Search

Friday Five with Rebecca Wilson of Saatchi Art
Photo by Pierre Auroux for Malibu Magazine

Photo by Pierre Auroux for Malibu Magazine

Saatchi Art is the beloved online art gallery known worldwide for their impeccable collection of paintings, photography, sculpture, and drawings. The former Director at London’s Saatchi Gallery, Rebecca Wilson, now finds herself stateside in Venice Beach, California as their Chief Curator and Director, Art Advisory, where she leads a team of curators in developing their weekly online exhibitions for both online and their app. Along with the online exhibitions, Wilson works with clients, like first-time art buyers, designers, and even experienced collectors, to offer free guidance when it comes to selecting art through their art advisory service. With over 20 years in the art industry, she definitely has the chops to give solid recommendations to buyers when they need advice perusing their catalog of more than 500,000 original works. Let’s see what this art industry veteran selects as favorites in this week’s Friday Five.

1. Eames Case Study House in the Pacific Palisades
One of the reasons I love being in LA is being surrounded by so much amazing architecture. I don’t think I’ve been in a place where so many dreams and fantasies have been realized through such a stunning array of styles. I’m a big mid-century fan and recently visited the Eames house in the Pacific Palisades. I remember first seeing their Powers of 10 film and being blown away by it. How incredible that they could build such a simple house from off-the-shelf materials in the middle of a meadow in the mid-1940s just after the Second World War!

Photo by Fay Godwin

Photo by Fay Godwin

2. Lurcher
For the last 10 years my husband and I have been talking about getting a dog, not just any dog, but the most elegant dog in the world: a lurcher. The closest I’ve come so far is having this photograph by British photographer Fay Godwin as my laptop screensaver.

3. Yves Klein Blue
Some of my favorite things converged in a project Saatchi Art did with the Hyatt Churchill hotel in London. We were invited to curate artworks for a special suite in the hotel. The suite features Danish designer Poul Kjaerholm’s PK 4 x 20 series of furniture and this Yves Klein blue sofa by the Spanish designer Jaime Hayon. I curated a series especially for the suite with works by one of our artists, Hormazd Narielwalla, who transforms bespoke Savile Row tailoring patterns into stunning abstract collages.

F5-Rebecca-Wilson-Saatchi-Art-4-Edmund-de-Waal

4. Edmund de Waal Ceramics
I grew up surrounded by talk of “pots” and the beautiful ceramics made by my grandfather, the British potter Norman Wilson. His works now sit side by side with those of my favorite contemporary ceramicist Edmund de Waal in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. I love the simplicity of these vessels and share de Waal’s fascination with Japanese culture. De Waal is also the author of a wonderful book called The Hare with Amber Eyes, a memoir about how his family was precariously held together by a collection of netsuke—tiny small carved animals—which survived several generations, wars and journeys across various continents.

F5-Rebecca-Wilson-Saatchi-Art-5-Erin-Morrison

5. Erin Morrison
I recently bought this stunning work by LA-based artist Erin Morrison. I first saw her work when she graduated from UCLA and love the way she combines paint, concrete, quilting, and both abstract and figurative elements. I haven’t been so excited by a new artist for some time. This work is over 7ft tall and is the second thing I look forward to seeing every morning.

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.