Qualifications

Employment

Assistant Manager, Los Robles Galleries, Palo Alto, CA. 1975-1981.
Bought, sold, and appraised ancient and modern art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; as well as modern and contemporary American and European art, unique furniture, crafts, and folk art.

Owner, Gregory Ghent Fine Arts, Inc., San Francisco, CA. 1981-1989.
Planned and coordinated all aspects of a fine art gallery exhibiting ancient and modern art from Africa, Oceania, and The Americas. He was the west coast distributor of the Peter G. Wray Collection of Pre-Columbian art and the Bruce Lawes collection of art from New Guinea.
Exhibited and sold contemporary and modern art by both well-known masters and mid-career artists.
Directly helped build art collections now valued in the millions of dollars.
Developed an international network and established permanent relations with collectors, art dealers, appraisers, museums and other art professionals.

Appraiser of Personal Property, nationwide, 1975 - present.

Passed the Uniform Code of Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice examination as required by the Federal Appraisal Foundation, Washington, D.C. and administered by the American Society of Appraisers and the International Society of Appraiser. He has continuously produced professional reports for insurance, tax deductible donations, estates, claims arbitration, and division of property settlements. Values at times in the millions of dollars. He is an associate and advisor to several general personal property appraisers nationwide. He has completed countless appraisals of major gifts of art to public institutions, all accepted by the Art Advisory Panel of the IRS. Uniquely qualified, Mr. Ghent is a nationally recognized expert in the Art of Africa, Oceania, and The Americas, as well as Modern and Contemporary Art.

Curator of public exhibitions of African, Oceanic, and Pre-Columbian art, 1990 - present:

Aberrations & Oddities: Tribal Curiosities (co-curator), the Firehouse at Fort Mason, San Francisco, February, 2005.

The African Mask as Sculpture, University Art Gallery, California State
University at Chico, 1990. Essay in exhibition brochure.

Before Columbus: the Art of Ancient West Mexico,
traveling exhibition: Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary's College, Moraga, CA, and University Art Gallery, California State University at Chico, 1992. Essay in exhibition brochure.

African Alchemy: Art for Healing in African Societies, Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary's College, Moraga, CA, 1994. Catalog essay and full descriptions of each artwork.

Emblems of Passage: Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, CA, 2002. Catalog essay and writer and editor for descriptions of artworks.

Shamanic Power Objects (Consultant), University Art Gallery, California State University, Hayward, 2002-2003.

Touched by Wonder: The Ethnographic Collections at the Hearst Art Gallery, Saint Mary's College, Moraga, CA 2006. 

Appraiser, Cataloguer, Department Manager:

Ethnographic Art Department, Butterfields auction house, San Francisco and Los Angeles, 1994 - 1995.
Butterfields was the third largest auction house nationally and the fourth largest worldwide. He appraised a wide variety of Africa, Oceanic and art of the Americas. Created twice yearly sales with illustrated catalogues of 250 to 500 artworks for each auction.

Director and Specialist in Charge:

Modern, Contemporary, and Latin American art department, Butterfields auction house, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, 1996 - 1999.
Appraised a wide variety of Modern and Contemporary art and created twice yearly sales with illustrated catalogues of 250 to 500 artworks for each auction, with sales of $3.8 million in 1998 alone.
Consulting appraiser for several local auction houses, 1999 - present.

         Art critic and writer

Magazines Feature articles and exhibition reviews published in:

Visual Dialog
Peninsula
African Arts
Arts d'Afrique Noire

Books:

John Haley, 1993
African Alchemy: Art for Healing in African Societies, 1994.
Emblems of Passage: Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, 2002.

Scheduled publications (working titles): The Power of Patina (2010). Touched by Wonder: The Ethnographic Art Collections of the Hearst Art Gallery (2009)

 

Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary's College, Moraga, President of the Advisory Board, 1990-92.
Friends of Ethnic Art, Board Member and President (2 terms), 1980-1995, 2004-2008, currently on the Advisory Board.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (The M. H. DeYoung Memorial Museum), Member of the Ancient and Tribal Art Committee, 1989 - present.
The Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, Board of Trustees, 1998 to 2003.
Haley Charitable Foundation, Richmond, CA, Administrator and Trustee.
Village Relief Foundation, Board Member, 2004 – 2008.
Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Board Member, 2004 – present.

The Sedona Contemporary Arts Festival, Summer, 1998.
Artist's Invitational, Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, April, 2000.

Television appearances

Chubb's Antiques Roadshow guest appraiser of Modern and Contemporary art: P.B.S., U.S., 1996-98.

HGTV cable (Home and Garden television) guest appraiser of Modern and Contemporary art, in cooperation with Butterfields auction house, 1998-1999.

Bali Television (Indonesia), interview at contemporary art opening, broadcast during morning and evening primetime April 25 & 26. Also an article about Gregory Ghent published in the Bali Post (in Indonesian), April 19, 2003, page 2.

Extensive travel and research into cultural arts of West Africa, Indonesia, the American Southwest, Mexico, Panama, and Turkey. In Europe he studied the ethnographic art collections in Tervuren (Brussels), Amsterdam, Berg-en-Dal, Leiden, and Paris. Soon you be able to visit web pages dedicated to his travels in the Links pages.