"The New Museum has always made a significant contribution to all of its neighborhoods from SoHo to Chelsea said Henry Buhl, collector of photography of hands and hand sculpture who serves on the Board of the New Museum.
And some left spaces in Williams-burg and other locations in Manhattan to settle in Chelsea like Bellwether and Aperture.
"We wanted to be located in the epicenter of New York's vibrant art photography scene," said Andrea Smith, Director of Communications for the Aperture Foundation, "We want to make Aperture the destination for great photography."
The Aperture Foundation, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to promoting photography was founded in 1952 by photographers Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Barbara Morgan, and Minor White, historian Beaumont Newhall, and writer/curator Nancy Newhall. The Foundation publishes a periodical four times a year called Aperture magazine. The Aperture Foundation also published books, limited-edition photographs, and portfolios. They provide artist lectures, panel discussions and a traveling exhibitions program that presents diverse exhibitions at major museums and cultural institutions throughout the world.
But the Chelsea area has also attracted newbies and foreigners opening for the first time, as well as some dealers who are reopening galleries. Many of these, such as Bill Maynes and Stefan Stux, have moved into gallery buildings where small, cheap spaces were readily available.
The activity in Chelsea is an example of how the art scene has splintered in New York. For many years, gallery owners located on the Upper East Side and on 57th Street. And SoHo's boundaries stretched south as some galleries have moved to the area just above Canal Street. Even downtown has tried to reinvent itself as a more artistic environment.
And not since the 1980's have so many galleries had multiple spaces with most of the additional locations in Chelsea. For some galleries, one Chelsea location is not enough. Paula Cooper has two spaces. Matthew Marks, has three. Perry Rubenstein, a private dealer, opened two galleries at once. And Gagosian's huge 24th Street space is equal to three separate galleries. Even the Wrong Gallery, Chelsea's smallest art gallery, has two spaces. David Zwirner, on 19th Street, and Barbara Gladstone, on 24th Street added penthouses to their locations.
"What has happened in Chelsea is great," said Gerald Peters, owner and founder of the Gerald Peters Gallery who has three gallery spaces: one on the Upper East Side of New York, one in Dallas, Texas, and one in Santa Fe, New Mexico. When asked why
he did not move to Chelsea, Peters said, "My focus is on traditional painting, and to a lesser extent on contemporary art."
In Chelsea, phases of growth are born swiftly and simultaneously in a pioneer frontier fashion. While glass-fronted galleries grow, deluxe rentals materialize like a mirages before our eyes. But as a result of fast
on the Upper East Side and project spaces in the Lower East Side and Chinatown. Her current location allows mobility to all areas of her business. Vara sponsors "Nights of Dialogue" with panels and performances about art. These Ekphrastic Evenings are a new series of interviews, talks and open conversations to revive forums for open dialogues on art and visual culture in a non-partisan environment. The first several evenings were private and successful, among those filled to capacity was a public interview with historical artist, Betty Tompkis.
"It's a decision of difference" said, Renee Vara. "SoHo is a cross-space, a weird metaphorical place of sorts that has art history looming like a specter of the past as we have moved into a 'monetized' moment in the art world."
Chelsea will never be SoHo with its 19th-century cast-iron buildings and small streets where galleries co-existed with artist's studios, restaurants, and stores with connections to most subway lines in the city. But nowadays, Chelsea is the current bustling stage for contemporary art in the world as it continues to give birth to more and more galleries.
"I feel that my outside the grid environment serves the viewer more time to look at the work and perhaps digest it instead of being inundated with far too much information as is the case of Chelsea," said Lisa Kirk, co-founder with Joe Latimore of Legion at Sensei, a gallery and incidental space located on Kenmare Street on the border of New York City's Nolita and Chinatown.
"And honestly, I just like Chinatown. And I dig the space," said Victoria Don-ner, who just founded and opened the V&A Gallery on Mott Street, "It was a gut thing."
But what is the next edge of the art world in New York? Are SoHo amd the Lower East side points of difference? Is there still a notion of alternative space in New York? Do we need them? Do we believe in them anymore? Will rents and prices of Chelsea continue to rise and price out galleries again? These thoughts are pondered by those who are perched on the edge of their seats waiting and watching for the next move in New York City's artistic playground of real estate space.
In the meantime, yellow taxis slow and turn cautiously down Chelsea streets and come to a halt at dusk. From a taxi emerges a tall man with a gleaming forehead dressed in a black suit. He steps out of the taxi with a woman in a black cocktail dress draped in curtains of black hair. As they mount the stairs in the front of the door of a gallery space, they wait. The streets fill with people. Between the silence of the notes in chatter about art, there is the melodic music of a mechanic's drill. It is 6:00. Let the exhibitions begin!
paced growth in Chelsea, anti-Chelsea sentiment has risen. Some say Chelsea is too big, too commercial, and too homogenous. And while Chelsea exemplifies the main pulse of art thought as many have flocked to this dominant marketplace, others have looked for and maintained project spaces in SoHo, the Lower East Side, and Chinatown.
Guild & Greyshkul, founded in 2003 in SoHo by Anya Kielar, Sara Van-DerBeek, and Johannes VanDerBeek, has remained in SoHo. Originally located at 22 Wooster Street, the former American Fine Arts, Guild & Greyshkul grew out of the founders' desire to create a vital gallery within a historic space. And Renee Vara established Vara Fine Arts in SoHo and moved into the Water D'Maria Earth Room Building on 141 Wooster Street for both nostalgic and practical reasons. Although she does business in Chelsea, the focus of her business is with collectors