About Faisal Mahmood

He is an investor and art collector based between London and the UAE.
He started collecting as a university student in London after visiting an artist friend at one of the leading graduate MFA programmes in London. The visit sparked the beginning of a journey of collecting that evolved over the last decade since. Over the following years, he would visit degree shows and meet artists where he would go on to acquire works produced during their studies, these artists include Kira Freije, Holly Hendry, Daniel Davies, Issy Wood, Alvaro Barrington, Antonia Showering, and Felipe Baeza amongst several others. It felt organic to grow alongside the artists of his generation and being part of a community of young artists and collectors thinking and looking at current ideas around art creation and ideas.
It was mainly through these artists that Faisal went on to learn of  and collect works by many artists before they got their overdue recognition, such as Rose Wylie, Lubaina Himid, Eleonore Koch, Miriam Cahn, and Lorenzato.

Building upon an idea of an eclectic cabinet of curiosities or contemporary salon, Faisal focused mainly on acquiring small but striking works, with an interest in artists who were not represented or challenged the traditional canon. Amongst these are artists like Jaider Esbell, a pioneering self-taught Makuxi artist who advocated Indigenous rights and environmentalism in Brazil, or Augustas Serapinas, whose work and practice investigates vernacular architecture as a way of uncovering hidden histories, memories, and social and economic hierarchies.

Beyond collecting, Faisal’s commitment to the arts has grown, supporting several institutions and acquisitions for museums, including Tate where he is sits on the Middle East North Africa Acquisition Committee (MENAAC) with a focus on including voices and histories from the Middle East in Tate’s collection, something he believes is imperative for a global collection like Tate and in a city like London. He is also a patron of the Delfina Foundation, which hosts residencies for artists, curators, collectors, and thinkers from across the globe in London.

IG: How did you start collecting?

FM: I started collecting when I moved to London more than 10 years ago, at age 21, as a master’s student. I had been visiting a friend who was doing his masters at the RCA and fell in love with the painting in his studio. It felt exciting to be able to buy works from peers and feel that we would grow together. Since then, I have been doing my best to follow most graduate shows. I find it important to be supporting artists early on and more importantly to see what future generations of artists are thinking and creating, and what stories they have to tell.

IG: Do you work with a collection of galleries or are you invested more in one program?

FM: I have been lucky to acquire works from a range of galleries all over the world from Paris to São Paulo, London to Dubai. I find so many galleries in London some of the most exciting. One of the earliest galleries I bought from was Emalin, which was founded in 2016, just as I was starting to collect more seriously, and I have learned so much from and grown up alongside the gallerists, which represents some of my favourite artists, including Augustas Serapinas, Alvaro Barrington, Sung Tieu, Evgeny Antufiev, amongst others.

IG: What do you look for in an art piece?

FM: Curiosity drives my collection. I have always been curious about stories and storytelling and the main thing I look for in artwork is a story that I resonate with. These stories do not necessarily have to be stories that relate to me, but are more often than not a reflection of my curiosity for stories untold, or from what seems to be the margins, perhaps. Thinking of work within the art historic context and telling stories that shed light on


IG: Are there any artists in particular that you are keeping an eye on?

FM: No one artist, but I am very much looking forward to seeing what Lubaina Himid will be presenting at the upcoming Venice Biennale. Lubaina is an artist I have admired and followed (and had the opportunity to collect) for some years. Her work beautifully makes the “invisible visible” through her paintings, sculptures, and interventions in found objects. Her cultural activism dating back to the 80s with the British Black Art Movement is still as relevant as it was 40 years ago. Her story is an important one.


IG: How has the way you collect art changed over time as you have become more knowledgeable and mature as a collector?

FM: My earliest acquisitions were almost exclusively from “young” artists, most often students or recent graduates, whom I considered peers and friends. With time, I started focusing and looking into more overlooked artists and historic artists, some of whom have gotten the attention in the meantime. Artists across different geographies that are often overlooked by western institutions and collectors, such as Brazil, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, the UAE, and amongst different age or identity groups within the US and Europe.

IG: How do you decide what to collect, do you focus on emotional response, historical value, investment, or something else?

FM: It is certainly a few things happening at the same time. Understanding where a work would lie within the history of art, its aesthetic residence and ultimately the story it aims to tell.

IG: What is your process when acquiring a new piece? Do you work with advisors, or rely on instinct?

FM: More often than not, I acquire on instinct and feeling. Sometimes it is through conversations with friends and other artists who introduce me to works and practices I wasn’t familiar with. The most rewarding discoveries have usually been through other artists.


IG: How do you feel about the current state of the art market?

FM: The current state of the art market is perplexing, on one hand there’s pessimism and retraction, but on the other hand there seems to be a correction. After years of hyper speculation, there is a bigger focus on longevity and history, and on artists that have perhaps been missing, unjustly, from collections. While people are taking less risks, I am finding it more imperative to be supporting institutions and other organisations across the board that continue to support academics, curators, artists, and other cultural practitioners. I am currently supporting a few museums including TATE, where I am lucky to be part of the Middle East North Africa Acquisitions committee (MENAAC), whose mission is to acquire works from the region from modern masters and living artists.

Isabel Getty is a co-founder of The Graduate Gallery