AREA OF EXPERTISE

A contemporary art dealer and longtime collector brings her work home.

BY CHLOÉ HARRIS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED RITGER

Buell's 2,000-square-foot space is in a South Park warehouse that was built in 1916 for General Electric. The loft features the building's original wood ceilings.

Ken Price's Slope sits in front of a photograph by artist Roni Horn.


A gold necklace with a custom display stand by British artist Gary Hume makes for an artful centerpiece.

A sculptural steel gate announces the San Francisco building that art dealer Sabrina Buell calls home. The West Coast director for Matthew Marks Gallery in New York City, where she had lived for five years, Buell had one major requirement when she returned to her native San Francisco in 2006: to find a residence with plenty of wall space to display the contemporary art that she started collecting at age 14.

In the city's South Park neighborhood, which is quietly sprinkled with galleries and artists' studios, Buell's industrial-chic loft certainly fits the bill. The 1916 landmark warehouse has brick walls, multipaned windows, original wood ceilings and exposed metal I-beams.

It's no surprise that such an artful address is home to more than a few noteworthy creatives. But Buell admits that she hasn't had the chance to meet many of her neighbors. In town only part-time, she spends one week a month at the gallery in New York—where she still keeps a small apartment—and regularly travels throughout Europe for art shows, museum exhibitions and client visits.

But plenty of creative energy greets Buell when she lands back home. The collector's 2,000-square-foot loft is part residence, part gallery. At every turn, Bruno Rainaldi's Sapien bookcases are stocked with art books and exhibition catalogs. But the biggest indicator that the artworks make up more than just a personal collection is the owner's enthusiasm and depth of knowledge about every piece. Buell's gracious welcome tour feels more like a lesson in contemporary art.

The front door leads to a short hallway, where there's no furniture and no resting place for coats or keys. Piece after piece of distinctive art lines the 16-foot-tall white walls. To the left, works range from a colorful abstract floral, a woodcut by British artist Gary Hume, to a piece by New York rising star Wade Guyton, who prints graphic typography onto vintage book pages using an Epson inkjet printer. Fly-Eyed Marilyn, a kaleidoscopic photo by late American photographer Weegee, depicts a myriad of buxom Monroes, while another black-and-white photograph—this one by Clara Sipprell—represents a more dismal scene, a Depression-era dust storm. Opposite, a pair of white window frames inset with colored mirrors by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone offers a novel way for Buell to do a last-minute mirror check.

"I have a very personal relationship with all the works," says Buell, who rattles off artists' names, titles and dates, along with insights and background information, with amazing ease. "Everything I own either comes from artists I've gotten to know personally or from dealers who have become good friends."

At the end of the hallway sits a mirrored slat-back chair by Roy McMakin. On the wall behind it is a grouping of small works, intriguing in their details, inviting inspection at closer range. Spots of grease demarcate an illustration by local comic artist Robert Crumb, whose "Devil Girl" series was often sketched on paper placemats during messy meals. A line drawing of birds by Ernesto Caivano is intricate and fantastical, while a Robert Adams photograph of a dime-store cosmetics shelf makes a statement about modern consumerism.

The corridor widens to a foyer, which is dominated by two large photos: a saturated Nan Goldin portrait from the 1970s of a man lounging by a pool, and an English Channel landscape illuminated only by the light of a full moon, shot by Turner Prize-nominee Darren Almond. "I used to have a penchant for photographs, and collected them solely until going to work at Matthew Marks," says Buell, whose first art purchase was a photograph by Michael Kenna from Stephen Wirtz Gallery. "Photography taught me how to look at the world differently—the way that artists captured moments and framed things completely changed my perspective," says Buell. "I think that informed how I then looked at all sorts of different art. Now I have just as many other types of media in my collection as photographs."

Buell's home office includes an inspiration board of her favorite images

Sabrina Buell, seated on a mirror-backed chair by Roy McMakin, started collecting art at age 14.

The loft's living and dining area is anchored by an elm dining table, custom made for Buell by McMakin. There is other furniture—a sofa from Room & Board, a white flokati rug—but the artwork compels you to trace the room's perimeter as if touring a museum. At the center of the space, a painted clay sculpture by Los Angeles artist Ken Price called Slope rests atop a white pedestal, which not only divides the dining area from the corner seating zone but also serves as a reminder that this is the residence of a professional art dealer.

If not for Buell's sense of ease, as well as the casual family photos that share table space with tiny collectibles, the loft might suffer from a curatorial formality. But interacting with art is standard practice for Buell. She even invites visitors to touch the Price sculpture, which she describes as sensual. "I pet it several times a day," she says.

She also enjoys entertaining at her McMakin table, handcrafted with an incredible inlaid surface. "I was afraid to use it at first," says Buell. Recalling the first stain, she says, "I wanted to die! But the artist loves the way that life creates patina, and I think there's beauty in that. The best thing about living with art is that its impact on your daily life changes over time. The collection grows with you."