the 2024 United States Senate election in California as a centrist Republican. He primarily campaigned on homelessness and his belief that printing more currency would allow everyone to live comfortably. He admitted that he had low chances of winning, this was proved true as he finished 25th out of 31 candidates in the blanket primary with 0.1% of the vote.

Controversy

Simchowitz is a popular target for critics who claim that his particular penchant for promoting young, undiscovered artists through bulk acquisitions of their work to later flip for profit, destabilizes established workings of the art world — age-old, value-determining systems composed of a long-standing and tight network of critics, publications, universities, museums and galleries that collectively define the nature of 'good' art. He subverts the establishment by selling his curated acquisitions directly to a diverse network of wealthy clients who trust his taste implicitly.

In the media, he has received both ample praise and heavy criticism. He has been called the Michael Milken of the art world, and "a Sith Lord from the Brotherhood of Darkness," by Jerry Saltz. Art Review's entry on Simchowitz states that "if the artworld needed its Howard Stern, its Ari Gold, its Donald Trump, it got 'Simcho': a brash, publicity-hungry yet highly intelligent collector-adviser-dealer...". Andrew M. Goldstein of Artspace argued that "his approach to collecting and nurturing artists systematically abrogates—annihilates—a whole series of beliefs that lie at the foundation of the art world's critical, institutional, and commercial structures." Simchowitz's trademark transparent and honest attitude leads some to believe that he is simply lifting the veil off of previously hidden activities already prevalent in the artworld. Marc Spiegler, director of Art Basel, attributes Simchowitz's success to the fact that he does exactly what the galleries do, except at a significantly faster clip, and that "he has taken a market that was built on opacity and been much more transparent. He goes to an artist's studio; he puts the stuff on Instagram." Spiegler characterizes Simchowitz's practice as similar in function to galleries of past, in that he holds exclusive access to his collector base. As such, the approach has been characterized as paradigm-shifting in the context of the contemporary art artworld, while snuggly fitting into an extended historical lineage of the artworld's many businessmen.

In 2013, along with Dublin gallerist Ellis King, Simchowitz sued Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama. Mahama had been paid by the dealers, but refused to authenticate derivative works they produced from Mahama's installations of Ghanaian coal sacks. In 2016, Simchowitz settled with Mahama.

In 2017 the Dutch art collective Keeping It Real Art Critics published a documentary about Simchowitz under the disguise of being a German television crew.

References

  1. ^ Glazek, Christopher (30 December 2014). "The Art World's Patron Satan". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  2. ^ "Stefan Simchowitz: Executive Profile & Biography - Businessweek". Businessweek.com. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  3. Crow, Kelly. "The Art World Loves to Hate Him. He's Building an Empire Anyway". WSJ. Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  4. Wagley, Catherine (26 June 2014). "Is Greed Good for Art?". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  5. ^ "Stefan Simchowitz / Power 100 / Art Review". artreview.com. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  6. ^ "How I Collect: Cultural Entrepreneur Stefan Simchowitz on the Merits of Flipping, and Being a "Great Collector" | Artspace". Artspace. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  7. "Stefan Simchowitz Isn't as Controversial as He'd Like You to Believe". Hyperallergic. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  8. ^ Kazakina, Katya (7 February 2014). "Art Flippers Chase Fresh Stars as Murillo's Doodles Soar". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  9. "Boys Will Be Boys • Stefan Simchowitz". Vogue.it. 7 February 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  10. "Jasmine Little's Retrograde at Night Gallery". www.flaunt.com. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  11. ^ "Divisive Los Angeles dealer Stefan Simchowitz runs for US Senate". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. 3 January 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  12. "Company Overview of MediaVast, Inc". Bloomberg Businessweek. New York. Archived from the original on 8 April 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  13. Daurat, Cecile (22 February 2007). "Getty Agrees to Buy MediaVast to Add Celebrity Images". Bloomberg. New York. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  14. Armstrong, Annie (26 October 2023). "Marfa Invitational's Status as a Charitable Foundation Is Revoked, an Art Collector Runs for U.S. Senate, and More Juicy Art World Gossip". Artnet News. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  15. "LA DEALER STEFAN SIMCHOWITZ AIMING FOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN'S SENATE SEAT". Artforum. 3 January 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  16. "2024 California Primary Results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 April 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  17. Saltz, Jerry (31 March 2014). "Saltz on Stefan Simchowitz, the Greatest Art-Flipper of Them All". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  18. Drury, Dan (7 May 2014). "Stefan Simchowitz vs. the Art World". New York Observer. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  19. "The Big Idea: The Sacred Cows of the Art World (Or, Why Everyone's So Nervous About Stefan Simchowitz) | Artspace". Artspace. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  20. Marc Spiegler: '10 Questions every gallerist should be asking themself now'. Talking Galleries 2015, 12 November 2015, retrieved 3 December 2015
  21. "Stefan Simchowitz Settles Lawsuit with Artist". Artnet News. 11 May 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  22. "Stefan Simchowitz settles bitter legal case with Ibrahim Mahama". www.theartnewspaper.com. 10 May 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  23. "Keeping It Real Art Critics".

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