Swizz Art Biz

Valeria Diaz Granada represents a new generation of art entrepreneurs, curating museum-quality exhibition programs without the need for a physical gallery space or even a fixed country of operation. Instead, rossogranada, the "art catalyzer" she founded, focuses on the artists themselves, organizing seemingly spontaneous pop-up exhibitions around the world. For instance, audiences from Basel to London have had the chance to encounter Leonora Carrington's over two-meter-tall statue, The Dancer.

However, such operations are not only costly but also require a global audience. One might wonder how a new voice like Granada's carves out a place in the art world, and by what means she manages to succeed.

In the latest episode of Swizz Art Biz, host Tanya König interviews Granada about the role of institutional and private sponsorship in the art world, as well as her perspective on the future of art patronage. Granada also shares her views on philanthropy within the art sector and the importance of giving back to the community through artist-led initiatives.

While the episode features Granada, it explores more than just the story of rossogranada. It highlights the significance of adaptability in the modern approach of curators and art dealers, underscoring the value of a global and flexible exhibition program.

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This episode was produced at TableCast Studio.

The video podcast can be watched on YouTube.

Co-Producer: Marcell Márthon

Marie Livie is the woman behind her namesake LIVIE gallery, situated in Zürich’s Claridenstrasse. First opening its doors to the public in 2019, the gallery represents the emergence of a new generation of art dealers within the city, with all that they might bring. Admittedly, being an emerging gallery comes with its challenges, especially if one opens right before the pandemic, like Livie did.

Yet, such challenges never deterred her, unsurprisingly perhaps, as she is no stranger to navigating the art world. Having worked within Art Basel’s Cities initiative as a project manager in Buenos Aires, she is well aware of the global trends that drive the market forward. 

It is her view on these trends, that our host, Tanya König asks Marie Livie about, as well as her personal experience in being at the vertex of a generation shift within the art world. How does the new generation of gallerists build and maintain a loyal collector base? What new can they offer in a well saturated market to maintain a competitive edge? How do they view art fairs?

Having worked at an art fair, yet now being a frequent gallerist attendee herself, Livie is certainly the best person to answer these questions, and more, as many do come up over the conversation between König and Livie, giving the listener an insight into the future of the art world, and the workings of an excellent new gallery in the city of Zürich. 

Livie Gallery on Instagram

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This episode was produced at TableCast Studio.

If you’ve been a regular VIP at Art Basel in the past few years, you know her name: Michèle Sandoz. She was the Global Head of VIP Relations at Art Basel for almost a decade and is now the Managing Director of Grisebach Switzerland, a German auction house. Michèle Sandoz has an intercultural background, having been born in Zimbabwe to Swiss parents and growing up in various African countries. She studied Sinology and East Asian art at the University of Zurich after a trip to China before she entered the art market working for the auction house Koller Auktionen.

In the first episode of season 2 of Swizz Art Biz, the art world habituée tells our host Tanya König how her background influenced her career choice, what she liked about the current Venice Biennale curated by Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa—the first Latin American and openly queer curator in the history of the Biennale—about her current trip to Art Basel Hong Kong, and what she is planning with Grisebach Switzerland.

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Host/Producer: Tanya König

Intern/Co-Producer: Marcell Márthon

Recorded at Tablecast Studio by Christoph Soltmannowski

Photo credit: © Noé Cotter

From Los Angeles to Hong Kong, London to Monaco, New York’s East Side to New York’s West Side, Hauser & Wirth operates in 16 locations around the world. The gallery, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, just announced that it will open its first space in Paris in 2023.

In this latest episode of Swizz Art Biz x Löwenbräukunst, Tanya König sits down with Barbara Corti, who is a partner at Hauser & Wirth.

Corti started working at the gallery in 2005 when its only space was at Löwenbräukunst in Zurich. Shortly after, in 2006 she moved to New York, where she spent seven years working for 303 Gallery. In 2013, she went back to Hauser & Wirth to help it  open its first space in Manhattan’s Chelsea, which had become the spot to be for contemporary art galleries.

When the Covid pandemic spread throughout  the world in 2020, she decided to pack up and return to Switzerland. It was a decision that wasn’t easy but now makes perfect sense to her. She is now responsible for Hauser & Wirth’s galleries at Löwenbräukunst in Zurich and in St. Moritz. Corti tells Tanya about what she learned in the U.S., how Hauser & Wirth selects its new locations, and why everyone should drop into a gallery and just have a look around.

Make sure to subscribe to Swizz Art Biz on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts. And rating the podcast also helps it to be seen by others. You can also watch this conversation on YouTube.

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This episode was recorded at Tablecast by Christoph Soltmannowski.

