heliumTALK #24: Jonathan LeVine - Part One (english edition)

For this English language edition of his podcast „heliumTALK - Das
Kunstgespräch“, Jörg Heikhaus spoke with Jonathan LeVine, who is
one of the most prestigious and colorful figures in the American
Contemporary art scene. Since 1995 he exhibited artists in
different venues and cities. He has been at the forefront of
bringing artists from pop culture, low brow and graffiti into the
established art world. In 2005 he opened the Jonathan Levine
Gallery in New York’s famous gallery district Chelsea and set
standards for the presentation of a generation of artists that had
long been neglected, becoming one if not the most successful
gallery for a new era in contemporary art. Towards the end this
year though, Jonathan closed his physical gallery space to take a
step back and consider new ways to approach a market that has
become very difficult in recent years. Jonathan and Jörg have been
friends for a long time, and they often talk for hours via video
chat about the business, the people they work with, their
experiences and the state of the art world. As friends they
exchange knowledge and stories. Since Jörg started this podcast in
February 2018 we always thought it might be a good idea to share
some of this, because they both feel that there are a lot of topics
from these private conversations that might be interesting insights
for others who are also in the art circus, be it in a professional
manner or as observers and fans. So this is only the first of a
series of talks Jonathan and Jörg are planning to have. Because it
was not recorded in the studio but thousand miles apart and in
different time zones via an online-Tool it might sound a bit
different than the normal podcast. We are not yet 100% satisfied
from a pure technological standpoint, but we’ll keep working on it
to improve it next time.