![\"\"](\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1104/original/nancy-mollers-6.jpg\")
By KEVIN NANCE
\r\n\r\nThere’s a widely held perception that to build a significant art collection, you have to be rich. But Nancy and Bob Mollers, down-to-earth Chicago natives who describe themselves as of relatively modest means compared to the high-flying collectors who snap up blue-chip pieces at Sotheby’s, have spent most of their life together demonstrating that you don’t have to be wealthy to collect art. What’s required instead is commitment, discernment and, most of all, lots of time.
\r\n\r\nFor nearly half a century, Bob, now a retired teacher and ceramic artist, and Nancy, a retired risk-management executive, have spent much of their time and resources looking at, studying and acquiring art—almost all of it by emerging artists.
\r\n\r\nToday, the couple’s 2,300-square-foot West Loop condo is a destination of choice for art students, museum curators and other collectors who want to see what’s achievable on what Bob Mollers calls “a shoestring budget.”
\r\n\r\nThe answer: plenty.
\r\n","body":"By KEVIN NANCE
\r\n\r\nThere’s a widely held perception that to build a significant art collection, you have to be rich. But Nancy and Bob Mollers, down-to-earth Chicago natives who describe themselves as of relatively modest means compared to the high-flying collectors who snap up blue-chip pieces at Sotheby’s, have spent most of their life together demonstrating that you don’t have to be wealthy to collect art. What’s required instead is commitment, discernment and, most of all, lots of time.
\r\n\r\nFor nearly half a century, Bob, now a retired teacher and ceramic artist, and Nancy, a retired risk-management executive, have spent much of their time and resources looking at, studying and acquiring art—almost all of it by emerging artists.
\r\n\r\nToday, the couple’s 2,300-square-foot West Loop condo is a destination of choice for art students, museum curators and other collectors who want to see what’s achievable on what Bob Mollers calls “a shoestring budget.”
\r\n\r\nThe answer: plenty. The Mollers apartment fairly bulges with art, much of it bearing testament to their good taste and deep knowledge of the contemporary art world. The highlight of the 300-piece collection, displayed in and near a hallway shielded from direct sunlight, is a fine group of works on paper by Jim Nutt, John Currin, Nicole Eisenman, Sol LeWit and several others. Displayed elsewhere are works by Mel Bochner, Adam Pendleton, Kehinde Wiley, Damien Hirst, Wolfgang Tillmans, Erik Parker, Tony Tasset, Thomas Hirschhorn, Nan Goldin, Dan Peterman, Jeanne Dunning, Spencer Finch, William J. O’Brien, Ruth Duckworth, Joyce Pensato, Stanley Whitney and Roger Brown, among many others. The late Chicago Imagist Ed Paschke has a special place in the Mollers’ collection in that an early work, Jointed Heel, was one of their first acquisitions in 1971; Nance, a Paschke portrait of Nancy Mollers, followed in 1975.
\r\n\r\nChicago Gallery News recently toured the Mollers collection and sat down for a chat. Here’s an edited transcript.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
CGN: How did you meet?
\r\n\r\nBob: We met 50 years ago on the Kedzie bus, going to North Park University.
\r\n\r\nNancy: I sat down next to him on the bus. I knew he was also going to North Park, so I decided to go for it, and started a conversation, which was very atypical for me. (Laughs.)
\r\n\r\n
CGN: And the rest was history. When did you start collecting together?
\r\n\r\nBob: We’ve been asked that a million times, and basically I always say we didn’t “start” collecting. That is something that evolves slowly. It isn’t like we decided one day, “Let’s starting collecting art.” It was a natural, slow process for us. We didn’t have much money—we still don’t—so we always bought things on a tight budget.
\r\n\r\nNancy: And neither of us had an art background or families interested in art. So it was a pursuit we developed together since we began dating.
\r\n\r\nBob: We just liked going to galleries in the Chicago area, looking at art a lot, and now and then we’d stretch and buy something. We focused on young artists, mostly because it was more affordable. After about a year of this, we decided, “Let’s collect only living artists.” We’ve stuck to that ever since.
\r\n\r\nNancy: That’s our only rule.
\r\n\r\nBob: Nancy and I would be doing this even if nobody else was doing it. By which I mean, we’re not into collecting because of social interaction with other collectors or whatnot. We do it because we just love it. It stimulates the intellect. It’s visually interesting. And it keeps you young. There’s always something new and intriguing going on in the contemporary art world.
\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1101/original/20150324-100906.jpg\")
CGN: A lot of people start collecting figurative art and then transition to more abstract work. Has that been the case with you?
\r\n\r\nNancy: I think it was a mix all along.
