The Baer Faxt Podcast

When Mary Stanley started her Young Collectors Club in Atlanta in 2006, it had two members. It now has 300, around 75 of them serious collectors. Josh Baer, who ran a New York gallery forty years ago, recalls having maybe one client in the entire city.Recorded on the opening day of Atlanta Art Fair, this is a conversation about how a collector base gets built from nothing, and what it takes to keep artists in a city rather than lose them to the coasts. Stanley's definition of a collector: somebody who can't not buy art.Atlanta Art Fair runs October 1–4, 2026 at Pullman Yards. For more information, visit theatlantaartfair.com. Recorded October 1, 2026, in partnership with Atlanta Art Fair.00:00 What a New Yorker needs to know about Atlanta00:45 Institutional support, MOCA GA, and Idea Capital01:40 The art schools, and why artists are staying02:33 Building a collector base: two members to 30003:24 What a collector is, and what patronage looks like here04:59 Inside the club: collectors' homes, art trips, and networking06:37 Are galleries treating people better now?09:43 Wearing several hats, and the artists she's watching

Mark Bell is Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Family Office Solutions at Balentine, which manages around $9.5 billion for 300 families, and for a long time has taught a course at Emory on art as an emerging asset class. He thinks art is a financial asset. Josh Baer, forty years into watching collections get built and dispersed, does not.Recorded on the opening day of Atlanta Art Fair, this is a conversation about what art is worth and what kind of thing it is. Bell makes the case for a complex asset with a consumptive component — nobody loves their Microsoft stock, but almost nobody buys art without loving it. Josh's answer is that the loving is exactly what makes it something other than an asset.Atlanta Art Fair runs October 1–4, 2026 at Pullman Yards. For more information, visit theatlantaartfair.com. Recorded October 1, 2026, in partnership with Atlanta Art Fair.00:00 Atlanta on the fair calendar, and what it means for the Southeast04:10 Buying without seeing: PDFs, the pandemic, and Teterboro airport06:07 Is art a financial asset?07:59 Fractionalization, and why nobody wants one-eighth of a Ferrari10:02 Where the returns actually are: Basquiat, British Rail, Yale13:03 Buy what you love — and what wealth management missed for decades16:21 Store of value, transaction costs, and the case for an opaque market19:52 AI, authentication, and the artists he'd point you to

Sarah Higgins has curated more than 40 exhibitions for institutions like MOCA Georgia and the Zuckerman Museum of Art, and led Art Papers, the country's longest-running nonprofit art journal, since 2018. This year, Higgins is the guest curator of the Atlanta Art Fair, where she's brought together three Georgia artists who work through absurdism and irreverent humour.She joins Josh Baer to talk about what happens to criticism when the authority to assign value moves (a crisis for some, democratization for others), why negative reviews now get aimed at institutions rather than artists, and why a city with this much art has so little to show it in. Atlanta Art Fair runs October 1–4, 2026 at Pullman Yards. For more information, visit theatlantaartfair.com. Recorded in partnership with AAF on September 28, 2026.00:00 Intro: regional art fairs, and Printed Matter at PS102:10 Artist books, Nexus Press, and the return of the object03:25 Criticism in crisis — or democratization08:15 Greenberg, the glossies, and writing for an audience of three09:15 Atlanta's institutional gap and Art Papers ending after 50 years10:45 The state of the Atlanta market12:45 The plane crash the city can't stop explaining itself by13:30 Spelman, the AUC, and Black art in Atlanta17:35 Two artists worth knowing: Jill Frank and Sergio Suárez19:50 Special projects: Dada, absurdity, and the three artists for Atlanta Art Fair's Special Projects

If anyone can speak to the rising interest in art among sports stars, it's art advisor Gardy St. Fleur, whose education-first, community-centric approach has made him the person athletes call first. Over two decades, he's built a practice around studio visits rather than showrooms, working from a conviction Josh Baer heard about years ago from client John McEnroe: the artist alone with the work is in the same position as the player at center court, all the lights on you and nowhere to hide.Gardy joins Josh ahead of the Atlanta Art Fair to talk about what players see in artists, what happens when preview PDFs stop working, and what they're each hoping to find on the ground in Atlanta.00:00 Intro: Josh Baer and Gardy St. Fleur, ahead of Atlanta Art Fair00:22 Who the new collectors are01:45 John McEnroe: all the lights on you, nowhere to hide02:50 Why galleries still make people feel unwelcome05:00 Education before the transaction08:00 Price points, and blowing past your own budget10:35 Women and Black collectors reshaping the market12:12 Keith Rivers and the same energy13:33 Artists taking control of their careers18:55 "Don't send me the PDFs"20:15 One lunch a week, fifty a year21:30 What they're looking for in Atlanta22:15 Most galleries have a finite life24:55 Amoako Boafo, and the mistake Josh says he made29:05 See you October 1st in AtlantaAtlanta Art Fair runs October 1–4, 2026 at Pullman Yards. For more information, visit theatlantaartfair.com. Recorded September 16, 2026, in partnership with Atlanta Art Fair.

