Acting can be an art form as these actors and actresses featured below would agree. They have also extended their talents and aesthetics into the realm of art collecting. From international blue-chips to emerging Black artists and Chicano art, their contemporary art collections can be awe-inspiring and allow us a glimpse into their private world. Here are 14 actors and actresses with what contemporary art they collect.
Cate Blanchett
The Australian actress is believed to own artworks by Guan Wei, Paula Rego, Howard Hodgkin, Rosalie Gascoigne, Bill Hammond, Bill Robinson, Polly Borland, Zhang Huan, and Tim Maguire. It was reported last year that she was planning to build a space on the grounds of her estate in East Sussex to showcase her contemporary art collection.
Leonardo DiCaprio
The actor is a known avid art collector who collects artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Frank Stella, Adrian Ghenie, Takashi Murakami, Urs Fischer, Jean-Pierre Roy, Eric White, and Andreas Gursky, for example. In 2015, donated John Gerrard’s “Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada)” (2014), a massive installation that reflects the orbits of the moon, to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Cheech Marin
The actor and activist is one of the most serious collectors of contemporary Chicano art, owning such works as Frank Romero’s “City at Night,Chinatown”, and “The Arrest of the Paleteros”. Besides frequently lending part of his collection to museums around the United States, he founded The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, opened in June 2022, in partnership with RAM, the City of Riverside.
Kong Karoon Sosothikul, Thailand
A singer and well-known TV actor, Kong Karoon Sosothikul has an eye-catching art collection that constructs his private playground at home. Contemporary artists in his collection include KAWS, George Condo, Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama, Hajime Sorayama, Keiichi Tanaami, and Damien Hirst. He even expanded his passion by partnering with Japanese company Bearbrick to create a Tossakan doll.
(See previous collector interview: https://www.larryslist.com/artmarket/the-talks/did-you-expect-these-artworks-in-the-thai-stars-private-playground/)
Nichole Galicia
The Panama-born, New York-raised actress and runway model collects works by Manolo Valdés, Equipo Crónicas, and Julian Opie among others. She also talked about her interest in supporting young and emerging Black artists. Meanwhile, she is an philanthropist, who founded The Orchid Foundation with a mission to mentor disadvantaged high school girls on their way to and through college.
Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi
The comedian and her actress wife own a ping-pong table by Rirkrit Tiravanija, a woven hanging sculpture by Ruth Asawa, a mixed-media sculpture by Catherine Willis, and one of Diego Giacometti’s bronze felines. The couple also own works by Mark Grotjahn, Ed Ruscha, and Andy Warhol. In 2018, Portia de Rossi launched General Public, an art company that uses 3-D technology to reproduce paintings, aiming to democratize contemporary art.
Steve Martin
A serious art collector, Steve Martin has done an oral history interview for the Archives of American Art and the Center for the History of Collecting in America at the Frick (it will be released when he dies). He purchased work directly from the late Gray Foy while having been one of the major boosters of Canada’s “Group of Seven” painter Lawren Harris. Martin was a trustee of LACMA from 1984 to 2002.
Shawn Yue
Hong Kong actor and singer Shawn Yue has been collecting works by American contemporary artists George Condo and Futura. He has also been collecting NFT art, such as CryptoPunks created by Larva Labs, Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Larva Labs’ latest creation Meebit. It was recently announced that part of his collection of NFT art, paintings and watches will be offered in an online auction in September.
Christophe Lambert
A French-American actor, novelist, and producer, Christophe Lambert also has a passion for urban art and has collected works by Banksy, Invader, Shepard Fairey, Speedy Graphito, Blek le Rat, JonOne, Jef Aerosol. Other artists in his art collection also include Enoc Perez, Fiona Rae, Rosson Crow, Ronnie Cutrone, and Jean-Pierre Jouffroy.
Alec Baldwin
There was the renowned legal case in which Alec Baldwin settled with New York dealer Mary Boone on a dispute about a version of Ross Bleckner’s “Sea and Mirror”. In 2015, it was reported that he had accidentally bought a Pat Steir painting at auction for $95,000. This year, Actor Alec Baldwin is returning to the public spotlight with a podcast about art, called “Art Fraud”.
Zhu Zhu, China
Zhu Zhu’s art collection is extensive, comprising artworks by various international artists, from Tracey Emin and WangJiajia, to Peng Bo and Shen Tao, to name a few. Besides acting, she is also a presenter, singer, and art project partner. In her philosophy, “every piece of art is a soul, a person.” For her, art and life have become one.
(See ART INSIGHTS video with Actress and Art Collector Zhu Zhu: https://www.larryslist.com/artmarket/larrys-list-tv/art-insights-with-actress-and-art-collector-zhu-zhu/)
Allen Lin
Chinese singer, actor and host Allen Lin owns a great collection of Chinese contemporary art by emerging and established artists, such as Liu Ye, Zhou Chunya, Zhou Tiehai, and Ji Dachun. He started paying attention to and encountering Chinese artists, such as Zheng Fanzhi, Yue Minjun, and Liu Ye in the mid-1990s when Chinese contemporary art was not catching much attention yet.
Barbra Streisand
On top of 18th- and 19th-century furniture and design and folk art, Barbra Streisand has been a collector of American art since attending Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1992, where she was drawn to the White House’s collection. The Oscar-winning served as a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 2007 to 2014.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Before embarking on her career as an actress, Gwyneth Paltrow was an art history major at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The Academy Award-winning actress’ art collection includes works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Yayoi Kusama, Darren Almond, Ann Carrington, and Kenny Scharf, to name a few. Incidentally, Paltrow’s sister-in-law is the star artist and conceptual photographer Taryn Simon.
By Ricko Leung
