Habitat: Obsessions is a ten-part series of visits to the surprising nonart collections of art-world professionals.
“I grew up obsessed with guitars,” L.A.-based artist Aaron Curry told me. “When I was young, I used to cut up boxes and make cardboard guitars using a yardstick and some yarn.” He started collecting guitars in college, in the early 1990s, but “I sold a lot of them when I moved from Chicago to study in L.A.,” he said. Currently, he has a collection of about 20 guitars and is learning to play the pedal steel guitar. “I have some really beautiful ones, but unless I take them out and pick them up, they can’t be fully appreciated.”
Right now Curry has a show up at Michael Werner Gallery in New York of new paintings that runs through October 29.
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"This is my library where I’ve been practicing pedal steel; this one was custom made in Dallas by MSA Steel Guitars. The red guitar is a Yuriy Shishkov Masterbuilt Fender Telecaster. I was really taken by the matching Fiesta Red neck and headstock. It feels and sounds out of this world." COURTESY THE ARTIST
“This is my set up in my music studio. I’ve been recording an album with Sarah Soquel Morhaim which we are hoping to release sometime early next year. I've been alternating between playing guitar and my Roland CR-78 drum machine, and acoustic drums and a Moog Taurus, which is a bass synthesizer that you play with your feet. This allows me to do two things at once – which is great, because there are only two of us in the band.” COURTESY THE ARTIST
“A close up of my favorite playing guitar. It’s a Gibson Custom Shop ES-330. I play a lot of different guitars and this one just seems to suit me the best. It's my go-to guitar for sound and comfort.” COURTESY THE ARTIST
Curry has a collection of about 20 guitars. "I have some really beautiful ones, but unless I take them out and pick them up, they can't be fully appreciated." COURTESY THE ARTIST
A version of this story originally appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of ARTnews on page 59 under the title “Aaron Curry: Guitars.”