Jack & Carolyn Solomon Throughout their lengthy careers as fine-art dealers, husband-and-wife team Jack and Carolyn Solomon have always shared one clear focus: the belief in fineart lithography as the pre-eminent printing method to bring important art and artists to the American public. Their Circle Gallery remained a small, profitable hobby until 1971 when Jack convinced Carolyn to resign from her executive position at Playboy Industries to join the gallery as its president. Through Carolyn’s management and Jack’s artist contacts, Circle Gallery evolved into one of America’s foremost art companies with 36 locations nationwide. Following the sale of Circle Fine Art in 1993 and the subsequent formation of S2 Art Group, Ltd. in Chicago in 1996, Jack and Carolyn moved their namesake company in 2002 to the S2 Art Center, a 22,000-square-foot printing facility and corporate headquarters (for which Jack holds the title of president) in the burgeoning Las Vegas Arts District. In the transformation from a highly personalized art business to a professionally managed company with nine locations nationwide—Las Vegas, Chicago, Los Angeles, Monterey, Calif., New Orleans and the newest in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., with more planned— Jack and Carolyn have discovered, published and/ or represented more than 200 artists, including such internationally known masters as Norman Rockwell, LeRoy Neiman, Erté, Yaacov Agam, René Gruau, Lebadang, Victor Vasarely, Will Barnet, Sandro Chia, Leonor Fini, Jamie Wyeth and Chryssa. An expert on art-gallery management, Carolyn has lectured and taught classes on the subject in New York and Chicago. She was selected by several prestigious organizations and women’s magazines as one of America’s “Outstanding Women Business Executives.” She has been featured in the national Women in Business magazine and in Craine’s Chicago Business. Together with her partner, Jack, she has been the subject of articles published by Art Business News, Art World News and Entrepreneur Magazine among others. She is the co-founder, president and COO of S2 Art Group and the former president of Circle Fine Art Corporation. Currently, Carolyn serves on the advisory board for the University of Nevada Las Vegas Fine Art Foundation. She is a board member of the Women’s Forum and the former Midwest regional chair and national board member of the committee of 200 people. Jack is past president of the Fine Art Publishers Association and the Las Vegas Arts District. Currently, he is Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman’s appointee to the Las Vegas Arts Commission. Jack is the author of six published art books and many magazine articles. He frequently serves as an expert witness in art-related trials and has lectured extensively in the United States and throughout Japan on the business of art. He is also listed in “Who’s Who in America.” Jack holds a B.S. and LLB (Cum Laude) from the University of Nebraska and a LLM from the University of Michigan Law School where he was a Cook Fellow. Jack practiced law in Chicago and specialized in art and entertainment law before he became a full-time art dealer.
Art Business News • Artexpo Hall of Fame 2008 • Page 29