Artist Trevor Paglen joins host Josh Baer at Art Basel Basel to talk about his curatorial vision for Zero 10 (co-curated with Eli Scheinman), Art Basel's initiative reframing what "digital art" actually means, and why the answer might surprise you. They dig into why most art made in the last 20 years is already digital art, what it was like for an artist to wear a curator's hat for the first time, and why Trevor approached the show like making his own work rather than proving a thesis. Plus: AI's inability to fail (and why that matters), the terrifying worldview of Mark Zuckerberg, why artists need a bigger role in the future of the art fair, and what the art world could learn from Jimi Hendrix.This episode of The Baer Faxt Live was recorded on Wednesday, June 17th, 2026. This edition of The Baer Faxt Live is sponsored by Manuela New York by ArtFarm, a neighborhood restaurant and bar in the heart of SoHo, which celebrates the best of New York’s seasonal produce and has art at its heart. For more information, visit manuela-nyc.com.

Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz joins host Josh Baer on the opening day of Art Basel Basel to talk about how the organization is adapting its platform fair by fair—from the Basel Exclusive initiative (withholding marquee works from preview PDFs to re-energize opening day) to the evolution of Zero 10 and the push to better integrate digital art communities with the institutional art world. They also get into the return of high-value consignments to the fair floor, what the May sales data signals for collector confidence, the artist presence question, and why a "meet the artist" moment on the weekend might be the key to unlocking new collectors. Plus: Knicks in five.This episode of The Baer Faxt Live was recorded on Wednesday, June 17th, 2026. This edition of The Baer Faxt Live is sponsored by Manuela New York by ArtFarm, a neighborhood restaurant and bar in the heart of SoHo, which celebrates the best of New York’s seasonal produce and has art at its heart. For more information, visit manuela-nyc.com.

David Schrader—the S in PDS (Pace Di Donna Schrader Galleries)—joins host Josh Baer on the opening day of Art Basel Basel, his first fair as an exhibitor after decades as a collector and head of private sales at Sotheby's. They cover what surprised him about being on the selling side, the "elephant in the room" of Basel vs. Paris, where the American collectors went, and why the 1–5 million range remains the market's sweet spot. Plus: pricing transparency, the cost reality of running a fair booth, the advisor economy, and why Schrader thinks the market bottomed last September, but has been moving in the right direction ever since.This episode of The Baer Faxt Live was recorded on Wednesday, June 17th, 2026. This edition of The Baer Faxt Live is sponsored by Manuela New York by ArtFarm, a neighborhood restaurant and bar in the heart of SoHo, which celebrates the best of New York’s seasonal produce and has art at its heart. For more information, visit manuela-nyc.com.

Art advisor Erica Samuels joins Josh Baer on the floor at Art Basel for a candid conversation about how the best advisors actually work — from building client PDFs and curating "mini collections" to navigating conflicts when two clients want the same piece. They dig into the difference between buying with your eyes versus your ears, the debate over storytelling as a sales tool, fee structures (retainer vs. commission vs. combination), and the ethics of working only with sellers who control the picture. Plus: a spirited round of "top five living American artists," starter art, and why there's always more art — but maybe not always more great art.This episode of The Baer Faxt Live was recorded on Wednesday June 17th, 2026. This edition of The Baer Faxt Live is sponsored by Manuela New York by ArtFarm, a neighborhood restaurant and bar in the heart of SoHo which celebrates the best of New York’s seasonal produce and has art at its heart. For more information, visit manuela-nyc.com .

Love art, AND sport? Well, we have a doozy for you. The Baer Faxt Podcast is back with two icons: artist Jonas Wood and tennis legend John McEnroe, on the occasion of Jonas' exhibition of tennis paintings at Gagosian Beverly Hills. What do a painter and a tennis legend have in common? More than you'd think. Tune in to hear about paintings inspired by professional tennis courts, their shared experience of putting themselves on the line in front of an audience, and more. 
This episode, recorded on April 25th, 2026 at Gagosian Beverly Hills, is brought to you by Ursula - A Magazine of Contemporary Culture by Hauser & Wirth.

Host Josh Baer talks with Purat “Chang” Osathanugrah, a collector, business leader, educator, and founder of Dib Bangkok, Thailand's first major international art museum. Tune in to hear about Thailand's artistic landscape, the transformative role Dib plays within it, and what it takes to bring a multi-generational vision to life. First Dibs on Contemporary Art in Thailand is out now on all major podcast platforms and at www.thebaerfaxtpodcast.com. 
This episode, recorded on April 23rd 2026, is brought to you by Ursula - A Magazine of Contemporary Culture by Hauser & Wirth.