You have heard the refrain since Summer 2008: “the recession is great for artists! It means the work produced will be wonderful and substantial” This statement is usually made during an opening somewhere in Chelsea while the know-it-all you’re talking to is fishing a can of beer out of an ice filled trashcan next to the receptionist’s counter. Used to be wine was served in Chelsea and beer in Brooklyn. The recession, it seems, has made the boroughs versatile. What’s sad about soliloquies of this type is that this romantically myopic view on the nature of creativity and economy is nothing more than a recording replayed by individuals with nothing to add to the bitter stew that is the crash of the art market.
What we know is this: Art institutions are shuttering. Sales have disappeared, eviction notices have been plastered across gallery doors and employees at well known international auction houses sometimes crawl to work like elegant gorillas mornings after a contemporary art auction fail to fetch expected sales. According Roberta Smith of The New York Times, though, auctions are doing quite well. We won’t name names. What we will name, however, are a few spaces around New York which are interesting and thriving during the downward spiral. Got Metrocard? Lets go for a ride as we head to places like:
Casa Frela Gallery, Harlem
47 W. 119th St.,
New York, NY, 10026
212-722-8577
Mon-Sun noon-4 p.m.
#2, 3 Trains to 116th Street
Casafrela.com
From cellar to attic, Casa Frela’s curator and founder Lawrence Rodriguez aims to educate and engage his neighbors, tourists and the Harlem community at large about art and community. Meaning delicate home in Spanish, the gallery is housed in a formidable Stanford White brownstone in the Mount Morris Historic District in Harlem.
Standford White designed homes for the rich and was known as a womanizer. In 1906 he was mrdered on the roof of Madison Square Garden by a jealous millionaire whose 16 year old wife was in a sexual and manipulative relationship with White, then 47. Fast forward several decades and one of his buildings is transformed into a renovated home and gallery, (launched 2005) showing artists who are under-represented and otherwise would not be seen: “outsiders,” gays, artists of color, prisoners and women, to name a few.
Casa Frela’s program of exhibitions run the gamut: there are artists talks, lectures and performances, many of which focus on women’s issues and themes, Harlem and the Caribbean. In fact, one of the gallery’s earliest exhibitions featured paintings by prisoners from Barbados. Upcoming exhibitions include “Diamonds Are A Boy’s Best Friend” , ROSTROS DE MEXICO (Faces of Mexico) by Lewis Bryden, on permanent exhibition at the gallery.
