Kianga M. Ellis

Works From The Collection Of Kianga M. Ellis

Photo courtesy Kianga M. Ellis

Mark Milroy, "Untitled (portrait of Kianga)" (2004) (detail)

Photo courtesy Kianga M. Ellis

Christina Gonzales, "Self-Portrait (La Linea)" (2002)

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Kianga M. Ellis is an enterprising former corporate lawyer who founded Avail Art LLC in 2005. Avail Art "brings people, drawn from the widest possible range of social background, age, cultural orientation and geographic location, into contact with art."

Like many collectors, she is modest about her acquisitions. "I don't even feel like I collect really. Not yet," she told us. "I will be a collector one day, because I've seen the things that I really want to collect. But at this point, there are simply things that I have."

My first acquisition:

It's Live from Paris, painted in 1998 by Francks Deceus, who's a Haitian-American artist working in Brooklyn. I bought it in 2001, right after Sept. 11. I was really attracted to this because it was inspired by the artist's trips to jazz clubs in Paris—I love Paris—and I've played the piano, so I was attracted to the piano keys. I liked the rhythm of the piece; and that little flower that's rocking to the music, it's just so delicate against all these other big shapes. I think it was a little less than $5,000, which was definitely a lot for a collector's first move.

My most recent acquisition:

I bought a couple of things at the same time last summer in Santa Fe, N.M., including Self Portrait (La Linea) by Cristina González, who lives out in New Mexico. It was $2,000—because I got a "young collectors' discount" from the gallery. What struck me about it was the intensity and the strength and the depth of the shadows. I like having it here in my apartment, because it's very bolstering. It has a quiet strength and energy that I like.

A favorite acquisition:

I guess this portrait of me is a favorite. It's interesting having gone through the process of having sat for a painting. The artist's name is Mark Milroy, and I got it directly from the artist. I'd been invited to his studio by a friend—he was in Williamsburg at the time—and he's very well known for these portraits that are unflattering. I don't think it looks like me, exactly, but I like it as a painting. And I thought it was much more interesting than having a "true" portrait done. It wasn't a vanity exercise. It cost me between $5,000 and $10,000.