Today, we’d like to introduce you to Mary Ann Cohen.
Hi Mary, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I started out attending Art School in New York City in the late 70’s, I thought at that time I would become an illustrator but I didn’t feel I had enough talent as my fellow students, so I followed my eventual husband who had already moved to Los Angeles where he was working in the film/TV business.
It was in LA that I became interested in teaching art; I earned my teaching degree from Cal State LA and started to work at Fairfax High School, a magnet center for visual arts in the heart of Los Angeles. This was a particularly interesting time in Los Angeles, and the school was so multicultural; in fact, 39 languages were spoken at that school, and we had students from around the world attending. The local art & cultural scene was just exploding, and I was at the center of it on Melrose Ave in the heart of LA.
Eventually, we started our family and needed to move out of LA to buy a more affordable home in the surrounding areas. It’s there that I left teaching and decided to work at a chain of galleries so I could make more money to support our growing family. I wasn’t sure how that would go as I was primarily an art educator, but somehow, I became the gallery director immediately. Once I learned the business, I would make my biggest career move and open my own gallery in Malibu in the late 80’s.
It was a very cool gallery with indoor & outdoor installation areas surrounded by celebrities and many other creative & eccentric clients. From that gallery, before computers and any sophisticated technology were standard, I cut my teeth in the exciting art world by hosting shows, finding artists, and establishing their careers. It was very close to teaching but had a business component that excited me. From there, I followed one of my key artists to a national art publisher, sold my gallery, and started representing a stable of artists to galleries nationally.
My territory included Florida, where one of my biggest clients enticed me to relocate to Miami to feed their growing business and continue my career of developing artists, publishing, and establishing art careers. In Florida, in the early 2000s, I continued developing artists and producing printed works for my partners but after the economic crash in 2008, their needs changed, so I decided to go off on my own, rebranded our company, and switched my emphasis back to my original retail art gallery roots.
Today I own four galleries in South Florida, with a base of operations in Fort Lauderdale and an incredible showplace gallery in Delray Beach along with a smaller intimate sister gallery a few blocks away on Atlantic Ave as well as another beautiful gallery space in Jupiter.
Each location has a unique & distinctive character, and we enjoy working with our family of in-house expert art consultants who help private clients & corporations to source meaningful and important collections of contemporary art in every genre and media.
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
My journey has been long & challenging and it spans from New York to California and back through Florida. Many gallery owners come from affluent backgrounds which allow them access to elite friends & clients. I came from a very middleclass upbringing and left my childhood home in the Northeast to live in California during a culturally mind-blowing time there, the late 70’s to the late 90’s.
It changed my world view which until then had been small & suburban into a much more culturally diverse and inclusive point of view. Because I was so far away from my immediate family, I had to be much stronger and more persevering. I raised two great daughters, became an art dealer and eventually a caretaker who took in my mom & dad to live with me and my family in their final years.
These personal challenges of caring for others while relocating my life and family 3000 miles away from our home in California to start a new business in Florida and then enduring the 2008 recession; has galvanized my psyche to accept just about any business environment.
My career has been such an eventful and exciting ride, and it is really my privilege and joy to, not only work hard every day, but give my experience, expertise and wisdom to those that I come in contact with, including my staff, clients, artists, vendors and other dealer friends.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I firmly believe that MAC is different from our competitors as we are more than a gallery. We are considered a brand. We have a huge network of artists and dealers to draw from, and new artworks arrive daily at our expansive main gallery in Fort Lauderdale, which houses one of the largest and most diverse fine art collections in South Florida.
We have at our fingertips a major selection of diverse contemporary art and exhibit a thoughtfully curated collection of over 100 internationally acclaimed artists, with new selections of art arriving daily. In total we maintain 4 separate galleries totaling over 20,000 sq ft of gallery space in three separate South Florida counties! Three years ago, we opened our crown jewel location, an expansive premier gallery space in Delray Beach, where we show our most exclusive collections and host our amazing shows! From our sizable South Florida group of galleries, we can service clients from Key West, Miami, Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Stuart, Vero Beach, Naples, Sarasota, Tampa and beyond.
In fact, in the last three years, we have expanded our services and are now curating homes/offices nationally & internationally. We have a dedicated team of drivers who can deliver and install artwork everywhere in the US and beyond. Our incredible collectors are comfortable trusting us to source art for all the spaces they live and work in because our team of experts specializes in art curation, including sourcing fine art, commissioning site-specific artworks, custom framing, delivery, and installation, along with in-house packing and crating services.
We also publish our own prints in-house and can service any size project, from residential homes to corporations, hotels, hospitals, restaurants, yachts, and lobbies. We are especially proud of our curation skills and ability to provide personalized guidance and in-home or office showings so our clients can feel more confident that their art selections not only excite them and reflect their personalities but look amazing and fit perfectly into their spaces.
We have helped countless clients navigate the art collecting world, source stunning artworks, and even find new ways to work in their existing works, carefully curating all of it into a refined and satisfying finished collection.
In today’s open interiors, selecting works from multiple sources is ok, if you have the experience, confidence and time to orchestrate a full collection because whatever is selected on one wall needs to make sense and “speak” to the rest of the art in the space. We have the time, endless selections and most importantly the expertise to help you create an artful living space that satisfies all your aesthetic goals.
How do you define success?
My goal is to help as many regular people navigate the art collecting world and source amazing artworks into their living spaces. Even the most experienced clients and designers need a trained eye to fulfill the vision they have not only for their interiors but for their psyches.
We learned quickly during Covid that life is very short, and we absolutely need fine art to inspire and reflect our deepest feelings and emotions… it has been my life’s work to make that possible for everyone regardless of who they are, where they live, or how much experience they have! I and my amazing team hope to continue to serve our clients and enrich their lives with the highest level of contemporary fine art available today! In August we celebrate 27 years in South Florida, and we look forward to many more years of continued success.
Contact Info:
- Website: Macfineart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/macfineart/
