Jerry Gogosian Partners with Sotheby’s and Art World Satire Dies Forever

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Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, creator of Instagram art world satire account @jerrygogosian, will partner with Sotheby’s on an exhibition that will go on view from 24 September.

Entitled Suggested Followers: How the Algorithm is Always Right, the show features over 20 emerging and established artists hand-picked by Helphenstein with the help of her Instagram Explore page. The works will be available for purchase on Sotheby’s Buy Now platform.

‘Instagram is by far the number one tool for exploring the emerging art world, from an artist’s professional infancy to their meteoric success,’ Helphenstein said in a press release.

‘Once the algorithm is notified that you’re interested in a certain type of artist or style of work, the AI does the work for you. It will recommend new artists based on your likes, your friends’ likes, and the mutual artists you follow, spinning an ever-growing web of influence and discovery within the platform.’

‘As the unquestionable centre of the art world, my account attracts artists from around the world, especially younger and emerging artists,’ she said knowingly.

Helphenstein, who previously ran her own gallery, has garnered over 112,000 followers with @jerrygogosian, largely by poking fun at artists, dealers, and collectors. Her alliance with Sotheby’s puts her in an awkward position as a satirist; there are limits to how cutting an art world insider can be about the art world.

‘At this point, the jokes are relatively soft,’ she conceded in a recent interview with W Magazine. ‘I’m not naming names or throwing hard balls.’

Her partnership with Sotheby’s would make great fodder for @jerrygogosian, but then so would the avalanche of syllables in the name ‘Hilde Lynn Helphenstein’ and details she has shared from her own life.

‘I was in Maui with my friend [Baer Faxt CMO] Vajra Kingsley. We were doing yoga and I was reading a book of poems by Rumi, and at some point, I posted a photo of a white Persian cat that I had as a child on my Instagram,’ she told W, not so knowingly.

The satirical serpent has swallowed its tail, but you have to respect Helphenstein’s ambition. In addition to the Sotheby’s auction, she’s working on a TV show backed by Pace CEO and president Marc Glimcher.

‘I want to be the female Anthony Bourdain of the art world,’ she said. —[O]

Main image: Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, creator of Instagram art world satire account jerrygogosian. Courtesy Sotheby's.