A fresh start in art
If anyone had told me four years ago that I would be starting my own business and working full time in the digital art scene, I would have laughed. Not for lack of want, but because I didn’t think I would ever get here.
This is the way I usually tell my story: I started my career 23 years ago as a publicist for museums and galleries in my hometown, Rio de Janeiro. My definite highlight from back then is to have worked with the great Vik Muniz on one of his exhibtions at the Paço Imperial Museum. I went to fashion school for a while but decided to suppress my creative side for a more traditional career path, becoming a journalist and subsequently moving to the UK, 19 years ago. After a few more years in newspapers, I moved on to strategic PR, campaigns, and public affairs working for political causes and NGOs. For the past almost six years of my career, I worked for an opinion research and policy development agency in Westminster as a Director, dealing with strategic business, PR, communications and reputational matters.
Somewhere along the way, in early 2022, I noticed that my friend Bryan Brinkman - one of the smartest, most interesting artists I know in this space - had entered the NFT scene. I slid into Bryan’s DMs to ask him how to get involved and he sent me a list of bullet points with instructions which I duly followed.
At the time I thought perhaps I wanted to show and sell my art. Which I did for a while. However, very quickly I realised I much preferred collecting and couldn’t ignore the urge to be proactive in building initiatives to support artists. I found myself surrounded by talent and grit and genuinely inspired by everyone around me.
One thing led to another and I decided to launch the Rio Art Residency, a non-profit artist residency in Rio de Janeiro, to connect worlds and give artists, both emerging and established, the opportunity to connect with each other, step out of their comfort zone and experience an intense cultural exchange.
My heart grew increasingly fonder of this movement and in April this year I decided to take the leap and quit my job. The idea for the services I provide through the Selkie Collection had been there all along, but needed some refinement and a serious investment of time and resources, and that’s what I decided to do. Turn it into a business. So I can exist full time in the digital art space.
I have already been doing exciting and fulfilling work with a number of artists and being able to provide the kind of support that allows them to free up time to focus on their ideas, concepts and creative processes has been an incredible experience so far.
It’s a genuine belief of mine that hard work pays off and with a little help, most artists can achieve great things. I hope to carry on growing and expanding in 2026 and working with as many talented and dedicated artists as possible.
Do the work. Climb higher.
