Swivel Gallery

Thank you Annie Armostrong and artnet for sharing the story of our gallery as we embark on this exciting new chapter. When the art market comes up in conversations these days, a certain somber tone, a sense of muted indignation, tends to emerge. That was very much the tenor of Swivel Gallery founder Graham Wilson’s recent post on Instagram, which began ominously: “im going to provide a precursor to something that will come out in the next days. The past six months have potentially been some of the hardest of my entire life…” But it was a bait-and-switch. Instead of announcing another gallery closure, Wilson went on to reveal that he is preparing to relocate Swivel to a 2,000 square-foot space in Manhattan’s Hudson Square neighborhood, a world away from its old home in Bushwick. The move “represents a momentous step forward in the gallery’s trajectory,” he said in a later post. I was one of many who felt a bit duped. “Yeah,” Wilson grinned over lunch this week at a Westville branch near the new space. “I stirred the pot a little bit.” Full article online https://lnkd.in/ePwHUx3k #artgallery #featured

#Featured: AMY BRAVO “TransmogrificationNow!” On artnet by @annikkaolsen “The artist has brought to life spaces from her grandparent’s house, replete with a full-scale living room.“We were very intentional [creating the space] and it was quite hard to find certain things, like the wallpaper was such a task to find. Nobody’s making stuff ugly-grandma style anymore,” said Bravo. The show speaks to Bravo’s interrogation of identity, heritage, and familial history. One that, like many, is riddled with both missing information and information one wishes that perhaps they could change. Originally from New Jersey and now based here in New York, Bravo is of Italian-Cuban descent, and the artist’s family and history loom large in her practice. Both grandmothers, one Italian and one who emigrated from Cuba pre-revolution, were seamstresses who worked in sweatshops in the city’s Garment District, a fact that has influenced Bravo’s engagement with textiles in her work….Bravo’s technical approach is highly visible in her paintings, and penchant for incorporating textile wherever possible most apparent. Working on unstretched canvas, pieces are cut out of one piece and stitched to another, compositions are rotated, and frequently don’t sit totally flush with the wall. Much of what is on the surface of the canvas isn’t paint at all, but instead graphite, wax pastel, or epoxy, sometimes with lace, webs of crochet, or a series of steel nails added for effect. She cites Cuban artist Belkis Ayón as a major influence, specifically the way Ayón’s paintings engage with space and aren’t always confined to the flat wall, similar to how Bravo’s use of mixed media challenges the very notion of what painting can be. “Instead of reaching for objects that are in the room, I reach for symbols and motifs that are being built in my world. It’s like I have this curio cabinet of motifs that I pull from into the painting, and then things will happen that I didn’t expect.” Amy Bravo’s “TransmogrificationNow!” is on view through October 7th, 2024. Open today 12-6pm, 350 Hudson Street. https://lnkd.in/e859pmfi #amybravo #contemporaryart #latinxartist #nycart #nycartgallery

#SwivelONAir: Ep.4 SIMON BENJAMIN For the fourth episode of our series, we visited Simon Benjamin’s studio at Sharpe-Walentas Studio as he was finalizing his presentation for NADA House in the Governors Islands. “I’m working in the Sharpe Walentas studio program, an amazing studio residency in DUMBO, Brooklyn. The large studio is in a former industrial space, with high ceilings and beautiful wood floors that show the passage of time. One of my favorite things about the program is that they have a list of people who were in the studio before, just outside the door. I am super grateful to be in this space and contribute to the legacy of the program. The space is big enough to have multiple workstations and a big couch to chill on. The bigger studio has allowed me to work at a larger scale, which I have really enjoyed and has opened up the possibility of bringing new layers of meaning in the work. Having this space has also allowed me to work with different mediums simultaneously and have the works interact with each other in the same space, a luxury that typically only occurs during an exhibition installation.” Read the full interview: https://lnkd.in/gJ6CQgPq Video Brian Agamie . . #simonbenjamin #contemporaryart #studiovisit #nycartist #nycartiststudio #studiovisits

