Collectors Lisa Young and Steven Abraham Are Building Community with Asian Diasporic Artists

By Harley Wong

“It was fierce!” exclaimed Steven Abraham, recalling the first time he saw Aïda Muluneh’s Fragments (2016) in the exhibition “Being: New Photography 2018” at the Museum of Modern Art. “Before then,” added Lisa Young, “it never really occurred to us that you can actually own something that was being shown in a museum.”

Young and Abraham, who are married and in their early thirties, approach art collecting as outsiders—the former works in tech and the latter as a design consultant—but have amassed an impressive collection of works by emerging artists of color. Their initial unfamiliarity with the inner workings of the art world have proven to be a strength. As Young and Abraham continue to question the norms that have left artists vulnerable to marketplace whims, they imagine a more equitable art world that prioritizes community building...READ MORE

Yowshien Kuo, Slipped in Hope, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Young-Abraham Collection.