Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Randall J. Slavin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Going from idea to execution: What was the process of going from idea to execution – walk us through some of the main steps that allowed you to launch your business? Tell it to us as a story – you had the idea, then what happened? What was the next day, hour, month or year like? What did you have to figure out, look into, setup, etc. in order to move beyond the idea phase and actually launch?

Winn Slavin Fine Art started because, after twenty years as a fine art agency and wholesaler, I realized that no one in the retail gallery market could represent our artists better than we could.

The journey was an evolution, motivated in part by inspiration and in part by necessity.

Masterpiece Publishing, Inc. (the agency and parent company of WSFA) began in 1997 in Laguna Beach, CA. For two decades, it was strictly an agency and wholesaler. The company promoted and marketed the artists we represented and sold their work to retail galleries that then sold to the retail collector.

In that twenty-year period, I provided training and advice to hundreds of galleries that carried the paintings and sculptures of the artists that we represented. In the process, I became familiar with a variety of gallery business models and shared what I learned about success and failure in the art market with our client galleries.
The Great Recession, the rise of social media and inexpensive reproduction techniques fundamentally changed the art market after the dawn of the new millennia. Essentially, these factors eliminated the middle and bifurcated the industry into two distinct markets. The low-end market is a commodity-style market where artwork sells primarily for decorative purposes. The high-end market is an experiential market, where artwork sells as part of an overall experience that extends far beyond the artwork installation in the collector’s home.

Masterpiece survived that change by going upmarket, focusing heavily on sculpture editions and original paintings, leaving behind print reproductions almost entirely. In that process, the number of client galleries was reduced from nearly a hundred to a few dozen.

As the high-end market developed further, Masterpiece became more of a strategic partner to an even smaller number of client galleries, essentially helping them establish, develop, and even run their galleries.

Eventually, I realized that Masterpiece could best serve the artists we represented and provide stability for our employees and shareholders by opening our own retail galleries. The first Winn Slavin Fine Art location opened in Beverly Hills in 2017, followed by locations in Vietnam and China shortly thereafter.

Randall, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As the son of an artist who lived in poverty most of my childhood, I had no interest in pursuing a career in the arts. I’m a highly rational thinker with degrees in business, information systems and economics. My first career was in information management. At the time, the field was dynamic, constantly evolving and held my interest. It allowed me to be something of a generalist and to use computers and software to streamline business processes and solve business problems. As the field evolved, I found myself going down the path as a specialist and lost interest.

Eventually, I began looking for something else to keep me challenged and motivated. I met an artist who was running his own gallery. He was a brilliant artist who understood the sales process very well, but lacked the skills and training to handle the business side of the gallery. I started helping him with the gallery and eventually that relationship developed into Masterpiece Publishing, Inc. and Winn Slavin Fine Art.

The gallery business has unique challenges. For example, an agency, and to a lesser extent a retail gallery, works to build the reputation and sales of an artist’s work. If they accomplish that, the artist achieves a level of success and prosperity. Unfortunately, more often than not, that leads to problems.

Artists are essentially right-brained, intuitive thinkers who live in a world that tends to encourage and reward left-brained, rational thinkers. As such, they tend to be very insecure. When they achieve success, they often feel that they are not worthy of that success, or that it is fleeting. That becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Success in the art business requires a combination of both rational and intuitive decision-making. I believe that is true in any business but it is more definitive in my industry. For a gallerist to succeed, they have to have the rational mind and an understanding and acceptance of the intuitive mind. For an artist to succeed, they have to have an intuitive mind and a trust in the rational mind of others.

If there is any one thing, besides hard work and dedication, that I attribute my success to, it is my ability to bridge that gap.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Prior to the Great Recession, my business was doing very well. It had grown rapidly. It was gaining recognition in the industry. It was poised to break through as a market leader. I managed to maintain momentum into the recession but hit a wall towards the end of it.

By the end of the recession, about 40% of my client galleries had gone out of business. That eventually took a toll, as there simply were not enough new galleries entering the market to compensate for that decline.

I struggled to reinvent the company, making counter-intuitive moves that not only allowed it to survive the recession but to emerge on the other side as a market leader, at least in part because many of our competitors did not survive.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Every business has cycles of ups and downs. The art business is no different, and in fact, is probably more susceptible to the “feast or famine” phenomena because it is a low-volume, high-dollar business.

I’m blessed that my company has survived and prospered for over 25 years. That kind of longevity requires a willingness to pivot when necessary, a tolerance and acceptance of change and the wisdom to know when to stay the course or change tack. It also requires a willingness to sacrifice.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.winnslavin.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/winnslavin/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WinnSlavin/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9C_qzlNCj4z8GtX39jIIPw

Image Credits
Ray Kachatorian