SM Art Advisory was founded by art advisor, curator, and Accessible Art Fair (ACAF) founder Stephanie Manasseh. It is a boutique arts agency that specializes in thoughtfully building up the careers of artists, as well as cultivating unique environments and collections for diverse clients around the world. Wondering what else SM Art Advisory is doing and how Stephanie did it? Keep reading.

Image: Art & Design Sessions for BMW in Belgium

As the daughter of an artist, Stephanie found her true calling whilst living abroad in Prague and attempting to sell and promote her mother’s paintings to galleries there. In the next three years, she continued her journey in Milan and thereafter in Brussels, where she has been based for over 15 years. Her first initiative, Accessible Art Fair came into fruition after observing that there was a platform desperately needed for talented artists with no gallery representation. Soon discovering that her core strength lay in bringing people together, the arts entrepreneur over time succeeded in gathering the top leaders in the industry to help showcase the best emerging artists in cities around the world including Antwerp, Tel Aviv, and New York. What initially started as a small event on a shoe-string budget, has now grown into a well-known fair within the art world circuit, representing up to 100 artists at a time. 

Images: Promotional posters for the 2020, 2019 & 2018 editions of the Accessible Art Fair

Forever driven by the philosophy of creating a high-end platform for underrepresented artists, Stephanie’s vast international network in the arts industry, research-based process—as well as her much sought-after knowledge of the arts—have all become fundamental pillars of her curatorial and promotional practice at SM Art Advisory. The company has had the honour of bringing a wide range of exhibitions, bespoke projects, and small-to-large-scale events to life at both galleries and museums. SM offers artists indelible resources and services that include: collection development, curatorship, studio visits and team building, private sales, pop-up art events and dinners, as well as real estate and public art projects. The agency also assists corporations and clients seeking artwork for their homes, offices, or simply as an investment for personal or institutional collections.

Image: Jonathan Prince at Christie’s New York | 2019

With the ultimate intention of telling stories and bringing people together through art, Stephanie has, in recent years coordinated various impassioned, collaborative projects. These include: developing the Art & Design Sessions for BMW in Belgium (featuring artists such as Terry O’Neill and the late Marc Lagrange), facilitating the partnership between renowned artist Jonathan Prince and Christie’s Auction House, serving as Managing Director of Special Projects for Jonathan Prince Studio and Berkshire House, and most recently being appointed co-curator for an upcoming retrospective exhibition on Sol LeWitt at the Jewish Museum of Belgium. 

Image for the upcoming Sol LeWitt exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, slated to open in Fall 2021.

Staying true to its initial mission, SM Art Advisory continues to cultivate the careers of individual artists, as well as striving to promote at least 4 artist projects per year. This most recently includes the digital art collaboration “Beyond Fashion” with artist and fashion influencer Constantin Prozorov, as well as the wearable art project “The Return of the Magic Skirt” with textile designer Eloïse Ptito-Echeverria. 

Image: Beyond Fashion: Constantin Prozorov | 2021

Who’s behind SM Art Advisory?

Stephanie Manasseh is originally from Montréal, Canada. She now runs SM Art Advisory in Brussels after over 20 years of paving the way for more innovation and accessibility in the art world. Stephanie holds a degree from McGill University and has complemented her art studies in London at Sotheby’s Institute of Art and Goldsmiths University. She has spoken at the New York Times Art for Tomorrow conference and had her own Ted X talk in Antwerp on new ways of showing art.

To know more about SM Art Advisory visit their official website, www.smartadvisory.art and follow them on Instagram @sm_artadvisory.

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