Building a collection looks different for everyone

Whether you’re just beginning your activities as a collector or are entering a new phase of your collecting journey, I’m here to help train your eye and grow your capacity to see.

Harold Klunder at Clint Roenisch Gallery

Together, we will do a lot of looking. We will discuss what we are drawn to, and figure out why. Although the artist and the collector often come from different lived experiences, both have chosen to prioritize visual thinking. This is your common ground, the place from which a meaningful relationship can grow.

By teaching you to trust your curiosity, consider how perception is constructed, and understand how context shapes meaning, I will help bring you closer to the artist’s perspective.

Let me be your guide through the art world I love.

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Writer, curator, & consultant based in Toronto

In hindsight, it was always about art.

Although I was always drawn to art, I didn’t pursue it at first — though a memory of standing in front of a monochromatic painting at the age of nine and feeling an anxious desire to comprehend still stands out. What I have always been interested in is human connections and how we make sense of the world.

During my first career attempt as a community planner, I began to attend life drawing sessions at the Toronto School of Art. I would toil all week as a civil servant and spend every Sunday morning dirtying my hands with Conté. It wasn’t long before I realized that I cared more about accurately rendering a stranger’s body on a sheet of craft paper than I did about anything else.

At twenty-seven, I applied to OCAD and after just one year of foundation courses, it became clear to me that I loved everything about art, until it came time to produce an object. My final thesis in the Sculpture/Installation program was mostly text-based and focused on the cultural impulse to define eras, movements, and styles in art.

I graduated knowing that I needed to work in the art world. After completing an MA in Critical Cultural Theory at the University of Leeds, I returned to Canada to begin art writing, a practice which necessitated regular visits to museum, galleries, and artist studios. I deepened my knowledge of materials and processes and read what the artists were reading. I got to know their pallets, their cast-offs, their inspirations, their mistakes.

The next several years were spent travelling, installing artworks, planning events, working at art galleries, and eventually for foundations and institutions. I have held positions as a private collection manager, corporate curator, commercial gallery director, public programmer, and more.

Photo by Sarah Bodri

At this point in my career, my conviction is that Canada must shift towards a more expansive relationship of support for our living artists. To this end, I work with dealers who build their artists’ careers strategically, according to mutual needs and interests, both locally and abroad.

Reach out to begin our journey together.

alex@subjectiveart.ca

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About Subjective Art

Founded by writer and curator Alex Bowron, Subjective Art offers private and corporate consulting services for the curious and open-minded.

Grounded in the idea of subjectivity as a strength. Learn more.