Meet Brandon Wisecarver | Art Dealer & Community Organizer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brandon Wisecarver and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brandon, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I think you gain very little by not taking any risks. When I moved to NYC in 2008, I came in a GMC short bus that I had bought for $1000 off a Ska band in San Francisco. I had zero friends, family or connections out here. I was following a girlfriend who moved to NYC for collage. She gave up on the dream and went back to California a year and half later, but I stayed. I had very vague goals, which I credit for my success. It left me open to taking whatever opportunity was to come my way. The art world is a high risk high reward industry as exemplified by the incredibly short lifespan of many galleries and curatorial projects. I can’t imagine what my life would be like now if I weren’t prone to risk taking.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My current artwork is focused on Virtual Reality. In an attempt to make fine art more accessible to young people I started a TikTok account (@Wisecarver) where I screen-record myself painting in an app called PaintingVR while talking about art history or other art-centric topics. I think one of the things that separates me from other artists is my willingness to let the public in on every aspect of my process. The years I spent on the other side of the gallery counter, showing the works of others, has left me with a lot of insight into what buyers value when collecting. Fortunately, the answer is authenticity. I don’t make work that caters to the market by any means. In fact, the work I make is extremely hard to market. Despite this, I know I’m on the right path because I am as passionate about VR, gaming and technology as I am about art. My experience running galleries actually gave me the confidence to combine the two. I’m often quoted as saying “art isn’t a career, it’s a compulsion”. Ironically, by ignoring market trends and catering to your true self over all – you’re far more likely to find success in an industry that values personal expression.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend was visiting me in NYC I’d of course take them to the usual institutions like Guggenheim, MoMA, the Whitney Museum, The New Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc. Places like McSorley’s Old Ale House, where Abraham Lincoln once visited after a speech at the Cooper Union are too special to pass up. However, I’d also drag them out to my favorite place of all: Wonderville. Wonderville is an arcade bar with a twist: every video game is from an indie developer, often local, and often in a completely custom cabinet set to free play. Wonderville also holds many “play test” nights, developer meet-ups, and puts on a bunch of concerts. Places that work so hard to foster creative community deserve all the support, so check them out!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to dedicate this shoutout to Brian Shevlin. He founded the Con Artist Collective in 2010 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and currently runs Joynt Brewing Co. in Ito, Japan. My experience working with Brian over 5 years from 2015-2020 was the best education I could’ve hoped for. We put on hundreds of art shows together. Brian was a great mentor and is someone I continue to look to for advice to this day.

Website: https://linktr.ee/brandonwisecarver

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandonwisecarver

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solas-studio

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.wisecarver

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LuckyTimeExplosion

Image Credits
David Vega