Collection of…
Works from the collections of: Michael Clifton, Clarissa Dalrymple, Matt Keegan, Cary Leibowitz, Amie Scally, and Linda Yablonsky.

White Columns is pleased to present ‘Collection Of …’ an exhibition of selected works from the personal collections of six individuals working in the New York art world. Michael Clifton is a director of Anton Kern Gallery. Clarissa Dalrymple is a freelance curator and writer and, with Nicole Klagsbrun, a former gallery owner (Cable Gallery). Matt Keegan is an artist, curator and publisher. Cary Leibowitz is an artist and the director of Contemporary Editions at Phillips de Pury & Co. Amie Scally is the deputy director and curator of White Columns. Linda Yablonsky is a widely published writer.

‘Collection Of…’ is the fourth exhibition at White Columns since 2005 that considers the role of collecting art with an emphasis on collections formed by both artists and arts professionals. In 2005 White Columns hosted ‘Trade’, an exhibition that considered the phenomenon of artists exchanging or ‘trading’ art works with one another — the exhibition ‘reunited’ fifteen pairs of artworks that had previously been exchanged by thirty artists. In 2008, curator and writer Bob Nickas presented aspects of his personal collection on the occasion of White Columns’ publication of Nickas’ ‘Exhibition Scrapbook 1984 – 2008’. Also in 2008 we presented writer and curator Vince Aletti’s personal collection ‘Male’ (on the occasion of White Columns’ publication of Vince’s collected writings on disco: “The Disco Files”).

Each of these projects seeks to consider how individuals working within the art community support that community through the acquisition – and subsequent care – of art. Acquired organically, either through purchase, exchange or as gifts the six collections in ‘Collection of …’ follow no formal or art historical logic but rather reveal the idiosyncratic – and often autobiographical – nuances and interests of their respective owners.

‘Collection of …’ is accompanied by a new issue of White Columns occasional ‘zine ‘The W.C.’ in which each of the six collectors discusses aspects of their collecting history. (Available from the gallery priced $2.00).