Greenpoint gallerists Lia Post and Scott Chasse talk shop in Calico, the 370-square-foot space Chasse opened at 67 West Street in the fall of 2012. Paintings by Thomas Buildmore hang in the background. (Photo by Philippe Theise)
This piece was submitted for class in March 2013. Calico, one of the featured galleries in it, opens “Rare Forms,” the first show in its new space at 67 West Street, tonight. Fowler Arts Collective’s gallery has “Who’s Taylor Swift Anyway?” up through April 13, and Yes Gallery shows “On the Wall” through April 20.
Calico, a small art gallery on the second floor of a converted warehouse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, buzzed with animated conversations during the opening of an exhibit called Color Corrupted on Friday, March 15, 2013. Almost 30 people filled the space between the bright acrylic and oil paintings, and the abstract and semi-readymade sculptures, priced between $500 and $3,800.
There weren’t any colored, circular stickers to indicate a sale beside the artwork, but Scott Chasse, Calico’s owner and director, looked happy. He can afford to work slowly toward his goal of making Calico a destination for “emerging buyers”: in a studio that’s adjacent to the gallery, Chasse does woodwork for artists, which earns him a living and pays the rent for his gallery.
“Sometimes artists who I meet through exhibitions [here] hire me,” he said.
Chasse’s strategy somewhat reflects the ways gallerists in Greenpoint manage to show art. In a neighborhood that has grown more expensive, but is still perceived as out-of-the-way, gallerists have found different ways to open and maintain spaces.
Down the hall from Calico, Lia Post runs Fowler Arts Collective. Within a 4,500-square-foot space, she rents semi-private studios to over 25 artists and also operates a gallery, Fowler Project Space. She rarely sells the pieces that are on display, but that isn’t her primary goal for the gallery.
“We’re still at this point where it’s serving as a hub for artists, rather than a salesroom or a showroom,” she said. “It makes for interesting, different shows that don’t have to be commercial.”
When she needs to generate more income, Post reconfigures Fowler, eliminating an underused photo studio here and sectioning off another personal studio there. And she also rents the gallery for film shoots and other events.
Post pays about $1.50 per square foot for the collective’s space, up from $1 in 2010, when she called a number on the side of the Greenpoint Terminal Market building at 67 West Street to inquire about renting space. She and Chasse agree that the original $1 rate is all-but-impossible to find now.
Lesley Doukhowetsky is perhaps the best gallerist to speak about rent in Greenpoint. A native New Yorker, she also works as a real estate agent in the neighborhood. In 2006, a landlord hired her to rent a raw basement space on India Street by the G Train entrance.
“[I] saw the potential. [It] popped into my head,” she said. “I pretty much built a space that was dirt and tree trunks.”
Doukhowetsky made a deal with her client: in exchange for doing the construction herself, she would rent the basement for $1,500 and sign a five-year lease with an option to renew. Viewers packed the opening for her first show at Yes Gallery in 2008.
“I had been talking about it for a year and a half,” she explained.
Earlier this month, Doukhowetsky showed pieces at Fountain Art Fair at the Lexington Avenue Armory, where Chasse also rented a booth. At Yes, she’s now exhibiting Almost Priceless, a show featuring 12 artists. She’s sold two works for $1,500 and over: a painting by Nicole Handel and a piece by Colin Goldberg. The Goldberg work sold to a Greenpoint resident.
“A neighbor just bought the most expensive thing in here,” Doukhowetsky said.
Chasse and Post think that Greenpoint may be developing into a stronger market for art. Chasse envisions his future client base as “the younger couples, the 30-somethings, [who] maybe bought a piece of property for the first time.”
The gallerists are mindful of the plans, detailed in a front-page article in the New York Times’ Real Estate section last July, for developers to build hundreds and even thousands of residential units in the neighborhood.
And the city’s Department of Design and Construction plans to install a two-lane bike path on West Street. Even now, Chasse says, Calico gets walk-in traffic from new faces.
“When I put my little sandwich board out front, on Friday afternoons, you do have people coming down to West Street. I’ve sold to strangers [saying] ‘we love this place, here’s $300,’” he said.
Doukhowetsky warns that anyone who wants to open a new gallery in Greenpoint better do so now. She estimates that her landlord could now charge $2,500 for her space.
But she also feels that Yes contributes to the very culture that sustains it.
“I’m creating collectors in the neighborhood, [who] never even thought of collecting art.”