Gary Van Dis shares about the emotional philosophy behind a decades long pursuit of collecting art.
Collecting is an exercise in emotional connectivity, according to Gary Van Dis. Former Vice President and Corporate Creative Director of Condé Nast, design consultant for Herman Miller, and graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design (the New Bauhaus) with studies in design and behavioral science, Van Dis offers a unique eye to the realm of collecting. “I don’t identify myself with one silo,” he said. Instead he prefers to collect works based on the emotional resonance of each piece.
He credited that his first endeavors as a collector were conducted during childhood on the shores and in the forests of Saugatuck, where he found stones, seed pods, seaglass, and even a turtle’s shell. Though his collection has changed and grown a good deal since then, Van Dis still pays annual visits to the place that sparked his curiosity. His collection evolved as many artists’ collections launch: with trades. As a New Bauhaus student, he exchanged work with fellow students and professors. At the time, he was producing photographs and graphic studies. These exchanges ultimately inspired his current philosophy for acquiring. “Trading is a two way street” Van Dis recognized, “one has to put a value of what that emotional connectivity to each other [is worth].” Still to this day, Van Dis weighs this connection to the artists from which he considers purchasing art.
Manager of Ox-Bow House, Maggie Banstra, converses with a visitor in the gallery. Photo by Natia Ser (Summer Fellow 2023).
Van Dis speaks of collecting as a game for some, but he himself doesn’t find much interest in the way most play the sport. While some derive satisfaction from securing a prestigious bid at Sotheby's or scoring a Basquiat, Van Dis prefers to let his heart lead him to his next purchase. This methodology necessitates keeping a healthy heart, not via a bowl of Cheerios, but through attention to a wisened sense of optimism and an understanding of kinship and kindness to all. “Understanding human behavior has allowed me to be a better person,” he said of his academic studies, “and within that even make good and bad choices about what I’ve collected.”
Indicative of Van Dis’s background in behavioral studies, he mulled over concepts such as self-assurance, perception, and intuition. He brought us to these subjects as he talked about methods of interpretation, parting ways with work, and social media’s influence on the arts industry. While touring galleries, Van Dis said he occasionally encounters a piece that feels significant, but his own barriers prevent him from digesting it. Sometimes he’ll return to the piece and the work will strike him with new clarity. But he also appreciates the perspectives that arrive when viewing in the company of others. Of a particular group of friends, Van Dis said, “We all have sort of different eyes about how we see and interpret… and we’re able to share that with each other.” In this space they don’t prize singular truths and instead delight in a multitude of discoveries.
Such conversations bring fresh perspectives that one couldn’t conjure in solitude. This concept of isolation and its limits Van Dis compared to trends he sees in social media. Just as he resists a siloed collection of art, he also fears the silos emerging in online communities, even in arts sectors. Van Dis believes that powerful art runs contrary to factions; art has the capability to connect across human experiences. Perhaps this is why Van Dis holds works loosely. When he intuits that his relationship with a piece has reached closure, he knows to rehome it, as he recently did with two glass candelabras made by Borek Sipek.
Van Dis credits his inclination towards shared exchange and generosity to lessons learned early in childhood. His parents were third generation residents of Saugatuck and raised their son in the lakeside town that bustled with the curiosity and creativity of visiting artists during the summer and grew quiet during all other seasons. Amidst the school year, Van Dis threw himself into sports, theater, and art classes. In summer, he lived for swimming lessons and back porch stories told by his Aunt Elita (Bird) Graves. From a young age he was taught by his family to remain curious, which he described as “a never ending gift.”
While he still finds himself collecting rocks on the beach as he did in his earliest years, he also enjoys exploring the local galleries when he visits West Michigan, including our very own Ox-Bow House. Some of his latest Ox-Bow acquisitions include two ceramic candelabras by Christina Sweeney and works on paper by Katherine Sullivan. He applauded the artistic excellence of ceramicist Maria Scott, whose work he also acquired at Ox-Bow House and similarly described the work of Dove Hornbuckle as “the most exhilarating ceramics.” In particular, he finds himself enchanted with pieces made by artists living, working, and making their art on Ox-Bow’s campus. While Van Dis emphasized there was no question of the caliber of the work present in the space, that isn’t the only thing that draws him back to Ox-Bow House. “It’s the people,” Van Dis said, paying special note to both Executive Director, Shannon Stratton whose vision made Ox-Bow House a reality and Retail Manager, Maggie Bandstra who works directly with the artists.
Goblin, Dove Hornbuckle, 2018, stoneware, glaze, 23 x 21 x 24 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
The works that have made their way into Van Dis’s home are nestled in every inch of the place: shelves, walls, and bookcases. When he feels satiated by a piece, he stores it away and swaps it out with another. Harkening back to his philosophy of generosity, he said he often passes on work to others based on the good faith that “they [are] going to get something out of it.” Similarly, before parting ways on the phone during the interview Van Dis gifted me with multiple reading recommendations. “I think you’d get a lot out of them,” he promised me. “When things get really rough for me, I think about the generosity of that community of 900 people when I was a kid…” He claims that the kindness and generosity has followed him through and impacted him to this day and I would wager that the two hours we spent in conversation, musing on the talent of other artists and the magic of a small town is just one modest proof of that generosity made manifest.
This article was written by Shanley Poole and was originally published in Experience Ox-Bow 2024 based on interviews conducted with Van Dis in December 2023. Banner Image from Ox-Bow’s 2024 Glass Exhibition. Photo by Dominique Muñoz (Summer Fellow, 2024).