Regarded as one of the most successful gallery owners in the United States and Latin America, Lebanese-born and Dominican-raised art collector Gary Nader started his art career as the Director of Nader Gallery of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic in 1981, then moved to the United States to set up his own Gary Nader art center gallery specializing in Latin American Art in Miami in 1985, which has been regarded as one of the most entrepreneurial and successful galleries in the world over decades. Gary Nader has played an integral role in the formation of Miami's growing presence in the art world and has established himself as an expert on Latin American Art. With his newly opened LAAM Latin American Art Museum, Nader shares with us his first purchase and advice for Latin American art aficionados.
At 18-19 I began an art gallery in Santo Domingo, I have lived in Miami for 30 years. My parents owned galleries since I was eight or nine years old.
A naked portrait by Plutarco Andujar, an artist from Santo Domingo. I bought it when I was 11 years old. I still have it of course.
My collection is of more than 1000 artworks.
One never stops collecting. I had to sell some pieces to acquire others. There is always room for improvement.
Buy exclusively what you like and don't speculate. Also, have a lot of patience. There is not enough work available from Latin America. This shortage places possible collectors on waiting lines. Obviously there is not enough volume of masterworks from Latin America in comparison with Europe. Also, Latin American collectors don't sell their pieces, they tend to keep the pieces exhibited on their walls.
Basically we have tried to do everything there is to do. We develop curated auctions to sell selected pieces of art.
50% of my time
Eduardo Costantini, MALBA museum, amongst many other museums in the world
Our mission is to keep promoting Latin American Art as we have done for many years now. LAAM museum is one of the latest in a series of ambitious architectural projects that are transforming the US city into a major cultural destination.
It's growing more and more. Mexico and Brazil are strong. Mexico because of its proximity to USA, and Brazil the volume.
Slow but we are developing programmes at the museum to bring artists from Dominican Republic to Miami and develop a wide range of cultural exchange programmes.