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F or Rich Paul, fashion, business and art are intricately intertwined. As a child growing up in the east side of Cleveland, he started to appreciate clothes and learn how to dress thanks to his sister, Brandie. After high school, a local business owner introduced him to the world of selling sports memorabilia. Paul would fly to Atlanta, buy vintage jerseys there and then return to his hometown to sell them out of his truck.
“I didn’t really know I was into art until later in life, and then I started realizing that everything I had been around as a kid had some type of artistic meaning,” he said. “To me, fashion is just an artist’s expression through fabric.”
It was that combination of fashion sense and entrepreneurial spirit that led him to LeBron James. The two met in 2002 at an airport when James saw Paul’s vintage Warren Moon jersey. They became fast friends. In the two decades since, James has become perhaps the greatest player in NBA history, and Paul has become not only his agent, but also one of the most consequential agents in the entire world of sports. In addition to James, he directly represents stars like Anthony Davis, John Wall and Tyrese Maxey; he also serves as the CEO Klutch Sports and sits on the Board of Directors at United Talent Agency.
This month, he’s adding another line to his resume as the curator of Sotheby’s next Contemporary Curated auction, which will be held on 27 September in New York. Paul’s picks showcase his sweeping taste, from Sam Gilliam’s Cielo, one of the artist’s acclaimed beveled-edged canvases that blurs the line between painting and sculpture, to Frank Bowling’s Sinon, a work that embodies the artist’s ongoing experimentation with color, surface and process. The pieces are arresting in their propositions on form and color, and they invite audiences into a space of deep emotional resonance suggested by their expansiveness beyond the picture plane.
Paul’s selection of Mark Bradford’s Tina is a tour-de-force celebration of Black culture and community informed by the artist’s time working in his mother’s hair salon. His fourth pick is one that’s especially significant to the collector. While Paul owns a number of artworks by Mark Bradford, Kehinde Wiley, Rashid Johnson, Derrick Adams, Titus Kaphar and Derek Fordjour, he’s developed a close friendship with Fordjour in particular. In his N. 30, Paul sees the influence of Ernie Barnes, the footballer-turned-painter who chronicled Black popular culture.
“It’s not just about collecting; it’s about enriching the conversation and inspiring others to see art as a vital part of life.”
Paul’s relationship with art has always been personal. The first major piece he purchased was a painting by Barnes that made him remember a happy time in his life when his family would watch the show Good Times, which featured Barnes’s painting Sugar Shack in the closing credits. Another early buy was a painting by Chicago-based artist Hebru Brantley. In it, a child is wearing an ashtray as a crown. To Paul, the piece symbolized how creativity can sometimes become trapped or stifled by oppressive surroundings.
Paul’s first aim in the art world was simply to educate himself. As he became a globetrotting businessman, he made a point to visit museums or galleries in major cities. And since becoming a collector, he has made it his mission to support the careers of the artists he collects and to educate those around him – including his famous clients.
“Art, sports, and entertainment are all interconnected – they’re forms of expression that reflect our world,” he says. “It’s not just about collecting; it’s about enriching the conversation and inspiring others to see art as a vital part of life.”
In 2023, he joined the board of the storied Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where he plays an instrumental role representing Black artists through his position on the museum’s acquisition committee.
“The reason I joined is that I wanted to start to educate young kids – especially from the urban communities – on the importance of art a lot earlier than when I was educated,” he said. “Every chance I get, I try to expose people to the art space.”
The art Paul buys now is in his family’s name, and his ultimate vision for his collection is a museum in his old neighborhood in Cleveland, a token of appreciation for the place and the people who helped form in him a foundation for a lifelong love of the arts.
Born in Guyana and working between London and New York, Bowling has spent over 60 years redefining the boundaries of painting, merging abstraction with personal and historical narratives. Painted during a pivotal moment in Frank Bowling's career, Sinon marks his transition from figuration to abstraction, highlighting his mastery of acrylic paint to create richly textured, luminous compositions. Drawing from the tradition of Color Field painting, this visually striking poured painting embodies Bowling’s experimentation with the ideas of chance and controlled accident, and displays his ongoing concern with color, surface and process.
Teeming with vitality, the ruminative composition of Sam Gilliam’s Cielo shatters the limitations of abstract painting by expanding into the third dimension – a feat accomplished through his sculptural beveled-edge canvas. Executed between 1971 and 1972, this work is evocative of the most essential period in the artist’s oeuvre; Gilliam would conclude 1972 as the first Black artist to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. In Cielo, Gilliam demonstrates his dexterous ability to manipulate space and color, as evidenced by the constellations of magentas, blues and yellows that blush through the canvas’ protruding surface.
Mark Bradford’s Tina is a powerful symphony of singed end papers and shimmering silver foil, exemplifying the meticulous layering and conceptual depth that have defined his acclaimed abstract works. Tina epitomizes the most lauded aspects of Bradford’s career to date – meticulously layered and conceptually complex compositions that explore the social and political structures of marginalized populations. Located in the physicality of his work, Bradford employs the motifs of the city around him, examining the ways in which communities present, preserve, and discard materials of urban life. Evidencing the full, electrifying force of an artist at the precipice of widespread international acclaim, Tina belongs to a handful of large-scale paintings that Bradford created in 2005-06 which signaled a dramatic shift in his work and ushered in his mature practice.
N. 30 is a prodigal example of Derek Fordjour’s outstanding portraiture, vibrating with the exuberant visual energy that defines his oeuvre. Rooted in his Ghanaian heritage and informed by his role as an influential educator, his works often feature athletes, musicians, and performers, capturing an intricate blend of bodily and emotional depth. The intimate canvas also showcases his signature collage technique, incorporating materials like cardboard, newspaper and pigments, to create richly textured surfaces that amplify the compositions dynamism and vitality. Fordjour’s explores a wide emotional spectrum in his art, resonating with both celebration and melancholy while bridging physical and conceptual realms.
