Gordon Robichaux Proves There’s an Alternative to the Blue-Chip System

Nestled between therapist workplaces and reiki salons on the ninth flooring of a 17-story excessive rise on the westside of New York’s Union Sq., Gordon Robichaux is a gallery for these in-the-know. And in its eight years of existence, it has transformed a loyal following, a mixture of collectors, curators, and critics, to its intently watched program. Every of its exhibitions elaborately delves right into a given artist’s story, paying shut consideration to their modern use of supplies.

Gordon Robichaux’s spring programming pulls again the curtain on the group of artists it has cultivated over time. On the gallery, it has simply opened two exhibitions, each devoted to late buddy, artist and curator Jenni Crain, whereas concurrently dedicating its sales space at Frieze New York this week to her as nicely.

Crain contributed to the gallery’s first group present, in 2018, a 12 months after its founding, and had mounted a two-person exhibition there the next 12 months. Moreover displaying with the gallery, the mixed-media sculptor was a vital help as a buddy, curator, and a salesman throughout their early years.

Her sudden passing in 2021 at age 30 from Covid-19 was an immense shock to the gallery and its group. In 2022, the gallery mounted two exhibitions for Crain: one that includes two works accomplished simply earlier than her loss of life and one for her last curatorial venture, “Synonyms for Sorrow.”

A mixture of grief and pleasure course by means of the brand new reveals. “Jenni’s work at all times grappled with reminiscence, and sensory and bodily experiences in relationship to things, area, textures, and structure,” gallery cofounder Jacob Robichaux informed ARTnews.

The just-opened exhibitions function an unrealized flooring sculpture by Crain, completed by her eponymous basis in collaboration with two woodworkers she had beforehand labored with, at its smaller 907 area, whereas the bigger 925 area will host “Untitled Exhibition (for Jenni),”together with the works of artists who influenced her, like photographer Tee Corinne, painter March Avery, and furnishings designer Kate Millett, who was the topic of Crain’s thesis at CCS Bard, or whose lives and practices she touched in a technique or one other, reminiscent of Justin Probability, Talia Chetrit, Nick Fusaro and fellow gallery artist Miles Huston, the opposite half of her two-person present.

Huston, a frequent collaborator of Crain’s, additionally stepped in to understand the work at 907, consisting of two massive items lattice-shaped basswood, which Crain had conceived of for the area simply earlier than her passing . Every measuring round 7.75 ft in size, the sculpture’s two parts needed to be carried 9 flights up by 4 artwork handlers. “That is the religious dimension of artwork, that it exists past individuals who make it,” Robichaux mentioned. “One of many central tenets of artwork making, despite the fact that it’s not at all times acutely aware, is that there’s this object that continues to speak one thing in time and area past our bodily presence.”

Artists Sam Gordon and Jacob Robichaux began their eponymous enterprise in February 2017 on the 925 area; initially, it was accessible just for six months. The earlier 12 months, Gordon had curated a gaggle present, “Individuals of Curiosity,” for arts nonprofit Visible AIDS on the Bureau of Common Companies—Queer Division within the West Village. The exhibition introduced collectively an intergenerational cohort, all of whom had been HIV/AIDS activists, from deceased artists like Keith Haring, Tseng Kwong Chi, Chloe Dzubilo, Tim Greathouse, Hugh Steers, and Affrekka Jefferson to those that had survived the epidemic like Reverend Joyce McDonald, Luna Luis Ortiz, Raynes Birkbeck, and the late Hunter Reynolds to youthful artists carrying on their legacy like Ben Cuevas. That dedication, to shed gentle onto artists whose livelihood and practices have been ignored and under-recognized, extends to what unfolds within the gallery’s modest areas to today.

As a duo, Gordon and Robichaux organized their first group present collectively at a legislation workplace with artists whom they’d quickly come to signify, together with the iconoclastic East Village painter and performer Tabboo! (born Stephen Tashjian) and the sought-after Brooklyn-based, Ugandan sculptor Leilah Babirye. “We used that first expertise as a assume tank,” Gordon informed ARTnews.

