In this series, WeWork’s director of digital community selects a WeWork member to get to know better, sharing her fun findings with the rest of the community.
As a private curator and art advisor, Sima Familant helps her clients build the best possible collections of work from artists around the world. At her apartment covered in intriguing art, I spoke with the WeWork Chelsea member about her travels, the “very entrepreneurial” side of the art world, hidden gems in New York, her web series, and more.
When did you discover you were so passionate about the art world?
Probably when I was in college. I’m from a small town in Southern Virginia, but my parents were very good about bringing us to Washington, D.C., and we would go to the Smithsonian often. I knew I loved pictures, but I wanted to go into why they should be collected. So when I was studying at the University of Maryland, College Park, my major was business, but I was taking art history for fun. I was getting As in art history and decided to switch my major in my junior year. I started doing art internships at the Smithsonian, as well as a great private gallery, and it all really came together.
I did the Sotheby’s M.A. program in London. It was the mid-’90s—it was a great time to be in London. The YBA [Young British Artists] scene was thriving. I was there for two years at this amazing moment and did everything. I went to see every show I could possibly see. It was my time to do it all. I would be up early, out late, and see as much as I could. I was obsessed with Time Out—my friends still tease me to this day! I had a boyfriend there—he came to get me at 8 PM at night, and he said: “You’re sick. We’re late for dinner. You have to take a break from art.”
But it was early videos of Paul McCarthy. Who is a huge artist now, much more well-known for installations and sculpture. But his early work was influential to artists. And if I hadn’t gone—that became the other thing I realized with art is: you have to show up. You have to see it. You have to experience it. And I think that was a big thing I got out of my program. I got made fun of for it. But it was still definitely the thing that works.
You’re very involved in charitable organizations like Rhizome, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, LA><Art, and Inner City Foundation of New York. What attracted you to these organizations?
The big pitch I give to my clients is we’re not just shopping for art—we want to be a part of the art world and be a part of that conversation. I want my clients to be involved, so I have to be involved. And it’s one of those things where I’m definitely on boards, but I try to go to a lot of stuff. I’m supporting The Studio Museum in Harlem. I’m on the board of an educational organization, Inner City Foundation NYC, and because the art world is so interesting to people, you’re able to use that to help other places or other ideas, other things. That’s the cool thing about the art world: is it’s very entrepreneurial. You can do what you want.
Any hidden gems in New York City?
Neue Galerie I think is one of the most special places in the city. It’s on the Upper East Side, a townhouse converted into a museum, and it’s a place where they only exhibit German and Viennese Expressionist artists. And they always do gorgeous exhibitions— it’s never huge exhibitions, but very tasteful. Well curated, well researched, they have a little café there that’s a German café that’s always packed where you can get schnitzel and other traditional German foods. And in a big city like New York, where you have such big institutions—not to say that’s bad, the new Whitney on the West Side Highway done by Renzo Piano (a great architect) is worth checking out—but you can see how museums are trying to keep up with the generations. And I think that’s an interesting idea as well.
Anything else we should know about you?
I do this web series called “Studio Break-in,” and Alexandra Nish is the producer. It’s a web series where I go into an artist’s studio, and I “break in” (they know I’m coming, obviously), but they don’t want to be interviewed—doing a Q&A in the studio is not fun for them. So we look around, talk about things, get to look through drawers. The whole idea is finding something that was not so obvious. Because the studio is a place where experimentation happens, we can go through their thoughts before it becomes a work of art. It’s a 3 to 3.5-minute show that gives you a snapshot of the artist. And I’ve gotten great feedback from curators, collectors, art advisors. The idea was really to help highlight artists in a different way than just selling their work: celebrating them, putting them in a different context.
Photos: Lindsay Brown