Art on the Outskirts
By Yaphet Murphy
Art Galleries Outside the Traditional Art Communities of New York City
In New York City, the art capital of the world, neighborhoods like Chelsea and SoHo have become known for their high concentrations of art galleries, often several to a block.
But these areas aren’t the only place to find art in the city. A number of galleries recently have opened in neighborhoods far from the historic heart of the art world in Manhattan. These new artistic outposts are lured by everything from cheaper rent for gallery space, to wanting to have their galleries close to home or close to the artists or patrons whom their gallery serves.
An example is the Elisa Contemporary Art Gallery that opened in 2008 in Riverdale, an area in the north western-most region of the Bronx, just south of Yonkers. Located on Mosholu Avenue, a largely residential street, and just steps away from the public library and real estate offices, the gallery has added a splash of color to an otherwise utilitarian strip of local activity. Lisa Cooper, one of the co-founders, who operates the gallery said, “I originally started it as a virtual business, online and private showings, and launched the gallery in September 2008, and it’s been amazing. I love what I do and love connecting with people and seeing how they interact with the art.” She chose Riverdale because it is where she and her husband live.
For the neighborhood, the gallery’s presence marks a transition from merely encouraging art patronage through public display at cultural sites like Wave Hill, Hebrew Home for the Aged, and Van Cortlandt Park, each site nearby, to encouraging the purchase of art that is being sold in a manner equivalent to that of Chelsea and SoHo galleries. Cooper says, “There isn’t really a contemporary art gallery in Riverdale. It’s such a cultured area, and affluent area, plus a multi-cultured area that I felt it is really something that the neighborhood needed.”
Leaving the northwest region of the Bronx and traveling south across the harbor on the Staten Island ferry, there is the home and gallery of art dealer Gary Brant and his wife Jamie Brant. Their gallery, Galerie St. George, opened in the St. George neighborhood at the northern end of Staten Island in 2006. Brant says, “We (he and his wife) were renovating houses and we had all of this space and I said why not use some of it to showcase the work of local artists.” Located at the end of a cul-de-sac, the gallery is sited in a historic three story Victorian home formerly owned by the Phelps Stokes family, 20th century millionaires. The Brants have owned the house for 20 years and only recently converted three of the ground floor rooms of their home into gallery space. They now offer studio tours on the weekends.
Part of the reason why central location is no longer as important is that gallery sales are often just a small component of the art dealer’s business. Cooper says most of her work takes place outside of the gallery and includes travel for exhibition in nearby hotspots for art buyers like the Hamptons and upstate New York to even the far-flung art markets of Boston and Miami.
On a weekend in early May, Cooper closed her gallery and ported her wares to the Affordable Art Fair, staged on the 6th floor of a building sitting directly opposite the Empire State Building, a magnet area for tourists. At the fair, other art dealers from as far away as the United Kingdom and Australia set up booths to sell to art buyers. Both local and international art buyers were in attendance.
Cooper says, “This is my 3rd year my gallery Elisa Contemporary Art has exhibited at the show. This year’s attendance was strong, especially on opening night. What I noticed this year was a greater gravitation toward works on paper and a slightly longer consideration before buying versus previous years.”
Brant has begun to engage buyers online. A former technology executive, envisions a day when buyers feel completely comfortable making fine art purchases over the Internet, and has acted to take advantage of the trend while it’s in its infancy. He has ventured to conduct sales business online through his website 140hours.com. The site’s name, 140hours, is a reference to character limit allowable for each post on Twitter. Buyers bid on artworks sold by artists whom his gallery represents.
For these gallery owners, finding artists to exhibit appears to be the easy part. Cooper says that at the art fairs she exhibits at, a lot of the attendees tend to be artists, and afterwards she receives lots of portfolios from artists interested in being represented by her gallery. She also advertises in popular art magazines and receives interests from these as well.
Brant has attracted artists from as far away as Germany. He says, “They hear that I’m from New York and they are immediately interested. They don’t necessarily recognize the difference between Staten Island and New York.”
Still, survival as an independent gallery on the outskirts of the greatest art market in America takes lots of work, and help when you can get it. Brant credits the Staten Island Borough President’s office and the arts coalition COAHSI (Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island) for working to promote the work of local artists and galleries. Another Staten Island duo, Brendan Coyle and Amanda Curtis have organized a monthly arts tour of over a dozen galleries located in the St. George neighborhood, bringing much appreciated foot traffic and publicity for gallery owners.
In the Bronx, the Bronx Council on the Arts offers regular tours of a cluster of art galleries and institutions located in the corridor intersected by the Grand Concourse and E. 149th St. Though outside this circuit, the Elisa Tucci gallery benefits nonetheless through the steady promotion of the Bronx by the Bronx Council on the Arts as an arts and culture destination. The Bronx Trolley, a free Bronx tour ride operated by the Borough President’s office, makes it’s first and final stop on Mosholu Avenue, just a few short blocks away from the Elisa Contemporary Gallery.