Patrick Church Competitors

Established by Larry Gagosian in Los Angeles in 1980, Gagosian is a global gallery specializing in modern and contemporary art that employs more than three hundred people at exhibition spaces in seven countries across the United States, Europe, and Asia. In addition to its galleries, Gagosian is at the forefront of the digital marketplace with innovative online viewing rooms, timed to coincide with major art fairs, that include highly desirable works by today’s leading artists, transparent pricing, historical scholarship, and insightful market analysis. Gagosian began publishing in 1986, becoming the first gallery to establish a publishing house that produces a vast range of catalogues raisonnés, monographs, artist’s books, scholarly exhibition catalogues, and limited editions. Today the gallery has published more than six hundred titles, rivaling the output of traditional arts trade publishers. The print and online editions of the 'Gagosian Quarterly' provide unique access to artists in their studios and homes through insightful interviews and profiles of and by leading art world professionals. Gagosian has long developed cultural programming and events with artists, including performances, exhibition tours, public talks, film screenings, and studio visits. The gallery has long been committed to working with and advising artists on all aspects of their legacy planning. In 2018 the gallery launched its Building a Legacy program, bringing together artists and their studio staff with experts in the field of artists’ estates, nonprofit foundations, and legacy stewardship through a series of symposia.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation builds on the legacy of Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) who believed strongly that creative practitioners could serve as catalysts for social change. He shared his appreciation for chance and the everyday by seeking to act in the “gap” between art and life. He was also a gifted collaborator, breaking disciplinary boundaries by experimenting with scientists, performers, and visual artists. As such, we celebrate new and even untested ways of thinking and acting. The Foundation promotes in-depth research and partnerships for staff, curators, critics, scholars, and students that open the artist’s life and work to wider interpretation and understanding. Its philanthropic activities, driven in part by a recently constituted Artists Council, primarily support small to midsize arts and socially engaged organizations that are contrarian and experimental, even courageous, in driving towards equity. In addition, the Foundation holistically sustains the creative life and well-being of artists across the disciplines by providing for a range of needs including time to think during multi-week residencies, funding for new commissions, and emergency medical grants. Finally, the Foundation supports exhibitions, publications, and special projects across the globe that reflect Rauschenberg’s joyful, responsive, and irreverent approach to making art while living an empathetic and meaningful life.

Shepard Fairey is a contemporary street artist, graphic designer, activist, and founder of OBEY Clothing and creative agency Studio Number One. In 1989, while at Rhode Island School of Design studying for his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration, Shepard Fairey created the “Andre the Giant has a Posse” sticker that later evolved into the OBEY GIANT art campaign. In 2008, his portrait of then-Democratic candidate Barack Obama became an internationally recognized emblem of hope. He is known for the “We The People” campaign debuted during the 2017 Women’s Marches worldwide. Fairey has painted more than 135 public murals, become one of the most sought-after and provocative artists globally, changing the way people converse about art and view the urban landscape.