Scott Ogden of SHRINE

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 Scott Ogden of SHRINE.

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Collecteurs: When was the gallery launched and how did it get started?

Scott Ogden: I launched SHRINE in 2016 and had oddly never worked in a gallery before aside from random art handling gigs. Since my first few years in college, in the early 90s, I had been collecting art, mostly outsider and vernacular/self-taught works. A friend of mine suggested I consider opening a space, and that basically led to me starting, in tandem with finding a lovely little storefront on Henry St that was home to SHRINE for the first 2 years.

C: What inspired you to start the gallery? What need were you trying to fulfill and why did you choose Chinatown?

SO: I’ve always loved this little section of Chinatown where it meets the LES. Somehow, it still feels like a secret destination, which is so rare in New York these days. And as I just mentioned, I have been collecting for decades, always on a shoestring budget, and when considering to start a gallery, I basically thought it would be fun to exhibit and highlight art and artists whose work I would want to live with myself. And beyond that, I’ve always loved curating and putting things together.

C: Local support systems seem to be the key to success in the current cultural landscape. We’d love to know more about any current support systems you have in your neighborhood.

SO: First and foremost, in August 2018 I moved the gallery to 179 East Broadway, where SHRINE now shares space with Sargent’s Daughters, who has been at this address for more than ten years. Together, we have a very tight support system and we share an audience, collectors and ideas. In the broader sense of support systems, all of the downtown galleries near here help each other out– we point visitors to other venue’s shows, recommend their artists to collectors and basically all help spread the good word. It feels really organic and makes for a fun downtown arts landscape.

C: 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?

SO: Online, I try to always keep an up-to-date and contemporary-looking website, and I put a ton of energy into Instagram. I’m a bit OCD, especially visually, so I use Photoshop before any posts are made to create a fluid and hopefully nice looking feed. I have found Instagram to be the best way to quickly reach out to artists, galleries, press and even collectors that are new to me. Personally, even with more and more online art services, I think people will always crave seeing art in person. Pictures on your phone or laptop are great, but they do not come close to experiencing art firsthand.

C: It’s becoming increasingly challenging to drive steady foot traffic into gallery spaces. What brings your gallery visitors?

SO: SHRINE moving into a commercial block last August in a ground floor space has really helped create a lot more foot traffic than I was used to. And sharing the space with Sargent’s Daughters has given us both a much broader audience and more visitors. Also, I think showing both outsider and self-taught art in connection with emerging contemporary artists might help bring in visitors from both art audiences.

C: Tell us a little bit about your program. 

SO: I try to break down my program into 50% self-taught/outsider art and artists and 50% emerging contemporary. And on some occasions, both are intertwined. I love all edges of the art world and really enjoy trying to connect the dots and shine a contemporary light on the works of self-taught makers.

C: So many of the gallery spaces have interesting “past lives”. Does yours have one? 

SO: I do not know about the new venue, but my former space was also home to several other small galleries and at one point was a very divy pop-up strip club.

C: For New York Gallery Open and together with Maurizio Cattelan, you’re showing some incredible works by Bernard Gilardi. Can you tell us the story behind this artist, how you stumbled upon his works?

SO: I was actually presented with the idea of doing this show by Maurizio Cattelan. Maurizio had seen Gilardi’s paintings at the Outsider Art Fair (OAF) several years ago and was immediately taken with it. Through having met him at the OAF, he began coming by my first space on Henry St and eventually suggested I do a show with Bernard Gilardi and the Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee. It seemed like a fit for SHRINE as I always love to highlight under-recognized and unknown artists whenever I can. It keeps the job exciting. Working with Maurizio on the curation and presentation of the “We Belong” exhibition was like icing on the top. He knew the work well—the paintings seemed to resonate to him as both a collector and an artist—and he developed the concept of an over-the-top installation of a lot of work on one long wall.