It is with great pride and gratitude Swivel Gallery announces its new flagship location in Hudson Square, at 555 Greenwich Street, opening October 26th, 2024. Designed by the renowned architectural firm Husband Wife, the new 2,000 square foot space represents a momentous step forward in the gallery’s trajectory. The innovative design will provide an inspiring environment for artists and visitors alike, fostering creativity and engagement within the community. Firstly, we want to thank all of the artists who shared in our journey and allowed us to thrive, it has greatly been their efforts and growth which has guided us to multiple leaps in such a short period. We also want to thank all of the collectors and patrons who have given us continuous support over the years, and vehemently believed in our vision, as well as every person who has supported us and spread the word about the gallery and our program. All of these small factors have contributed to this moment today. The Hudson Square location will host dynamic, hyper-focused solo exhibitions from the gallery’s program, showcasing exceptional talent from both emerging and established artists. Many of these artists are international, bringing diverse voices and perspectives from around the globe. We invite art enthusiasts to join us in this new chapter, where we will continue pushing boundaries and exploring contemporary art’s ever-evolving landscape. Our special thanks goes to Hines Real Estate for their generosity, Husband Wife for their vision, Clear Concept Construction for their execution, and Tungsten Properties for facilitating such a special new home for us. See you all on the 26th. ?? @hines @husband.wife @clearconceptcm @tungstenpartners

#Featured: AMY BRAVO on @interviewmag “Every artist is a collector,” Amy Bravo remarks as she points to a curio cabinet replete with boxing gloves, synthetic hair, cow bones, and a palm tree. For her solo show TransmogrificationNOW!, now on view at Swivel Gallery’s temporary new Tribeca location, the Brooklyn-based, Italian-Cuban artist flexes a rich, visceral language that repurposes family keepsakes and found objects to create a world that reflects her own family mythology and queer experiences. “I’m more interested in pulling the cracks of the family history open and creating something new inside of it” she said. Ahead of the opening, we caught up with Bravo to chat about how her mother crocheted spider webs for her show, the reality TV shows she binges while working, and a secret society of queer Cubans. Read the full interview by @lilykwak online now on @interviewmag ! ?? TransmogrificationNow! Remains in view through October 7, at 350 Hudson Street, New York. . . #AmyBravo #contemporaryart #interviews #latinxartist #latinxart #italiancubanart #nycartists #nycartexhibition https://lnkd.in/eyfKvTVv

#OpeningToday September 7th 6-9 PM at 350 Hudson Street, New York. AMY BRAVO “TransmogrificationNOW!” The solo exhibition by Amy Bravo will feature a series of new sculptural works, paintings, merging cabinets, curios, and furniture with eerie and nostalgic elements such as bones, relics, and a multitude of media offering a unique exploration of Cuban mythology and personal narrative. Central to the exhibition are Bravo’s “Animatron” sculpture series, where repurposed antique furniture is manipulated and collaged into totemic creatures. “TransmogrificationNOW!’ is a deep dive into a coming of age tale of a generation that seeks to find its place in our complex world, at once seeking individuality while to navigating how continue legacies left behind by their elders. DM for more info! Amy Bravo (b.1997, New Jersey) is a New York visual artist of Italian-Cuban origin, combines symbolism – stylized palm trees, roosters, horses, slicked-back mustaches –, icons from Latin American popular and religious culture and hyper- personal family stories, to invent her own vision, intimate and fantastic, of an afterlife universe in the rough shape of the island of Cuba, a mixture of the known and the unknown, of beauty and confusion. Amy Bravo currently lives and works in Queens, New York. After completing a bachelor’s degree in Illustration at Pratt Institute, New York, she obtained a Master of Fine Arts in Painting at Hunter College, New York in 2022. Recent exhibitions include group shows with Rachel Uffner Gallery, Workplace, and The FLAG Foundation, as well as a solo show at Nada Miami with Swivel Gallery and a duo and solo show at the gallery in New York, in 2022. In 2023 she had two solo shows with Semiose in Paris, a solo show at Galleria Poggiali, Milan. Amy is a former resident at Fountainhead Residency in Miami and participated to the Malta Biennale in 2024. . ??: @c_whittier . #amybravo #amybravoart #nycart #nycartweek #armoryartweek #nycartgalleries #nycart #nycartgallery #contemporaryart #latinoart

