October 7, 2025 | Artnet News
Want to Visit an Artist’s Studio? Now You Can Drop In on Jeffrey Gibson, Hank Willis Thomas, and More
Full Article:
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ifpda-studio-visit-sale-2025-2696638
The IFPDA Foundation is reprising its fundraising event offering visits to the studios of acclaimed artists.
Normally, visits to artists’ studios are a privilege of the lucky, connected few. Now, if you’ve got a few bucks to spare, you may be able to get access to the workspaces of some of the top creative artists of our day. At least seven artists will host small groups at their studios, in New York and environs, in a fundraising sale organized by the International Fine Print Dealers Association Foundation (IFPDA), which is currently in discussions with more artists who may yet participate.
This is the sophomore outing of the studio visit sale, which was inaugurated last year with sold-out visits to 11 artists, including Rashid Johnson, Jeff Koons, and Mickalene Thomas. This time out, the hosts are Nina Chanel Abney, Ana Benaroya, Jeffrey Gibson, Adam Pendleton, Swoon, Hank Willis Thomas, and Terry Winters. Each artist will greet just five visitors, who will have an opportunity to see works in progress and engage the artists in conversation. One artist obviously had such a good time that he signed on again: Gibson was on the roster last year as well.
Co-curated by IFPDA executive director Jenny Gibbs and independent curator and publisher Sharon Coplan, the sale opens on Friday, October 17, at 8 a.m. Eastern time on the foundation’s website and remains open for one week. A launch event will be hosted by Christie’s New York that night, featuring artist Ana Benaroya in conversation with Judy Giera, associate director of collections at New York’s Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art; holders of tickets to that event, which go for $150, will get early access.
“We were really pleased with the results last year,” said Gibbs in a phone interview, “not just the financial results but the relationships we developed with collectors we hadn’t met previously. The fundraiser was a nice way to meet people who didn’t know they were print people, but who came to the visits and learned that, for example, Jeff Koons is a very active printmaker.”
Visitors last year came to New York from as far away as California and Germany, Gibbs said, and included some seasoned veterans who already collected the artists in question, as well as others who had never darkened the door of an artist’s studio.
All proceeds will fund curatorial internships and internships for students from historically black colleges and universities as well as museum exhibitions, research, and public programs. Past grants have gone to organizations including the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Flint Institute of Arts, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. More recently, Gibbs said, the foundation was happy to support educational programming for the exhibition “Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson” at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The sale is an initiative of the IFPDA Foundation, a nonprofit supported by the annual International Fine Print Dealers Association fair at New York’s Park Avenue Armory. Artnet News reported a line wrapping around the venue on opening night of the most recent edition, in April, when some 5,000 people attended, an indicator of growing momentum in the sector.
“IFPDA is such an important venue,” Hank Willis Thomas told Artnet News. “I’m excited to participate.”