AIA stands for awareness in art and We Are AIA is the name of a new nonprofit association founded by Martina Huber last year with its own space at Löwenbräukunst in Zurich.

The current show, The Mouth Is for Speaking, deals with the topic of human rights and ponders the question: What is needed to be able to speak or stand up? It includes pieces by Saudi artist Abdulnasser Gharem, which remembers Jamal Khashoggi—the journalist killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018—and Luke Willis Thompson, which was produced with the Black Lives Matter movement in mind.

Martina Huber is the first guest of the special series of Swizz Art Biz x Löwenbräukunst, where Tanya König, the founder of Swizz Art Biz, will speak with artists and insiders connected to the contemporary art center Löwenbräukunst in Zurich.

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This episode was filmed at Tablecast by Christoph Soltmannowski and can also be watched as video podcast on YouTube. 

In 2006, Lucerne-based Galerie Urs Meile became one of the first Western galleries to establish itself in China. Their first space in Beijing was created by none other than Ai Weiwei, who was also one of the first Chinese artists the gallery represented. René Meile, the son of the gallery’s founder, is co-director and mainly responsible for the operations in Beijing. 

He spent the past 15 months in China and observed how the clientele shifted during the pandemic.

In this episode of Swizz Art Biz, he tells Tanya König why he tries to understand China through its art and culture rather than just geopolitics, why not every show is shut down immediately when showing sensitive content, and why it’s not always easy to work with Ai Weiwei. His next project? An exhibition by painter Wang Xingwei in Shanghai, set to open in April, when Meile hopes to return.

You can watch this episode as video podcast on YouTube.

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This episode was recorded at Tablecast by Christoph Soltmannowski.

Nomad was founded in 2017 by Giorgio Pace and Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte with the aim to be more exclusive and flexible than other fairs. While St. Moritz has hosted it on several occasions, Nomad, true to its name, has no fixed home, and over the past five years has also been held in Monaco, Cannes, and Venice. Next Tuesday the boutique fair will get underway in St. Moritz again through March 6. 

Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte tells Swizz Art Biz host Tanya König that this year’s inaugural summer destination will be—drum roll, please—Capri. Talk about glam! But fear not Alpine enthusiasts, he says that the fair will return to the Swiss mountains next winter.

Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte also tells Tanya how the committee picks their exhibitors, why they need to communicate their choices diplomatically, and why the noted Swiss critic and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist called Nomad the future of fairs. Listen to the conversation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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British artist Keith Tyson spoke to Tanya König in 2018 about his art , technology, and his upbringing. Hauser & Wirth is now showing his drawings and paintings at 22 Street in New York. On this occasion, Swizz Art Biz is re-sharing this honest conversation with the Turner Prize winner, which was aired on CNNMoney Switzerland in 2018. 

The interview can also be watched on YouTube. 

Giorgia von Albertini is one of the youngest and most successful Swiss art curators at the moment. The 29-year-old started her career in the arts between her Bachelor and Masters degrees, when she collaborated with the renowned Swiss curator Bice Curiger, the renowned Swiss curator and co-founder of Parkett, who was only the third woman ever to curate the Venice Biennale in 2011.

"I simply wrote a letter to Bice saying how much I admired her work and asked if there was a way we could collaborate," von Albertini tells Swizz Art Biz. When listening to her, one can tell she is someone who dares to take initiative.

Even if it’s certainly not the best paid job in the art industry, she makes sure she gets paid for her work: “I always found that in a capitalist economy, no one should work for free and it was important to me to not devalue my work.”

So what does it take to succeed? "You need to love the work and put in the work."

Listen to this candid conversation with Giorgia von Albertini to find out her attitude towards work and why she wasn’t scared to collaborate with established figures in the art world including Swiss artist Not Vital. Plus, hear about her latest project, a monograph on Mexican artist Martín Soto Climént, which will be launched in Rome on February 3 at Karma International in Zurich on February 8, and then in London and Paris.

Follow Swizz Art Biz on Instagram and find the podcast host Tanya König here. 

Watch the conversation on Youtube. 

Produced at Tablecast Studio by Soltmannowski, solt.ch

Instead, the Belgian native collects works that are not just about marketing but that touch the viewer or helps to open their minds. Art needs to help us get out of Plato’s cave. It’s like taking the “red pill” in The Matrix, he says.

Despite collecting digital and video art early on, Servais is not a fan of today’s much-hyped NFTs. “Most NFTs are just images, so don’t call it art,” he tells Swizz Art Biz. “Everyone can create an image: Kellogg’s does it. McDonald’s does it. But is Ronald McDonald art? It’s just an image.”

Listen to the full podcast or watch the conversation on YouTube to find out more.