To be honest, I never thought I had an “art collection.” 

Over the years, I simply bought art that appealed to me. Art that reflects a diversity of cultures, mediums, and subjects. And my lifelong fascination with anthropology. 

That’s why I call myself an “accidental collector.”

I spent most of my career working in the crazy world of New York advertising. But when I finally escaped in 2008, and went back to school to study art history – especially non-Western—a whole new life centered around art began. A life organizing art exhibitions, and actively acquiring art. This new life eventually led to my moving in 2019 to Istanbul, a city that has intrigued me since the late 1980s.

The art that appeals to me is art that tells a story. 

And who better to tell those stories than some of the artists who made my “accidental collection” possible. Thanks to the Internet, I managed to track down several of them. 

It was amazing, fun, and sometimes emotional to finally meet some of them for the first time—often virtually—and sometimes years after I acquired their art.

THE ACCIDENTAL COLLECTOR

Walter L Meyer

ABOUT MY CREATIVE PARTNER

Athena “Tina” Longoria

My relationship with Tina began a couple of decades ago when she was an art director at my New York agency. Kindred curious spirits, our relationship evolved into a continuing creative partnership after I left New York. And more importantly, into a long-lasting friendship.

Tina has done the ultimate favor for me—she has helped me realize each and every one of my art-related projects: exhibition catalogues, www.artwithoutboundaries.art and now ARTISTS MEET COLLECTOR. Without Tina’s design talents and creative guidance, all of these ideas would have remained mere fantasies.

I am forever in her debt.