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Meet 5 Artists Supporting the Norton Museum of Art
Awol Erizku, David Yarrow, Dustin Yellin, Joel Mesler and Todd Gray answer the Sotheby’s Questionnaire.
E ach year, Sotheby’s is thrilled to host a benefit auction on behalf of the Norton Museum of Art, one of the Southeast’s preeminent cultural institutions. The 2025 Gala Auction, on offer now through February 3, features work by 44 artists, including Sol LeWitt, Zanele Muholi and Claes Oldenburg. We checked in with just five of these remarkable artists and asked them to share their thoughts on an artist’s responsibility, how collectors can support artists and more.
Awol Erizku
If you could own just one work of art what would it be and why?
David Hammons’ Dak’Art 2004 Sheep Raffle, 2004. You can’t bottle Myth.
What fuels you in the studio?
Music and good reads.
What is an artist’s greatest responsibility?
To make great Art.
What is the most memorable experience you’ve had at a museum?
DJ-ing the opening of Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now (curated by Akili Tommasino) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
What art will people be talking about next year?
Black Art.
How can collectors best support artists?
Real collectors should collect in-depth.
David Yarrow
If you could own just one work of art what would it be and why?
Something that I could look at everyday and smile. I would chose one that was personal to me, as opposed to a Vermeer or a Rembrandt. I studied 16th- and 17th-century Dutch art, but I don’t think to look to this genre is the right answer. I would care less as to the value of the work and more about the personal connection. Authenticity is the core to art and I am a great fan of the installation work of Anthony James – it is unique and shows great respect for light and space. He is a friend and therein lies the personal connection.
What fuels you in the studio?
To be creatively bold and offer stories that will resonate with my audience. The goal must always be to evolve and become better. I am very tough on myself.
What is an artist’s greatest responsibility?
I think it goes back to authenticity. To be your own person and never borrow from elsewhere. There has to be an empathic sense to style and that is sovereign. Life is too short to try and be anyone else.
What is the most memorable experience you’ve had at a museum?
I would say the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in Moscow. It was a thrill to have a show there in 2018. It is very sad to not know when I will return to this great city. I remember opening my speech in Moscow in Russian – I am not sure how well I did.
What art will people be talking about next year?
I am keeping a close eye on big participation art. I think JR is very original in what he creates.
How can collectors best support artists?
By buying their art and being proud to show it in their homes. To offer free third-party advocacy. I think collectors should always encourage artists to be bold and fresh. More of the same should not be an option.
Dustin Yellin
If you could own just one work of art what would it be and why?
If I could own just one work of art, it would be Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights. Because it doesn’t need an explanation. It was many centuries ahead of its time.
What fuels you in the studio?
It’s the pursuit of understanding deep time – this vast, incomprehensible continuum – through relentless experimentation with ideas and materials that evolve over years of inquiry and investigation. The studio is a laboratory, a crucible where an overflow of concepts are distilled into form, where disciplines collide and collaborate in unexpected ways.
What I love about the studio is that everything I need is within reach. Out in the world, inspiration strikes, but materials are often elusive – there’s a disconnect between thought and creation. In the studio, that barrier dissolves. It’s a space where ideas can take shape the moment they arrive, where the boundaries between thinking and making blur into a continuous process of discovery.
What is an artist’s greatest responsibility?
An artist’s greatest responsibility is to shatter the boundaries of perception and to create cracks in the fabric of reality – openings through which we can glimpse the world anew. It’s about offering a fresh vantage point, a disruption of the ordinary that forces us to reconsider everything we thought we knew. An artist crafts a fissure in consciousness, a rapture that jolts us from complacency and invites us into a deeper, more complex understanding of existence.
What is the most memorable experience you’ve had at a museum?
I cried in front of The Garden of Earthly Delights at the Prado – its overwhelming complexity cracked me open, pulling me into its endless labyrinth of beauty and chaos. At the Met, I stood before relics of ancient Egypt and left my body entirely, transported thousands of years into the past, feeling the weight of history press against my skin. And at MoMA, I finally understood the humor of Marcel Duchamp – how his work isn’t just clever, but a cosmic joke that unravels the nature of meaning.
What art will people be talking about next year?
Next year, people will be talking about Joachim Patinir. His landscapes are more than just depictions of nature – they’re meditations on scale, time and the unknown. In a world that feels increasingly chaotic, his work offers a space to step back and reflect, to see ourselves as part of something larger. Patinir’s ability to blend reality with imagination feels more relevant than ever, inviting us to slow down and reconsider our place in the world.
How can collectors best support artists?
Collectors can best support artists by giving them the freedom to create the work they dream about – without limits, without conditions. It’s about trust, about understanding that art needs space to evolve on its own terms. Support shouldn’t come with strings attached; it should be a catalyst, something that allows an artist to take risks, to push boundaries, to explore the unknown. The best thing a collector can do is believe in the process, not just the outcome.
Joel Mesler
If you could own just one work of art what would it be and why?
James Ensor’s Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889 or Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights because nothing says life like those two paintings
What fuels you in the studio?
Being able to be in the studio.
What is an artist’s greatest responsibility?
It depends on the artist so I can only speak for myself, but an awareness of my audience.
What is the most memorable experience you’ve had at a museum?
Watching Steve Martin roller skate in front of a Franz Kline painting – although it was on TV.
What art will people be talking about next year?
My mom told me to never try to tell the future!
How can collectors best support artists?
With money!
Todd Gray
If you could own just one work of art what would it be and why?
One of El Anatsui’s early shimmering sculptures made from discarded bottle tops that I saw in the 2004 Africa Remix exhibition in Düsseldorf. I was mesmerized by the immense size and beauty of the work along with the layered critical narratives revealed through contemplation.
What fuels you in the studio?
The possibility of seeing something I’ve never seen before and the exhilarating rush of emotion, wonder and energy that quickly follows.
What is an artist’s greatest responsibility?
To trust and be true to oneself.
What is the most memorable experience you’ve had at a museum?
At Documenta IX (1992): the shock of Matthew Barney’s installations; Zoe Leonard’s close-up photographs of vaginas placed next to historical portrait paintings of women; David Hammons’ Christmas tree made from hair gathered in Harlem barber shops.
What art will people be talking about next year?
I have no idea.
How can collectors best support artists?
Collect work in depth over years from artists to support their practice.
