Vincent Vallarino, art dealer, artist, and founder/patriarch of his family business, with a work by pioneering Abstract Expressionist artist John Little.




Vincent Vallarino on How Living and Working With Art Can Change Your Life




By Benjamin Genocchio 




Vincent Vallarino is a patient man. He has been an art dealer for 50 years, and in that time seen it all — booms, busts, the arrival and passing of geniuses and one-hit wonders. It has been a thrilling, inspiring ride and one that he wouldn’t trade for anything else, he says. Today he presides over a growing business that is as much about finding ways to show and tell people about the enormous pleasure and stimulation of owning and living with art as spending time with his family who are all in one way or another enmeshed in the art business. He spoke to Incollect about his journey through half a century of buying and selling, as well as creating art.



A work by the American Color Field painter Gene Davis, Needle Park (Solar Diary), 1972, acrylic on canvas. Available at Vallarino Fine Art on Incollect.



What does the Vallarino gallery program focus on, what are you known for?

We focus on Post War art including Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painters, women artists from the mid-century, the American Abstract Artist Group, and other artists that have grown out of these groups and schools.



Artworks are displayed for in-situ viewing as they would be in collectors’ homes at the 3,000-square-foot Vallarino Fine Art townhouse gallery, located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan. Left, Friedel Dzubas, Waycross, 1962, oil on canvas. Right: Ray Parker, Green, and Red, 1960, oil on canvas. Photo: David Behl



Describe your business model and how it differs from other art dealers.

Our business models differ from the regular gallery format. We are basically private dealers but also have a beautiful 3,000-square-foot townhouse in Manhattan at 222 East 49th Street in Turtle Bay Gardens next door to Kathryn Hepburn’s old townhouse. We buy artwork on a daily basis and own everything that we offer. The townhouse is furnished with all mid-century period furniture which goes with the works of art we exhibit. We feel showing the works of art we possess in an in-situ setting offers our clients a more realistic idea and viewing experience as to what the works will look like in one’s home — instead of a white box viewing room.


Inside one of the studios at the Vallarino Fine Art estate in Millbrook, New York, 90 miles outside New York City. Views from the second-story catwalk overlooking the main floor seating area. The space is furnished with fine examples of iconic midcentury furniture, in sync with much of the artwork. Photos: Neil Carpenter


We also have an estate in Millbrook, in upstate New York, with large studios scattered on our property that house much of our inventory from the many works we own as well as works from the many artist estates we also own and represent.


We also are committed to education: we publish a 200-page catalog every fall, something that no other gallery I know of comes close to producing. Our twenty-two videos on artists, movements, and themes have also been so well received that many other art-dealing colleagues have copied the various formats we initiated! 



Works on display at the Vallarino Fine Art Studio in Millbrook, New York: left: Michael Goldberg, Still Life, oil, paper and tape on canvas, 1955; along with works by Vivian Springford, John Little, and John Stephan. Photo: Ryan Lavine



You started as a photographer. How and why did you become a gallery owner?

I am still a photographer. I began at a very young age, 15 years old taking photographs. I had my first gallery exhibition in Boston at the Carl Siembab Gallery on Newbury Street when I was 18 and became a member of the Polaroid Collection at the same age. I have had many exhibitions over the years and am in many prominent collections — and all before I was 25 years old.


I then became one of the first photography dealers, when there were only about ten dealers selling photography. I dealt in master photographs by the master photographers. I eventually became a painting dealer, being exposed to the Stieglitz Group of artists. 



George Condo, Reunion, 1985, gouache on paper. Available at Vallarino Fine Art on Incollect.



Are you still taking photographs? 

I am still creating photographs and have been editing my archives. For the past few years, I have also been translating my 8 x 10-inch negatives into digital files. The Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire, houses a “museum set” of my work and staged a large exhibition of my photographs back in the 1990s. On the creative front, I am currently making collages, which are Cubist in style.



Jack Roth, Rope Dancer, 1980, acrylic on canvas. Available at Vallarino Fine Art on Incollect.



Is there an artist or artists you are currently passionate about and why? 

I have been one of the first dealers of women from the Abstract Expressionist movement. I owned all the early works from Lynne Drexler’s estate, pieces from 1958 to 1962. I also owned the estate of Vivian Springford, before selling a major part of it, among works by other women painters such as Perle Fine, Mary Abbott, and Jane Piper. We also own and represent the estates of Jack Roth, John Little, John Stephan, Paul Burlin, and Fred Troller. We own and love works by Helen Frankenthaler, Sally Avery, and more. 



Fred Troller, Untitled, 1962, oil and fabric collage on canvas. Available at Vallarino Fine Art on Incollect.



You also opened a gallery in Greenwich, Connecticut. What was behind that decision?

I owned a gallery in Greenwich for 18 years with Abby Taylor, beginning 35 years ago. It was a great place to have a gallery as it was the richest town in America. Back then, everyone thought they needed to buy art in New York, London, or Paris but local collectors slowly began to realize we offered sophisticated 19th and early 20th-century American and European paintings for a considerable saving on price and our quality was simply the best. So, a year and a half ago we started another gallery on Greenwich Avenue which is the perfect location and convenient for the collectors and design world based in Connecticut and Westchester — out of the city.



The gallery is a family business. Could you explain that evolution?

It has always been a family business but more so now. My son Ethan is a consultant and the CEO of ArtBnk, now called ArtDai which is an analytical or Fin-Tech company serving enterprise accounts like JP Morgan, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Chubb Insurance. Our family is a founding member and one of the largest stockholders in this firm. My daughter Vanessa has been our creative director for the past seven years, designing our website, catalogs, and videos, and growing online presence. Vanessa’s husband is the director of operations, which includes our 3,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Millbrook, framing our artist estates, editing our videos, and troubleshooting the thousands of things that appear and need to be addressed daily.



At the Vallarino Fine Art townhouse on 49th Street, New York: above the fireplace, Balcomb Green, below the fireplace, James Brooks, middle, Hans Hofmann, Composition No. 43, right Ilya Bolotowsky. Photo: David Behl



Given your decades of experience, what do you say is the secret to your success as an art dealer, and what do you think matters most?

Many things, but one’s reputation is the most important. Being passionate and not pretentious is also rare in the art world. It is so important to me to be myself. I also feel it is important to own everything you offer, which makes me one of the largest collectors as well as being an art dealer! This makes my clients feel extremely comfortable as I have tons of skin in the game, I only buy what I love and therefore I am coming from the “Catch & Release” program, so to speak. I also have worked at this for a long time and worked extremely hard. Hard work is a big part of it. When someone visits our Millbrook complex or New York gallery you can immediately recognize that we are 100% serious, passionate, and dedicated to what we do and are all about.



John Harrison Levee, April IX, 1957, oil on canvas. Available at Vallarino Fine Art on Incollect.



What do you have on your walls at home? 

In our home, we have only a few paintings but many photographs by Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, André Kertész, and several others. I was considered one of the first collectors of fashion photographs back in the early 1980s and later gave my collection of over 100 works to the International Center of Photography. We also gave our large history of photography collection to The Currier Museum back in the late 1980s and the 1990s. I am originally from North Conway, New Hampshire, so the Currier Museum is important to me. 



If you could show any artist you don’t already represent at your gallery, who would it be and why? 

I have no idea, as I like so many artists and the most important thing to me is my curiosity, and combining that with my intuition usually takes me to places I never dreamed of arriving at!



Jerome Kirk, Maquette for Solar Semaphore, 1979, Aluminum. At Vallarino Fine Art studio in Millbrook, NY. Photo: Neil Carpenter






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