The most notable thing about Leo Fitzpatrick’s new gallery, aptly named Public Access, might be its location: a basement space on not-particularly artful St. “I think the art market, versus something like retail, is getting through this,” said Cole. But the Palm Beach class is still buying-even this year’s mostly online Art Basel saw healthy action. “The challenge is getting the collector base through the door,” says Spengemann, noting that many fled the city in the spring and tend to be on the older side. Opening a gallery during a global pandemic is not without its difficulties. Cole and Spengemann found the space on Broadway by calling a number listed on an empty storefront.
Many others have followed the collector class to Los Angeles or Miami for the winter, or relied on a combination of online viewing rooms and sympathetic landlords to stay afloat. The storied Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, for one, closed for good as Brown went to the larger Gladstone. Covid has blown up whatever little predictability there was-with the suspension of art fairs and a months-long ban on indoor viewing that appears likely to go back into effect in the coming weeks, galleries of all sizes have battled for survival. In good times, galleries exist in a ruthless market. So were a dozen or so people who arrived at the Tribeca space (located on, of course, Broadway) on a recent Saturday for the opening of the gallery’s show of Meg Lipke’s monumental, sculptural canvases, a number that eventually required Spengemann to apologetically enforce an occupancy limit. For Pascal Spengemann, who opened the new gallery Broadway with business partner Joe Cole in October, the decision to hang his shingle during the covid era came down to a need many New Yorkers felt after a six month museum and gallery closure: “I’m, number one, very excited to be in a room with artwork again,” Spengemann said.
0 kommentar(er)