\r\n\r\nBob: When we started in the early 70s, we collected a lot of the Imagists, who were mostly figurative. The Bay Area Funk movement, which we also collected, was largely figurative. But we also collected abstract art early on. Of course we don’t still own some of that early work; we’ve donated about 100 pieces to museums already. After about 15 years of our marriage, Nancy made a professional move to Houston, so we were in that community also, and we placed a lot of our Chicago artists into Texas museum collections. More recently we’ve donated several works on paper to the Art Institute of Chicago. But good art is good art, whether it’s figurative, abstract, conceptual, whatever. It’s true that we don’t get into video.
\r\n\r\nNancy: We don’t have a place for it.
\r\n\r\nBob: And of course we don’t collect things that are too big. We like to be comfortable with what we live with.
\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1103/original/dsc05029.jpg\")
CGN: Has where you’ve lived influenced your collecting?
\r\n\r\nBob: For her work in Houston, Nancy traveled to Europe fairly often, and I would go with her and we’d look at art. But it’s also true that Art Chicago was a great thing for us, in that it would bring in art from galleries around the world that we knew nothing about. It was like a crash course in contemporary art. I have never missed a single one of the art fairs, and Nancy saw most of them.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
CGN: How do you go about acquiring pieces? I know you rarely do auctions.
\r\n\r\nBob: Most of the time we find works we really like through galleries. You walk in and see things you like or you ask about other works by that artist.
\r\n\r\nNancy: We don’t necessarily discover artists at art galleries.
\r\n\r\nBob: Sometimes we do. And nowadays we use the computer a lot. Galleries send us their openings, or they’ll send a list of things they’re bringing to the art fairs. It’s totally different from the way we started, when you had none of that. Now I can see a show online anywhere in the world. If I have a question, I can get a response quickly. Years ago, if you were inquiring about something in Italy, you never even knew if the letter got there. Two months later, you might get a reply, but the image might be a terrible photograph.
\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1102/original/img-2942.jpg\")
CGN: Are there certain galleries you work with more often than others?
\r\n\r\nBob: In the beginning, we worked with local galleries basically, although many of those galleries no longer exist. Some, like Zolla/Lieberman and Rhona Hoffman, are still around. Certainly we never stayed with just one gallery anywhere. As time has gone on, we’ve gotten to enjoy the program at Rhona’s, Corbett vs. Dempsey and Shane Campbell. There’s a new gallery in town, Patron, that I think has great potential. But we’re not captive to any particular gallery.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
CGN: Do you use an art advisor?
\r\n\r\nNancy: No. We like doing our own thing.
\r\n\r\nBob: And now basically the entire collection is in trust to various museums. The curators come and select the works they want every few years. Sometimes there are three or four museums that want the same piece, so you have to make that selection. But our intent is that after we both pass away, our trust funds will continue to do what we love doing, which is acquiring works by living artists. We’ve got that set up.
\r\n\r\nNancy: Any remaining assets that we have will be in an endowment fund that the Art Institute’s Prints and Drawings Department can use to purchase additional works for years to come.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
CGN: You often open your collection to art classes. What’s that like?
\r\n\r\nBob: They’re generally very attentive, extremely interested. It’s very exciting for them, I think, to see a collection like this outside of a museum. Oftentimes they ask—
\r\n\r\nNancy: “What’s your favorite work?”
\r\n\r\nBob: And we tell them there isn’t a favorite. If there was a fire, there isn’t one piece that we’d run out with.
\r\n\r\nNancy: It’s like asking who’s your favorite child.
\r\n\r\nBob: Sometimes it’s the latest piece you’ve acquired, or the piece that you’re trying to acquire. If I were to walk into a collection and wanted to get an idea of how it developed, I would ask to be shown the earliest piece and the latest piece. That would show me the evolution.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
CGN: In any case, it must be a treat for the students, coming here.
\r\n\r\nBob: I hope so. We allow them to photograph the collection, which many collectors don’t allow. One student contacted me recently and said she wants to write her thesis on our collection. I said, “We’ll help you out as much as possible.” I love having the opportunity to meet young people who enjoy what we enjoy. The fact that they’re able to be in what I call an upper-middle-class home that has spent 40-plus years acquiring art by generally younger artists—they understand the significance and the beauty of that.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
CGN: It’s interesting, Bob, given your background as a ceramic artist, that the collection doesn’t include many pieces in that medium.
\r\n\r\nBob: We used to have a lot more pieces, but their fragility became an issue. And there was somebody we knew who was building a massive ceramic collection, and so our pieces ended up in his collection.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
CGN: There’s a sort of diaspora of your collection.
