Episode 13 • Gardy St. Fleur: Pushing the Culture

My first question, at the beginning of any phone call to my good friend and colleague, Gardy St. Fleur, is “What are you up to?”. And he usually answers “I’m here doing my part.” His “part”, in his own words, is “pushing the culture”. That pretty much sums up the passion and commitment Gardy has for discovering, rediscovering and elevating BIPOC artists. 

I’ve always believed that art has the power to address and answer issues around social justice, equity and access. And you’ll hear, at the beginning of our conversation, how Gardy puts this belief front and center of his multi disciplined art practice.

Gardy is a Haitian-American art advisor based in New York City. He was born in Haiti and moved to Brooklyn with his family when he was a child. His father collected work by Haitian artists and Gardy began buying art at the age of 14.

Gardy is known for curating unique pieces of art from around the world for prestigious clients, as well as his own personal collection. He has advised athletes including basketball players Kyrie Irving, Courtney Lee, and Caris LeVert, as well as ballet star Misty Copeland. 

We first met at a New Year’s party that I gave almost 13 years ago. I’ve been fortunate to witness and benefit from Gardy’s professional journey in the art world ever since. 

So listen in on our conversation at the WhatsNewarkGotToDoWithIt.com Podcast, by clicking on the black bar at the beginning of this text, and get to know how Gardy continues, through his art advisory, art management and art collection practice, to navigate the art world on his own terms.

One of the earliest artists that Gardy St. Fleur championed and whose work he collected, was that of Ionel Talpazan (born Ionel Pârvu). Talpazan was a Romanian self-taught outsider artist. He arrived in New York City where he became known in the late 1980s for his paintings of UFOs. He died in New York at the age of 60 on September 21, 2015.

Phillips Auction House tapped Gardy St. Fleur to organize a sale-within-a-sale of the “The New Now” auction in 2021 titled “The Crossover” (gallery exhibition installation, middle photograph). Gardy (red hat) leading tour at the exhibition (photo below) It was comprised of 13 new works by emerging Black artists. “The Crossover” brought in just over $311,000, all of which was put toward initiatives in Haiti and New York run by Project Backboard, a Memphis-based nonprofit that rehabilitates public basketball courts and commissions artists (photograph above) to make work for these sites.

St. Fleur is shown here (right) with artist William Villalongo (left) discussing one of his works of art with Caris LeVert, a former Nets guard, at the Susan Inglett Gallery in New York City. Early in his career St. Fleur immersed himself in all areas of the art world, such as taking on the studio manager responsibilities for Villalongo. Photo: Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

“The Front Lines'“ by artist Deborah Roberts. Gardy St. Fleur collaborated with Galerie Mitterrand in May 2023 to mount an exhibit of her work in Paris.