Artful Spaces
How to enliven spaces with art, as curated by Kelly Sueda
By Lisa Yamada, for FLUX
As an arts consultant to some of Hawai‘i’s most influential businesses and individuals, Kelly Sueda has a relentless desire to see his clients deepen their appreciation of the arts.
"Sometimes when people look at art, their reaction is, ‘I don’t get it, therefore I don’t like it,’” says Sueda from the Park Lane lounge at Ala Moana Center, where he’s flanked by artworks from Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Serra, which he obtained for the Park Lane residences’ permanent art collection. “But once someone tells you a story about it and the concept behind it, all of a sudden there’s a complete paradigm shift.”
Sueda came into his career of curatorial work by way of painting. Known for his landscapes—thick lines of paint emphasizing shadow and contrast—he was commissioned in 2003 to produce a painting for the office of a developer who wanted to start an art collection. An avid collector himself, Sueda offered to lend the developer a hand. Sueda had obtained his first artwork upon earning a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of San Francisco, when his father, prominent Hawai‘i architect Lloyd Sueda, offered to buy him a car as a graduation gift. Instead, the aspiring collector requested a painting by contemporary artist Christopher Brown.
Today, Sueda’s personal collection, housed in his sprawling Ossipoff-designed home atop Wilhelmina Rise, includes work by some of his favorite artists, including a floor-to-ceiling print by Jonathan Borofsky and a vibrant lithograph by Roy Lichtenstein. Art, he says, can change the dynamics of a space. “A place with white walls and high ceilings can feel very naked,” Sueda says. “A [client] might not realize something is missing until you slap something awesome on the wall.”
SUEDA OFFERS THESE HELPFUL HINTS FOR CHOOSING ARTWORK FOR YOUR OWN COLLECTION, REGARDLESS OF YOUR BUDGET:
Love it. “This is most important. Though some people buy art as an investment, there’s no guarantee of what it will be worth later.”
Learn more. “If you’re going to invest your money in something, you better know who the artist is at the very least. You wouldn’t buy a stock if you don’t know anything about the company.”
Thou shalt not covet. “I love Ellsworth Kelly, but I’m not going to buy a $5 million painting. Instead, I might buy a work on paper. This allows me to enjoy the artist’s work at a price I can afford.”
Let it flow. “When hanging art, especially works on paper, the ideal scenario would be to allow for some air to circulate between the frame and the wall. If the frame is suctioned flush to the wall, it creates its own microclimate in the space, and the work can start to mold.”
Que será será.“The only place good for artwork is like Arizona or New Mexico, where it’s super dry. In Hawai‘i, if you want to live with art, you’re just going to have to live with the living organisms that are there. Almost everything can be fixed.”
Tell a tale. “Good art can go with good art, so it doesn’t matter if it’s a landscape next to a photograph. How a person puts the artwork together tells a story about them.”