My story

Art collection manager,
art collection curator,
art advisor, art dealer,
graphic designer,
and art historian.

Many descriptions for one individual! This is so because during my journey through the art world I have explored many of its aspects. Seeking synergy between its various fields, I have come to rely in my practice on this diversity of experience, combining these acquired skills into a valuable set. Thanks to this range, my view of the art world is panoramic and not limited to one approach.

I am deeply interested in the correlation between the artistic and financial value of art.

My fascination with the art market goes back to the first years of my studies. I devoured dozens of books about art market, eagerly absorbing their contents while studying market and art history.
That is also why I was already actively started to operate in the field of the art market.
Through many internships at the top auction houses and my subsequent first jobs there, I became intimately familiar with the various operational elements of the Polish art market.

Is a museum a dream come true?

However, before I was completely absorbed by all of this, I decided to first fulfill my dream of working in a museum. And so I spent the next few years at the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, where I was responsible for managing the museum’s collection, appraising works of art, and running educational programs, all the time absorbing the breadth of experience that can only be gained at a new institution with a still fluid structure—MOCAK having just opened to the public at the time.

I have a comprehensive understanding of how public institutions work, what guides their decisions when purchasing works and creating collections, and how exhibitions and educational programs are conceived. Why is this experience so valuable?

The museum has taught me to look at art from the perspective of its uniqueness and its ability to both capture and transcend trends.

Why is this experience so valuable?

Because thanks to the experience I possess, I am the unique person with in-depth knowledge of the art market who also knows, understands, and sees the way cultural institutions operate. This affords me a deeper perspective when it comes to spotting and selecting museum-quality works of art that will stand the test of time.

Meteoric careers, popularity, and market prices do not always translate into a work of art being timeless. Not all names will go down in the history of art.

The key is to be able to spot those artists and those artworks that won’t fade with the passage of time.

Art market.

After a few years at the museum, I embarked upon my career in the art market once and for all. Today, after more than a decade, I can say with certainty that I have ascended to all possible levels of various art-world careers: from being an expert in galleries and on museum collections and a specialist in valuations to advising clients at the auction house, acquiring works from foreign markets, building private collections, and serving in the role of auctioneer and CEO of one of the largest auction houses in Poland. Over the years, I have cooperated with auction houses, started new galleries, and established an auction house that became one of the main players on the market within two years.

Owing to my active involvement in the art market throughout its evolution, I have deep insight into its inner workings and the rules governing it.

I know the art market inside and out, top to bottom. Every mechanism, all the ways and means.

The auction house follows its own rules.

At the auction house, there is no place for the attentive admiration of art, or for long discussions about the value of a work of art and its artistic qualities. In the auction house, the scene is focused on the rapid sale of as many works as possible. Often, it is not quality but financial value that matters.

Back to my roots.

And so, after a few years, the time has come to return to my roots and recall my deep passion for art, and to combine that with my belief in graphic design. The time has come to again elevate the art that I want to share with collectors. This is how OCHWEST, an art advisory and branding agency for art collections, was born.

How it is going?

I provide collectors with support at every stage of building and managing a collection, from acquisition to shaping a personal brand.

Thee time for admiring art.

What is OCHWEST? It’s my agency, which provides collectors with a full range of services for their collections. Under this brand, I handle the formation and management of art collections as well as their visual identification.

What I do:

I provide consulting, investment, branding, design, and educational services.

I help build collections from scratch, and also to strengthen and guide existing collections.

I combine deep subject knowledge with the ability to provide technical and conservation support.

I conduct training sessions, workshops, and lectures, and lead guided tours of collections, fairs, and exhibitions around the world.

I provide professional valuations of artworks and oversee the inventoring of collections as well as the preparation and publication of catalogues.

I create a unique brand for your collection—a consciously conceived and planned project, the aim of which is to give the collection its own unique character and image: a personal brand that strengthens the value, recognizability, and renown of the collection.

Who is OCHWEST for?

The agency’s services are aimed at both individual and institutional clients, from those who are just starting out to those with experience building collections.

Academic research and a detective-like search for information about works is an essential element of collection management. I create inventories of collections and photographic documentation of their contents.

Via my extensive queries, I seek out additional information about the works, searching for details of their provenance as well as their exhibition and reproduction history. I place works within the context of an artist’s practice and oeuvre, highlighting their overarching significance.

In this way I create a collection catalogue, which becomes the foundation for a future publication.

To build a collection is to tell a story—a story about the collector’s journey. It is about building a collection’s character and setting a focused direction for it.

branding your collection

The value of the collection itself is not dependent on investing enormous sums of capital such as the biggest collectors have at their disposal. Even at a relatively more modest scale, a collection can achieve considerable renown, in the process increasing in value. The way to achieve this goal is to give the collection a unique character and enhance its visibility.

I combine in-depth knowledge of art and its market mechanisms with graphic design capabilities, a skillset which allows me to uniquely create and shape the image of a collection and establish its recognizability both in Poland and internationally, and to strengthen the image of a company’s brand with its collection. In this area I provide art branding and graphic design services.

Because I am able to draw upon my years of experience across various art fields—managing and coordinating companies, developing art collections taking into account both content-focused and financial considerations, conducting valuations and establishing the authenticity of works, as well as graphic design, which I continue with—I know that I can guarantee my collectors the highest level of service with a dynamic skillset that transcends narrower approaches.

This is my story. What’s yours?