With Change Agents, the Southampton Arts Center Spotlights Women Art Collectors

Through September 30, Southampton Arts Center (SAC) in New York is presenting the exhibition “CHANGE AGENTS: Women Collectors Shaping the art world.” Falling on the occasion of SAC’s 10th anniversary, the show has been composed by curators Kate Fowle, Folasade Ologundudu, and Xiaoyu Weng, taking on a unique stance that highlights some of the women driving the current discourse in contemporary art. Chosen from the collections of 14 prominent women collectors, it features around 60 works by 59 different artists, alluding to a greater picture at hand—how these women collectors are helping to share art and shape the art world as we know it today.

The Southampton exhibition came to fruition from browsing the varied collections of Jane Holzer, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Mickalene Thomas, Joy Simmons, Roya Khadjavi, Candia Fisher, Fusun Eczacibasi, Holly Peterson, Christine Mack, Elisa Nuyent, Lisa Perry, Neda Young, Agnes Gund, and Pamela Joyner. The show represents the collectors’ widespread taste and, in turn, how their collecting efforts have helped further the careers of certain artists or make art more readily accessible to the public through foundations and exhibition spaces.

Among the featured artworks, visitors at the Southampton Arts Center will find the show encompassing a variety of mediums and subject matter, framing a selection of artists both renowned and emerging from the 20th and 21st centuries. From the collection of Holzer, find works like an Andy Warhol silkscreen and a collage by Bruce Helander. Work loaned from DeWoody’s collection includes those like a sculptural object by Abraham Cruzvillegas, carved wooden figures by Hirosuke Yabe, an assemblage by Anne Samat, and a Nick Cave Soundsuit. On view from Mack is a recent oil painting by Michaela Yearwood-Dan, a mixed media figurine by Vanessa German, and a Zanele Muholi gelatin silver print. Other artists with work on view include names like Yinka Shonibare, Robert Longo, Mabel Juli, Angela Su, Pacita Abad, and Lorna Simpson.

Accompanying the show—which was made possible by Simone and David Levinson and Sotheby’s—is a roster of events at the Southampton Arts Center, including a curator-led tour and a discussion between the collectors, which have already passed, and upcoming events, which include a panel discussion highlighting women producers working on Broadway and an intimate conversation of between collectors.