Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Taps Art Wynwood Fair To Launch First International Photo Exhibition

Irreconcilable Images, Presented by KevinOLeary.com.  All Proceeds from Sales to Benefit Teenage Entrepreneurs and the Perry J. Cohen Foundation
Irreconcilable Images, Presented by KevinOLeary.com.
All Proceeds from Sales to Benefit Teenage Entrepreneurs and the Perry J. Cohen Foundation

Kevin O’Leary and Nick Korniloff, the Founder and Partner of Art Wynwood, announced the debut of a contemporary photography exhibition featuring original images taken by O’Leary himself. The curated installation launches Presidents Day Weekend during the fifth edition of Art Wynwood. All profits from the sales of the photographs will benefit aspiring teenage entrepreneurs and the Perry J. Cohen Foundation – www.pjcf.org (PJCF).

The fair takes place at the Art Wynwood Pavilion located in the Midtown Wynwood Arts District and O’Leary’s works will be available for acquisition on February 11th 2016, at the VIP Private Preview which starts at 6:00PM.

O’Leary’s exhibition will also be open to the public from February 12th to the 15th and he will personally be on site at select times to speak about his works in person. The exhibition will compliment the additional 70 international galleries and nearly 1,000 international artists exhibiting blue chip, modern and contemporary art works over the five-day-long fair.

The outspoken business and TV personality, best known in America for his role on ABC’s Shark Tank, drew his inspiration for the exhibition from teenage entrepreneurs, he said.

“Shark Tank has been a lightning rod for entrepreneurial culture in this country, and I’m lucky to be a part of that. Every day, I meet bright, motivated, young people who want to become entrepreneurs. I want to do something to encourage them,” said O’Leary. “Partnering with the Perry J. Cohen Foundation was natural after I got a chance to meet Perry’s parents, Pamela Cohen and Nick Korniloff, and understand what an amazing and passionate life that this young entrepreneur and art lover lived.”

Lifelong Photographer
O’Leary has had a lifelong interest in high-end photography and art. “Art and photography has always had a place in my life, side-by-side with business, like yin and yang,” said O’Leary. “I’m excited to have this opportunity to share that with the international audience that attends the prestigious Art Wynwood fair, and to benefit a cause I care about deeply.”

 

The idea for a photo exhibition and philanthropic endeavor came from a chance meeting between the O’Leary’s, Pamela Cohen and Nick Korniloff during the Art Miami fair. Cohen, Director of Marketing for Art Miami and Art Wynwood and President of the PJCF, said, “We met and immediately engaged in conversation about specific artwork on exhibit, Kevin’s photography, philanthropy around teenage entrepreneurs, our son’s entrepreneurial spirit and the Foundation we created in his honor. Perry was a huge fan of Kevin’s and as a family we spent many hours watching Shark Tank. It was a very powerful and meaningful conversation, with Kevin ultimately stating that he wanted to know more about our son and the foundation, our fairs and we wanted to know more about and see his photography work. Since then, we have stayed in touch, and due to Kevin’s sincere interest in our son’s story, he made the generous offer to provide all proceeds of his sales to the PJCF” said Pamela Cohen.

 

The widespread interest in O’Leary’s photographs
A national magazine ran a story about his interest in arts, and included several images from his collection, explained O’Leary “That’s when people started asking me about my photography,” O’Leary said. “Eventually, I began to wonder if there was a way to harness that interest in support of a great cause.”

 

Pamela Cohen agreed. “We truly believe that our chance meeting with Kevin was a gift from our Son, as all the elements that we have put together are things he truly cared about – specifically helping those who want to achieve, art and the love for the fairs we operate.

 

We are always looking for creative and exciting exhibitions to introduce to our network of collectors, curators, art advisors and art enthusiasts.

 

Kevin is a talented lifetime photography artist who has captured his existence behind the camera long before he was in front of it. His first entrepreneurial venture in the late 1980’s was the Special Event Television Company where he was a camera man, editor and producer. The sale of that company seeded the genesis of SoftKey Software Products and eventually The Learning Company which was sold to Mattel for $4.2 billion in 1999. He has never put down his camera since. O’Leary is an intelligent person, sought-after public speaker and one of the greatest storytellers I have ever met. We are excited that he will share his creative journey with us this President’s Day Weekend, while supporting a cause that he has championed – and our son believed in.”

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