LIFESTYLE
Nowadays, contemporary sculpture is perhaps the most exciting genre for collectors. Visual artists such as Kara Walker, Brian Junger and Shary Boyle all work in striking, non-traditional mediums. Take Walker’s 75-foot-long, 35-foottall sculpture, A Subtlety, made of polystyrene and sugar; Junger, who often works with repurposed objects, like running shoes and car fenders; and Boyle, known for her fantastical ceramics and installations. What’s more noteworthy, however, is that these artists are celebrated for focusing on identity, social injustice and appropriation. Lexier himself is a champion of emerging artists. “Some of my favourites are works that I have bought from artists very early in their careers. This goes back to the instinct thing. I have always trusted my gut when it comes to art, and nothing pleases me more than supporting [artists] early in their careers. I almost prefer [that], as I feel I am responding to the artwork and not the reputation of the artist.” Collectors are also rediscovering objets created
by older artists outside the canon — works by women as well as by artists of non-European and Indigenous descent. Some of major exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario have featured Georgia O’Keeffe and Yayoi Kusama. The small sculptures by 62-year-old artist Kerry James Marshall were on exhibit at the Rennie Museum in Vancouver until November 2018. This past May, his 1997 painting, Past Times, became the most highly valued work by any living black artist, selling at Sotheby’s for US$21.1 million (the buyer was rapper Sean Combs, aka P. Diddy). If you’re looking beyond the boundaries of traditional art spaces, go to folk art auctions, which are a fantastic resource for 3-D pieces. Mostly figurative statues, this art genre usually involves self-taught wood carvers, such as greengrocer Joe C Lee and ship builder–turned– commercial artist Samuel Anderson Robb. “My advice when it comes to art is always the same,” says Lexier. “You have to love what you are buying; [otherwise], you should not buy it.”
ABOVE: Red Images — in the Red, 2016 Anish Kapoor. On view at Lisson Gallery in London, U.K. Silicone, fibreglass and gauze. Photo: Bettina Strenske/Avalon. red/Newscom. LEFT: A Subtlety, or The Marvelous Sugar Baby, by Kara Walker. Mixed media. On view in 2014 at the Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn, N.Y. Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images
He also urges would-be collectors to go to art shows and auction previews to meet and mingle with artists and other collectors. “You might meet the artist and get along well, and this might be your entry point into the work. “Other times, the artist might have nothing to do with it. You could see an artwork and be drawn to it without knowing why. Trust your instincts — in life and in art. It’s cliché advice, but I stand behind it.”
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