The Collector's Corner

My guest today is one of the most eclectic collectors I've come across. Linda Du is the founder of fintech startup Moola, splitting her time between Berlin and London. She's drawn to the overlaps between art, tech and money: three worlds that rarely speak to each other, but which she moves between seamlessly. One example: she applies the economic concept of utility to her collecting. In a nutshell, a way of measuring satisfaction rather than money, in this case the joy she gets from the art she acquires.
I was particularly struck by how woven art is into Linda's life. Art seems to be much more than a backdrop or a set of personal anecdotes for her, rather something that moves in lockstep with however she's living at the time. Many of her pieces were gifts; the ones she bought herself tend to mark meaningful moments. Linda collects largely outside the traditional art ecosystem, gravitating toward smaller regional galleries and artist-led spaces, while also buying blue-chip editions through Avant Arte.
In this episode, we talk about how Linda turned a piece of family history into one of her most meaningful artworks, why the resale side of the art market is murkier than people expect, how Burning Man shaped the way she thinks about experiencing art and in the spirit of ecclctisim, are even given glimpse into her own crypto strategy.
References from the episode:
Ai Weiwei
Dima Melancholiac
Gabriela Těthalová
Dirimart Gallery
Themba Khumalo
Sebastian Welzel
Ahmad al Shareef
Nicolas Scalbert
Blue Lobster
Avant Arte
Christine Ödlund
The Art Journal Next-Gen Collectors Interview
Twilight Sculpture Garden (Jardin du Crépuscule)
Naïve Art
Niki de Saint Phalle
Il Giardino Dei Tarocchi
The Borderland
Benjamin Langholz
Triple Trouble
Damien Hirst
Shepard Fairey
Invader
Fotografiska Berlin
Zhang Huan

After a couple of months of a somewhat forced summer hiatus, I'm very excited to be back with today's interview.
I'm obviously passionate about art, but I've also long nurtured an interest in design, mostly vintage, or as today's guest calls it, historical design. So when I first came across collectible design, I'll admit I was a little unsure: is it decoration, is it furniture, is it art? As I learned in this conversation, it seems to touch all of the above, and so much more.
My guest today is Liv Vaisberg, co-founder of COLLECTIBLE, the most significant fair dedicated to contemporary collectible design, running for almost a decade between Brussels and New York. Liv is a lawyer by background who always wanted to work in culture, and forged her own path into it. COLLECTIBLE is far from her first fair; she's spent years building fairs in both art and design, starting while she was still practicing law.
Beyond Liv's unlikely path, we talk about what actually makes something collectible design, why it struggles to be valued the way art is, and why despite often being perceived as "lesser" , design carries just as much depth as art, including as a space for identity and politics.
Designer referenced in the episode:
Saadane Afif
Johan Viladrich
Sabine Marcelis
PAD
Laurids Gallée
Xavier Lust
Chaeyoung Lee
Familiar Form
Barry Llewellyn
Anna Aagaard Jensen

When Jorg Rozier first reached out to tell me he had found a method that systematically allowed him to identify how an artist's trajectory was evolving within the art canon, I was obviously intrigued. He'd decided to put his model (yes, as in Excel model) into a book so that more collectors could use it. That book is The Canon Index, and that's how today's interview came about.
Jorg's collection, in his own words, is built around one idea: a fight. The model he developed to build it is grounded in a peer-reviewed study published in Science in 2018, accessible to anyone, for free. But when I read his book, I was disconcerted. The contrast between the elusiveness most people perceive from the art market and the analytical lens this research provides felt like finding out about something I shouldn't know. And Jorg chose to apply it systematically to achieve his dream: building, within his means, a museum-grade collection.
In our conversation we talk about how the model works, why auction might be the single best place for new collectors to buy, and why despite all of this, good art advisors will never be out of a job.
Note: the Fraiberger et al. paper referenced in this episode was published in Science in 2018, not 2016 as stated during the conversation.
Artist references:
Fraiberger et al. — Quantifying Reputation and Success in Art
Anton Heyboer
Sergej Jensen
David Ostrowski
Josh Smith
Barnaby Furnas
Pamela Rosenkranz
Richard Serra
Takesda Matsutani
Marcel Dzama
Kaws
Alec Monopoly
Joseph Klibansky
Retna
Daniel Arsham
Anne Imhof
Rosa de la Cruz Collection

Every gallery show has one: the text on the wall, or the sheet you pick up at the door, that is meant to help you understand the artwork. But how often does it actually do that? In this Behind The Mic episode, I talk about my complicated relationship with show texts, the validation I've been looking for in them, why they so often don't deliver it, and the afternoon at a Berlin gallery when one text finally changed my whole perspective.
Jesse Darling, The Contractor at Galerie Molitor

I hope you enjoy this episode - let me know your thoughts on Instagram @collectors_corner_ or on the podcast website!

The collector experience doesn't exist in isolation: it's shaped by the infrastructure around it, the web connecting artists to galleries, galleries to new audiences, and new audiences to the work. The problem is, that infrastructure has gaps.
Ade Sanusi, founder of Art Meets Culture (@artmeetsculture), has spent years identifying where it fails and building his own answer to it. Through events, brand partnerships, talks, and a brilliant podcast, he creates what he calls cultural infrastructure for the next generation of artists - in particular those trying to build careers without traditional entry points. He came up through the music industry, and in my opinion the parallels he draws make the picture very telling.
I am the first to tend to describe the art world as an 'ecosystem' but I like how Ade reframes it as infrastructure. Unlike an ecosystem, infrastructure feels tangible -it can be measured, objectively critiques and rebuilt. And that's exactly what he's doing.
References mentioned in the episode:
Banksy documentary Exit through the gift shop
Mr Brainwash
DSYF
Slawn at Saatchi Yates
1-54
Daniel Arsham and Hublot
Yinka Ilori
Yinka Ilori & Lego: Launderette of Dreams
Puretee Elusive
Ken Nwadiogbu
Koby Martin
Club Bum
Hebru Brantley
KAWS
Kehinde WIley