During my sophomore year, I had the privilege of participating in a hands-on Art History seminar that provided students with the opportunity to make acquisition decisions for the Van Every/Smith Galleries. During the seminar, we had the pleasure of meeting with esteemed alumni who have made their mark in the arts. One of these alumni was Perry Levine ‘15, the director of Harper’s Gallery in Los Angeles, who provided valuable insights on how to effectively communicate with galleries when considering a potential purchase. Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Perry, who graciously shared his experiences and career path that led to his success at Harper’s Gallery.
SZ: Can you please provide a brief introduction of yourself? Can you also describe a typical day in your role and how your team is structured?
PL: My name is Perry Levine, and I graduated from Davidson College in 2015. I am currently the Director of Harper’s Gallery in Los Angeles which means I oversee the day-to-day operations of the gallery locally. Harper’s flagship location is in New York, and together with Harper and our team of directors there, we work on sales, exhibition and fair planning, etc…all of the usual stuff. There is only one other person who works with me full time in LA, so I also help with the logistics and installations. It’s pretty common that the responsibilities are shared if the team is small.
SZ: I noticed that Harper’s Books also has a collection of rare books. Could you describe how you came to acquire these books and how they complement the gallery’s focus on contemporary art?
PL: Harper started his business as a rare book dealer, selling artist monographs, exhibition catalogs, and photo books. Rare books are the core of the business, and from that, Harper established lasting relationships with artists who helped encourage him to try showing contemporary artists. So books are part of our legacy. Our program has a consistent curiosity and inspiration that comes out of our history and interest in books. I would love to revisit Davidson’s rare book room with the appreciation for rare books that I didn’t have as a student.
SZ: How do you find and choose which artists to work with?
PL: I think it’s important to be aware of what ‘type of view’ the gallery is trying to present and understand the gallery’s vision and belief about art. These beliefs serve as the foundation of the artistic direction and curation of the gallery. So with that said, I try to find artists whose work fits into the Harper’s program.
Personally, as a native Angeleno, I often gravitate towards work that considers the landscape of Los Angeles. As a subject I find it just as sprawling as the city’s geography. Recent artists I’ve worked with are Salomón Huerta, Caleb Lyons, and Nick Lowe. All of their work deals with LA in some capacity. Given that Harper’s LA is extremely new, I view part of my responsibility to establish a connection with the city so I think it’s fitting to work with art that explores it.
SZ: What led you to pursue a career in the art industry, and what events or factors influenced your career trajectory?
PL: My father is an artist, so I grew up with art as a constant presence in my life. As a kid, I would hang out with him in his studio, go to gallery openings, and flip through my parents’ artbooks in our house. When I was in Middle School my father got a job at Chris Burden’s studio and occasionally he would bring me if I had the day off of school or if he had to go in on the weekend. I mean how cool is that? That kind of exposure rendered all other careers seemingly obsolete. So early on, I knew that I wanted to work in the art world in some capacity.
SZ: What was the job hunt process like for you when you graduated from Davidson?
PL: I didn’t have a job when I graduated from Davidson and I remember the ensuing anxiety plaguing me as a senior…, especially knowing that other students had signed offers in September. During my senior spring, a friend of mine worked at Gagosian in LA as the front desk assistant and tried to help me get the job helping her. I applied, but they did not hire me. Fortunately the manager offered me an internship of two days per week instead. Luckily a month later the junior reg/art handler left a month later so I applied for that position and was hired
SZ: Could you share with us your experience working at Gagosian and how those roles prepared you for your current position?
PL: I started at Gagosian in Los Angeles as a junior registrar and art handler. In that position I was mostly doing art handling (installing and packing the works) while learning how to coordinate the logistics of transporting art. Soon after I started, the head registrar went on leave and I filled in well enough that they were willing to axe the word “junior” from my title.
During my time as a registrar, I developed relationships with the artist studios in Los Angeles and this turned out to be helpful as I was unknowingly preparing myself to be a very qualified candidate for an assistant artist liaison position that would eventually open up. I became an assistant artist liaison which eventually evolved into a full time liaison position shortly before I left for Harper’s.
n artist liaison,acts as the intermediary between the gallery owner and the artist (and their studio), always looking out for both sides. Liaisons consult the artists with their exhibition preparation, pricing, and strategic thinking about how to best continue and grow their careers. They also have to relay the information to the gallery’s sales team so they can be best prepared to understand and champion the work.
SZ: How did your experience at Davidson influence your career path?
I think Davidson taught me how to teach myself. When I first entered as a freshman, I was completely unprepared for the academic rigor of the school. I remember sitting in Belk Arena during Orientation and listening to someone on the podium say that the school believed in “grade deflation.” My mom, who was sitting next to me, started laughing because she knew I was in for it. It wasn’t until my junior year that I really figured out the work ethic that was required for me to pass…a word I use deliberately as opposed to excel Probably not a coincidence that by the spring semester of my Junior year I finished most of my non-art requirements and could start taking more art classes. Nevertheless, I feel lucky that I got to figure out what a work ethic meant at Davidson when the stakes were just a grade on a test or paper and not my job.
SZ: What suggestions do you have for students who are interested in a career path relating to the arts or students at Davidson in general?
I would take advantage of the studio classes that Davidson offers. The art facilities are amazing and extremely accessible, especially the sculpture room.
To work in the art world inevitably means working with artists. To be able to empathize with an artist is an enormous advantage. In the commercial art world, I think prioritizing empathy for artists can sometimes be subservient due to the dominance of the market and financial interests. For example, artists who become “hot” often get burnt out by constant requests from their dealer(s) to produce and meet the demand of buyers. Although these requests are understandable and often come from a good place (trying to provide artists the maximum opportunities for financial independence and opportunity), I’ve always felt that it is important to remember that artists want to feel inspired and continue to challenge themselves rather than make the “same work” over and over because it can sell. I think attempting to create work is a great way to understand the challenges of working with materials, creating and evolving a gesture, synthesizing source materials into a concept, etc.
SZ: Do you have any advice for someone that would want to work in a gallery or show at a gallery?
PL: Work at a hedge fund for 5 years before transitioning to the art world? Ha. I would first start with considering what kind of art and what kind of artists are appealing. For example, someone that likes contextualizing historic works might enjoy a gallery that represents a lot of estates where someone else might want to work with young artists who are closer in age and trying to establish something totally new. Someone else might like painters and artists that work abstractly or explore the psyche, and someone else might like artists that employ technology and whose work examines societal issues. One of the benefits of working at a larger gallery is that the artist roster is often more diverse, but on the other hand, opportunity can be harder to come by with more competition, and that goes for both working at a gallery and showing.
Special thanks to Perry Levine ’15 for taking the time to speak to the Davidson College Van/Every Smith Galleries.
— Sarah Zhang ’23