Collector’s Diary: Beth Rudin DeWoody Reflects on Jam-Packed Art Journeys in New York and Los Angeles

Yassi Mazandi & Shana Hoehn in ARTnews

This spring has been quite a whirlwind, and it’s hard to remember everything I saw. I typically use photographs to jog my memory, but it can be hard for me to retrace my steps. If I like something a lot, I’ll buy it, but sometimes I can’t afford it, and that’s just as well. I can just enjoy looking at it. I’m always moving forward when it comes to looking at art. I go at such a speed and pace that it can be hard to keep up. I try to meet artists when I’m in their cities to go to their studios. I try to go everywhere and see a lot.

 
 A hallmark of my May schedule is attending Frieze New York, so I’ll start there. At Frieze, I learned about this wonderful Iranian artist named Bita Fayyazi at Dastan, a Tehran-based gallery. She was showing a hanging sculptural piece that was great. Another discovery was the work of June Clark, an 82-year-old artist who was born in Harlem and is now based in Toronto, courtesy of Daniel Faria Gallery, also from Toronto. She had on view Enough (from the Perseverance Suite), 2023, a metal sculpture showing rusted chains in a birdcage-like structure. It was such a powerful work, it immediately stopped me in my tracks. The gallery mentioned that there was significant interest in the work, so I was happy that, in the end, I was able to acquire it.
 
October 16, 2023