Art advisor Gardy St. Fleur isn’t interested in working with people who just flash their cash.
“A client is not coming to me like, ‘hey, I need an artwork for my kitchen,” The Brooklyn-based founder of Saint Fleur said in a discussion at House of Robb San Francisco ahead of NBA All-Star Weekend. “So I’m really passionate with clients that wants to collect art and archive history.”
Those clients, more often than not, are NBA stars. St. Fleur started working with players about 10 years ago, focusing on those that wanted to understand art, not just buy things. “I’m interested in players to understand the reason why artists create art, right?” He said. “Everyone’s trying to sell players things, right? Because they know they have money, they could just buy things. So my approach was never like that. It was approached to really get them to understand art.”
One of those players is Wilson Chandler, a 13-year NBA veteran, who played small forward for the New York Knicks and the Denver Nuggets. Now retired, Wilson has quickly stepped onto the art scene, among real estate and other community enterprises. For him, it was a natural transition.
From left: Wilson Chandler and Gardy St. Fleur at House of Robb San Francisco
Jason Henry
“Players understand art, just because basketball is an art form itself, you know, the way guys dribble, the way they move,” Chandler said during the discussion. “You watch Kyrie [Irving], he’s an artist, you know, reacting to the defense. And just, I think, from that standpoint, and just loving the game and playing the game, but also having to be in the business, I feel like that’s art itself, like how artists have to deal with the actual galleries and people who own them.”
Chandler has found that his NBA colleagues had plenty of advice when it comes to collecting, crediting Elliot Perry, a Memphis Grizzlies minority owner and a former basketball player, as someone he could turn to with questions and introduced him to different galleries. Now, with his own process with buying art, Chandler has the routine down.
“I love storytelling,” he said. “So I love to get to know the artist, you know, learn about each individual piece. And that’s kind of how I go about, you know, falling in love with that piece.”
Both Chandler and St. Fleur have seen changes in the art world. Chandler recalled how, when he was “fairly new” to the art scene, galleries would sell—or not sell—to him based on who was in his collection. The former Knick started meeting with artists directly, who would then introduce him to the galleries. St. Fleur remembered when the art world was “just not showing artists of color.” Now, he said, more change is coming.
“Now the art world is like, hey, we need to find new buyers,” St. Fleur said. “We need to think about what the future of art collecting will look like. So I think now they’re a little bit more [like], ‘how do we get these guys more involved to become serious collectors, not just collectors?’ How does the institution get them to be board members as well? How do you get them to contribute back to the community? So I think a lot of institutions and galleries are just paying attention to, ‘hey, we need to create more programming.’”
Of course, both men have their art wish lists. One artwork that Chandler would love to add to his collection was definitely top of mind. “It’s a piece by Harry Taylor . . . It’s centered around Nipsey Hussle and his shopping center where he built his clothing store,” he said. “And it became prominent because of his death, but just the story behind it, how he came from that neighborhood, came from nothing, essentially, and built it right in his neighborhood in South Central L.A.”
St. Fleur, meanwhile, would love to snag a piece by conceptual artist David Hammons. He’s also interested in works by artists from every walk of life, whether they are trained by top institutions or self-taught. The art advisor will often get calls from art professors at universities like UCLA or Yale telling him that there’s a student he should be checking out—and he’s more than happy to do just that.
“We’re supporting, we’re giving money back to institutions to help the artists further their career,” St. Fleur said.
Chandler also wants to support the arts by bringing them back to his home. The former small forward is in the process of creating a nonprofit that focuses on showcasing his personal collection and is “geared toward giving access to kids in my neighborhood that don’t have access to art,” he says.
