As Dealers Close Up Shop Around Them, Two New York Galleries Look for a New Collaborative Model

In a period that has seen the closure of several New York galleries, two enterprises have joined forces to create a new model of collaboration that they hope will help them weather an unsteady market.

Proxyco, founded in 2017, will move into the fifth-floor gallery space on 88 Eldridge Street, that Instituto de Visión, founded in Bogotá in 2014, has occupied since it opened a New York branch in 2022. The two galleries, each of which are well-regarded for their focuses on raising the profiles of emerging and mid-career Latin American and Latinx artists, will remain distinct businesses, seeing this as a way to try out a new model.

“When the opportunity arose, we thought, wouldn’t it be great if we can share space, but do it in an alternative way?” Proxyco cofounder Alexandra Morris told ARTnews.

“Collaboration makes us stronger in this ecosystem of New York’s art world,” Beatríz López, Instituto de Visión’s cofounder and artistic director, said. “It’s easy to get lost in this big ecosystem but if we work together, we become bigger.”

This partnership also comes out of years of friendship. López and her cofounder Omayra Alvarado-Jensen, who will also be based in New York, have known Proxyco cofounder Laura Saenz for decades, as they all have roots in Bogotá’s art scene. More recently, both galleries have participated in several fairs together, at times having their booths next to each other.

“As women gallerists, it’s important to have that space where we can talk with each other and be a sounding board for each gallery on the projects we’re working on,” Saenz said.  

Morris added, “We’ve already noticed it—it’s been so electric to be together and hear each other’s ideas.”

Ahead of this move, the space will undergo a modest renovation by architect Morris Adjmi, a client of both galleries, that will see newly designed office space and storage, as well as the addition of a private viewing room and a new joint reception area.

The Eldridge space consists of two distinct gallery spaces that the two businesses will rotate using, based on the needs of the gallery’s programming. This may depend on which New York fair they might be participating, as well as their artists, who might opt for the smaller space to show more intimate works or the larger one for an ambitious installation.

“This gives us the space to respond to what our artists need,” Saenz said. “We have very specific programs, and they are very different. That’s what makes us stronger, so people can see a broader spectrum of Latin American and Latinx art.”

López added, “Anyone who comes here can have the experience of understanding Latin American art from different perspectives. I think that’s super important for everyone, that the construction of what is to be Latino in the United States and in the arts is not just one signature, not one brand of how to be.”

The new location also allows them to collaborate when their programming aligns, whether it be in promoting an artist together or mounting a joint summer show. “Whenever it makes sense, we’ll bring it together,” Morris said.  

Both gallery’s inaugural shows under this model, opening February 27, in a way are aligned but still highlight their distinct approaches to exhibiting art. They will both be solo shows for two US-based, Bogotá-born artists: Camilo Godoy at Proxyco and Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez at Instituto de Visión.

Godoy is known for a multidisciplinary practice that encompasses dance, photography, and collage. He often uses his body both in performance and images as a way to think through issues of migration and queerness. Many of his works are also inflected with a wry sense of humor that can poke fun at the absurdness of borders and masculinity.

To create her intricate paintings, Friedemann-Sánchez uses a traditional technique called Barniz de Pasto made with the resin from a bush called Mopa Mopa that existed prior to the arrival of the Spanish in Colombia. Under Spanish colonization, Indigenous artisans were forbidden from making traditional Barniz de Pasto works, instead being forced to make blue-and-white lacquerware. Friedemann-Sánchez learned the technique from a family who had kept it alive for generations.

“Camilo’s practice is very contemporary. He uses his body as a resistance, which has a very strong tradition in Colombian art, while another very strong tradition of Colombian art is what Nancy does, her research and her work with communities,” López said.

In the eight years since they opened in New York, many of Proxyco’s neighbors in the Lower East Side have moved away from their neighborhood, often for Tribeca. The Eldridge space will be the gallery’s third since it opened, but the dealers said they didn’t feel the pressure to head to Tribeca or Chelsea. “We decided let’s just stay loyal to our program and to the space that we’ve already been developing in—we don’t have to move every single time there’s a hot spot,” Morris said.

“This idea of following the trend is actually scary in terms of business,” López said. “We saw so many galleries close last year and many were related with big moves. What about instead of thinking a big move in terms of space, you think in terms a conceptual big move, like collaboration.”

She added, “Cooperation and friendship is an economic strength. It has value.”