A game-ready strategy is perhaps the most intuitive way for a professional athlete to go about collecting art. For Elliot Perry, that is his play—building a collection on his own terms, and winning. As a veteran NBA player with 10 seasons on the court, Perry is now part-owner of his former team, the Memphis Grizzlies. Beyond his role as an executive, Perry and his wife, Kimberly, also spend time mentoring players—including 2011 MVP Derrick Rose—sharing valuable insights into the world of art and financial planning. “I want to pay it forward by helping the next generation of players toward a similar path,” Perry says.
The Perrys have amassed a personal art collection spanning hundreds of items and artifacts including works by Radcliffe Bailey, Torkwase Dyson, and Alma Thomas. The couple recently shared their collection with the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the exhibition “Beyond Boundaries: Black Abstraction in the Elliot and Kimberly Perry Art Collection.”
Below, the couple tell us about the factors that shaped their approach to collecting, from childhood memories to the mentors who taught them to see art as a team sport.
What are your earliest memories of art?
Elliot Perry: I would say in my childhood, as early as I can remember. My grandfather marched in the Memphis sanitation strike in 1968, and I can clearly recall those iconic Ernest Withers photos of the sanitation workers carrying their “I AM A MAN” protest banners.
Kimberly Perry: Aside from Elliot helping to train my eye as an adult, I’ve always had an appreciation for art. Not so much fine art, but I’ve always leaned toward the arts in general—from visual art to furniture. And with Elliot, I discovered abstract art and am now a true fan of the medium.
Are there any standout artworks that you remember from your childhood?
Elliot: In addition to our family photographs, my mother did have a Curtis Jeré brass piece that resembles a 3-D starburst with mid-century molded birds on it. Kimberly and I eventually acquired that piece from her, and we now have it in our home. My uncle also had velvet paintings with vivid male and female renderings on his wall during the ’70s, but I never made the connection to “fine art” back then because the art in our home simply reflected who we were as a family.
Kimberly: My father owned a huge carved wooden mask that he brought from Mexico, which always resonated with me. My mother and grandmother also had a lot of decorative furniture and items around the house, including some fancy candelabra from a popular company called Home Interiors back then.
What was the first art piece that you purchased as an adult?
Kimberly: A famous art print by John T. Biggers.
Elliot: My first purchases included works by Ernest Withers and a diasporic print by Paul Goodnight that I remembered seeing featured on The Cosby Show.
How do you determine which artworks will become a purchase for your home?
Elliot: We love figurative art, abstraction, and works on moving blankets. We certainly want to push the envelope on what Black art—along with all the different artistic mediums from the diaspora—is and can be.
Kimberly: It’s become personal in the way that we acquire our art. There’s a connection with initially meeting an artist and learning their backstory.
Do you work with an art advisor to acquire any of your works?
Kimberly: No. There’s no middleman involved in our collection process.
Elliot: We know every artist personally, so it’s never just a transactional process for us. Former NBA player Darrell Walker became one of my early mentors and introduced me to collecting art while I was still playing in the league. He introduced me to several artists, including Benny Andrews and Elizabeth Catlett, and taught me the importance of being a caretaker of an artist’s work as opposed to just being a collector or working with a broker.
Tell us about lending works from your collection to the Harvey B. Gantt Center and working with curator Dr. Anita N. Bateman.
Elliot: For our “Beyond Boundaries” exhibition at the Gantt Center, we wanted to see how Black art patrons would respond to an all-abstract exhibition that doesn’t have human figures on display. It was partly inspired by Darby English’s [book] 1971: A Year in the Life of Color.
Kimberly: Dr. Bateman was a pleasure to work with, and she helped us fill the entire center with works from our personal collection. Ultimately, the exhibition’s conversation was a throughline across each of the gallery’s three floor spaces, featuring artwork dating from 1950 to 2026.
Do you have any words of advice for young artists and collectors?
Elliot: It’s important to remember that art and the process of collecting art are team sports. I learned this early on from amazing people like my mentors A.C. Hudgins and Darrell Walker, along with network support from power couple Martin Nesbitt and Dr. Anita Blanchard, Pérez Art Museum Miami Director Franklin Sirmans, Dr. Darryl Atwell, and, of course, Kimberly. We share notes on what’s happening in and around our community, and we always advocate for young artists and collectors to tell authentic stories from their own points of view, and not solely from an academic perspective.
Kimberly: It doesn’t cost you anything to look at art. It’s important to look, read, learn, and be inquisitive about art, which eventually leads you to become a collector. Each person’s collection should be unique and should reflect who they are as a person.
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