Published by The Creative Series - Events Program by Space Gallery SOHO
05 Dec 2024

Talk with Caitlin Kelly-McKenna

ASK AN ART ADVISOR:

Tips on Investing in Art - an A to Z on what to look for and where to start.

Dec 4th  2024  - Space Gallery SOHO 

The second event of the Creative Series was a Talk on "Ask an Art Advisor: Tips on Investing in Art" with curator and gallerist Caitlin Kelly-McKenna. An A to Z guide was presented on what to look for and where to start. Questions by were submitted prior to the Talk to help clarify specific queries.

The ‘Ask an Art Advisor’ cocktail with Caitlin Kelly-McKenna was held out on Wednesday, December 4th 6pm-8pm was an evening of meaningful conversation and thoughtful questions about the art industry. During the talk we covered topics from building collections to primary vs secondary art and more.

Key Takeaways:

• An art advisor's goal is to service their clients' needs. They often have relationships with many galleries and artists. Where an art gallery has to represent and advocate for the artist where an art advisor is your advocate.

• Be honest with your expectations and needs. When starting to build your collection, whether you're looking to resell work for investment or live with peices for years to come these are factors your advisor needs to take in. It's really important that clients be honest about their collecting goals, which can be really hard because sometimes people are intimidated by the art world, and they don't want to disclose or say the wrong thing. Some people just want a piece where their friends come over and are blown away by they don't really even care about who the artist is.

• You should like what you buy. Buying a piece for strictly investment is a bad place to start. Unlike buying a stock or a bond where it sits like on a computer somewhere, you have to live with art.

• If you're new to collecting, just going to galleries and seeing the different types of art and artists is important. By seeing a lot of pieces you'll start to get a sense of what styles speak to you the most. 

• Primary market is living artists who are actively creating work. Secondary Market is typically artists estates or resale work and tends to be more established. Some galleries specialize in one or the other. Some do both, if you come into Space Gallery today, there's a real mix of artists that are, like, new and upcoming and then really well established.

• What we are seeing in our business is a lot more people interested in emerging artists. This breaks down into about 75% of people that are interested in hot, new, cool artists of our era, with 25% of people interested in artists who are well established with an  historical presence.
   

About the Guest Speaker:

Caitlin Kelly-McKenna is the founder and director of Kelly McKenna Gallery and Fine Art Consulting. With a career dedicated to the art world, Caitlin is a USPAP-compliant appraiser and has extensive experience in sales, curation, and consulting. Prior to founding her own gallery, she served as the Director of Sales at Space Gallery for five years, gaining further expertise through roles at museums, auction houses, and other galleries. Her consultancy work spans private collectors, foundations, museums, and corporate clients. Since opening Kelly McKenna Gallery two years ago, Caitlin provides tailored art advisory services, working with experienced collectors, businesses, and even individuals seeking the perfect piece for their home or office space—such as her current project with a plastic surgeon to curate artwork for their medical office.