Ricardo Valentim, born in 1978 in Loulé, Portugal, lives and works in New York. He received his undergraduate degree in Anthropology from the Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias in Lisbon, and his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. He is best known for his film screenings and lectures, but works across a variety of media, including books, photography, posters, radio programs and sculpture.
I mainly do art to live. The money comes from the art I sell, grants, and sometimes specific art commissions. Additionally, another income source is participation fees. Nevertheless this income is not fixed every month, so I am still renting my studio in Lisbon to cover the global cost of my living expenses. Definitely it is not an amazing situation and I hope it doesn’t last too much time, because I would like to have more money to live on. I’ve been thinking of starting a separate business related to art, such as an art editions company or even a frame shop in NYC, because I don’t understand why frames are so expensive in this city. Another job I would like to do is to be an art adviser, but I don’t know any rich people who want to invest in art. On the other hand, when I start to realize how much time these kinds of side projects could consume, I feel like I don’t have enough time to do them, because they would interfere completely with my practice. And I can’t really imagine these kinds of jobs as an extension of my art practice. I spend all day long working on my projects, and I don’t see how I could keep doing my artwork if I had to manage a business or had an extra job at the same time. So, even if the situation is not perfect, I would prefer to keep my current job as an artist, and just put time into my projects. I hope that in the end this will one day pay off. If I had really wanted to avoid having money problems in my life, I would have become a property developer in my hometown 10 years ago, but I didn’t. So far I can’t complain too much…
27.04.2010
I mainly do art to live. The money comes from the art I sell, grants, and sometimes specific art commissions. Additionally, another income source is participation fees. Nevertheless this income is not fixed every month, so I am still renting my studio in Lisbon to cover the global cost of my living expenses. Definitely it is not an amazing situation and I hope it doesn’t last too much time, because I would like to have more money to live on. I’ve been thinking of starting a separate business related to art, such as an art editions company or even a frame shop in NYC, because I don’t understand why frames are so expensive in this city. Another job I would like to do is to be an art adviser, but I don’t know any rich people who want to invest in art. On the other hand, when I start to realize how much time these kinds of side projects could consume, I feel like I don’t have enough time to do them, because they would interfere completely with my practice. And I can’t really imagine these kinds of jobs as an extension of my art practice. I spend all day long working on my projects, and I don’t see how I could keep doing my artwork if I had to manage a business or had an extra job at the same time. So, even if the situation is not perfect, I would prefer to keep my current job as an artist, and just put time into my projects. I hope that in the end this will one day pay off. If I had really wanted to avoid having money problems in my life, I would have become a property developer in my hometown 10 years ago, but I didn’t. So far I can’t complain too much…
27.04.2010