\r\n\r\nBob: That’s right. We do place art in a few friends’ homes. There’s one friend in the suburbs who has about 40 of our pieces. We also give art, just outright, to friends. It keeps on going.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Kevin Nance is a Chicago-based freelance writer. His work appears in the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, USA Today, Poets & Writers Magazine and other publications. Follow him on Twitter @KevinNance1
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Behind the scenes, many people in the community are working tirelessly to support artists and bring fresh perspectives to the public. We spoke with five insiders about what excites them now and what they anticipate next.
The following preview is one of five conversations that appear in CGN's Fall 2026 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition click here.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1789517637/noxz9olp47gfneafz8xg.jpg\")
“I’m thrilled to further expand my artistic and design practice by introducing other mediums into the mix. I’m looking forward to watching the seasons change and devoting a lot of time in the studio as well. Fall/winter is my favorite time to create new works.
I have an upcoming solo show with VSG Contemporary that I am excited about. The work will delve further into the topics of cultural mythology and how these tales and narratives have helped shape my worldview.
Also, it wouldn’t be right if I left out my excitement for this upcoming season of Chicago sports.”
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961823/s3lp0uull2s8mvd8funj.jpg\")
Andi Crist, Extension Cords, Glazed stoneware, chrome, Sizes vary 2021-present. Photo: Mikey Mosher
This interview is part of CGN's Fall 2026 issue. Purchase a copy or subscribe.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961824/mghrpnghxd9j9ko2dsjt.jpg\")
Andi Crist
BY ALISON REILLY
Andi Crist’s warm, engaging demeanor is evident in the first few minutes of our conversation. Generous with her time and forthcoming in her observations, she cares deeply about building relationships through her art making. Crist grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, devoured art classes, wrote songs and played music in high school, and moved to Chicago to study visual art at Columbia College. In 2024, she received her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a woodworker, sculptor, ceramicist, and conceptual artist, and she teaches at Illinois Institute of Technology. We discussed her multidisciplinary practice, her experience working as an art handler, preparator, and fabricator, and how she thinks about labor, creativity, and value in the art world.
CGN: You grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. How did that environment shape your point of view as an artist?
Andi Crist: That’s such a funny question. Nobody’s ever really asked.
CGN: Oh, really?
AC: Yeah, maybe because I never was super connected with the arts community down in Birmingham. I moved to Chicago in 2007, so it’s been 20 years since I lived in the South. I was definitely one of those art kids—one art credit was required in high school, and I graduated with like seven. I was surrounded by artists who had a big impact on me, because they were working artists. All my art teachers were trained in Alabama and then continued to teach and work in Alabama, which gave me this desire to try to expand my community outside of what I was familiar with.
CGN: Do you identify as a Chicagoan?
AC: My family still lives in Alabama, and I go back every year. I love being in Alabama. Maybe now being in Chicago for almost 20 years, I identify as a southerner living in the city. I carry on the social qualities of a friendly southern person [laughs].
CGN: You have a varied art practice—woodwork, ceramics, mold making. What drew you to those types of fabrication methods and that type of art making?
AC: My dad is a carpenter and a hobbyist woodworker, but his career was psychology, and my mom was a professor and an incredible craftswoman. I absorbed my mom’s model of creativity, which is to try a bunch of different things and not necessarily finish them but to try to learn as much as I can by just going for it. My practice over the years has become an exploration of conceptual elements of what makes art art and not just craft. Do you have to be a master craftsperson or a professional artist in order to make something that resonates with people?
I make a lot of work that references the mode of making and requires a variety of different media. I just finished teaching a ceramics production class where students learned how to produce molds, think about positives and negatives, and get into a level of production rather than just handicraft as a way to multiply their output.
I got into fabrication because I’ve always liked working with other artists. I have a background in theater and gallery work. I’m a voracious learner, and I like being able to share those skills with my community. Then I end up making work about that. It’s a self-feeding cycle.
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Andi Crist, Artist’s Ladder, 2023. Photo: Jeff Perlman
CGN: Thinking about your background as an art handler and preparator—how did you get to the point where you were making work about that experience?
AC: In 2010, right before I graduated from Columbia, I was living in a storefront in West Logan Square with my partner at the time. We started a gallery called Autotelic in the space and had to build it out using the worst tools with very minimal resources. Then we started curating shows there and that meant helping other artists figure out how to install their work in our unusual space. Eventually, I gained the reputation for knowing how to do that type of work. I started getting invited to work in museums and galleries.
