As part of NADA’s New York Gallery Open, some of New York’s most celebrated galleries talk to Collecteurs about the current cultural landscape and why community is the key to the vitality of the overall arts ecosystem. Here we sit down with Sara Maria Salamone and Tyler Lafreniere of Mrs. Gallery.
When was the gallery launched? And how did it all start?
Mrs. was founded in September of 2016, with a solo exhibition of painting and sculpture by Omari Douglin. We’re currently hosting Omari’s second show with the gallery, and it’s been such an honor and special experience to grow our relationships, with him and all our artists over the last three years.
Prior to starting Mrs., Tyler (Lafreniere) and I had been loosely discussing the idea of collaborating on an art related project. Tyler had been showing his artwork in New York while also publishing a zine called Gypsé Eyes for a few years. I had been working in galleries and at art fairs along with an art non profit, all while completing my MFA. We had a lot of discussions on creating something together, where we could take advantage of our backgrounds and work with and support the arts. Over a similar period of time, Tyler had to move out of his long time studio space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn so we were looking for a more permanent space. I was simultaneously leaving my position as a director at a Lower East Side gallery. Upon discovering our space in Maspeth from a dubious ad on Craig’s List, we both felt it was clear that this was the right place for us to start a gallery.
What inspired you to open a gallery? What need were you trying to fulfill? And why did you choose Queens?
After working in the New York art world for over 10 years, Tyler and I found an increasing gap between artist run project spaces and commercially driven galleries. This separation seemed to create confusion and difficulties for artists trying to make the transition and advance their careers. One reason we started Mrs. was to provide a venue and programming to help fill this space. For me personally, after working for many other institutions over the years, it was a breath of fresh air to produce exhibitions and opportunities that were entirely in our control.
As for Queens, the lower financial burden of our rent has allowed us a general freedom within our programming, but aside from this, there are other advantages to being outside the geographic center. Being further out travel-wise, our visitors come specifically to see our exhibitions and stay for a conversation. Everyone learns something new within these interactions. I think there is an advantage in this, and perhaps the one show someone sees in their day makes a bigger impact than hopping from gallery to gallery, which can happen in other art based neighborhood. Maspeth’s potential for an arts community has also largely been untapped despite its close proximity to Bushwick, Ridgewood, Long Island City and Greenpoint. Besides the Knockdown Center, we are the only contemporary cultural point on the map. We’re a bit of destination location, right here in the middle of New York City.
Local support systems seem to be the key to success in the current cultural landscape. We’d love to know more about any of your current support systems in your community.
We couldn’t survive without our local support system of artists, dealers and the combination of the two. We have relied on many of our friends for art handling, or book keeping or sitting gallery hours, over the past 3 years of operation. We have been really lucky in the regard that we already had a network for support, which we had built over the decade of experience we have both held in New York, and our gratitude to each of these incredible humans is deeper than we can express. In addition to our friends/artist network, we joined NADA as a Member Gallery in 2018, which has opened another network of kindness and support to bettering us and our community.
As consumption of culture shifts more and more online. What creative ways are you exploring to continue to be relevant? What part does the community play in this?
Art is a fickle mistress, she looks great online/digitized, but there is no digital way to represent what a painting or sculpture looks like in real life. You can’t smell the oil paint, or visualize the texture. That said, we use Instagram as a marketing tool, as well as other online platforms, which has been incredibly helpful for visibility and making connections to other galleries, artists and the larger global network. We constantly strive to produce quality exhibitions for the artists we work with, and hope that will translate to the ever increasing online culture shift. Having extraordinary documentation of of our exhibitions also is a real game changer.
As I said earlier, when people visit our space, they are coming for the specific reason to see our artists, our exhibition, or meet with us. I can’t express how important this has been to growing our community. More likely than not, they have learned about Mrs. online through press, or a hashtag, but then visit to get the full experience.
It’s becoming increasingly challenging to drive steady foot traffic into gallery spaces. What brings your gallery visitors?
As I mentioned, when people come to visit our exhibitions they often stay for a longer conversation. It is important to us that Mrs. feel like a like a space where open discussion can be had. Regardless of what other work we might be doing while at the gallery, we always take the time to greet and engage with our visitors.
Tell us a little bit about your program. What initiatives does your gallery support?
The gallery showcases contemporary artists in this outlying neighborhood, with a focus on offering a new platform for emerging, under represented and mid career artists and engaging the community. We’re interested in showing all mediums, focusing on the primary market, though we’re recently dabbled in secondary, as well. With 5 exhibitions per year, we’re able to slow down and take the time and effort to find artists we feel are a solid fit for our programing. Curatorially, Tyler and I have strong personalities which means we’re particular with who we choose to exhibit and represent, but our aesthetic sensibilities seem to balance productively. Equally important to the work is the artist’s relationship with their practice. We’re interested in artists who consider both, how this is situated into a larger context, and its ongoing trajectory. We currently are working with, Elizabeth Atterbury, Sarah Bedford, Chris Bogia, Meghan Brady, Caroline Wells Chandler, Omari Douglin, Tracy Miller and Mark Mulroney.
So many of the gallery spaces have interesting “past lives.” Does yours have one?
When we first visited Mrs., it was raw and dirty, a long defunct deli and storage for a 99¢ Store, requiring a full renovation. We knew it had good energy the minute we stepped inside. But through the long shuttered storefront windows, we saw the potential for a unique exhibition venue. The neighborhood hadn’t seen the gates up on the building in over 20 years, so we were excited to be the ones to breathe life back into this space. There are also rumors that long ago, the building next door and ours were attached. Between the two spaces there was a dancehall and a beer garden. We can only hope that we are bringing justice to this cultural space.
Images from top to bottom:
Sara Maria Salamone and Tyler Lafreniere in front of a work by Omari Douglin, Joy Sketch, 2016
Omari Douglin Untitled (Butt Painting), 2019
Omari Douglin Untitled (Butt Painting), 2019