On the occasion of Curina beginning gallery partnerships, our Director of Artist Portfolio Management/Growth Katy Hamer sat down with Sibilla Maiarelli, the founder of New Collectors. It just so happens the gallery also just celebrated its one year anniversary! 🎊

Congrats on celebrating your first year with New Collectors! How has the year been? Can you share highlights and low points?

Thank you! The past year has been a rollercoaster. I admittedly opened the gallery with more ambition than experience. There were a lot of mistakes made and lessons learned but I’m super grateful that I chose this path and took that leap to open the gallery one year ago.

One of the big highlights has been representing my first artist, Ryan Rennie. To work with Ryan is an absolute dream; his art is so unique and he’s an amazing person to work with. I’m excited to help him grow his practice and give him time and space to exhibit his work. Another highlight is seeing how many people show up to opening receptions. The support of so many reminds me that exhibiting the work of emerging artists is important and necessary, and propels me to keep moving forward.

There have been a decent number of low points, often leading me to question why I chose to work in this field. But one thing I have learned is that in order to succeed in this industry, I need to focus on the things that are positive, the things that will push me to be a better curator, gallerist, and art dealer.

We are so happy to have you as one of our first gallery partners on Curina. What do you hope to achieve through the platform?

Because Curina and New Collectors have a common goal of making contemporary art accessible and easy to live with, becoming partners to achieve that goal makes so much sense. A lot of the art world is built for and around traditional collectors who have the money and knowledge to purchase art, when for most people, it’s not so straightforward. Curina demonstrates how platforms can be inclusive so that we can have a younger and more diverse collector base in the contemporary art market.

Art is such a multifaceted field. I know you have interest in Web3 as well as hands on physical objects. What do you see as the positives in each modality?

Web3 presents a lot of conceptual challenges to the art world, much like other new mediums in the past. After all, conceptual art and photography both had to fight an uphill battle to be added to the canon of what we now consider fine art. That being said, I don’t think everything should be turned into an NFT; oil paintings are obviously best viewed in-person and not on a screen.

The blockchain is a technology that allows us to better authenticate, monetize, and experience digital art. Digital artists are finally able to join the ranks of artists being sold at auction and exhibited at galleries, which is great even if the majority of NFTs being minted do not have as much integrity.

Tell us more about your first artist on Curina, the fabulous painter Noa Charuvi. How did you meet?

I came across Noa’s work because she sent a physical copy of her portfolio to the gallery. This way of reaching out to galleries is seen as outdated and most galleries are closed off to unsolicited artist submissions, but I never like to turn down an opportunity before I know what it is.

When I opened the envelope, I was pleasantly surprised to see her landscape paintings. At the time, I was in the process of planning a landscape exhibition and had been looking for more artists to include. Visiting her studio confirmed that I liked her paintings for their aesthetic value, but our conversation added so much more context that influenced how I saw her work.

When she was young, Noa’s father, who was a contractor, would take her to construction sites. She also grew up surrounded by landscape paintings her grandfather had made of various sites around Jerusalem. These two influences are seen in almost everything she paints, including all of her work available on Curina.

We ended up including a few of her paintings in the landscape show titled, Unsettled. The connection to her heritage and portrayal of a place so inundated with conflict (Jerusalem) related really well to the work of the other two artists in the show, Marina Sagona and Daria Irincheeva.

I’m excited to be working with Noa and to have her work on Curina to share with more people.

Anything else you'd like to add?

To anyone looking to learn more about contemporary art, or maybe start collecting art, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Talk to the people working at galleries, reach out to artists on Instagram. It’s not as difficult as it may seem to get in touch with people and it’s usually very rewarding. Yes, you may run into the occasional art snob but don’t let that get in the way of meeting all the amazing and talented people working in the art world.