Launched with tremendous success in spring 2008, Collector's View is a dynamic program created by Transformer that provides participants the rare opportunity to comprehensively view some of Washington's best private collections of contemporary art, and engage in dialogue with collectors, artists, critics, academics, and arts patrons on collecting art.

Through the generosity of several leading area contemporary art collectors, and with the sponsorship support of Jim Bell, Anne Hatfield Weir and Heidi Hatfield with Washington Fine Properties, and Washington Life Magazine, Transformer invites Collector's View participants into some of Washington's best homes for personal "views" of a diverse range of private art collections. Participants will be privy to learn, from an insider's perspective, the motivations, interests and passions of these dynamic collectors on the work they collect.

Each "view" promises to be as unique as the collectors and collections themselves-with personal anecdotes on how certain works were acquired, and conversations with guest artists from the collections. Light fare, refreshments, and cocktails will be served at each event.

Participation in the Collector's View series is $50 dollars per person for each "view." Transformer is offering a special registration package of $175 for all four "views" in this year's series.

All donations via the Collector's View series are fully tax-deductible, and will directly benefit Transformer and our 2009 / 2010 Exhibition Series.

collector's view series:

View 1: Kalorama, DC

BARBARA & AARON LEVINE

Sunday March 22, 2009; 4:30 - 6:30 pm

Passionate, dedicated collectors and Trustees of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Barbara & Aaron Levine open their amazing home to show us their world-class collection. The collection begins with Marcel Duchamp and Conceptualism, and moves into contemporary painting, sculpture, photography and video. The works run the gamut from Richter, Polke, and Warhol to young & emerging talents.

click here for photos from this event

View 2: Kenwood, MD

FARINAZ & DADI AKHAVAN

Thursday April 23, 2009; 6:30 - 8pm

With works of both emerging and established contemporary artists from the Americas, Europe and Asia, including Benjamin Jurgensen, Diego Singh, Kim Dorland and Catherine Lopez-Curval,

Farinaz & Dadi Akhavan's collection spans the globe. The visually dramatic works in this view depict the juxtaposition and transformation of universal themes-love and violence, beauty and conflict, innocence and malice. It is through the unfolding of their underlying stories that the intriguing commonalities become self-evident.

View 3: Bethesda, MD

LORIE PETERS LAUTHIER

Thursday, May 21, 2009; 6:30 - 8pm

For this view, Lorie Peters Lauthier opens up her beautiful home to share the many works from her impressive, international contemporary art collection. The collection spans most forms of media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, video, and mixed media from such renowned international artists as William Kentridge, Tony Cragg, Howard Hodgkin, Anselm Kiefer, Tony Ourlser, Roni Horn, William Eggleston, Horoshi Sugimoto, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Anish Kapoor, among many others. While the collection is of a vast scope, the works within it are tied together by her desire to select pieces that hold a special sense of communicative

intensity. Additionally, what makes this collection so special is that most of the pieces are one-of-a-kind editions that will not be seen in other collections.

View 4: Columbia Heights, DC

PAUL YANDURA & DONALD HITCHCOCK

Thursday, June 11, 2009; 6:30 - 8pm

Paul Yandura is an obsessive collector of work by American outsider artists, many of whom have been rejected or ignored by mainstream society. His collection highlights the work of folk art masters such as Mary T. Smith, Howard Finster, and Chris Clark, displayed proudly next to the work of DC based homeless and developmentally or physically disabled artists, as well as works by unknown prison artists who, officially banned from creating art with traditional materials, use foot powder, glue, and kool-aid as their medium. Yandura's collection includes such rarities as a sequined bed created by a voodoo practioner (and emerging country singer) who also beads and "glitterizes" taxidermy molds. This is an incredibly unique American collection.

The Art of Collecting

Transformer' Executive & Artistic Director Victoria Reis writes about how to approach collecting and shares highlights from Transformer's 2009 Collectors' View Series in the October 2009 issue of Washington Life magazine.

Click here to download the article.

Many thanks to all of our Collectors' View Series hosts, Washington Life magazine, as well as Anne Hatfield Weir and Heidi Hatfield with Washington Fine Properties for their support of Transformer.

Image: Victoria Reis and Aaron Levine in front of a work by Chuck Close. Photo by Santos.

Many Thanks to our 2009 Collector's View Sponsors!!!