Top 200 Collectors

In 2017, Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida acquired a major Mark Bradford work, A Private Stranger Thinking About His Needs (2016), that has since become a cornerstone of a traveling exhibition of highlights from their collection, “Solidary & Solitary,” which has visited the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and elsewhere. In preparation for the eventual return of Bradford’s piece—a giant hanging assemblage of strips of canvas, paper, and other materials—Joyner said they will have to reinforce their home’s ceiling as well as “redesign the lighting in that part of the house, remove or redesign a set of windows to achieve the appropriate level of light control, and rehang adjacent artwork.” It’s all just a day in the life of a Top 200 collector.

The couple is passionate about sharing their collection, which is focused on previously under-appreciated African American artists, not only in museums but also with visitors to their home, where Joyner hosts a series of regular salons. Joyner, whose work has focused on providing marketing services for private equity firms, has been active as a nonprofit board member, serving as a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Trust, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, to which Joyner gave 31 works by 20 American artists in 2021. Giuffrida, who began his career as a lawyer, works in private equity as managing director of Horsley Bridge Partners in San Francisco.