Art Lovers Forum Podcast

There are so many extraordinary stories to the life of Miami gallerist Mindy Solomon that I just don’t know where to begin this introduction to Art Lovers Forum. She says you can pretty much follow her life by the ceramics she’s collected over the years and the ones she exhibits in her gallery. Most of them tell a story that parallels her life.

I keep thinking of the one where Mindy basically closes down her art career in St. Pete...

Leon Ford is an author and activist who wants to open a non-profit art gallery in Pittsburgh that showcases powerful works but also serves as a hub for community connection and dialogue. Leon has real life experience to make this happen. When he was 19 years old in 2012, Leon was shot five times by a Pittsburgh police officer as he was racially profiled during a case of mistaken identity. He has been paralyzed ever since. 

He is a...

I met Graham Wilson, the founder of Swivel Gallery in New York City, for the first time a few weeks ago at the Material Art Fair in Mexico City. I have been hearing positive news about the four year old gallery from a few art collectors recently and got curious how Graham functions in such a competitive market as New York.

I think once you hear his interview in Art Lovers Forum you will get a life lesson we all seem to forget espe...

Marc Wehby needs no introduction to people who love to collect art. He and his wife Susie Kravetz, both owners of Kravetz/Wehby in NYC for the last 26 years, have been major influencers in the purchasing of art for both new and experienced collectors.

In fact, Marc told me that many older collectors are now focusing on emerging artists because they like the work being produced. He said that folks with extensive collections feel th...

Welcome to Art Lovers Forum.  I am very excited about this interview with Moiz Zilberman. This is the first time I am talking to a gallerist who owns galleries in three countries. In fact, he has multiple galleries in each city. He is certainly experiencing the art world on a grand scale.

Moiz’s galleries are in Istanbul, Ber...

I’m grateful that Yiwei Lu agreed to be interviewed by Art Lovers Forum during this difficult time in Los Angeles. Her galleries are in Venice Beach and Wuhan, China. 

We officially met during the Art Fairs in Miami last month.   Miami friends of mine, Emily and Chris Campbell, bought art from Yiwei more than a year ago and they now have a close relationship.

I wanted to hear what it was like being an art dealer in Los Angeles dur...

I just want to say that I love Carmin Kilpatrick’s artwork. She is only a freshman in college and yet she has mastered creating art that is filled with mystery, intrigue, secrets, fascination and new shapes and designs. I can stare at her work forever.

I have shown her work to a few experts who like what they see and are now waiting anxiously to see what she produces over the next few years. I am going to collect a few of her pa...

When Liz Berman Sklaw ran the New York Marathon this past November she unequivocally felt like she was viewing a kaleidoscope of paintings in every borough she passed through.  “It may have been the diversity of the street crowds, or the change in architecture every few miles,” Liz said. She felt like she was in an art trance. The fact that she was totally focused on the beauty of the city, Liz...

When I found out that Laura Shabott, the artist, the lecturer, the actress, gave talks about the book, Ninth Street Women, I knew she had to do a second interview with me on Art Lovers Forum.  I wanted Laura to tell folks who are interested in art why the Ninth Street Women is so important. 

The book was published in 2018 an...

Deborah Mitchell is a conservation artist. I met Deborah years ago when she took members of Fountainhead Arts on a hike through the muddy waters of the Everglades. It was an exhilarating experience.  Her interview on Art Lovers Forum is exactly that. She is going to take you away from your daily busy life, which is probably indoors, and tell you what’s happening on the outside. 

Charo Oquet is one of the most popular artists in the city of Miami. Everyone loves her because she has been able to maintain a thriving art practice while helping others from foreign countries get expose for their creative work. She is also admired because her work has always remained relevant through the years. Her interview reveals how she does it all which is a good life lesson for all of us.

Charo, a Dominican-born, Miami-bas...

I just got back from visiting my long time (Guatemala, Madrid, Miami) artist friend Veronica Riedel at her Mycelium Garden exhibit. She was showing how the world of nature, artificial intelligence, and art come together. Her exhibit is at idartlab, 676 NW 23rd St, Miami. I know Veronica and her mother Ana Westermann and Ana’s husband for several decades. We all met on one of our travel trips we took with Smart Tours.

Veronica is a...

Welcome To Art Lovers Forum.  Brook Dorsch, the founder of the Emerson Dorsch Gallery in Miami, was at his home in Asheville, North Carolina when Hurricane Helene stormed through the beloved city known  as an art colony, a healing resort and a home to notable luminaries, statesmen and bohemians. 

In this episode of Art Lovers Forum, Brook describes the force of the hurricane, the destruction, and the fast action efforts to save hi...

Welcome To Art Lovers Forum.  Make note of the two women I’m introducing you to today. Not only will artists/explorers Randi Renate and Beatriz Chachamovits be world famous in the not too distant future, but they will be instrumental in helping to save the planet. The work they are doing to preserve and restore coral reefs are also leading them to publicly expose other areas of the ocean that ar...

Everyone in the art world needs to know Leslie Weissman. She knows the ins and outs of the creative and business side of art better than most. She is an artist, collector, advisor, curator, pop-up gallerist, lecturer, educator, networker, and avid reader. What’s more, she is very close to her husband Michael and children.

None of this is an exaggeration. I’m a friend of hers and I see her in action. She has boundless energy for ev...

Welcome to Art Lovers Forum.  This episode of Art Lovers Forum is dedicated to the late Rosa de la Cruz who was one of the leading art collectors in the United States. I am talking to Ibett Yanez del Castillo, Director of the Emerson Dorsch Gallery in Miami, who worked side-by-side with Rosa and Carlos for 19 years. This is probably one of the most intimate and detailed interviews you will ever hear about Rosa. Ibett thinks about ...

Cris Sweeny and Claire Lardner, owners of Frameworks in Miami for the last 30+ years, have started a new division in their company that offers one-of-kind art pieces that are becoming increasingly popular everyday. Appropriately called LS Art Consulting, Sweeny and Lardner are experts in designing the most captivating, yet appropriate custom art works in the fields of hospitality, cruise lines, d...

Artist Laura Shabott is a well-known, multi-media artist and actress, but should be the Ambassador for Provincetown, Massachusetts, the New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod. Laura sounds like she is reciting poetry when she describes the small coastal resort which has a year-round population of 4,000 and then grows to 60,000 or higher in the summertime. Often called "PTown, the...

I met Melanie Baer Schwartz a few months ago during a Fountainhead Arts trip to Detroit. She is the Director of Sales at Library Street Collective, one of the most creative art galleries in the nation. The minute I met her I knew this is what I needed from a gallerist. She was well informed, willing to share her knowledge, very inspirational and super friendly. She made our experience visiting the Library Street Collective and buy...