Art Intelligence Global (AIG), the consultancy founded last year by former Sotheby’s bigwigs Amy Cappellazzo, Yuki Terase and Adam Chinn, is moving into the world of galleries and partnering with a streetwear brand from high level to do so.
Today the company announced that it has partnered with fashion brand Onitsuka Tiger to launch Tiger Gallery, a traveling art initiative that will feature contemporary works in stores and more traditional galleries.
The grand opening of the new project will be an exhibition by Ugandan artist Godwin Champs Namuyimba who is set to take over Onitsuka Tiger’s flagship store in London from August 4. Future projects will follow a similar pattern, according to Art Intelligence Global. announcementas the gallery invites the artist to exhibit in Onitsuka Tiger stores and showcases, on the fashion brand’s website or in dedicated gallery spaces.
“As a long-term partnership, Tiger Gallery goes beyond the scope of a seasonal artist/brand collaboration and aims to bring global exposure to a wide range of artists,” Terase said in a statement. statement. She explained that the project will be overseen by Jack Eisenberg, director of artist programs for AIG.
AIG representatives did not immediately respond to Artnet News’ request for more information on the project, such as the number of exhibitions the gallery plans to present each year or whether or not it is considering a space. brick and mortar permanent exhibit.
Amy Capellazzo and Yuki Terase. Photo by Nicholas Newbold.
AIG was founded last fall, about six months after the two Cappellazzo and Terase left Sotheby’s amid a management shakeup at the top of the auction house.
Global ambition has been integrated into the consulting firm design from the start. Cappellazzo would run AIG’s New York office while Wipe off would lead its Hong Kong outpost, and the two leaders promised to make major inroads with the increasingly powerful young Asian collector. The collaboration with Onitsuka Tiger, a global streetwear brand founded as a sneaker line in Japan in 1949, aligns with how many young Asian collectors buy art as part of a more luxury portfolio. wide.
Terase, in particular, has shown a knack for cultivating this crowd. During her time at Sotheby’s, she turned Hong Kong-based contemporary art auctions into nine-figure business and occasionally recruited celebrities, such as K-pop superstar TOP and pop star Jay Chou, for organize them.
Namuyimba, who paints intimate and colorful portraits of his family and friends, has seen his prices soar at auction over the past year and already has a following in Asia. On November 30, his painting representing a figure ironing, The connector (2021), sold at Phillips Hong Kong for a record HK$1.3 million ($169,682), more than triple its high estimate.
Reflecting on Onitsuka Tiger’s call for such a partnership, Eisenberg noted that “the label’s global vision and focus on contemporary artists reflects how we at AIG envision the expanding future of the world of art”.
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