Advisory

The gallery advises on building collections, and on looking after collections that already exist.

Selection is the visible part of that work. The part that decides whether a collection holds together is less visible: verifying that an edition of twelve is an edition of twelve, reading condition honestly, arranging framing and hanging the work can survive, and keeping documentation in a state where it still answers questions in ten years' time.

Algorithmic work raises those questions more sharply than painting does, because the object arrives without the customs that have grown up around a canvas. What was released, at what size, at what resolution, on what substrate, and who is entitled to say so — these are answerable questions, and the gallery answers them in writing.

Valuation, documentation and structure for holdings that already exist: what is there, what it is worth, how it is insured, and to whom it belongs. Every valuation states what it rests on — comparable sales, edition size, condition, provenance — so that the figure can be argued with rather than taken on trust.

The gallery both sells and advises, which is a conflict worth naming rather than hiding. Where advice touches a work the gallery has an interest in, that interest is disclosed before the conversation goes any further, and a second opinion is arranged on request.

What comes out of this is a basis for decisions rather than the decisions themselves, which are generally better taken with a tax adviser in the room.