THE AUCTION COLLECTION

At the end of 2023, I began a series based on my sixteen-year career as an auctioneer, though I eventually abandoned the collection for various reasons. Still, the work kept calling to me. Every so often, I would take the paintings out and reflect on them. I realized there was more to uncover.

I returned to the project, this time drawing from my childhood. Becoming an auctioneer wasn’t accidental—I grew up in the business, which has shaped me in ways I haven’t fully explored. This new collection delves deeply into auctions, consumerism, collecting, hoarding, and death.

THE BIDDERS

SHOP

These eight pieces began as portraits of people who had attended my auctions regularly. I saw their faces several times a month for nearly two decades. They were a part of the fabric of my professional life, yet I knew little about them beyond what they bought and how much they were willing to pay.

Painting them from memory allowed me to delve deeper into their personalities, but the finished work offered little to others beyond a depiction of a stranger. I needed to incorporate them into something that would accurately represent their relationship to me. So, I turned them into bidder paddles. They are now what they were in my life-vessels of commerce.

THE GALLERY

SHOP

These four paintings capture the atmosphere of the sales floor. From my perspective as the auctioneer, the crowd often became a blur of faces and limbs, vacillating between frenzied activity and complete stillness. It was literally a room full of nameless individuals, known only by their bidder numbers. Who they were outside the walls of the auction gallery was irrelevant to me; they were simply a source from which to extract money.

THE SOURCE

SHOP

My brother often described our business by saying, "We sell dead people's things to people who are going to die." And he meant it. I painted these four pieces with that description in mind. They depict what happens after we pass. Those we leave behind are tasked with dismantling the lives we've assembled, allowing strangers to enter our homes and sift through the things we've accumulated, deciding what has value and what doesn’t. It's the same for us all: nothing we possess holds the same meaning to those who are left to dispose of it. What carries deep sentimental value for us is simply an object to be sold for profit or discarded.

About Carlo W Savo

MY PROCESS

Ideas begin as feelings. I allow these feelings to occupy a space in my mind until I feel the impulse to work them out on paper. Once I form a more concrete concept, I consider which format will best express the ideas I am exploring.

I practice multiple disciplines to ensure I have the widest range of tools for investigating subjects that interest me. My current repertoire includes drawing, illustration, painting, and woodworking.

I rarely use external references. Instead, I rely on memory and past experiences as my guide. It’s more important to me that the subjects depicted in my work feel authentic rather than strictly replicate reality.

Each piece is guided by intuition. I allow the idea to take shape within the chosen format, without being tied to a final vision. This openness leaves room for organic development and unexpected ideas to emerge. As Francis Bacon said, “[...]painting is an accident. But it's also not an accident, because one must select what part of the accident one chooses to preserve."

ARTIST’S BIO

Carlo was born and raised In Northeast Pennsylvania a few miles outside of Scranton PA. He began drawing at a young age copying comic book covers and popular cartoon characters of the era. As a teenager, he taught himself painting and traditional figure drawing. Though he received some guidance from various individuals who encouraged him in his artistic pursuits, Carlo has never had a formal art education. At the age of 18, he became an apprentice auctioneer and entered the world of antiques and fine art. During his sixteen years as an auctioneer, he gained firsthand knowledge of the art world and collecting. In 2016 he left his career in antiques to pursue new opportunities and further explore his artistic vision.