Over the years, Beth Rudin Dewoody has accumulated arguably one of the most extensive and eclectic contemporary art collections, both in scale and scope. Known for his keen eyes and a firm support for emerging talents, Dewoody has long embraced new aesthetics, experimental media, and evolving ways of art reflecting the world around us. Her Trove spans contemporary art, iconic design and profound quirky – it has been able to access the public by booking an appointment for available private exhibition spaces. That year, Bunker Artspace opened in the 1920s Art Deco building renovated in West Palm Beach, once a toy factory and ammunition arsenal. Since then, it has helped the city become a cultural destination, especially with the unveiling of its year-long exhibition, with the New Wave art world just behind Art Basel Miami Beach.
The observer talks with Dewoody, who is her collection journey, and how her infinite curiosity and unapologetic tastes turn her collection into a distinct, breathing portrait of contemporary creativity across regions and media.
Dewoody started collecting as a kid, starting with the Beatles souvenirs before moving to art. “Even since childhood, collections are part of my creative avenue,” she said. Her first serious acquisition came at the age of 17: a line of painting by artist and civil rights activist Benny Andrews. Family Tree – (I am the Dark Brother)In 1967, she bought it while attending a summer painting course at Professor Andrews’ new school. “Thelma Golden and Anne Pasternak included this work in one of our bunker exhibitions,” she added. “Since then, I have acquired three more pieces from Andrews, including recently from the Craig Starr gallery – it's great to be back in that place. Craig Starr always has incredible historical material.”
Over time, Dewoody gained a reputation for early discovery of talent – usually gaining artists at the beginning of their careers and later rising in both institutional figure and market value. Asked what constitutes the “X factor” the new artist looked for before obtaining the work, Dewoody explained that her collection is driven primarily by instinct and personal reactions. “The X-factor is not really what I think of. I just respond to artwork, whether it's painting or sculpture, work on paper or video,” she said. “In many cases, I've never heard of this artist before. My idea is open. If I like, I'd buy it.”
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Instead of seeing her stake as a trophy, Dewoody sees her collection as a constantly circulating ecosystem: a continuous action loan collection positioned in response to different needs and opportunities that arise, rather than being abandoned in storage far away from the audience. At any given time, hundreds of works may be rented out. “From the beginning, until today, my focus is on taking the artwork out of the storage so that they can be seen,” she explained. “Maynard Monrow, one of my curators, likes to say, ‘Art witheres in crates and shines on the walls.’ We really believe in that. ”
For twenty years, Dewoody has invited one or more guest curators to organize a rotating exhibition every year, always offering new readings for the series. “With these exhibitions, I can showcase a wide variety of artists and combine the works of emerging, intermediate professions and well-known artists and list them,” she explained. For Dewoody, the bunker became a natural step for the next step. “I think people like to see personal collections and how to show art and connect with each other.”
Following the timing of the sixth edition of New Wave Art Wknd, the bunker Artspace made its debut in Wings and Prayer, an exhibition conceived by guest curators Zoe Lukov and Kyle Dewoody, showing over 140 works drawn from BRD Collection and Kyle Dewoody’s personal Trove. At the heart of the show are two core questions: how do we maintain hope and faith in times of turbulence, and how art serves as a tool for spiritual resistance and resilience? The exhibition unfolds with a broad combination of established and emerging artists, with a smooth sequence of ancestral symbolism, folk traditions and abstract works, evoking transcendence, meditation and extraordinary reflection.
Since Bunker opened in 2017, Dewoody has commissioned residents Laura Dvorkin and Maynard Monrow to help realize her vision and oversee the evolving collection. “Each of them has been working with me and the collectibles for 15 years and they know very well. We all fit into the non-level approach to displaying arts,” she said. She emphasized a spirit of curatorial not only rooted in enhancing emerging talents, but also in recognizing neglected voices and helping to expand Canon.
One of this year's exhibitions focuses on painting rooms from the 1960s, deliberately focusing on unrecognized artists. “I expect artists like Stella, Kelly or John to be included in exhibitions like this,” Dewoody said. “We still thank those artists. I own and showcase all of them. But in this case, we like to flip the script. It’s also how we make progress and add to the canon.” Meanwhile, another show currently being watched addresses the urgent theme of surveillance, the prospects of two groundbreaking figures in the field, Gretchen Bender and Julia Scher.
While Dewoody's extensive (sometimes almost omnivorous) gatherings may ignore a single theme focus, she says she is often attracted by challenging works that many collectors avoid, especially when displaying them at home. However, there is still a lot of room for humor. Several works are fun, surreal expressions of everyday objects, pushing the boundary between reality and art. “Laura and I were still laughing a few years ago when she almost threw Susan Collis away,” Dalewood recalls. “My team also recovered the Jonathan Seliger matchbook from the (very real) trash can.”
Although a lot has changed since Dewoody began collecting larger, more global and increasingly financially financialized art worlds, her commitment to supporting artists at a significant early stage in her career remains the same. “It has always been an interest to me. Sometimes I later came at the price of the works of these artists, but I was glad they found success in their careers. I cherish my own work.” “These early works usually have glimpses of the work and the achievements of the artist.”
