Open Studio invites viewers into an inclusive, caring art world. The space opened in July, with Open Studio, and a group exhibition at the nearby FIERMAN.
On a quiet corner in New York City’s Chinatown, a new gallery is helping flip the script on the art world. Co-founded by Rachel Carle Cohen and David Fierman, Open Studio is the first gallery in the city dedicated exclusively to artists with disabilities, most of them affiliated with progressive art studios across the country.
Progressive art studios “serve as community centers and third spaces for people who are often isolated,” said Fierman. They supply materials and provide mentorship, stability, therapy, and professionalization for artists with intellectual, developmental, or mental health disabilities.
Fierman and Cohen dreamed up the gallery during last year’s Open Invitational, a Miami art fair Fierman founded to spotlight artists from these studios.
“The energy of the fair, both from the public and the fun we were having on the inside, made it a no-brainer to turn it into a gallery,” said Fierman. “The art world is on a constant hunt for authenticity and the thrill of discovering overlooked artists, and it seems our artists are next on the radar.”
John Tursi at Open Studio, 127 Henry St, New York, New York 10002.
Fierman has spent two decades navigating different corners of the art world, first assisting at elite galleries like Salon 94, and eventually opening his own gallery, FIERMAN, in 2016. Open Studio marks a personal shift.
The new gallery opened in July with a dual debut: a solo show of Queens-based artist John Tursi at Open Studio, and a group exhibition celebrating the launch at the nearby FIERMAN. Both exhibits are on until August 15th.
Fierman’s work with The Living Museum at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, the progressive studio program where Tursi has worked since the 1990s, made the gallery’s first solo show feel inevitable. “To me, there is no stronger artist than Tursi to push forth,” said Fierman. “He should be looked at in the context of other artists of his generation– Carroll Dunham, Jeff Koons, Mike Kelley.”
“These artists want to participate in the market and the conversation, so we just need to look and listen.”
David Fierman
Tursi’s work embodies the raw honesty, inventiveness, and lack of posturing that make the work coming from progressive art studios so captivating. His exhibition, Lozenges, is a burst of colorful, layered recurring symbols held together by an intuitive internal rhythm.
“The public assumes our artists have a greater naivete about them than they do,” said Fierman. “These artists want to participate in the market and the conversation, so we just need to look and listen.”
Photos by Chris Herity. Images courtesy of Open Studio.