Their inaugural present because the gallery Gordon Robichaux was for mixed-media artist Ken Tisa. Even then, it hinted on the aesthetic and thematic pillars it has turn into to be recognized for: sculptural collages assembled from emotionally charged discovered objects, archival ephemera orchestrated into arresting shows, and work with a uncooked diarist edge. Tisa had been Robichaux’s professor at Parsons Faculty of Design within the late ’90s. When the chance to prepare an exhibition arose, Robichaux instantly considered exhibiting a physique of labor he “solely knew by means of photographs,” he mentioned, visiting Tisa’s Soho loft with Gordon to see a decades-long assortment of ephemera and objects. The final time lots of his small-scale work about magnificence and loss had been exhibited have been at P.S.1 Modern Artwork Heart (now MoMA PS1) within the ’80s.

“This residence was actually a backdrop for a lot of performances and ephemeral occasions that had occurred [there] by Ethel Eichelberger and Peter Hujar,” Robichaux mentioned.

The response to Tisa’s quirky however deliberate artwork rapidly established it as a contemporary gallery voice value watching, with glowing evaluations from each the New York Instances and Artforum. The vital popularity of this system has solely elevated within the eight years since. As a business enterprise, they’ve been profitable too, taking part in necessary gala’s like Artwork Basel Miami Seaside and Impartial in New York. However much more importantly, the duo has been profitable in getting lots of their 24 artists into the everlasting collections of high museums, together with the Museum of Trendy Artwork, Vienna’s MUMOK, and the Artwork Institute of Chicago.

However the founders are humble about their method as gallerists. “It boils right down to the truth that we’re each artists, and we all know deal with different artists,” Gordon defined of their knack of elevating the profiles of obscure figures.

Tabboo!—a beloved determine for the reason that ’80s recognized equally for his drag persona and erratic work—is only one case research. He’s had a profession resurgence for the reason that gallery’s revelatory solo, “World of Tabboo!,” in 2017. The mix of energetic portraits from East Village’s heydays, together with certainly one of Haring, and up to date cityscapes paid homage to the town’s wonderful previous and stark current.

A capsule assortment that includes his flamboyant work from Supreme adopted, as did acquisitions from the Museum of High-quality Arts, Houston (in 2020); the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2021); the Institute of Modern Artwork Miami (2022); and the Whitney Museum (2024). Style-making gallery Karma quickly got here knocking, sharing illustration with the artist since 2021, taking a portray of his to the inaugural version of Frieze Seoul the next 12 months. Earlier this 12 months, the 2 galleries mounted a three-venue exhibition for Tabboo!

However the duo mentioned their method isn’t centered from a tutorial background however one which places artists first. “We’re not re-inventing something however simply attempting to re-write artwork historical past backwards, retroactively with artists who’ve been stored outdoors of it,” Gordon mentioned.

Tribeca seller Ales Ortuzar additionally took discover of their program. He joined forces with them in late 2020 for an formidable survey of the mixed-media collagist, poet, and dressmaker Frederick Weston, who had died a couple of months earlier at 73. By this level, Gordon Robichaux had included his work of their first group present, mounted a solo for him, and helped set up a site-specific set up Weston on the Ace Resort. The present at Ortuzar’s White Avenue area featured physique maps, prints, drawings, and photo-collages which the artist had created, starting in 1979 and up till his loss of life.

Partnerships with blue-chip galleries, like Karma and Ortuzar, have been key to how Gordon Robichaux has been in a position to develop its program not simply rapidly however efficiently. The founders see it in its place format at a second when galleries of their dimension are struggling throughout an unsure market.

“We’re rising exponentially, however not within the conventional approach,” Gordon mentioned.

Their solely bodily extension outdoors of New York has been two fast stints in Los Angeles. In March 2020, they did a gallery swap with LA’s Parker Gallery, and that summer time they mounted a gaggle present at Marc Selwyn High-quality Artwork in Beverly Hills. Then, in 2022, gallery artist Eve Fowler handed over her studio throughout her absence to shoot a movie. There, they mounted two solo exhibitions one for Leilah Babirye after which one for experimental images of artist and Tribeca seller Kerry Schuss, each of which led to native institutional acquisitions from the Hammer and the Museum of Modern Artwork, respectively.

