James Bacchi is a prominent Art Consultant, Curator and Collaborator who has and continues to enjoy conducting art business in New York, San Francisco and Palm Springs since 1986.
As an accomplished Gallerist, Bacchi co-founded the award-winning ON THE WALL in New York’s East Village and Jagendorf-Bacchi in SOHO. In the early 1990’s, his interests became increasingly drawn to art consulting. Bacchi left the gallery business, and accepted an offer to join ArtVue, a Manhattan-based corporate Art Consulting Firm owned by one of his clients. There he sourced fine art and developed art acquisition programs for East Coast Companies.
In 1993, Bacchi relocated to San Francisco where he returned to the gallery scene. In 1996, he partnered with Art Consultant Annette Schutz and opened ArtHaus, soon voted “Best Art Gallery” on the BAY AREA A-LIST for three years running. In 2016, the San Francisco Small Business Administration recognized the gallery’s outstanding contributions to the community, and unanimously voted ArtHaus for inclusion on the SF Legacy Business Registry. ArtHaus remained at the forefront of noteworthy San Francisco Contemporary Galleries for twenty-five years.
Embracing how to conduct business, brought on by the Pandemic, Bacchi felt the need to reinvent. Drawing from many facets of his professional career, he launched James Bacchi Contemporary in Palm Springs, CA. Here he has created a boutique Art Gallery and Art Consultancy at the iconic, The Shops at 1345, a modernist destination building designed by E. Stewart Williams in 1955.
James Bacchi Contemporary focuses on representing and sourcing contemporary art worldwide for presentation and placement with private collections, corporations and museums. The New York and California architectural/interior design communities continuously utilize his expertise in selecting site specific art and orchestrating large-scale commissioned works and installations.
Bacchi continues to represent and exhibit a rotating, diverse contemporary collection of works in various media by many of the outstanding East and West Coast Artists that captured his attention beginning back in the day. Represented Artists include Andrea Arroyo, Serena Bocchino, Deborah Brown, Carol Massa, Marc Lambrechts, Carolyn Meyer, Franc D’Ambrosio, Jhina Alvarado, Gioi Tran, Paul Morin, Thea Schrack and Matthew Frederick. He has now invited Artists Bill Bloomfield, Scott Idleman, Carrie Ann Plank and Fernando Reyes to join this impressive roster. Bacchi is especially proud to exclusively represent the estate of acclaimed surrealist photographer Astrid, known to the photography world as “The Mother of Surrealism.”
James Bacchi and James Bacchi Contemporary represented artists continue to capture the attention of print and electronic media including, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, ArtNews, Art in America, Metropolitan Home, Elle Décor, 7×7, California Home & Design, and ABC-TV News. Most recently, Bacchi was interviewed for the San Francisco issue of TrooRa Magazine alongside several images from his acclaimed Mobile Photography Series, #inthesky – San Francisco.
Over the years, Bacchi has guest curated, lectured and juried exhibitions for Arc Gallery, Google, The Children’s Aid Society, Manhattan International Arts, The Academy of Art University, Coupar Consulting and the International Mobile Photo Awards. Since 2006, he has served on the Planning Committee, and sat on the Jury for Art For AIDS, benefitting the UCSF Alliance Health Project. In 2021, Bacchi was named Jury Chair for the 25th Anniversary Art For AIDS Auction.
