Jeff Hurlow “The Collector”

Jeff Hurlow

One of the first things I bought that I considered art was a Robert Rauschenberg poster I saw advertised in Playboy back around 1990. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit I was actually reading it for the art.

I don’t necessarily look at what I do as collecting art. It seems more like art gathering. As a child I’ve always collected things… Star Wars figures, comic books, grass hoppers… anything that caught my eye.

In college I studied art, so most of the earliest pieces I picked up were through trades and favors. I also remember distinctly thinking, “I have no desire to do this for a living.” To me, the gallery system seemed like a game with the odds stacked against you. There were few options for young artists, and I knew I didn’t want to wait tables or have a “day job” to support my art.

I decided to go into graphic design by accident and fortunately began having some success. I felt a little guilty about the money I was making, especially because so many friends were struggling to get their work noticed (and pay rent). So I would spend as much as I could on their art, which by my early salary was not much. Even with a limited budget, I felt at times like a patron… a not so wealthy one, but a loyal one.

I’ve been slowly adding new pieces to the collection for almost 20 years. In the early days, I would spend a lot of time making the rounds at galleries. San Francisco was miserable because everything was so far away, Los Angeles was a little better with clusters of galleries like Bergamot Station, and of course New York was the easiest. But the things that I remember most about that time were that gallery people are fucking snobs, I could afford virtually nothing and I liked about 5% of what was being shown. That being said, I still managed to find some great pieces and the collection slowly started covering any free wall space in our home. Some favorites from that time period include a bunch of drawings by Marcel Dzama from his first show at Richard Heller’s gallery, an amazing woven photograph from friend, Dinh Q. Lê for designing his exhibition catalogue, several folk art paintings from “Big Al” Taplett while visiting New Orleans, a Jeff Koons Balloon Dog and sculptures by friends Art Domantay and Alan Valencia.

During those early days, the collection was pretty eclectic, including sculptures, drawings, paintings, photography, prints, and small installations. Rather than any specific theme or concept, what really tied them together was location. I would only acquire a piece if I personally knew the artist, happened to walk into a gallery with their work or purchased something while traveling.

Jeff Hurlow looking for art online.

Today I approach collecting work in a fairly different manner. A large factor for this change is that I’ve reached a point where I know exactly what I want. I know what interests me and what work I find compelling. In the earlier days, it was more experimental so the collection was a little haphazard. The other factor is that my method for searching for work has completely changed. I’ve been working on the web for the last 7 or 8 years and I see it as the future of art collecting. I’ve now moved from art gatherer to art prospector. I’m addicted to sites like ffffound and Flickr and I end up trolling these sites for hours, searching for that right piece. Once I find a piece I love, I figure out how to contact the artist and do so immediately. Judging from the responses I typically get from artists, I believe this is still an unorthodox approach. I find this to be the most bizarre thing about the current gallery system. Collectors and artists are purposefully kept at an arm’s length from one another. I personally like the idea of being able to talk to an artist directly about their work and why they made certain decisions. I like the idea that there is a natural connection between the two, and that the work becomes more valuable and interesting through dialogue.

Another critical component of this relationship is that it inherently makes the work more affordable and therefore collectible by more people. Typically galleries collect a 50% commission on work sold. For artists to make any money to maintain a living, this cost must be passed along to the collector. Because of this higher price tag, many collectors are priced out and fewer pieces are sold. In my experience, I’ve always paid less for work, but the artists have actually made more because they are not paying a middleman. For me, galleries are like travel agents, they’re great if you’re loaded and don’t want to do any work, but a complete waste of money if you know how to find things on your own.

Some of Jeff Hurlow's art collection.

The downside of mining through basically anything available on the web is that there’s a ton of crap to wade through… but I’m a patient man. Again, knowing exactly what I’m looking for makes this much easier. My personal interests lie in drawings. It’s probably because that’s what I like to do so it appeals to me on an aesthetic level. I’m also very interested in the idea of relationships and how different artist tackle this theme in their pieces. Again, it’s an idea I find myself exploring over and over again in my work, so I’m naturally drawn to that subject.

The other day I was talking to a friend about art. He was talking about how he wanted art to challenge him and that he liked the idea of it not necessarily even appearing to be art at first. While I think that’s a noble and contemporary approach to art, I don’t think I share it. I love to see the pieces on the wall and I love when they’re aesthetically pleasing. That doesn’t mean I’m looking for something pretty to match the drapes, but they’re things that I end up living with for a very long time, and frankly I want to be able to look at them over and over again. Looking at the last half dozen pieces I’ve acquired, they all feel like they come from the same family. As time goes on, I find myself taking less and less of an academic approach to art and more of a gut level approach. I either like it or I don’t.

In the past month, I’ve added 4 new pieces to the collection by stumbling upon the work of Sidney Pink, Sarah Ferone, Lisa Hanawalt, and Matt Furie. For me collecting is an intensely personal experience. I don’t go into it thinking about how it will look with my furniture or whether or not it’ll be a good investment. In a way, they’re like the boxes in my garage filled with comic books, old toys and other scraps of my childhood.

Jeff Hurlow studied Art Studio at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has designed and art directed movie posters, print ads and websites for the likes of Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, Disney, Columbia Pictures, Universal, First Look Pictures and Napster, and until recently, was the Director of User Experience Design for Yahoo!.

Jeff’s drawings have been the subject of solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. His online home is Dosmasks.com.