Denis Gardarin: Creating Opportunities for Women Artists and Collectors in the Arts

Could we start by hearing more about your journey in the arts? I received a Masters in Fine Arts at La Sorbonne and started collecting at 18: a Karel Appel lithograph which I still own. I realized quickly that I wasn’t going to be an artist, and I moved to the United States to study at UCLA. In LA, I met Tim Wright and Robert Sobieszek, heads of the Photography Department at LACMA, where I was worked on cataloging the collection. At the end of this internship, I co-curated an exhibition with Robert at the museum. After that, I worked at Couturier Gallery for 3 years, familiarizing myself with Latin American Art.  But I always gravitated toward the East Coast so I moved to New York, where my first interview landed me a job with Brent Sikkema, managing all the photographers in his stable. At my first Armory Show in 2001 I was introduced to a culture of collecting that was revolutionary. People you never met and who didn’t necessarily know your artists, gave you an opportunity to sell to them: it was collecting as a way of life. I stayed with Brent for three and a half years. In 2003, Sean Kelly hired me to manage the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and I worked with Cindy…