The Holocaust Museum was the first museum I worked at, and as difficult as that subject matter is, that experience was really important to me because I was learning more about the larger world of gallery work. As an artist working as a preparator, you’re straddling both sides of that space. You’re really seeing how the sausage is made. You’re hearing all the conversations about artists, curators, the process of exhibition making. There is a lot of information you can gather about the economics of the art world by just being the person that has the know-how to touch and handle artwork. Eventually that started feeding into my art practice because I wanted to make work that was contributing to a conversation around art as a type of job. It fueled a methodology of seeing everything in the world as the result of a long line of processes that required effort and thoughtfulness by many hands.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961826/uv5bysb5fbne30gr5czh.jpg\")
Andi Crist, Fair Warning, 2025.
CGN: The title of your recent exhibition at the Cleve Carney Museum—Live, Laugh, Lo—sorry, not Live, Laugh, Love—Live, Laugh, Labor.
AC: [Laughs] That’s what everybody does.
CGN: I love the title—it’s perfect. You incorporate humor along with thoughtful critiques about labor and value in your work. What role does humor play? How does it help you connect with your audience?
AC: One of my biggest criticisms of art with a capital A is how easily it can be overly intellectualized. I think that’s why I end up making a lot of work that references things that already exist or have some kind of real purpose. It’s important to give people a foothold so there’s an obvious place to board that train of thought. As an artist—maybe this is me getting into a sweeping argument about what artists should be—but I personally believe in intellectual accessibility. Humor is a swift way to drop defenses and allow people to come in without feeling like they are not getting the joke or not understanding. I like to make work that can hold both of those things at the same time—it’s funny on the surface level, it’s kind of cheeky, but there’s also another way to look at it that is intellectually clever. There is a joy in the attempt to “get it”. Like the satisfaction of grasping how a crossword puzzle actually works.
It’s also so much a part of my personality. I take myself seriously as an artist, but my ego isn’t at the heart of it. It’s really something that I do because I love to make things, and I love to connect with other people. My parents raised me on puns, creating those language relationships between things and people and space. Understanding a joke is the same way that we understand art, and while neither of my parents would consider themselves artists, they taught me how to think about art.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961828/gnotyfijabr7e15kb6hm.jpg\")
Andi Crist, 69 Bananas
CGN: Your work, Artist’s Ladder, explores hierarchies, workplace cultures, and institutional values. What experiences shaped your reflections on these themes?
AC: The ladder piece distinctly represents the complicated relationship between front of house, back of house, and the hierarchy of labor. Who is the artist in those relationships? How much does another person’s knowledge and expertise contribute to the success of another artist?
There are enormous, industrialized art practices out there, warehouses full of people making things, and those people are also artists. When you make work that involves other people, it’s important to acknowledge their contributions. I’ve had complicated interactions with other artists who are like, ‘Hey, do you want to collaborate with me on this thing?’ but really they just want me to make their idea. I made Artist’s Ladder while I was in grad school at UIC, and it really represented my relationship with a lot of other artists, because I could be an actual support structure for them. Then it turned into this absurd physical thing. It’s extremely overbuilt with inlaid racing stripes made of exotic hardwood, and a butcher’s block-style plaid top. It’s not really like an FU as much as it is asking for acknowledgement of my skills and the essential support structures that exist.
CGN: I want to ask you about another piece, Five O’Clock Somewhere, a wool rug that resembles a children’s play mat. I work at a library, and it reminded me of rugs I see all the time. It’s a peaceful image of an office park with a large fountain surrounded by a parking lot. I’m curious why you chose a rug as the medium to depict that image.
AC: To me the heart of that joke was that it was a landscape. I wanted it to be physically traversable. And that was, I don’t want to say controversial, but it was something that I had to talk about a lot. The critique of that work was the fact that I didn’t want to hang it on the wall and turn it into a tapestry. I really wanted it to be a rug that people could walk on. When I showed that work at Chicago Artists Coalition for the New City Breakout Artists show. There was a lot of pushback about having it on the floor and allowing people to walk on it.
That, to me, was such an important conversation, because, in my mind, the fact that you could walk across it and traverse it was part of how I was thinking about the object. Rugs are utilitarian–they are floor coverings. When you make art that doesn’t do anything, you don’t get to participate in that part of the conversation.
I enjoy sparring around art like that. I am totally tickled by the pushback. The critique of display is exciting, and sorting through the politics of utilitarianism in art spaces is fun to me. And then—it was so crazy—we ended up showing it halfway on the wall and halfway on the ground.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961829/r1zylkwfw9rkw191skdl.jpg\")
Andi Crist, Five O’Clock Somewhere, on display at Live, Laugh, Labor: Thoughts on Usefulness and Other Myths at The Cleve Carney Museum of Art, 2025.
CGN: Oh, wow.
