Collector Conversations In Sebastian Campos’s home on the 42nd floor of a downtown Chicago high-rise, the walls are covered in art, and floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the city. Artist Michael Scoggins’s Army Men, 2007, an oversized piece of paper with childlike scribblings of American soldiers chasing after innocent people, hangs on a wall between the kitchen and Sebastian’s office. Soccer Ball (Human Furriery Series), 1999, a deflated latex rubber soccer ball with nipple molds of Argentinean artist Nicola Costantino, sits on a shelf next to the collector’s flat-screen television. Black-tinted windows of the John Hancock Building interrupt a complete view of Lake Michigan. As he sips an after-work beer, Campos, who holds a BFA in Fine Art and an MAA in Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, takes me on a tour of his collection, revealing personal, cultural and art historical anecdotes about each piece. A polite, reserved man, Campos smiles shyly as he talks about acquiring an abstract time-lapse photograph by Chicago artist John Opera. When we arrive in his office, he tells me about a painting by emerging Houston-based artist Kent Dorn. Here, an ambiguously gendered person clad in a NO AGE t-shirt and short skirt flips the bird while decaying on a city sidewalk amongst thick globs of paint. The tour moves along swiftly with Campos stopping only momentarily to brush the black hair out of his face. How did you begin collecting art? My father, Luis T. Campos, has been collecting for thirty-some odd years, and he had a strong influence on my interest in art collecting. I grew up with his collection, which focuses on Latin American artists, op artists, kinetic artists and artists who work with color theory, like Josef Albers. Since I was a child, both my brother and I were collectors of things—matchbooks, baseball cards—so I always had ideas about collecting. As an undergraduate at the School of the Art Institute, I began collecting works from friends, trading art and sometimes buying it. You know, trading anything from a homeAndrew Guenter, Two Foot Waves (2008), 16 x 24," acrylic on linen, cooked meal for a drawing or a represented by Andrew Rafacz Gallery photograph, and just trading art with one another. But I didn’t go to SAIC to become a visual artist. I wanted to show and promote artists instead of actually create art. Collecting was one part of that. I began collecting maybe 10 years ago, and haven’t stopped since.
Tell me about your work as a curator & an art advisor. I began doing curatorial work when I was part of the Student Union Galleries (SUG) at SAIC. In May 2009, right after Art Chicago, I curated a show at Andrew Rafacz’s Sebastian Campos standing by Michael Scoggins’s, gallery called Army Men, 2007, 67 x 52," graphite on paper Accumulation, from the series My Good, My Evil which featured works by Adam Gondek (Chicago), Kenneth James Beasley (Houston) and Renee Lotenero (Los Angeles). I’ve curated other shows in Chicago, as well as Houston and Lima, Peru, where my family is originally from. As an art advisor, I work with a variety of clients, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, galleries here in Chicago and Houston, and private collectors. I like helping people get an idea of what they’d like to collect, the importance of collecting, and showing them works that they didn’t already know about. I also spend a lot of time managing my family’s collection in Houston.
What else promoted your decision to stop making art? I was more interested in listening to the artists who were discussing their works, doing critiques, and giving critiques. So I knew even before I went in to art school that I was going in to learn about how artists created works. How has your relationship with your father changed through art collecting? When I went to the School of the Art Institute for my undergraduate degree, my father started involving me more in his collection. That’s when our relationship began to change. He’d ask if I had seen any new things that he might like. It was no longer just father/son—it became more of a team looking at artwork in museums, and appreciating art in a different way. He became more interested in my interpretation of works and my opinion on art. What’s the focus of your collection? It’s all over the place. I first began collecting pop art prints. I was always a big fan of that movement, and really enjoyed Warhol. I had many opportunities to buy pop art prints, so I got pieces for a fraction of what they’re worth. And from there, I went into buying works on paper. Then I began focusing on more established artists, emerging young artists, and then photography. Now I’m most interested in painting and video. I focus my collection on Chicago artists first, and then artists from other cities like Houston and Los Angeles.
The Nicola Costantino is Soccer Ball (human furriery series), latex, 1999
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Kent Dorn, Untitled (2009), 11x14" oil on canvas
Want to be a Collector? Every collector has stories about their collection, but getting started can be intimidating. CGN regularly receives tips about new collector groups, classes and resources, and we try to post the best and newest info on our website often. We also frequently Tweet (@ChiGalleryNews) and blog (at ChicagoNow.com) about questions and discussions for new collectors and art buyers. If you are a collector and want to tell CGN how you got started, send us an email or find us online (see p.6 for our list of CGN social networking sites)