The Spider behind the SoCal art scene
Alumni
“Life isn’t decided by one decision, bad or good. It’s thousands of little decisions that lead you here instead of over there,” said Bill Griffin the managing partner of Pace Gallery.
For Griffin, a 1988 graduate, that collection of decisions led him from studying business at the University of Richmond to launching an art gallery in a warehouse, and now to his current position at the Los Angeles outpost of a leading international gallery representing some of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Unlike many of his friends, Griffin said he didn’t enter college with a clear direction in mind. What he did know was that he wanted to be out in the world, not in a cubicle. Griffin wanted his work to align with his belief system and envisioned starting his own business. He loved the visual arts and wondered if there was a way to incorporate that into his life.
At Richmond, he majored in business because he felt it was an important and necessary language for him to have in order to move forward. More than just academics, however, Griffin said this helped him develop the confidence to go out and create the life he wanted.
“I graduated from UR and the next day I left to go on my journey,” he said. “I drove across the U.S. in my Subaru with Sinéad O’Connor on the radio, and all my possessions in the backseat. I wanted to get to the West Coast and see where that took me.”
Five years later, Griffin started his first art gallery in an old boat warehouse in Costa Mesa. He subsequently moved to a four-car garage in Venice Beach, where his gallery occupied the ground floor and his living space was above. He earned $500 a month and spent every waking moment building his network, taking art history classes, and leading museum tours to better understand the field. On Sundays, he focused on strategically planning how to outhustle his competitors.
Over time, Griffin’s network of artists, buyers, museums and foundations, and private collectors expanded regionally, then nationally and internationally. His gallery moved into progressively larger spaces in Venice Beach and Santa Monica.
Working with notable artists
Griffin Contemporary showcased solo exhibitions by several notable contemporary artists, including James Turrell of the Light and Space movement, visionary filmmaker David Lynch, and artist Robert Rauschenberg.
“Great art often comes out of volatile times,” Griffin said. “One of the things I look for is a departure or radical way of thinking about the human condition. It’s about finding artists who think beyond the culture because that was always an interesting place for me to be.”
Griffin also began collaborating with two other dealers — Jim Corcoran, a well-respected “elder statesman” with deep relationships and pioneering knowledge of the Southern California art scene, and Maggie Kayne, a young collector and patron-turned-dealer with her finger on the pulse of art world trends. Together, they launched Kayne Griffin Corcoran gallery in 2011.
Their 15,000-square-foot gallery on South La Brea Avenue, featuring a site-specific Skyspace and an outdoor courtyard designed by Turrell, quickly became an arts destination in Los Angeles showcasing an internationally acclaimed roster of artists. Kayne Griffin presented more than 70 public exhibitions, emphasizing the Southern California art scene’s aesthetics, theories, and practices from the post-war era to the present.
Kayne Griffin found a natural partner in Pace Gallery, which also championed Southern California artists from the Light and Space movement. The galleries mounted several joint exhibitions and shared representation of Turrell, minimalist painter Mary Corse, and abstract expressionist Robert Irwin. The two galleries formally merged in 2022, with Kayne Griffin serving as Pace’s West Coast flagship and Griffin as one of its managing partners. The merger also expanded Kayne Griffin’s international reach through Pace galleries in London, Hong Kong, Berlin, Geneva, Seoul, Tokyo, and a 7-story flagship in New York.
Working behind the scenes
While his role has evolved alongside his business, Griffin still considers himself a behind-the-scenes partner who brings significant creative minds into the public consciousness.
“Mary Corse was living on her own in the Topanga hills for 50 years with little to no recognition,” he said. “I was able to get involved and create awareness with a major survey show at the Whitney Museum, then taking that to L.A. County Museum and museums in Asia. She deserved it, but you have to have someone behind you to put that out into the world.
“It’s very fulfilling, and it fits my personality well. I like to be under the radar.”
Today, Griffin focuses on securing major art placements in galleries and private collections for important living artists — a far cry from his early days spent waiting in a garage for potential buyers to walk by. He travels regularly to art fairs in Los Angeles, Basel, Switzerland, London, Hong Kong and New York. However, most days he works from his home in the woods of Sun Valley, Idaho, on the fabled Big Wood River renowned for world class fly-fishing.
“It’s a different way of conducting business, but it’s been a great place for my family and my way of thinking about life,” he said. “When I started, I didn’t have any financial resources, I didn’t have any connections, I didn’t have a network, I didn’t have an art history background, and I didn’t grow up around art. It was just a passion born from inside. The fire never grows old when you have that love and passion.”