Dealer, collector, and philanthropist Tim Nye doesn’t buy into hype in the art market. He discusses working with collectors, increasing the value of work, the differences between the East Coast and West Coast, and creating special events around exhibitions in the landmark New York Victorian townhouse that is home to NYEHAUS.
“The advantage of my business is that it’s very much not built on hype, so my business doesn’t have the volatility that the rest of the art world does.”
Tim Nye completed a B.A. in art history at Cornell University and an M.B.A. at Columbia University before attending the Whitney Independent Study Curatorial Program in New York. In 1991, he founded Thread Waxing Space in SoHo, a nonprofit contemporary art gallery and performance site. In 2002, he established NYEHAUS, a gallery with the mission of bringing the California Light and Space and assemblage artists from the 1960s, as well as the next generation influenced by them, to prominence on the East Coast. Nye’s recent achievements include curating Swell in 2010, a three-gallery exhibition addressing the impact of surf culture on these California artists, and Venice in Venice for the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011.