#Featured: We are Thrilled to Announce Simon Benjamin and Eric Oglander inclusion in Art in America New Talents - 20 Artists To Watch annual issue ?? “Our intention with the New Talent issue has never been to pick winners for the market, which has experienced a turbulent year… But maybe collectors will be more inclined these days to direct attention to artists working outside the usual bounds.” “Benjamin is a multidisciplinary artist driven by curiosity. Previously an avid surfer, he’d travel to coastal regions from Hawaii to Senegal to surf on tranquil waves. These experiences made him question why he was often the only Black person in the water. Soon, Benjamin devised a series of questions about the “complex relationship African diasporic people have with the sea.” Centered around his native Jamaica, his artworks take shape in the aftermath of the transatlantic slave trade and examine the brutal relationships Black people have with the ocean, global trade, and migration.”—Shameekia Shantel Johnson “Eric Oglander makes his sculptures—poetic and odd, searching and guided by a sense of play—in the back of an eccentric antique shop. Oglander crafts into curious contraptions, often at minuscule scale.Some are elaborate and mechanical, like the homespun catapults and trebuchets he builds and coats in white paint; others are crafted from the simplest of gestures, like tiny wooden totems bearing curves and curlicues whittled with just a knife and a thumb. All of them could blend in on shelves full of offbeat objects.” - Andy Battaglia @brooklynbeachouse @ericoglander . . #ArtinAmerica #contemporaryart #contemporaryamericanart #newtalents

#Featured: We are Thrilled to Announce Simon Benjamin and Eric Oglander inclusion in Art in America New Talents - 20 Artists To Watch annual issue ?? “Our intention with the New Talent issue has never been to pick winners for the market, which has experienced a turbulent year… But maybe collectors will be more inclined these days to direct attention to artists working outside the usual bounds.” “Benjamin is a multidisciplinary artist driven by curiosity. Previously an avid surfer, he’d travel to coastal regions from Hawaii to Senegal to surf on tranquil waves. These experiences made him question why he was often the only Black person in the water. Soon, Benjamin devised a series of questions about the “complex relationship African diasporic people have with the sea.” Centered around his native Jamaica, his artworks take shape in the aftermath of the transatlantic slave trade and examine the brutal relationships Black people have with the ocean, global trade, and migration.”—Shameekia Shantel Johnson “Eric Oglander makes his sculptures—poetic and odd, searching and guided by a sense of play—in the back of an eccentric antique shop. Oglander crafts into curious contraptions, often at minuscule scale.Some are elaborate and mechanical, like the homespun catapults and trebuchets he builds and coats in white paint; others are crafted from the simplest of gestures, like tiny wooden totems bearing curves and curlicues whittled with just a knife and a thumb. All of them could blend in on shelves full of offbeat objects.” - Andy Battaglia @brooklynbeachouse @ericoglander . . #ArtinAmerica #contemporaryart #contemporaryamericanart #newtalents

We are Thrilled to Announce ALEJANDRO GARCíA CONTRERAS’s first institutional solo show is Opening at @pioneerworks on September 6! Titled “Quien no ha intentado convertir una piedra en un recuerdo?” Who hasn’t tried to turn a stone into a memory?) the show marks an institutional solo debut by the Mexican artist, known for his elaborate sculptures that cross-pollinate interests that range widely, from popular culture and eroticism to global art history and the occult. Inspired by the notion of an archeological site left behind by an unknown, ancient civilization, the exhibition - featuring work created on-site at Pioneer Works, blends his ceramics practice with earliest interests in concrete pouring, photography and experimental video. The show coincides with the big reopening of Pioneer Works following a major renovation. Join us to celebrate on September 6, 6-8 PM! —— @alejandrogarciacontreras Alejandro García Contreras “Quién no ha intentado convertir una piedra en un recuerdo?”, 2024 Ceramic and Glaze 5 H x 36 W x 77 D in. 13 H x 91 W x 196 D cm. . . #alejandrogarcia #contemporaryart #contemporarymexicanart #contemporarymexicanartist #nycart #nycartist

#Swivel ONAir: Ep.3 SANIé BOKHARI For the third Episode we take you inside Sanié Bokhari’s studio as she prepares for her upcoming solo show, opening in November at the gallery. “My current studio is in a building filled with other painters and creators, it’s situated right next to a beer brewery and around the corner from McCarren Park. I love the area, and walking through the park to get to the studio is something I look forward to everyday. This space finally feels like home. The studio itself is full of light, with a large window offering a view of the Brooklyn- Queens Expressway and its constant traffic. I feel this constant movement in the window influences my work too - I see it reflected in my gestural strokes of paint, charcoal and graphite. I also believe the space where the work is created greatly influences the feeling it induces. My current work feels much more open to new possibilities, with a cohesive narrative rather than bits and pieces of small stories” Read the full interview online in our magazine: https://lnkd.in/ex8UvhE3 ?? Brian Agamie #SanieBokhari #PakistaniArtist #contemporaryartist