COMING SOON
COMING SOON
El coleccionista
LIO MALCA
Lio Malca is a renowned Colombian art collector, gallerist and hotelier with projects in New York (USA), Ibiza (Spain) and Tulum (Mexico). Although he came from a family dedicated to the textile business, Lio Malca focused his career on collecting art instead.
In the early 1990s, Malca showed interest in young artists who were involved in the New York cultural scene. He was especially passionate about artists who pushed the limits of high and low art. Throughout the 1990’s, Malca continued to invest in emerging art markets. Since then, Malca has expanded his interests as a collector and surrealist thinker, following his intuition and using his personal taste as a guide.
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Malca’s collection is centered on the acquisition of works that defy the established historic narratives of high art and blur the boundaries between the urban, the popular, the academic, and the museum. He was a visionary promoter of Basquiat's work when Basquiat was only recognized by smaller circles in the art world. Malca was also deeply interested in artists such as Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf, now both iconic figures of the Street art and contemporary art movement in New York and was a consistant supporter of their emerging art markets. Later, he began to collect work from Lowbrow and Pop Art movements, such as works by KAWS, Mark Ryden and Marion Peck.
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Lio Malca’s collection has evolved. He has acquired work from Latin American, Africa and European artists, such as abstract artists Jacob El Hanani (Morroco) and Zilvinas Kempinas (Lituania). Since 2002,
Malca has been collecting contemporary Asian art. He has acquired works by artists such as Hiroshi Sugimoto, Keiichi Tanaami, Nobuyohsi Araki, and Yue Minjun.
As a collector, Malca’s artistic inclinations grow in acccordance with the contemporary avant-garde. Recently, he has become interested in artists who incorporate new technology into their work, such as Brody Condon, Marco Brambilla, Joanie Lemercier, and Quayola. While valuing technological developments in the art world, Malca maintains an appreciation for 20th century artists already held in high regard, such as the Italian-Mexican surrealist Pedro Friedeberg, of which Malca holds more than 100 works in his collection.
Lio Malca is not only an art collector. He is committed to creating spaces and projects where he canshow his collection to the public. He has a passion for promoting curatorial projects, supporting artists directly, and working closely with established art dealers, galleries, and museums around the world. He deeply believes in the idea that art brings magic and meaning to life. His personal projects have the unique ability to generate accessible spaces where he is able toshow the works in his collection to the public. He has a gallery in New York, a boutique hotel in Tulum, and a contemporary art foundation in Ibiza.