The following is one of several extended looks into figures and institutions selected for “The Deciders,” a list of art-world figures pointing the way forward developed by ARTnews and special guest editor Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean. See the full list in the Winter 2020 issue of the magazine and online here.
Pamela Joyner has some advice for collectors who are just starting out: “Figure out where the vacuum is, where the void is, where the need is. So whatever the void is, find the need and fill the gap.” That’s what she told an audience last year in San Francisco, where she and her husband, Alfred J. Giuffrida, are based, and that is exactly what she did 20 years ago, when she began a collection of abstract art by African-American artists that now encompasses more than 300 works by artists like Alma Thomas, Sam Gilliam, and Mark Bradford.