SR: What are some of the challenges you anticipate?

CSH: While we do have a lot of similar interests, we all come at art from highly idiosyncratic ways. For example, my understanding of art is informed in large part by regionalism, sexuality, and religion. Learning how to balance those ideas in our new overall gallery program will require a lot of consideration.

SR: How did the artists you represent respond to the news?

CSH: Everyone has been very excited by the new prospects that this offers for the future. We also have plans to add several new artists to the program.

SR: A return to Chelsea seems like a contrarian move, but I get the sense that you’ve often done things differently than everyone else. You’ve started multiple projects including BR & S, Horton, and Sunday. Have you made a point of breaking molds and what has given you the confidence that your moves will be successful?

CSH: In 2006, I was able to open a gallery in the Lower East Side with less than $10,000 in the bank. I'm not sure that you could ever have done that in Chelsea, but the Lower East Side has always had a great entrepreneurial spirit. Maybe that allows anyone with the desire to open a gallery. But once you have been operating a gallery for close to ten years, you want your shows to be seen by the largest audience possible. Chelsea remains the world's premiere art district and I'm confident that more members of the gallery's audience will see our shows in Chelsea.

In most cases –especially in the case of Big, Red & Shiny– I decided that I could only say "Someone needs to do this." so many times before it became a self-indictment. If I see a need for something and no one else beats me to it, then I tend to try and do it myself.

SR: What is most satisfying about what you do?

CSH: I enjoy having a variety of conversations and experiences on a daily basis. It's an interesting challenge to understand how art functions for artists, collectors, museums, press, and spectators. I've traveled to a variety of places that I probably wouldn't have been able to experience otherwise.

SR: What guides your working philosophy? What means that you’ve done well?

CSH: Quit if you can? I am owed more money than I owe?

SR: You’ve said that you show what you like; it’s idiosyncratic. How has your taste changed over the years?

CSH: It's not that my taste has changed much over the years, it's that my understanding of my role as a gallery owner and art dealer has changed. The same things that excited me as an artist still excite me as a dealer, but that's something different than choosing to exhibit 'this' or 'that' work of art.

SR: In my interview with Christian Maychack, he said his dealer Gregory Lind was an important influence. I know you have a knack for discovering new talent. Do you find that an artist’s work will generally improve once you decide to represent them?

CSH: I think a lot of artists have more success in the studio when they are working towards exhibitions or have the sense that someone else is promoting them. I've titled works for artists and made suggestions about new bodies of work, even new mediums in some cases –all with varying degrees of success.

SR: Are there collectors who have been loyal to you since the beginning or for a long time? What have they meant to you?

CSH: Most collectors tend to be very active for a limited amount of time. Then they run out of space, or money, or are tired of buying things for storage. But I've had ten-year dialogues with some collectors who don't always purchase. Those tend to be the most informative and beneficial relationships. Inevitably, I spend more time with some collectors than others and while they're not friendships in the traditional sense, there is a mutual appreciation for each other.

SR: What quality in an artist interests you the most?

CSH: I interviewed Dan Elias once on Big, Red, And Shiny. His response to a similar question has always resonated with me:

"My theory for selecting artists is very simple. I want it all. I want an artist to produce work, which has been thoroughly considered, from top to bottom. I want a marvelous, memorable visual impression, and a rich, satisfying set of ideas to back it up (sounds like a beer commercial, doesn't it?). I want to be able to think about an individual work for a long time, and then when I see another piece by the same person, I want to be surprised and pleased by the new ideas and connections they have shown to the earlier work that I couldn't have made myself. I want them to work hard, and think about everything –all the time. Take responsibility for every aspect of the experience they are giving the viewer, and not require the viewer to do the work. The viewer has other tasks to attend to."

CSH: Even though it often becomes a close relationship, it is ultimately a professional relationship and not a friendship. The exception to this is perhaps when you're already friends with someone with whom you later begin to work.

SR: Kirk Hayes is one of my favorites on your roster. What’s the story of how he became involved with your gallery?

CSH: Kirk's work was included in several museum shows in Texas while I was an art student. Most memorable in a great show called Natural Deceits at the Fort Worth Modern. When I began working in galleries in New York, he came to mind as a completely unique painter who had been overlooked and deserved notoriety. He's a bit reclusive but I sought him out for months by phone and email. A mutual friend eventually knocked on his door for him and told him to call me. I flew down to Texas to meet with him over a chicken-fried steak and we planned his first New York show.

C. Sean Horton is a well known art dealer and gallerist in New York City. He is also the co-founder of the online arts journal Big, Red & Shiny.

From the website:

Horton Gallery was founded by C. Sean Horton in 2010 and occupied the parlor floor of a federal-style house on West 22nd Street in Chelsea for two years. During these years the gallery also operated a project space in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, Germany.

The gallery, its artists, and highly idiosyncratic program have since received critical acclaim in Artforum, Flash Art, Frieze, Modern Painters, Art in America, Time Out New York, The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Sun, The Village Voice, and The New York Times, among others.

hortongallery.com

From the website:

Scott Zieher, Andrea Smith Zieher, and C. Sean Horton are pleased to announce their new joint venture, Zieher Smith & Horton. This collaboration will present the critically acclaimed intergenerational mix of artists already associated with ZieherSmith and Horton Gallery

zsandh.com

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