Jeffrey Magid standing in front of Henry Taylor's I was King When I Met the Queen, Syllable x Rythm Equals Mumbo Jumbo, 2013.
I was working in music and playing poker, and the combination of those things led me to the art world. I’m from a highly educated yet not affluent background, and I had never thought much about the art world, never met a working artist or a gallery owner. Then I met Slater Bradley, who was at the time the youngest artist to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum. He invited me to an all-artists poker game at Dirk Skreber’s studio in Brooklyn. We were playing for like a dollar or five dollars, and they all talked about their careers and their working lives as artists. I would ask them questions like “How do you know when a painting is finished?” I would go places with Slater and say, “This is my friend, he’s a modern artist,” and he’d correct me and say, “contemporary artist”!
In 2013, I moved to LA. Slater introduced me to an artists’ poker game there, and through that I met his gallerist, Jeff Poe. That was the first gallery I bought from. I went to a show of Henry Taylor’s work, and I loved it. It was early enough in Henry’s career that there wasn’t tons of demand, so it felt wide open to me. I said, “I love this one; I’ll buy it,” and Jeff said, “Really? You don’t know how much it costs!” When he told me, I said, “Oh shoot, I didn’t realize it was so expensive.” That afternoon, someone from the gallery called and said, “The famous collector Martin Eisenberg wants the one you have on hold. You have until tomorrow to get back to us.” I said I’d find a way to afford it, and I did. I thought I had to take it with me; I had no sense of the customs of the art world.
My biggest attribute in art is that I’m incredibly determined to learn, even when I’m out of my depth and risking embarrassment and humiliation. I take a Socratic approach where I know that I don’t know. And I let artists be my art advisors. My challenge is to discover things early, before they get expensive. When I started, I was determined to be a student of the game. Lately, I’ve been teaching myself Old Masters and starting to collect in that area. I study the books. It’s partly to give myself a new thing to learn about.
HOMETOWN/RESIDENCE:
Boston, now living between New York and Mexico City.
OCCUPATION:
Writer, gambler.
MAIN AREAS YOU COLLECT:
Contemporary art, modern art, Old Masters.
MOST RECENT WORK YOU BOUGHT:
A painting by Hendrick Avercamp, a snow scene from the 1620s. Avercamp was a deaf mute and didn't paint with a singular focal point. It's a whole world contained in a small image.
THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY:
An amazing Magdalena Suarez Frimkess ceramic pot with a painting of a street scene that was really vibrant and alive. She's one of my favorite artists, and I've collected her work for a decade, but at the time, I just didn't think I could stretch to afford this one. Years later, I look back and wish I had found a way.
FAVORITE PIECE IN YOUR COLLECTION:
Francesco Clemente's The Fourteen Stations, one of the iconic paintings made in my lifetime. I'm still kind of shocked by it. Clemente is one of the most under-appreciated and underrated artists, especially by the market. But so many young artists admire his work.
YOUR ADVICE FOR NEW COLLECTORS:
I'd say the more you can do in terms of research and learning, as well as getting opinions from people and sharpening your instincts, the better.
Jeffrey Magid is currently developing a non-commercial art space in Mexico City, which will be a venue for exhibiting works from his collection and hosting collaborations with artists and creative people from related fields such as music and fashion.
*This article originally appeared in Art & Object Magazine's Spring 2025 issue.
