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Jen Bekman

1. What is your favorite thing right now?

My roof ravens! Our house in SF is on a corner + up a small hill, which makes it a popular spot for our friendly neighborhood corvids. It’s primarily two couples—they mate for life, did you know that? I’ve been feeding them peanuts in the shell and getting to know them, and my fella has been extremely generous in indulging my obsession by setting up not one, not two, but three cameras on the roof so I can watch them. All they really do is eat those peanuts and make a bunch of noise, but seriously, I could (do!) watch them for hours. I’m actually a little embarrassed by how into it I am.

2. If you were to be reincarnated as an animal, what animal would it be? Three-pronged answer here. If I’m being honest, it might be a sloth. But when I was kid, I had a book I loved about Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing—two pandas on loan from China to the National Zoo—so when my brother and I played make-believe I always wanted to be the first panda in space. But at my best, I’d say an elephant. They’re emotionally smart, complex, and nurturing. And also extremely cute. All aspirational qualities. 3. What is the best compliment you’ve ever received? I’m lucky to say it’s a category of compliment, specifically artists coming up to me to tell me that being featured on 20x200 (or participating in Hey, Hot Shot!, the photo competition we used to do, or showing at the Spring St gallery back in the day) was something that really launched their career. Equally gratifying: the people who’ve told me they didn’t feel like they could collect art until they walked into my gallery, or bought a 20x200 print, or even just started reading our newsletters. There are lots of folks who bought their first piece of art on 20x200 who’ve gone on to be obsessive collectors! I love that. 4. If you could travel anywhere tomorrow, where would you go? Home to New York. I’m a native New Yorker and I’m usually bi-coastal, but I’ve been quarantined in San Francisco since early March. 5. What do you consider your best feature? My big mouth. 6. What is one thing that makes you happy? Ice cream! I like it all, but mocha almond fudge is probably my favorite flavor. 7. What is the food you would take to a desert island? Well I would say ice cream again but let’s go with something more practical. So, French fries. 8. What is something you never get tired of? Art! 9. What is something about you that people are always surprised to learn? Probably that I didn’t even consider an art-related career until I was in my early thirties. I opened Jen Bekman Gallery in 2003, without any gallery +/or arts-related experience. (I wouldn’t recommend it, but I’m still glad I did it!) 10. What is the best advice you’ve ever received? I still have a hard time wrapping my head around and believing this sometimes, but the best advice I’ve ever received is that money isn’t the only measure of success in business. 11. Who would you like to play you in the biopic of your life? Kyra Sedgwick is pretty great. And people have told me that I look like Candace Bergen before, which I just have to mention ‘cause… c’mon. ICON. 12. Please share your favorite photo of yourself and why it is your favorite. Stefan Ruiz took this photo of me in my East Village apartment several years ago. I lived there for 26 years, so it became this extension of myself. Stefan was shooting me for FOAM magazine and this was basically the one area of my home that I didn’t want people to see because it was messy. I said as much, so of course that’s exactly where he ended up positioning me for the final shot. He was right… it’s about as close to the real me in that moment in my life that you could get, and I like that it’s got a sorta badass vibe. It’s a good reminder that I can be messy and be a badass at the same time.

Jen Bekman is the founder and CEO of 20x200.com, the pioneering art ecommerce site which made its debut in 2007. She got her start in the artworld back in 2003, when she opened her eponymous gallery on Spring St in New York City, and its founding mission has been the impetus for all her artworld endeavors since: she believes that everyone can and should collect art, and that more artists should be able to make a living by making art.

Jen has curated over 100 exhibitions during her career, many of which were reviewed and/or featured in publications like The New Yorker, ARTnews, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and more. Jen has also juried numerous photography and illustration competitions, worked on collaborations with museums, retailers, and major brands, and written extensively on the subjects of art and design. She has been named one of Forbes.com’s Top Ten Female Entrepreneurs to Watch and one of Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Tech, and has been profiled by The New York Times and American Express’s OPEN Forum, among other publications. She's spoken at a broad range of conferences, including SXSW Interactive and the XOXO Festival, and has hosted numerous panels and discussions about art, technology and design.

A native New Yorker, Jen has split her time between New York City and San Francisco for more than a decade. She looks forward to resuming her bicoastal lifestyle post-pandemic, but in the meanwhile she's a full-time San Franciscan, tending to her garden and roof ravens and missing NYC something awful.

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On the Wall + On the Shelf: When an Author is an Artist, Too

We teamed up with our pals at 20×200 to take a look at what our creative authors are up to when they aren’t publishing with us. Check it out here, and be sure to enter to win your favorite book + a print!

#books #art #20x200