Gagosian Gallery

There's also something about photography that I think just brings in a broader cross-section of viewership.

Because I know in Chelsea, at the Gagosian Gallery, Dina Lawson was opening, and again, a line out the door had the Pulse visitors in.

Richard Avedon, when he did his show at Gagosian, when was that? Like...

five years ago, maybe, there was also a line.

I mean, if I was...

My dream would be to be represented by, like, Larry Gagosian.

Sal, you are hustling this stuff.

Oh, shit.

And, uh, and the margins on the low end aren't great, which is why we all chase the bigger part of it, right? That, uh, the margins on the high end are pretty great because the, the costs stay pretty fixed, uh, in terms of your, like, big studio, and the cost of paint, and the cost of whatever your materials you're making stuff out of.

And then the margins become great if you're with Gagosian.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, but not great if it's, you know, that, uh, local contemporary art dealer and you're...

Well, it's interesting.

I went to the opening of Jennifer Guidy's show at Gagosian on, uh, was it Thursday night here in Paris last Thursday, and she's a Los Feliz based artist whose work I like, and she's friends with my friend-

Mm-hmm

...

People empower themselves.

Rick, you've lived through an extraordinary transformation of Houston's Third Ward and have continued to call it home while your career became increasingly international with numerous shows at Gagosian around the world.

What is staying geographically connected to one place give you that moving continuously through the international art world cannot? Hmm.

Um, comfort, you know, you

This idea of self-empowerment is coming from within.

You have a very interesting path through life here and to where you're at.

You know, you can look from the outside and say, you know, wow, this guy was destined to be a superstar artist with, you know, showing with Gagosian and so on.

But you started out, as I understand it, playing basketball.

You have fantastic galleries like Dik & Dans in Belgium, very closely watched by curators and collectors alike, announcing its closure.

Uh, Thawani Contemporary, Gagosian closing, um, smaller spaces like its one in Burlington Arcade-

Mm-hmm

... and in Basel.

She established the Bermondsey Art Trail, which is a sort of weekend of open studios actually taking place this Friday and Saturday.

And, you know, yes, her artists are not in major biennials, her artists are not lighting up evening sales, but she moved to South London, I think, about three years into spanning this gallery to be around this concentration of artist studios in South Bermondsey and Peckham and, you know, to that local scene she is very important.

Not every gallery in London can or should be a Gagosian or even an Emelyn.

You know, you have to have spaces at all levels, and London is only rich if you can have art spaces at every level of the ecosystem.

what's the name of this group chat on your phone

it's called Is That Twiggy? Because two of us were at a Gagosian opening for Avedon and somebody said, is that Twiggy? And it was not.

It was, oh God, now I'm just as bad.

It was another model from the 60s and it just like killed me and I was laughing so hard that I changed the group text to Is That

Gosh, I don't know.

I think, uh, maybe join Gagosian Gallery.

Really? [laughs]

Was a, was a pretty damn good piece of advice.