Tyler Rollins
With twenty-five years of experience in New York City’s contemporary art world, Tyler Rollins has gained an international reputation as a leading advocate for some of the most compelling artists from the Asia Pacific region, and as the founder of cutting-edge initiatives in the area of spirituality and the arts.
A summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, Rollins completed graduate work at the London School of Economics and earned a master’s degree from New York University. In 2008, he opened a public gallery space, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, in New York City’s Chelsea arts district, with a program focusing on internationally active mid-career artists from Southeast Asia. The gallery participated in some of the world’s top art fairs, including Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Basel Miami Beach, and Frieze New York. It placed works by its artists in an impressive list of major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, LACMA, SFMOMA, the Smithsonian Museum, Centre Pompidou, and Tate Modern.
Widely recognized as one of the most prominent and pioneering gallerists in his field, Rollins presented museum-quality exhibitions over a twelve-year period at his gallery, which was described by the New York Times as “one of the most reliably interesting spaces in Chelsea.” The gallery’s exhibitions often highlighted the links between spirituality, nature, cultural traditions, and varied forms of artistic expression, and many had powerful religious themes relating to Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.
Passionate about these issues, Rollins founded the Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts (FSA) in 2021 in order to foster and support connections between contemporary art, spirituality and faith. In his role as Executive Director, he spearheads FSA’s strategic vision, institutional partnerships, and community engagements. He works regularly with both art and faith institutions as a speaker, advisor, and thought partner. In addition to other philanthropic work, he serves as a Trustee of American Federation of Arts, a leading non-profit organization, founded in 1909, dedicated to enriching the public’s experience and understanding of the visual arts, particularly through organizing traveling exhibitions in the US and internationally.