About Crystal

Crystal Hines has spent nearly two decades moving between two worlds that rarely intersect: the disciplined, data-driven side of retail and e-commerce, and the personal, relationship-driven world of art and artists.

For 18 years, Crystal built her career in merchandise planning and e-commerce strategy for major fashion and retail brands, including Guess, Calvin Klein, Halston, Lucky Brand, Trina Turk, and Macy's — work that trained her to read demand, spot patterns, and make high-stakes decisions with incomplete information. At the same time, she was building a second career entirely her own: in 2007, she founded AMMO Magazine, a quarterly publication spotlighting emerging and established artists, which she edited for 13 years. In 2019, she founded The Super LLC, an artist-support organization providing grants, programming, and community for artists across Los Angeles and New York.

Those two careers taught her the same lesson from opposite directions: good decisions come from real information, not guesswork — and access to that information shouldn't be limited to people with unlimited budgets.

That belief led her to launch this advisory. Crystal works with collectors who are ready to buy seriously and thoughtfully, within a real budget — bringing the analytical rigor of her retail career and the relationships built over a decade in the art world to every recommendation. She has a particular grounding in Black art history, developed through years of self-directed study and time spent with artists, curators, and collections domestically and abroad, including the Venice Biennale.

She holds a degree in Fashion Marketing and Management from Berkeley College.