AC: I was like, this is the epitome of compromise! I had to build a structure so that it could hang that way safely.
CGN: I would say just put it on the ground if that’s what you want to do. It’s interesting that there are still very fixed ideas about the way that art should be displayed.
AC: That preparator part of it, that’s what I’m all about. I was having that conversation about what physically supports the work or what conceptually supports it in the way that it’s shown.
CGN: Have you always been a writer? How do your art and writing practices work together?
AC: I can’t say that I’m a writer, it’s probably the same way that it can feel weird to call yourself an artist. But I feel like I’ve always been relatively good at writing. The first time I ever did any kind of professional writing was contributing, a long time ago, to a website called eHow. The editors would send me a title, and then I would have to research how to do that thing. Then I would write out step-by-step instructions for how to do that.
I think that’s how I had to make myself think through my conceptual practice—I had to do the research, coagulate that into some kind of document, and then I would have stream-of-consciousness conversations with myself. “Why are we interested in this? Why would we make it this way? What would I want to talk about if someone were to ask me about this?” It’s almost like I was pre-interviewing myself.
I think the writing is just another way for me to process that idea before I put in all of the time and energy to actually accomplish it.
CGN: What are you working on right now? What projects do you have coming up?
AC: The biggest project that I have right now is my house. My family and I suffered a major house fire on New Year’s Day. We’ve been displaced since then and are navigating rebuilding our house. It was a total loss.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961830/kekfqzf9f87fq48juogh.jpg\")
Andi Crist, Single-Use Fireplace, 2025. Photo: Mikey Mosher.
CGN: I’m so sorry to hear that.
AC: Thank you. We’re all okay, but it’s been a really tumultuous year. I moved my studio into a storefront last summer, and so most of my, at least relatively recent, work is safe, and I still have all of my materials, but my home life is starting over. I just had my first full year at this space, and it’s got a little gallery built out in the front called Coming Soon. It’s beautiful with floor-to-ceiling windows on Division and Central Park. I’ve been inviting people into the space to try things out.
After teaching the ceramics class, I came into a bunch of nice slip casting molds, and I’m making some really playful, weird, ceramic stuff. I want to be open and not put too much pressure on myself. Having a big studio by myself is very expensive, so it’s easy to want to make it feel like it’s worth it. But if for now all I can do is make it a resource for other people, then that will be the thing I do. Be less selfish, but more selfish with my time. Saying I can’t do that, or I don’t want to do that. It’s not my nature to say no—I’m such a yes man. I’m learning how to be a yes man for myself.
CGN: That makes sense after going through something so traumatic.
AC: I have an amazing support system. Our friends started a GoFundMe. It was incredible. I’m so humbled and floored by how held I felt by Chicago. I can’t help but throw a little shout out to my Chicago people. I can see how people’s lives get totally ruined by this kind of tragedy. I feel so lucky. Chicago definitely showed its love back.
CGN: For your project Coming Soon, are you bringing in other artists?
AC: My philosophy is that I want to be involved as little as possible. I am thinking about it more as a hosted than curated space. I’m actively soliciting proposals or ideas for workshops, meetings, book clubs—I’m down for making it a resource, whatever that means. I don’t want to over-think it, I want it to be an intuitive and organic thing, which is why I call it Coming Soon—it can be a placeholder for anything. It’s exciting. Taking my hands off the reins is a good exercise for me.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961831/gno5dhliwfnzpuaim78s.jpg\")
Andi Crist, Extension Cords, Glazed stoneware, chrome, Sizes vary 2021-present. Photo: Mikey Mosher
Fall offers a full slate of exhibitions across galleries and museums throughout the Midwest. Behind the scenes, many people in the community are working tirelessly to support artists and bring fresh perspectives to the public. We spoke with five insiders about what excites them now and what they anticipate next.
The following preview is one of five conversations that appear in CGN's Fall 2026 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition click here.
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“Intuit Art Museum’s renovated, expanded spaces give audiences the chance to connect with art through daily art-making, third Thursday Art After Work, group Slow Looks designed to provide a mindful experience with a single work and upcoming conversations with sculptor Bill Brady (Oct. 3) and Dr. Mary Trent (Oct. 15), who curated our current exhibition on the role of scrapbook-making in Henry Darger’s art.
On view is the thought-provoking Monumental: The Sculpture of Dr. Charles Smith, which encourages guests to consider the lack of historical representation of African Americans and Black people in America. Dr. Smith’s memorials champion Black history and stories of everyday life he sees missing in mainstream narratives.
This fall we’re opening an exhibition of paintings by Karla Wong, an artist who immigrated from Oaxaca and who explores themes of life and death, gender identity and self-discovery.”