The Manhattan artwork supplier Brent Sikkema, who represented distinguished artists like Kara Walker, Jeffrey Gibson and Vik Muniz, was discovered lifeless in his Rio de Janeiro condo on Monday night time.
Brazilian publications reported that the gallerist, who helped discovered Sikkema Jenkins & Co., was found with stab wounds to his physique after the native Fireplace Division was known as to his condo within the neighborhood of Jardim Botânico.
“It’s with nice disappointment that the gallery pronounces the passing of our beloved founder,” Meg Malloy and Michael Jenkins, his enterprise companions, stated in a press release. “The gallery grieves this super loss and can proceed on in his spirit.”
The Brazilian police didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
“Officers will take heed to witnesses, are in search of extra info and are finishing up different inquiries to make clear the case,” the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro State said in a statement to The Related Press.
Sikkema, 75, labored within the artwork world for greater than 50 years, opening his New York gallery in 1991 beneath the title Wooster Gardens. The gallery, which targeted on modern artwork, was an early transplant from the SoHo neighborhood to the Chelsea arts district in 1999, the place he quickly introduced on new companions and renamed the gallery.
The dealership maintained a small however influential roster that helped construct the careers of artists like Walker, who introduced her first solo exhibition in New York almost 30 years in the past and continues to indicate with the gallery. Different notable artists with the corporate embrace Sheila Hicks, Louis Fratino and Jennifer Packer.
“I’m shocked,” stated Yancey Richardson, a longtime good friend who runs a gallery throughout the road and shared illustration of the photographer Mitch Epstein with him. “Brent had a terrific eye and thought outdoors of the field. He wasn’t simply mounting one portray present after one other.”
Richardson stated Sikkema was much less concerned at his gallery lately as he regarded towards retirement. “He was making an attempt to step again,” she stated.
Sikkema’s loss of life comes forward of a essential showcase for one of many gallery’s prime artists, Jeffrey Gibson, who’s making ready to characterize the USA on the Venice Biennale in April. The exhibition is taken into account the artwork world’s model of the Olympics, and it requires substantial fund-raising and planning to succeed.
Sikkema lived many of the yr in New York however discovered an affinity with Rio de Janeiro. Chatting with the magazine IdeaFix about his condo there, close to the Tijuca forest, he described it as a real city “oasis.”
Maria Ionova contributed reporting.
