Members View: Milan Josepa
Milan Josepa is a member of The Circle and works as a psychomotor therapist for various schools and organisations in Nijmegen and surrounding areas. He is a great lover of music and art and collects mainly photography.
COLLECTION
I always approach an artwork or exhibition from my heart. I like to see what a work does to me emotionally. If I feel something, I can make an initial connection with it and open my heart. I can also find art interesting when it evokes an unpleasant emotion, this gives entry for research and self-reflection. It can also be the case that I don’t feel anything at all: this is both difficult and interesting, because I see art as an important entry point to our feelings. When I delve more into an artist or exhibition, these feelings can also change again. Everything I have at home is the representation of a search for myself. Do I recognise myself in the artist or the story? With a black father and a white mother, I like to represent the black and the white, but also the male and the female and everything in between. For instance, I have a work with Muhammad Ali and another with Angela Davis. Elizaveta’s edited photographs have something sensual and pop art-like and Campbell Addy plays a lot with gender, ethnicity and nationality in his work. I am consciously supporting women artists, queer artists and artists of colour.
I am a huge fan of William Klein. He is so inspiring and authoritive. I first saw his work in 2013 at an exhibition at Foam. I was still a student and not into buying art. When I finally bought my first work by him, I decided to start collecting the whole series right away and I succeeded. When I really want something I actually save up for it. Sometimes I take on extra work to buy art. It is enlightening to work for such a goal.
I buy most artworks online and have a number of sites I check regularly. I often try to get there early, before it becomes a hype. I do this not as an investment but simply because there is a limit to what I can spend on an artwork. Friends often say, “Oh Milan, are you sure that’s a good idea?” but I just know I won’t get a chance after that. I also often wait until bigger artists release a (special) edition that I can afford. I then spend months immersing myself in an artist’s work. William Klein, for instance, did smaller collaborations and released a signed camera together with an art print. I like to look for collectors’ items like this.
TIPS?
I got a bit carried away and have piles of artworks that still need to be framed and hung. I was wondering if other The Collectors Circle members have any advice for hanging lots of different works. It really is a challenge to create a nice composition with attention to colour and subject matter.
