THE ESTATE SALE - Becoming An Art Collector

1 of 475 Works

During the pandemic, I found my way back to therapy. For the first time in a while, I had space held for me, rather than being the one holding it for others. And in that space, I met an emotion I had spent years avoiding: anger.

In pursuit of finding a home for that anger, I found Art.

One painting became ten. Ten became a hundred. And somewhere along the way, 475+ works emerged—not simply as objects of beauty, but as evidence of a man on his way back from the place I have observed majority males struggle returning from- the dark corner.

This international estate sale marks a deeply personal transition. This  body of work was never created with the intention of being collected. They were created because I needed somewhere to put what I was carrying.

AQUISITION

To acquire a work by JuVee is to do more than own an original. It is to become a Steward of Behavioral Change—a witness to a story of redemption and transformation, and a participant in a conversation that began long before you arrived.

When you welcome a work into your home or collection, you give that conversation another place to live.

Your acquisition also welcomes you into the Village: a community of collectors, cultural leaders, and advocates who believe art can help us have, hold, and handle the conversations that matter. Together, we help bring this work into rooms and communities around the world, reaching fathers and sons with opportunities for reflection, connection, and change.

— JuVee

PEACE-MALE ACT 1: IDENTITY

PEACE-MALE
A public inquiry into private pain.

 Act I—Identity is the first reveal of JuVee’s inaugural collection and the opening act of a three-part solo(ish) exhibition series. It traces JuVan Langford’s walk into and out of the corner—a place he chose when he could no longer ignore that something in his life needed to change.

The corner became a classroom for self-examination, a place for the solidifying of ones surroundings, and a practice field for self-advocacy. What began as a private reckoning gradually took shape as art-of-fact: physical evidence of an inner life being examined and a character being developed.

Through these works, JuVan introduces the journey from his younger self, Bobby, toward the artist and voice known as JuVee. Each piece is meant to expose conversational peace, arising from therapy sessions, the layering of newfound experiences, and the work of rinsing away shame and releasing the anger that occupied his heart.

Together, the works invite viewers to consider their own corners: the places where they have been forced—or have chosen—to sit with themselves, question what they have inherited, and decide what they will carry forward. Act I: Identity offers no portrait of a finished person. It presents the evidence of a becoming—and asks what might change when we have the courage to bring private pain into public view.

BETWEEN SEASONZ

Inspired by Dear Me(n), BETWEEN SEASONZ explores the uncertain intervals between who we have been and who we are becoming. Drawing on years of holding space for adolescent and adult males, JuVee observed that it was often the passage between seasons—the loss of a role, the shift in a relationship, the unfamiliar weight of a new responsibility—that left his clients searching for solid ground.

Many could name the season they had survived. Fewer had language for what it cost them to get through it.

From his place as The Cornerman, JuVee learned to pay attention between rounds: to the breath that had shortened, the guard that had gone up, the story a person told himself after taking a hit. His work was to help each male take stock, find his footing, and return to the ring with greater awareness of what he was carrying.

In BETWEEN SEASONZ, those internal experiences take physical form. Color gives feeling a presence. Layers hold what has accumulated over time. Texture reveals the pressure, resistance, and repair that words can leave out. Each stroke is an attempt to make visible the work of becoming. BETWEEN SEASONZ is an invitation to stay present through the transition, find language for what is changing, and remember: every fighter deserves a corner.