In lieu of increasing their bodily footprint in New York or elsewhere, the founders as a substitute concentrate on enhancing their artists’ world visibility. After an artist receives their very first or long-overdue solo at Gordon Robichaux, the vital and business buzz in flip lends itself to curiosity from greater gamers, because it has with Tabboo! and Weston. That recipe for achievement extends throughout the pond to a few London galleries whom they share artist illustration: McDonald with Maureen Paley, Siobhan Liddell with Hollybush Gardens, and Sanou Oumar with Herald St. This week, Hollybush Gardens will even open a present for one more Gordon Robichaux artist, Rosemary Mayer, that includes the late artist’s mixed-media sculptures and drawings made between 1971 and 1983.

“The artwork world has flattened,” Gordon mentioned merely.

Whereas Gordon Robichaux could also be higher recognized for its concentrate on artists of an older technology, it has additionally been serving to help the careers of a choose few rising artists, like Babirye, who fled Uganda in 2015 after she was outed. That 12 months, she secured asylum within the US by means of the Fireplace Island Artist Residency, the place the duo first encountered her work. Her totemic sculptures of a recent divinity and womanhood struck them. “As an African lesbian girl, she owns a practice that Picasso or Braque claimed as theirs,” Gordon mentioned.

However, at that time, Babirye’s future within the US was nonetheless in limbo. They offered her with a Brooklyn studio the place she carved picket sculptures out of the particles from close by bike restore retailers that may type the premise of her New York solo debut, in 2018. She arrived to the opening after a supply shift for Uber Eats. The artist’s second exhibition sold-out early in its month-and-a half-long run. A co-representation cope with London’s Stephen Friedman Gallery adopted in 2021. In 2023, she accomplished a residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield, England, with a solo present there following the subsequent 12 months, when she participated within the Venice Biennale’s fundamental exhibition, “Foreigners In every single place.” Her first exhibition with Galerie Max Hetzler opened final week as a part of Berlin Gallery weekend. And, the ICA Boston has a present of her sculptures scheduled for 2026.

That they’ve managed to keep up these artists on their rosters is a testomony to the care and artist-forward pondering they’ve imbued into this venture. Their secret for mutual loyalty is listening. They wish to be “of service to the artists, particularly those that haven’t the luck or the push,” in line with Gordon.

White Columns director and chief curator Matthew Higgs, who has collaborated with the gallery a number of instances, referred to as Gordon Robichaux “one of the vital necessary applications in the complete artwork world,” which he attributed to their “integrity, good grace, and humor.”

A part of their success, Higgs mentioned, is that their location in Union Sq., as a substitute of Chelsea or Tribeca, makes their gallery a vacation spot the place guests are supposed to spend time. “They invite the guests on an intimate engagement inside a small area which permits them to concentrate on every artist with full help,” he informed ARTnews.

However how did two artists study to promote artwork to the biggest establishments? Gordon answered merely, “It’s simply enthusiasm, sincerity, and understanding,” earlier than noting that the duo very a lot needed to study the enterprise on the job. Considering by means of the query extra deeply, he continued, “There are such a lot of untold histories and we will discover connections between these artists, curators, and writers whose paths sooner or later crossed.” Amongst them is Agosto Machado, a fixture of the downtown scene who was shut associates with Marsha P. Johnson. He had by no means had a gallery present till his debut at Gordon Robichaux in 2022, from which MoMA acquired Shrine (White). (The work is presently on view in its second-floor assortment galleries.)

A loyal collector base, together with ARTnews Prime 200 Collector Beth Rudin DeWoody, has additionally helped them keep afloat. “They have been sensible to see the histories we have been exhibiting and the place they really slot in within the bigger historical past,” Gordon mentioned of the gallery’s shopper base, although he cautioned that “that tremendous obsessive collector profile is slowing down.”

However Gordon sees this as a chance to “be part of an expertise” for younger collectors simply beginning out. “Our program is our status,” he mentioned. “Many individuals nonetheless haven’t heard of us which is thrilling as a result of there may be extra to share.”