How This International Art Collective Fosters New Collectors
New York is the world’s largest art market, home to more than 1,400 art galleries. However, galleries are not the only way to engage with art and commerce. Founded by curator and art advisor Lara Bayer, gallerist Clio Giner, and artist-curator Jordan Doner, Emerging Collector Series (ECS) organizes curated events, ranging from private artist studio visits to after-hours gallery walkthroughs and salon-style discussions, to foster a collector base to which they offer art advising. Their aim is to: “cultivate a new generation of collectors by providing intimate, direct access to artists, galleries, and curators,” Bayer wrote to Cultbytes.
“These gatherings are designed to foster both education and community, engaging collectors at every stage with the cultural ecosystems that shape contemporary art,” Doner continued. He is a New York-based artist whose drawing and painting practice mines from Christian allegory, leisure, classical civilization, pastoralism, post-homo-sapien sexuality, carnivorous wildlife, and intimate portraits of spiders, seahorses, fruit bats, and micro-organisms. Together with Bayer, who has forged an impressive partnership with the Turkish Consulate General in New York to curate a show this spring, they represent the New York City contingent of the collective.
Since its inception in Spring 2024, ECS has organized walkthroughs at New York galleries such as Swivel, The Hole, Amanita, Long Story Short, 52 Henry, and 56 Henry, as well as studio visits with artists Elliot Purse and Krista Louise Smith. In May 2024, ECS co-hosted a networking event in partnership with Pier59 Studios, signaling its ambition to expand its reach and format.
Giner, who Bayer met while enrolled at Sotheby’s Institute in New York, is the co-owner of Galería Yusto/Giner, based in Madrid and Marbella. The gallery champions contemporary Spanish and international artists, with a focus on rising Andalusian voices such as Fran Baena and Angeles Agrela. Under Giner’s leadership, the gallery has participated in leading international art fairs, including Zona Maco. Giner represents the collective’s link to Europe. Members of the collective maintain their own independent practice while collaboratively curating exhibitions and placing artworks with collectors across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
They have no plans to open a physical gallery, but aim to expand the ECS footprint at international art fairs. Bayer has held roles at Perrotin and James Cohan, leading galleries in New York, as well as with Contemporary Istanbul, Türkiye’s largest international art fair. Her focus, she explains, is on “connecting collectors, galleries, and artists,” with an expanding emphasis on both primary and secondary market acquisitions. With rents at an all-time high in New York, it seems pertinent to forego brick-and-mortar to explore resource sharing within the collective and to cultivate collectors by offering them bespoke activities at a diverse set of galleries and artist studios. At a time of art market uncertainty, Bayer, Giner, and Doner have strategically come together to share their deep and diverse expertise in the field, resources, and ideas, taking a fresh approach to art sales.
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