Collier Gwin biography: 13 things about San Francisco, California art dealer

Who is Collier Gwin?

Shannon Collier Gwin is an American art dealer from San Francisco, California, United States. He is Dr. Shannon Horace Gwin and Lucille “Luci” Pieper Gwin‘s son.

Collier has three siblings namely Hannah Gwin Munden, Marshall Allen Gwin and David Kelly Gwin. Collier owns Foster-Gwin Art and Antiques on Hotaling Place in Jackson Square in San Francisco.

On July 1, 1987, the art gallery was filed as a California stock corporation named Foster-Gwin Inc. Among Collier’s clients were Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Reilly, David Rockefeller, Diana Knowles, Dodie Rosekrans, Dolph Andrews, Ichiro Suzuki, Gregg Popovich and Joe Lacob.

Aside from San Francisco, Collier has lived in other parts of California including San Anselmo. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. He previously lived in Portland, Oregon, USA.
2. He is 2 years older than his wife Victoria Foster Gwin.
3. He was born in 1951.
4. In 1977, he moved to San Francisco.
5. In 1984, he opened Foster-Gwin Art and Antiques.
6. In 1992, he bought his first painting from Wayne Thiebaud‘s son Paul Thiebaud.
7. On February 7, 1996, he and Victoria hosted a preview of period jewelry at the Foster-Gwin gallery on Hotaling Place in San Francisco.
8. In 2000, his brother Marshall died at age 46.
9. On February 23, 2007, his father died at age 87.
10. In 2008, he and Victoria decided to remodel their Jackson Square shop and build a new apartment on top of the Foster-Gwin gallery.
11. On September 18, 2009, he filed a family-marriage dissolution/divorce lawsuit against Victoria.
12. On September 16, 2015, his mother passed away at age 88.
13. On August 3, 2016, he filed a petition for dissolution without children case against Victoria.

TIMELINE

2023

• At around 6:00 a.m. on January 9, 2023, Brioche Bakery co-owner Edson Garcia recorded a video of him spraying an unhoused woman with a hose near the Foster-Gwin gallery. He apologized after the video went viral.
• Shortly after 4:00 p.m. on January 18, 2023, San Francisco Police Department officers arrested him near the Foster-Gwin gallery for misdemeanor battery in connection with him spraying an unhoused woman with a hose on January 9, 2023. He posted $2,500 bail.
• On July 10, 2023, a San Francisco judge approved a pretrial diversion agreement for him, which stated the charges filed against him in January 2023 would be dismissed after he volunteered 35 hours at the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco with civil rights champion Rev. Amos C. Brow.
• In a The Wall Street Journal article published on July 19, 2023, he wrote, “I’ve been cleaning the sidewalk in front of my art gallery every morning since 1984. One morning in January, a mentally ill homeless woman made an unsanitary mess in front of my building. It wasn’t the first time. When she refused to move so I could clean it up, I lost my temper and sprayed her with water.”