Key Takeaways
- Karl-Anthony Towns and Jordyn Woods curated 10 deeply personal works for Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated auction, featuring Andy Warhol, George Condo, Alma Thomas and Rashid Johnson.
- Condo’s I Want My Brain Back reflects Towns’ grief after losing his mother and seven other relatives to COVID-19, while Warhol’s Flowers and Ed Ruscha’s Cities of the Globe evoke family, remembrance and the couple’s first meeting in Los Angeles.
- The newlyweds’ selections go on view in New York on October 2 and hit the auction block October 7, capping a year that included a Knicks championship and their August wedding.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Jordyn Woods aren't just putting their names on a Sotheby's auction. Their 10-piece edit includes reminders of where they met, the family they’ve lost, the life they’re building and, in Towns’ case, one of the most devastating periods he has ever endured.
According to Artsy, the newly married couple is curating the latest edition of Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated, selecting works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Helen Frankenthaler, Alma Thomas, Sam Gilliam, George Condo, John Chamberlain, Ed Ruscha and Rashid Johnson. The works hit the auction block in New York on October 7 after going on exhibition on October 2.
“Art holds memories and tells stories,” Towns and Woods said in a joint statement. “Each work in this sale resonated with us for a different reason.”
Few demonstrate that idea more clearly than Condo’s I Want My Brain Back from 2020.
Towns said the work reflects “how much I was losing myself” that year, and few years had had as much of an impact on his life as that one. His mother, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, died in April 2020 at 58 after contracting COVID-19.
Towns later revealed that seven other relatives, including an uncle, also died from complications of the virus. By December, he said he had “seen a lot of coffins” over the preceding months.
Condo has since “become a great friend of ours,” Towns said.
Other selections map considerably happier pieces of the couple's story. Woods said Warhol’s Flowers reminds her “of family, of remembrance, and of the garden we hope to create one day.” Ruscha’s Cities of the Globe carries another connection: Los Angeles is where Woods and Towns first met.
Together, the choices reflect what the couple calls collecting “based on connection,” rather than simply chasing recognizable names. Their Sotheby’s lineup moves between painting, sculpture, and works on paper while touching on identity, perception, and transformation.
That personal approach has increasingly crossed into their public lives. Woods’ “lucky” Woods by Jordyn bag became a fixture during the Knicks’ championship run, to the point that fans noticed when she wasn't carrying it. The Guggenheim later briefly displayed the bag, following a friendship the couple developed with museum director Mariët Westermann around its Rashid Johnson exhibition.
The timing makes the Sotheby’s project another marker in an enormous year for the couple. Towns helped the Knicks capture their first championship since 1973 in June, and he and Woods married in August after more than five years together.
Sotheby’s has previously handed Contemporary Curated duties to names including Oprah Winfrey, Robert Pattinson, Victoria Beckham, Kelly Rowland, Kevin Love and Rich Paul.
For Towns and Woods, however, the assignment became something closer to autobiography. “Every work in this selection was chosen with intention,” Sotheby’s Haleigh Stoddard said.
