Galleries I am Heartbroken to Never See By Cecilia Wren

By Cecilia Wren

The worst heartbreak I have experienced was when I learned about the coolest, most interesting gallery show, but it was across the country. And it ended two months ago. Living in a small town makes me envious of everyone close to art cities like New York and Los Angeles. While Flagstaff has its fair share of artist spaces, I can’t help being jealous of all of the galleries that I see on social media. There are openings, pop-ups, and events that I dream of going to before they are gone, but just can’t get there. I tend to be partial to sculpture and contemporary art, but there are some shows from painters that I want to see. These are some of the top galleries on my covet list, so you can visit them for me.

McColl Center https://mccollcenter.org/

The McColl Center is an artist center that hosts artists in residence for several months of the year and is located in Charlotte, North Carolina. They focus on contemporary artists who are doing new and inventive things. Currently, they are hosting Hopeton St.Clair Hibbert and Nancy Bowen. Both artists use mixed media sculpture, but the McColl Center has been known to host a wide variety of artists. They are also currently spotlighting Lex Marie, a contemporary painter, for print collection.

The McColl Center is on my wishlist because of how frequently there are new artists moving through the space. I look through their Instagram to see their previous exhibits and wish I had a time machine so I could see all of them. They are an internationally renowned artist space that has a long list of accomplished alumni. If you are anywhere near Charlotte, North Carolina, you have to visit.

Harsh Collective https://www.harshcollective.com/

Harsh Collective is a special place. Founded by a third-generation New Yorker and artist, Etta Harshaw founded Harsh Collective as a place to spotlight emerging artists in New York City. The gallery spotlights unconventional artists with their galleries as well as traditional painters and sculptors. What drew me to Harsh Collective was their exhibition Alchemy, a gallery of all-female artists working with metals. The artists in this show are jewelers making a large variety of styles, from gothic-inspired wall pieces to spiked and pieced shell pendants to organic-style rings. The pieces are all displayed within jewelry boxes, allowing the viewer to see them within their natural environment rather than a traditional gallery. This is another gallery that makes me wish that I had a time machine; however, they are still putting on new and interesting shows currently.

Harsh Collective’s current exhibition is Thief of Joy, a show of three Gen Z painters exploring mental health and comparison in the digital age through archival and digital imagery. The artists, Lucy Luckovich, Andy Marlowe, and Nicolina Morra, are inseparable from their Gen Z identity and ties to social media. If I had a plane ticket to New York City, Harsh Collective would be one of my first stops.

260 Madison https://simondenny.net/260-madison/

260 Madison is another New York City gallery, but it is a limited-time pop-up staged in the remnants of a Duane Reade storefront and the office space above. This pop-up focuses on new media, sculpture, and video art, all mediums that artists often have a hard time exhibiting. Staged to show until the end of November, this gallery is a limited-time offer. This gallery is also free to visit, allowing for even more people to see this groundbreaking exhibition. 260 Madison has some of the most interesting art that I have seen recently on display, and that is just what I can tell from the images and videos on social media. The exhibition has over 50 artists participating and filling the large space. Through these videos, my favorite piece is what looks like a badly taxidermied cat being held up by its front paws, staring out the window of the office space out into the city. There are so many more pieces that I can see in the videos that I know that I would love even more if I got to see them in person.

I wish I could see this show so badly, but unless teleportation is invented within the next month, there is no way for me to see it. I have to live vicariously through the social media posts and articles talking about how amazing this is. If anyone does, in fact, invent a teleporter, I would gladly test it just for a chance to see 260 Madison.

MoMA PS1 https://www.momaps1.org/en

If the MoMA was the Louvre, MoMA PS1 is the Musée d’Orsay. In the building of a historic nineteenth-century public school, the gallery is now home to new contemporary art from a breadth of artists at various places in their careers. The MoMA PS1 is home to several permanent stairwell exhibitions, one done by Cecily Brown. Brown is one of my favorite painters for her use of movement and abstraction of the figure with brushstrokes. One of the most fun things about MoMA PS1 is that they are a completely free art museum. They value community engagement with art and supporting the art, making the option of PS1 being completely free with the help of a donor a no-brainer. PS1 highlights some of the best contemporary artists living and working in New York. This would be yet another stop in my teleportation trip to New York City.

Pace Gallery’s Paul Thek Retrospective https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/paul-thek-dream-of-vanishing/

This is the exact gallery that caused the heartbreak in the introduction. Paul Thek is a sculptor who has had a large influence on my personal work, showing me new ways to display and think of how an object can be perceived as grotesquely beautiful. I heard about this show from my professor who was going to visit in June, and I was so incredibly jealous. Even with the focus of the show being Thek’s paintings, there are still several pieces from his Technological Reliquary series. As a fan of Paul Thek, I feel like I should have been flown out, especially for this gallery, and it is unfair that I wasn’t. I do know that this gallery has never heard of me, but they should have felt my telepathic brain waves and invited me personally. If I had a teleporter and a time machine, this would be one of many stops.

Everybody Gallery https://www.everybody.gallery/

Out of all of the galleries on this list, Everybody is the one that is the most accessible to me. When I first saw this space, I thought it had to be in Los Angeles, but upon further research, I realized that it was in Tucson, Arizona. It’s almost comical that the closest gallery on this list is five hours away. When I said that I lived in a small town, I meant it.

Their current exhibition, The Knockdown Serenade, is quintessentially Arizona. The artists Villamil & Villamil received their Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona, and you can see the influence of being based in Phoenix for so long. As someone who grew up in Phoenix, you can see the influences of the city in the power box and how it has graffiti repainted over it and is weathered to look like sun damage. This gallery makes me want to organize a weekend trip down to Tucson as soon as possible. Even with the heartbreak of not being able to see galleries, there is also hope. Sometimes there are galleries even closer than you think.