Jacob Barnes, Minor Attractions
Jacob Barnes, Minor Attractions
💭 Thoughts on the power of collaboration, Parloir, and the push and pull of the art market.
Jacob Barnes is an art gallerist and fair director born in New York, raised in Dublin, and currently living in London. Jacob is the Gallerist of Season 4, Episode 6, Fair Director of Minor Attractions, and Founding Editor of Curatorial Affairs. He has worked between London and Berlin since 2019. His parents still don’t think he has a job.
🎯 Current focus
I’m about to open the second edition of the fair I run, Minor Attractions. It’s terrifying to do this thing that is real — not only to your buddies, but to a wider art public. I think many of us have this fear of being perceived, and I’m for sure getting that with this. But I’m still stoked for it.
🖼️ The push and pull of the art market
All I ever want to think about is the art market. It blows — all of the time. But it’s this thing that if you have to be in it, there’s just no other choice. It's mercurial and complex and at times without logic. I find it endlessly fascinating. Every man knows his plague.
My favorite song right now is Funeral Beds by The Districts — reconnecting with a song that was big for me as a kid, and doing it with my partner. We all get older, but emo kids never die.
🕉️ Mantra of the moment
1. Every crisis is an opportunity
2. It might not be good, but I’ll make something happen.
🤝 The power of collaboration
I look up to the people brave enough to follow me down the rabbit holes of my scheming, art world or otherwise. I've only ever been able to achieve anything I want because I've had great people to help me; people who have taken a risk on me and what I can do. My friends and collaborators mean everything to me, and I'd be doing something very different without them.
🌞 Waking up next to your partner
The one thing I’m looking forward to the most is waking up to my partner tomorrow. I do it almost every day, but it never gets old.
🎨 Parloir
I’ve been really impressed by Parloir’s new non-fair in Belgium. There's very little coverage of it right now, but it's a real gesture towards the lo-fi fair, which has been an increasing possibility. Finally people are realizing that iPhone photos of very expensive artworks is sort of baller.
👂 Listening to your friends
My favorite way of consuming content is to just listen to what your friends tell you because that shit matters way more than a podcast.
Follow Jacob on Instagram, check out his Substack here and here.
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