“San Francisco Collectors Are a Great Community to Work With If You Are Interested in Ideas”
by Nicole Casamento
During the height of the Great Recession—on a whim and without a plan—Claudia Altman-Siegel relocated from New York to San Francisco. The impromptu move spurred Altman-Siegel to open her own gallery and soon propelled her into the spotlight as a rising star in the city’s contemporary art scene.
Founded in 2009, Altman Siegel grew as the economy recovered and the tech boom flourished, providing a more international platform for California artists, while introducing California collectors to artists from other parts of the globe. SFMOMA’s SECA Art Award winners Zarouhie Abdalian and Liam Everett, and MacArthur genius grantrecipient Trevor Paglen are just a few of the luminaries on the gallery’s roster today.
Like many San Francisco galleries, Altman Siegel recently migrated to Dogpatch—San Francisco’s burgeoning new arts district. Part of the Minnesota Street Project—a three-building structure that now houses many artist studios, prominent galleries and more—the new space provides a larger platform for the gallery’s artists during San Francisco’s current cultural renaissance.
We spoke with the daring dealer about her first job as a gallery security guard, why she loves San Francisco’s collectors, what advice she thinks aspiring gallerists should ignore, and more.
How did you know you wanted to work in art professionally?
I was into art my whole life. I was one of those nerds who hung out in the art department all the time in high school and then I went to Barnard to study art history, and minored in fine arts. During college, I subscribed to Artforum and went to see as many gallery exhibitions as I could. I specifically moved to New York to be near the art world. I sort of always knew what I wanted to do…
What was your first art world job?
A security guard for a Jackson Pollack painting at Luhring Augustine! Fellow ADAA member Michele Maccaronewas in my class at Barnard. We were friends in college and took art history together. She interned at Luhring Augustine and got a job there right after graduating. Shortly after that, I was looking for a job and they were working on an exhibition titled “Eight Painters,” curated by Steve Wolfe.
They had a lot of great work in the show, and there was a really small Jackson Pollack painting they wanted someone to watch to make sure no one put it in their bag. So, I sat in the gallery for about a month to make sure no one took it. Then a position opened up within the gallery and they hired me full time. Within two years, I became one of the directors. When Michele left to start her own gallery, I became their senior director. I stayed there for 10 years.
Why did you move to San Francisco?
I moved here on a whim. I’m from the east coast originally, and I didn’t have any roots here. I just wanted to see what life was like outside of New York. My sister got transferred to San Francisco for work and I just kind of came. I thought I would only be here for a short time and move back to New York but when I got here I realized there were great museums, an amazing collector base, a lot of really talented artists—but very few galleries. And none doing what I knew how to do coming from Chelsea. So, I decided there was a niche I could fill here and decided to stay and open the gallery.
How would you describe your gallery program?
For the most part, they’re all young, museum-level conceptual artists. In the beginning, I put together a strong group of artists, and they have been growing with the gallery the whole time.
How has San Francisco changed since you’ve opened the gallery?
I think the biggest change is economic. I moved here at the end of 2007, so I was here when the crash happened, but I had only been here about a month. Since then, the economy has been growing at light speed. San Francisco is the center of industry right now due to the tech boom. So, it’s gotten much more expensive and much more crowded. It’s gentrifying pretty fast, which by New York standards seems normal because New York gentrifies quickly all the time, but here it wasn’t like that for a really long time, and it’s a new phenomenon for the city.
Are there fewer artists living there now?
Not fewer. San Francisco’s always been sort of a transitional town. A lot of people start here, stay for a while, and then move on to other places, but that’s always been the case. I think one of the things that make it hard is that there hasn’t been a lot of opportunity for contact with the international art world or the larger art world compared to cities like Los Angeles and New York. There are just fewer galleries here. One of the things I wanted to do was to find the best local talent and let them step into that world. I hope that the gallery can provide enough of a platform to artists so that they don’t have to move if they don’t want to.
How would you describe the collecting community in San Francisco?
San Francisco is very collegial and inclusive. It’s ultimately like a small town where everybody knows each other and the collecting community is very nice and supportive. I really love them. San Francisco collectors are very smart, and there’s not a lot of conspicuous consumption here, so people are not motivated to buy something just because someone else has it. It’s harder to make sales sometimes, but when people buy a work it’s because they really love it and are interested in the ideas and supportive of what’s behind it. San Francisco collectors are a great community to work with if you’re interested in ideas.
In a 2012 interview with ARTCARDS, you said that you see yourself as a dealer and a gallerist. What did you mean by that?
I meant that there are two sides to this job. One is doing the creative programming and the other is being a salesperson. Some people are dealers who focus on sales and hire curators to do the creative programming. Some do it the other way around. I try to do both.
What advice would you give to an aspiring dealer?
Put your program first and do the most that you can with the means that you have. And everyone tells you that it’s impossible to make it, but you just can’t listen to that.
What advice would you give to an aspiring collector?
Remember that collecting is as much about philanthropy as it is about personal gratification. Collecting art provides a living wage for artists. Use your dollars to support artists doing work you believe in. Don’t worry about sticking to a theme or medium. Over time your taste and personality will be reflected in all of your acquisitions and become the unifying factor of your collection.
Tell us about your current exhibition “The Mediated Image.”
“The Mediated Image” is a three-person show including work by Simon Denny, Christopher Williams and Laeh Glenn.
I wanted to illustrate the art historical continuum from Williams to the post-Internet generation through their critique of consumer culture. Both Denny and Glenn, in different ways, use the Internet as a point of departure in their work, mining images and cultural references from it. I thought to pair them with Christopher Williams, who is from the previous generation, but is a miner of sorts as well. Creating seemingly disparate images from advertising, design and film, but unifying them with his stoic aesthetic. I think his deadpan irony anticipated the reigning attitude of contemporary Internet culture, and that this association hasn’t been clearly articulated yet.