Off the Beaten Path

Once on a legal fast track, art dealer Jenny Liu has forsaken the corporate climb in favor of a bicoastal gallery operation with partner Christian Haye. Liu, a Chinese-American graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Law School, left two-and-half years of practice with a white-shoe Manhattan law firm to earn a master's degree in art history from NYU and continue towards a doctorate. Haye, an African-American, is a respected curator, art critic, and long-time contributor to the British art magazine frieze. We mention ethnicity as it relates to the partners' vision. Diversity is the key to their galleries—both in the art media represented and in the international origins of the emerging, cutting-edge artists featured. The Project first opened in Harlem in September 1998; a Los Angeles counterpart followed in May 2001. As for its somewhat dicey downtown location, Liu cites proximity to the loft district much favored by local artists and the non-profit Deep River gallery as pluses: "We like the vibe of being off the beaten path."

The partners teamed up with Dewey Ambrosino, an artist as well as designer, to transform a 3,500-sq.-ft., two-story former auto body shop into a flexible environment that could accommodate various kinds of shows but which still celebrated the existing warehouse vernacular. Their main problem, of course, was how to reconcile this decision with the realization that a white background is the accepted norm for optimal art display. Additional program requirements called for storage, an office, and lounge or, as Liu refers to it, "a chill room." Ambrosino devised a clever solution for this space, the first gallery that he has designed.

"I chose to articulate the space with volumes," he says of his primary gesture. Ambrosino designed six freestanding, mobile units of drywall over plywood that are 10-ft.-high and three-ft.-deep; four of them are 12 ft. long, two are eight ft. long. These hollow dividers, which have doors on both ends, double as storage. "Now we can literally create a white box within the gallery," Liu comments.

Next, the designer focused on the gallery's private spaces. Sliding Thermoclear (acrylic) panels in an aluminum framework form a system defining office and storage areas within the otherwise open plan. The office can be totally closed off or partially integrated into the whole, depending on the door's relative position. The 550-sq.-ft. mezzanine accommodates the sociable "chill room."

First-year plans call for mounting shows on three-month rotations. The Project debuted with exhibitions of Art Domantay and Monica Bonvicini. On the horizon is Paul Pfeiffer, recipient of the 2000 Bucksbaum Award and a highlight of the 2000 Whitney Biennial. Work was completed in two months for less than $30,000.