The Interview

Artist : Sammi, 2022

There are things I buy because I can imagine where they belong.

And then there are things I keep because I cannot imagine letting them go.

The Interview, an original 2022 work by the artist Sammi, belongs to the second category.

It is part of my private collection and is not for sale.

That distinction matters to me.

CB Curated is becoming a House where objects can be discovered, designed, made, collected and occasionally offered for sale. But I never want everything within its walls to become inventory. A House needs private rooms. It needs objects with no commercial responsibility whatsoever. Things allowed to exist simply because somebody loved them enough to bring them home.

This series is about those things.

The Work

Artist: Sammi
Title:The Interview
Year: 2022
Collection: Private Collection of CB Curated
Availability: Not for sale

Sammi creates limited works, and I host several personal pieces in my collection. They are not currently available for purchase through CB Curated.

I am drawn to The Interview because it refuses to explain itself too quickly.

Sometimes it feels like I struggle with an imposter, sometimes I’m lost in my own house. A glimpse of this painting in my curated world always reminds me. The most talented people have no idea. Sammi is one of the most talented artist I’ve ever met.

Her paintings have a strange sense of movement, as if something happened immediately before we arrived and something else is about to happen immediately after we leave.

Perhaps that is why the title works so well for me.

An interview is an encounter organized around what is said, but usually defined by everything that isn’t.

The Interview feels like that to me.

Why I Collect Art This Way

I don’t believe a personal collection has to begin with provenance, investment projections or a list of names someone else has decided are important.

Those things have their place.

But collecting begins much earlier than that.

You see something and some private part of you says: that belongs near me.

That instinct is fundamental to the way I think about CB Curated.

Curation is not decorating.

It is not filling every blank wall.

It is not arranging enough expensive things in one room that the room becomes expensive by association.

Curation is deciding what deserves space.

And sometimes the most deliberate decision is allowing space to remain empty.

That is part of what I love about this painting. Sammi did not appear afraid of the white canvas. The empty space participates in the work.

I think rooms can work the same way.

So can wardrobes.

So can gardens.

So can lives.

Inside the House

For its place in the House, I wanted The Interview treated almost ceremonially: a broad, flat gold matte surrounded by a dark charcoal ornate frame, hanging against an ivory wall above traditional wainscoting.

The contrast feels right.

The painting itself is loose, strange and contemporary.

The framing is formal.

That tension lets both become more interesting.

It is also very much how I see CB Curated: old architecture holding new ideas. Tradition without reenactment. Beauty without requiring everything to match.

Over time, I want to open more of the private collection here.

Some pieces may be by established artists. Others may come from people you have never heard of. There will be objects whose monetary value is meaningful and objects whose value would be nearly impossible to explain on an appraisal.

That is exactly the point.

A collection becomes personal when price stops being the only language available to describe why something matters.

The Interview stays.

Sammi, 2022.
The Interview.
Private Collection of CB Curated.
Not for sale.

XO CB