Art Collector Will Hainsworth @londonartcollector spoke with us about the most treasured artworks in his collection, what advice to give to young collectors starting out – and his top artwork picks from AucArt.
Art Collector Will Hainsworth @londonartcollector spoke with us about the most treasured artworks in his collection, what advice to give to young collectors starting out – and his top artwork picks from AucArt.
How did you start collecting art?
I started collecting by messaging gallerists on Instagram during the pandemic. Nobody would sell me anything as I was enquiring on in-demand young artists and had no collecting credentials. So, I created an anonymous Instagram account called @londonartcollector and asked some collectors I knew if I could post photos of their works. Soon I started to look like a genuine collector and gallerists were more willing to sell me works. Next year a friend and I are opening a space called Palmer Gallery in Lisson Grove, so the way I collect will most likely change quite a lot.
What were the first and the latest artworks you purchased?
The first artwork I purchased was a work on paper by Flora Yukhnovic. She had just completed a residency in Venice with Victoria Miro, studying the Rococo compositions of Tiepolo. I thought they were beautiful and loved the idea behind the work. I was surprised they hadn’t all sold when I enquired; in the end, I bought a sepia study.
The last artwork I bought was by a recent Slade and RCA graduate called Saskia Colwell – she was part of a group show at Pippy Houldsworth. Saskia makes monochrome charcoal on linen works that can be quite challenging. They’re sometimes sensual, sometimes fetishistic and often very brave. I think she’s going to be making really interesting work in the years to come.
What is your most treasured artwork?
When Russia invaded Ukraine the author and potter Edmund de Waal created a limited edition of small porcelain tiles, gilded in gold and stamped with the seal of the Camondo family. He called them Nostos (the Greek word for home) and asked for a donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee as payment. Two were released every evening for a week and you had to DM his studio on Instagram and ask for one. I tried every day and had no luck. A few weeks later the studio messaged me and said that, due to demand, Edmund had made a few more tiles. It’s the artwork I own that feels most likely to be an heirloom.
What advice would you give to other collectors starting out?
Don’t buy art you’re not 100% sure about because you think it will curry favour with a particular dealer, thus opening the door for you later on. Buying one or two works hoping it’ll give you access to a gallery’s more in-demand artists is unlikely to pay off. The people at the front of the queue – and the people that jump to the front – don’t get there by buying one or two works that nobody else is going in for.
Do you collect thematically – if so please share more!?
I tend to collect works by female artists. The historic imbalance in attention and value given to male and female artists needs a correction (something I think is clearly underway). I don’t just mean a correction in terms of the market, but also in terms of critical writing, exposure, access to opportunity and development. In terms of style, I always tend towards abstraction – I think it ages better. I’d like to look back in ten years and think “Yeah, I had a good eye”, as opposed to what happens when I look back on my taste in say music or fashion ten years ago, where I think “God, what was I doing”.
Favourite exhibition you’ve seen in the last year?
Tanoa Sasraku at Vardaxoglou Gallery. Tanoa is a British-Ghanaian artist studying at the RA. She makes these hybrid works called ‘Terratypes’ by soaking paper in bog, marsh or seawater, and staining the resulting clump with ancient pigments dug from the ground. She then rips and tears layers away. The resulting pieces look like African banners or shields. They’re phenomenal.
Favourite exhibition you’ve seen in the last year?
Tanoa Sasraku at Vardaxoglou Gallery. Tanoa is a British-Ghanaian artist studying at the RA. She makes these hybrid works called ‘Terratypes’ by soaking paper in bog, marsh or seawater, and staining the resulting clump with ancient pigments dug from the ground. She then rips and tears layers away. The resulting pieces look like African banners or shields. They’re phenomenal.
Don’t buy art you’re not 100% sure about because you think it will curry favour with a particular dealer, thus opening the door for you later on. Buying one or two works hoping it’ll give you access to a gallery’s more in-demand artists is unlikely to pay off.
Don’t buy art you’re not 100% sure about because you think it will curry favour with a particular dealer, thus opening the door for you later on. Buying one or two works hoping it’ll give you access to a gallery’s more in-demand artists is unlikely to pay off.
Amelia Badenoch is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores avenues of past and present family moments and familiar surroundings through bringing her sub and unconscious (dreams and nightmares) to the forefront, together with her cognisant moments. Accompanying her research, she uses sketches in and outside of the studio and varied photographs of childhood and adulthood as references to trigger memories that define her as a person, woman and artist.
Alysza Lam paints to respond to human conditions, with a particular interest in the female experience. Lam ideates the most fundamental delineations, analysing intersections of the psychological and somatic, as well as the converted boundaries of the self and others. Her works also observe the internal and external shifts resulting from migration, musing on the tensions between power, structure, and nature. The artist simultaneously dissects and weaves together universal and personal boundaries, producing duality and dichotomy.
