Bushwick Journal
Art Galleries With Less of a Profit Motive Thrive in Brooklyn
Published: March 6, 2009| NY Times
There are drawbacks to putting an art gallery in one’s living room,
among them having to keep the floors spotless and hide dirty socks. But
there are definite benefits, too: no overhead, for one, which comes in
handy if the art market, in keeping with most other markets these days,
happens to sputter to a halt.
In Bushwick, Brooklyn, galleries owned and run by artists have
sprouted over the past few years in living rooms as well as in
storefronts and factory spaces. Unlike gallery owners in Chelsea or
SoHo, many of these artists-slash-gallerists have an extra layer of
insulation against the spiraling recession. Most have full-time jobs
and said their motive for showing art was just that: to show art.
“I
never set out to do this for commercial gain, so I’m not dealing with
the same kind of commercial pressures as Manhattan,” said Jason Irwin,
who runs a gallery called Privateer in his small studio apartment, off Flushing Avenue.
Mr. Irwin, an artist himself who has a paid job working for the conceptual artist Fred Wilson, most recently showed work by Ellie Murphy,
whose eight-foot-tall macramé-like yarn hanging one could imagine in a
museum but probably would not expect to buy, or sell. He opened the
gallery in October, showing his own sculptural pieces as well as work
by other artists from as far away as Los Angeles.
read the rest...
