Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Kopeikin.
Hi Paul, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I have lived pretty much my entire life in Los Angeles, and while my Mother is from New York, my Father was born and raised in Venice, California. I am a lifelong Angeleno. My parent met at the Ambassador Hotel after WWII, during which my Father proudly served in. My Father owned an appliance store, first Downtown, then at Pico and Robertson, and finally at Fairfax and Beverly. He worked six days a week and made it possible for me and my two older brothers to grow up in an upper-middle class family in the San Fernando Valley.
My mother was a homemaker and from my earliest memories a card player, first with the neighborhood ladies playing pan and bridge and later as a serious gambler, and winner, at various card clubs surrounding the City. My oldest brother Marc took over my father’s business and after a while, closed it and went to law school and became a successful family law attorney. My other older brother Larry has been a successful entertainment attorney his entire life. I went to Kester Avenue Elementary School, which was three houses down from mine, at a time when you just walked out of school at lunch – the gate was always open – went home, and came back after, no questions asked. I went on to Van Nuys Junior and Senior High Schools, where I took photographs for the school papers and yearbooks and never played sports. I graduated in 1995 and went to San Diego State for a year, then to the University of New Hampshire for a semester on an exchange program from SDSU. I decided not to return to San Diego and ended up at UC Santa Cruz, where I graduated in 1980. I lived in San Francisco for a few years and worked as a bartender to pay my bills while figuring out what I wanted to do. While there, someone asked if I wanted to bartend at the opening of a Gallery and once introduced to the gallery scene, decided I wanted to be a part of it. I got a job at the (still) prestigious John Berggruen and Rena Bransten Galleries before deciding to move back to Los Angeles, where I have remained ever since. I’d graduated with a degree in theater, specializing in filmmaking, and thought I wanted to be a writer/director.
To make a living, I worked both “above the line” for producers and “below the line” in the art department on various productions. I also tried my hand at writing a screenplay. Looking back and in all honesty, I was “rutterless,” unable to decide what I really wanted to pursue and unwilling to admit I lacked the focus, if not the talent, to seriously pursue an artistic career. I was just drifting through my twenties not understanding how quickly time goes by. I also didn’t understand that sometimes picking a direction helps, even if you decide at some point to turn around. Although I had left Gallery work behind me, thinking my calling was in the film business, after several years I decided it wasn’t working out and without any obvious options, decided to open a gallery. While I had left the art business, I retained an interest in it and was familiar with the gallery scene and the world of photography, which had always been an interest of mine. An interest not as a photographer but as a small-time collector and then in 1991 as a Gallery owner. I started in my house, moved to a small space on La Brea, then two other spaces on La Brea, each slightly larger, and then to a larger space still on Wilshire. That was followed by a space on Melrose and finally my largest space on La Cienega, which at the time was a vibrant Gallery scene anchored by Blum and Poe.
All-in-all I ran my Gallery for 29 years and during that time married, had a child, and then divorced. I had always intended to live for some period of time in other places, but work and family kept me here and I have no regrets about that. I loved running my gallery… until I didn’t. There were changes in the business over the years and changes within me that caused me in 2019 to realize I was done with the business. I never intended to work forever and be taken out of my gallery in a box, and at 62 decided it was time to see what else there was out there for me. My interests are wide and I never feared “retirement,” although I knew I would continue as a private dealer anyway, so it was going to be “semi-retirement.” I closed the doors in February 2020 and I think we all know what happened next. So my timing was very good. Although many galleries not only survived but thrived during and especially immediately after the pandemic mine would not have. I spent the pandemic alone, divorced, without a girlfriend, and with my daughter far away at school in Scotland. But since the entire world shut down only a couple of months after my world of 29 years did, it made the transition much easier. While recognizing and not minimizing the suffering so many people faced, for me the pandemic was a time of positive reflection and growth.
During the time of “Me Too” and “Black Lives Matter”, I was forced to recognize, understand, and start to come to terms with my lifelong good fortune and particularly with my “privilege” growing up when I did, where I did, and as a white, middle-class man. What would my life have been like without all of those legs up? The pandemic has of course since ended and I continue to deal with art privately, representing several of the same talented artists I did when I had my gallery. I have also started to travel more, which was always a dream of mine. I have recently met someone with whom I look forward to sharing the rest of what I hope will be a long life. And so today, I find myself an old man with plenty of time on my hands and enjoying every minute of them. I never quite feel as if I deserve all that I have, or that I give back as much as I can to all of the communities I have been lucky to be a part of over the years. I continue to learn, grow, and change with the world around me. I enjoy good health and happiness, and that is what I wish for everyone else.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I have had the good fortune of not facing a lot of obvious obstacles in my life, but I wonder if that lack of obstacles is such a good thing? After all, most of the people I read about who have achieved great things in their lives seem to think they came from the obstacles they faced. For me what few obstacles I faced, if one can even call them that, were subtle and mostly self-inflicted wounds that I only understood later as I reflected upon my life. I didn’t understand that a lack of focus in my twenties was an obstacle, or that I should have been paying more attention to my professional aspirations than my private life. I grew up, inexplicably, thinking that many things would come to me, without understanding the hard work it took to obtain those things, whether material or spiritual. My personality was an obstacle both professionally and personally through most of my life as I was often angry and felt misunderstood, when there was no reason for either. My anger was mostly misplaced, and I was the one not making myself understood because I didn’t understand myself. The economic collapse of 2008 and the years that followed were an obstacle as I worked to retain my business and not have to declare bankruptcy. But looking back, even that feels slight compared to what others go through. So I can’t look back at the question of what obstacles I faced in life without thinking that I haven’t really had to face any of significance. Lucky me.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
It seems obvious to me that most Art Dealers are honest professionals, so it surprises me that when occasionally a bad apple shows up, as it does in any business, that people start questioning the profession itself. And it’s true that the art business is particularly opaque. But I remain proud of the fact that I ran an honest business for 29 years and always paid my artists and my debts. The same can be said of my personal life, where I pride myself on being above all else and at least a good person and a good citizen who adds what I can to the world and tries hard not to make anything worse.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Nothing significant. People seem surprised that I am from Los Angeles, that I am a cat person and not a dog person, and that I am a gardener. In recent years it surprises people that I have started to ride a motorcycle at an age when others are quitting, and that I have also started to get tattoos, also at an age when others tattoos have begun to fade away.
Contact Info:
- Website: kopeikingallery.com
- Instagram: Paul Kopeikin
- Facebook: Both Paul Kopeikin and Kopeikin Gallery
Image Credits
Austin Young for the portrait and Kirsten Tradowsky, Jeffrey Milstein, Kevin Cooley and Mitch Dobrowner for their artwork.
