Art is not only amazing to look at but it’s also a great investment. I recently had the pleasure to interview Macie Sears Scherick who owns a Gallery with her partner in New York and Los Angeles.
Macie Sears co-owns the Sears-Peyton Gallery in NYC, but most of her day-to-day work is conducted at her LA gallery- just across the lawn from her Brentwood home. She wanted to open a gallery in Culver City, but, she has three young kids running around and she is focused on being present for them. With the help of architect Tim Barber, she and her husband, screenwriter Jay Scherick, converted a garage on their property into Macié’s gallery and office. While she shows clients artwork inside, kids are often splashing around in the pool just outside the French windows. While I cuddled with her 8-year-old furball Mack, she was gracious enough to have this interview.
JH: How has the pandemic affected the art world?
MS: While many smaller galleries closed at the beginning of COVID, the galleries that remained open are doing very well. We have just had 2 of our best years ever. People are spending more time at home and they want to find ways to enjoy the new normal. Art is a great way to add dimension and meaning to one’s daily experience of life during these confining times.
JH: You sell art out of your home in LA. How did you come up with that idea and how does it work?
MS: Yes. Sears Peyton has a gallery located in Chelsea in NYC. When our family moved to LA in 2001, my intention was to open another gallery out here. Then there was 9/11 and then the birth of my third child. In the meantime, I was showing art in my home and clients were responding very well to the more relaxed environment. It’s definitely not a sterile art gallery environment. I have art everywhere: all over the bookshelves, on every wall, resting on chairs. People tell me that it is liberating to see art in this context. Then you walk through the garden, past the coral tree, the bunnies, and the vegetable garden to another building that we call the “Art House” where we have flat files with more work by gallery artists. It’s a different way to experience art.
JH: Who are the top artists that you sell and why are they popular?
MS: I could never pick a favorite artist among all of our amazing artists. I love them all!
JH: Who, of the artists you sell, do you think are a great investment and why?
MS: While many people like to buy art as investments, we encourage buying art to ignite passion and joy in your life. And like buying a home, if you buy a beautiful home that you love – it has a way of naturally going up in value.
JH: Who are your favorite artists and why?
MS: I could never pick a favorite artist among all of our amazing artists. I love them all!
JH: I love Lourdes Sanchez and Susie Spence. Tell me about them.
MS: Lourdes Sanchez is a Cuban-born artist that now resides in upstate NY and Merida, Mexico. Her sublime watercolors are inspired by nature as well as her own abstractions. Lourdes has such command of her materials. She knows when to control the paint and when to let it run wild. Her works inhabit a space between abstraction and representation. Suzy Spence lives in Vermont and New York City. She makes hauntingly beautiful paintings of kick-ass equestrian women in their bucolic world. She addresses themes of gender, class, and sexuality through the lens of these athletic female protagonists. Even collectors who have no relationship to riding respond to the attitudes of her subjects.
JH: What is the best way to discover art?
MS: There is so much great art here in LA. Just start going to galleries and museums and looking. Buy catalogues or books by your favorite artists and read about them – take in the images. Your friends may have interesting collections. Ask them about what inspires them to collect. Ask them about reputable galleries or perhaps art advisors that they have worked with. I like to go to have a variety of art-viewing experiences. Whether it’s the uber-cool, semi private 5car garage gallery in Venice, or the upscale sleek galleries like Hauser and Wirth, or Regen Projects. My favorite museums are the Hammer and ICA LA. If you feel comfortable with crowds, Frieze is a fabulous art fair coming up in Feb.