TEAM
Gus Udo
Gus is the Founder and CEO of 54 Projects LLC. He has over 35 years of experience as a financial innovator and fintech entrepreneur. Gus has dedicated his career to building billion-dollar markets for new alternative asset classes, including illiquid emerging market debt, supply chain finance invoices, and art. His most recent client was Airbus SAS, the world's leading commercial aircraft manufacturer. He is a keen follower of post-war and contemporary African art. He co-hosted with Ethan Cohen one of the first post-war and contemporary African art exhibits in New York in 1990, at the Ethan Cohen Gallery. Gus was co-portfolio manager for the Nigeria Emerging Market Fund, the first ever offshore country fund for Nigerian debt and equity. He started his career at Shearson Lehman Brothers as a financial analyst. Gus is a graduate of Harvard College and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gus will be responsible for the day-to-day management of operations of the 54 Art Fund and will make and monitor investments in the fund.
Ethan Cohen
Investor and leading Chelsea Gallerist, Ethan is a graduate of Harvard College and has represented both emerging and internationally renowned artists for over 30 years. Many of the emerging artists have now become household names, such as Ai Weiwei and Aboudia. Ethan Cohen advises private clients, public Institutions, and corporate collections. He is a certified appraiser with the Appraisers Association of America, specializing in post-war and contemporary Asian and African art. Ethan Cohen Gallery occupies a distinct place in post-war and contemporary art as a center of innovation across disciplines and countries. The Gallery presents artists and serves clientele through global art fairs, curatorial projects, and acts as a center for seminal cultural events. Today Ethan Cohen Gallery has two branch locations, one in Chelsea in the heart of New York City and the other in the Hudson Valley in Beacon, New York.
Ethan Cohen will advise the fund as to the desirability of art acquisitions for the 54 Art Fund.