Artist Sylvia Maier with dealer Frank Bernarducci at Bernarducci Gallery (photo by Marina Tychinina, courtesy Bernarducci Gallery)
Art galleries are kind of like restaurants. It’s a hard business, and although it’s always sad when one closes (especially after many years serving the neighborhood), when a new one opens, it brings new promise. While 2017 saw the closing of venues like Envoy Enterprises, CRG Gallery, and Sandra Gering Inc., it also witnessed the opening of several brand new galleries in New York City. Here are a few of them.
Bernarducci Gallery Chelsea (529 West 20th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
Longtime art dealer and curator Frank Bernarducci’s new gallery focuses on realist painting. He opened a project space in January and moved into a larger Chelsea gallery in October. Bernarducci’s inaugural Chelsea show, New Precisionism, brought together paintings and photographs by 19 artists, including John Baeder, Nathan Walsh, and Sally Davies. The current exhibition, Neil MacCormick: One Day at Rest, paintings of the artist’s everyday life as captured by cameras mounted on the ceiling of his condo, runs through January 27.
A peak inside the storefront window of HIGH NOON during its inaugural show, The Painted Desert, Part I (courtesy HIGH NOON)
HIGH NOON (106 Eldridge Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan)
Founded by California native Jared Linge, HIGH NOON opened in October with a two-part group exhibition, The Painted Desert, highlighting paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and collages by the gallery’s 18 represented artists. (Full disclosure: I wrote the gallery’s inaugural exhibition essay.) HIGH NOON’s current exhibition, Ryan Crotty: Never the Less, featuring photographic abstract paintings covered with translucent layers of paint, is open through February 4.
Jenkins Johnson Projects, exterior view (courtesy Jenkins Johnson Projects)
Jenkins Johnson Projects (207 Ocean Avenue, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn)
The San Francisco-based gallery opened a space in September in a brownstone across the street from Prospect Park, with the goal of collaborating with artists and curators in the local community. Jenkins Johnson began its life in New York with two simultaneous exhibitions, both organized by Brooklyn-based curator Derrick Adams — a solo show by Brooklyn painter Arjan Zazueta on the first floor and the 6-artist group exhibition, Hidden in Plain Sight, in the basement. The current show, Homeostasis: Vaughn Spann and Leonardo Benzant, is guest curated by Brooklyn-based Dexter Wimberly and runs through January 20.
Luciana Brito NY Project (186 Franklin Street, Tribeca, Manhattan)
São Paulo gallerist Luciana Brito opened a New York offshoot exhibition space in September in an effort to bring historical Brazilian artists to New York. The inaugural show, Ruptura, featured Brazilian modernists like Waldemar Cordeiro, Geraldo de Barros, and Gaspar Gasparian. The current group exhibition of “Selected Works” is up through February 25.
Mignoni Gallery (960 Madison Avenue, 2nd floor, Upper East Side, Manhattan)
Fernando Mignoni, formerly of Christie’s in London and Galería Elvira González in Madrid, opened his own gallery in October in the old Waterhouse & Dodd space. With a focus on European and American postwar art in general, and minimalism in particular, for its inaugural exhibition, Mignoni Gallery hosted Donald Judd: Progressions, which closed in December. Its second show, featuring the early works of Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, On Kawara, and Sol LeWitt, runs January 16 through April 10.
OLSEN GRUIN installed with its summer show, Wesley Martin Berg and Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri (courtesy OLSEN GRIUIN)
OLSEN GRUIN (30 Orchard Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan)
Founded by Australian art dealer Tim Olsen and gallerists Emerald and Adrian Gruin (formerly of Rox Gallery, which closed in 2014), OLSEN GRUIN opened in Nolita last March, before relocating to a larger space on the Lower East Side in June. The gallery’s first show, On Elizabeth (the gallery was on Elizabeth Street), featured painting, drawing, and sculpture by Emily Pwerle, Leo Gabin, Mike Bouchet, Folkert de Jong, and Koak. The current exhibition, Jens Einhorn: Raw Visions, a collection of colorful abstract collages, runs through February 5.
Páramo Gallery (Upper East Side, Manhattan)
The Mexican gallery opened a space in an undisclosed Upper East Side location (open by appointment only) in November to give further exposure to its represented artists. Páramo’s new location is headed by Alexandra Garcia Waldman — formerly director of Brazil’s Galeria Nara Roesler, which she helped to open a New York branch in 2014. The gallery’s first show features 10 artists, including Naama Tsabar, Eamon Ore-Giron, and Francisco Toledo, and closes January 18.
PROXYCO (168 Suffolk Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan)
In November, Laura Saenz (former director of Leon Tovar Gallery), art consultant Alexandra Morris, and architect Enrique Norten founded PROXYCO, a gallery specifically focused on disseminating the works of emerging and mid-career Latin American artists. The inaugural exhibition, Talon Rouge: Six Mexican Artists Revisit José Juan Tablada and His New York Circle — celebrating the early 20th-century Mexican poet, critic, and diplomat through the eyes of contemporary artists — is up through January 28.
Inside Sara Kay Gallery installed with the current show, Function to Freedom: Quilts and Abstract Expressions (courtesy Sara Kay Gallery)
Sara Kay Gallery (4 East 2nd Street, East Village, Manhattan)
Former White Cube director Sara Kay opened her new gallery in September in the old Rivington Arms space. Founder of the Professional Organization of Women in the Arts, Kay uses her new gallery space to emphasize the work of female artists. Sara Kay’s inaugural show, A Limitless Vision: The Collection of Audrey B. Heckler, featured more than 30 works of outsider art alongside works by Jean Dubuffet and Pablo Picasso. The current exhibition, Function to Freedom: Quilts and Abstract Expressions, is open through January 27.
